I think England by 5, but France to score first.
Danny Care looks increasingly like Baldrick to me, but nevertheless he needs to have a good game.
For me this hinges on how England play, which I suspect ultimately will revert to type. if 36 plays well and releases Burrell they'll have there hands full as long as our new boys don't get nervous, which might draw the defense. But I suspect the game plan is as per usual swapping Burrell into tuilagis role - tie them into the forwards and ask Burrell to crash through. Our issue is that we can't do what the kiwi's do and basic rugby instructions say - run support with the ball carrier in the backs. I'm pretty sure Lancaster will have spent the last two weeks drumming that out of the debutants.
And I say that on the basis that I'm not sure I've seen any imaginatively different plan from Lancaster.
Burrell has to try crashing through tubby-tubby Basteraud on his first cap as well.
I agree that there only appears to be one game plan with Lancaster plus Farrell stands too deep and runs out of ideas and kicks possession away too easily, i see him having a similar career trajectory to Ashton.
ijs445ra - Member
Predictions for the weekend ?France by 5
Ireland by 3-7
Wales by 10-14
Hmmm. Not too convinced.
I'm going for
France by 10
Ireland by 15+
Wales by 5
Re the last one - A pessimist is rarely disappointed.
can someone give me some accurate predictions for actual scores for this weekend's matches?
I need to submit to the office sweepstake and as a part-time supporter haven't looked at rugby for a year... 🙂
France by less than 5
Ireland by 10
Wales by 15+
brakes,
Average out the margins. England France game, winners not likely to score more than 20, same for Ireland Scotland game. Wales Italy, Wales likely to score 30+.
Wales by 7
Ireland by 10
France by 240 000 hopefully.
ok, these are my predictions:
Sat 1st Feb
Wales 31 v Italy 21
France 12 v England 15
Sun 2nd Feb
Ireland 28 v Scotland 12
France by 240 000 hopefully.
haha! here we go. A_A is fully on the ABE bus.
Ireland team to face Scotland:
Rob Kearney (Leinster); Andrew Trimble (Ulster), Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster), Luke Marshall (Ulster), Dave Kearney (Leinster); Johnny Sexton (Racing Metro), Conor Murray (Munster); Cian Healy (Leinster), Rory Best (Ulster), Mike Ross (Leinster); Devin Toner (Leinster), Paul O'Connell (Munster); Peter O'Mahony (Munster), Chris Henry (Ulster), Jamie Heaslip (Ulster).
Replacements: Jack McGrath (Leinster), Sean Cronin (Leinster), Martin Moore (Leinster), Dan Tuohy (Ulster), Tommy O'Donnell (Munster), Isaac Boss (Leinster), Paddy Jackson (Ulster), Fergus McFadden (Ulster)
Taylor v Fitzgerald at 12 could be interesting
France by 240 000 hopefully.
AA being a bit conservative arent you 😆
I would go for a straight 1,000,000 😉
No Fitzgerald he is injured bugger! Trimble ok replacement but would have liked to see Zebo on bench. team looks solid rather than exciting. good ulster represantation and delighted to see TOD on the bench
anagallis_arvensis - Member
Wales by 7
Ireland by 10
France by 240 000 hopefully.
The haterz is back... I will PMSL when we beat Wales, and be sure to raise this comment.
Bless dont get your knickers twisted Kryton.
I'm going for
France by 10
Ireland by 15+
Wales by 5
Think I agree with CFH most.
France will either win or lose by 10. Either destroy Eng or destroy themselves.
Ireland looked good in the Autumn at times and have the potential to score well against Scotland.
Wales should win comfortably but are Wales (and some of the big names haven't had too much game time/ form) so will only wake up on the 30th minute having made life hard for themselves 😀
Anyway I've bought me an Italy shirt and am going to scream the place down tomorrow. Go Azzuri!
Good lad. Is Parisse playing? Hes well fit.
No chance of Farrels career going same way as Ashton because of one thing.....
I bit the bullet that needed biting and put a fairly outrageous amount of money on England to do the Grand Slam.
£2.50?
Gatling gave an interview this week saying that Italy is the team that Wales most like to beat.
