Rugby – 6 nations.

Why not? Neither Scotland nor England have much option really, both need to let the young bloods rip and see where it takes them.

I do hope both teams field the rising youngsters, we’ve seen what the boring and staid old players can(not) do now it’s time to see the next generation.

Not at all optimistic for Wales, too many injuries, we’ll lose in Ireland and come 4th I wreckon.

France
Ireland
England
Wales
Scotland
Italy

As an English fan i can’t say i have too much hope for a resurgent England this time round but i’ll be happy to be proven wrong! 😀

The thing that worries me is Andy Farrel as backs coach – the coach for the Premiership team that has scored the least amount of tries this season and who’s team appears to play to the philosophy of ‘give the ball to my son and he’ll kick it’.
England have some fine young backs with good hands at their disposal, but if they don’t see the ball what’s the point?
Another thought is that as Flood is injured, will Charlie get the starting 10 shirt? He is good with ball in hand and a good distributor of the ball but not that great a defence and not a JW with the boot. Whilst i’m a Sale fan and still have a soft spot for Charlie and have seen how his game has improved down at Sarries i fear he will get the blame again if England lose.

Scots team ( I hope)

Front row – Murray, Ford , Chunk
Locks – Gray, Hamilton (kellock?)
Back row Strockosh, Denton, Barclay ( Vernon / Rennie ?)
Half backs – Blair, laidlaw
centres S. Lamont, Deluca
Wings R. Lamont, Evans
Full back – Hogg.

Probably not too far from the team I hope

Am actually disappointed that Priestland and Jenkins won’t be playing in Dublin. Two fine players I always enjoy watching, even if it is being beaten by their team.

Still think Dublin could go either way.

Wales will always worry me – a team that always plays above the level of its component parts when facing England. Whilst i really don’t like the set-up of the Celtic League (or whatever its called this week) with it’s built-in protectionism of teams its been a revelation for Wales and allowed a fantastic system in which to bring through players.

Fanrastic muddy dwarf i love the english arrogance that makes out everyone raises there game against them! Also whilst the Rabbo Celtic Cider League thingy has been great for irish rugby its killing the game in Wales.

I don’t see much arrogance from England or her fans at the moment A-A, do you?

How is it the League killing rugby in Wales? It certainly seems that its producing better quality players these days.

The welsh component parts look pretty decent to me compared to Englands at the moment.

Its killing the game because no one is going to games. No one in wales cares about the regions or playing the irish or scottish they want to see welsh teams play each other and games against english clubs. Players are no better, same old same old as far as players go. 15 good ones no back up for injuries.

Ah i see 🙁

That’s why i don’t want to see a similar scheme in England, the clubs have history that new ‘regional’ teams wouldn’t.

As for players i would disagree, back in the 90’/early 2000’s Wales had great players but rarely a full 15 of them. Now you may still have problems with replacement Internationals but your starting 15 (injuries permitting) are definitely top table. Wales at the moment look best placed for the future with players.
England went on for way too long with the old players and didn’t bring through the youth. Now we have been forced to do that and no-one knows how they will be.

EDIT: I agree scamper. Would love England to have players like those lads.

A quick note to say that the provincial teams in Ireland actually have a history. They’re not purely manufactured for the Hydrogen Cup or Rabo.

Back in the early 90’s wales were stll loosing most of the talent to league. It took till at least 2000 to recover from this. Wales have always had enough talent they just lost a lot of it and what remained was poorly coached and conditioned. This only changed due to the arrival of Henry and Hansen and has had little if anything to do with the regions who remain poorly coached collections of decent players.

Same problem as Scotland,AA If you take the hiney cup out of the occasion, Melrose have a better average attendance than Embra.

My view is a lot of the issue with Edinburgh is the lack of promotion.

Me and several of my friends enjoy rugby and are the sort of people Edinburgh need to come tot eh games.

However there is no promotion of them at all so nothing to remind you when they are playing. A