Gatling gave an interview this week saying that Italy is the team that Wales most like to beat.
Worse than that, he left the whole Italian team out of the Lions Squad!
In other news, Sale are currently beating Ospreys in the LV Cup. Sale score 4 tries in the first half to Ospreys one.
LV who cares 🙄
@granny, winning the RBS possibly but a Grand Slam, you're nuts !
Hard to know what will happen in Paris as you never know which French side will turn up and it's England's first outing.
Pigface - its a good platform for the up and coming players.
Sale now 33 - Ospreys 20. 7 try game so far, sounds like a good game!
If the LV is so worthless then why the pressure for the regions to join the Prem?
Tight game now, 30-36 with 12 minutes to go. Sale down to 14 men, can Ospreys come back?
Ooh, Ospreys recover to win 37-36 9 try game!
Ooh, Ospreys recover to win 37-36 9 try game!
What a great competition the LV cup is 😉 great win for the O's 😉
"you only sing when your winning" 😛
We sing all the time 8)
Brilliant,the times 6n spread would appear to be 4n this year.
I've just watch some Tv where the reporter stated "Wales will to become the 1st team to win the 6n 3 x in a row and therefore one of the best teams in the world"
Talk about one eyed. Even if they do win it, it'll be against a series of debutant players / team structures which will wipe the floor with their creaking structure in the RWC later on.
IMO only Scotland and Ireland are developing correctly. I'm going to be forever bemused about the Northen hemi and Stuart lancasters insistence on using players out of position which although seems to be correcting itself a bit, still suffers from a strangulation of individual flare. Allegedly the England new boys have been told to use their talent today but we'll see eh.
IMO if England's back line isn't established in the next few weeks so they can play together for a bit and show some sort of attacking threat, we're screwed in 2016.
That would be the case if we (Scotland) had any players to develop.The SRU did the right thing with regards to redevelopment and how it approached the pro game ( canny,or tight in English)However player numbers suffered because of this and now,despite the joined up progression,there are far fewer players. TBH if Wales can keep their 1st xv on the pitch,it is prob good enough to win the 6n. But despite the cryochambers,they do have a fragile air to them. I do not share the medias low opinion of France,this afternoon will be interesting.
I do not share the medias low opinion of France,this afternoon will be interesting.
Me neither. I see them leading at half time, then England regardless of what the coaches say reverting to type Burrell and May could make a difference but first they need to get some ball then need to run as much off the ball as they want to with it.
I've just read that burells weakness could be defense. I'd imagine Basteraud will test him out big time, which is why Barrit is on the bench.
Bastereau is the master of losing the ball either in the tackle or getting turned over from what I've seen. It's OK being a human wrecking ball but if you give the ball back to the opposition the yards that you made prior to it aren't that valuable!
It's not hard to see him running straight over 36 and scoring a try though! Cannot wait for the game now!
I dont really agree with that,I also think bastereau makes ball and space for fofana in a way his oppo centres can only dream about today.I don't know where the assertions that france will be beasted up front are coming from. Cole and Marler will be up against it. Lawes is the only English forward obviously better than his opposite number as Hartley will have that bear Mas coming straight(or not,as the case may be)at him from the first scrum. As l said earlier,Care is the most important England player on the pitch. Should be a good game.
Care is the most important England player on the pitch. Should be a good game.
I dunno. I think wood and robshaw getting in thier 10's face could be more decisive. Get them rattled and they are usually in pieces, let them settle and I think we're in trouble.
I still maintain French stupidity (cards, drop balls, bananas tactics) will win us the get but we must bring intensity.
[img] 
:large[/img]
Sort yer bloody link out O'Flashearty 🙂
Ahem......
😉
I do not share the medias low opinion of France,this afternoon will be interesting.
I don't share your opinion that the media have a low opinion of france, most of the opinion seems to be going the froggy way.
Anyway in the true spirit of the forum, I don't care if England lose, it's more important to me that Wales do.
🙂
Poor Italian full back, getting a bounce like that on his debut
Great kick from 1/2p.
"still looking for his first touch" 😆
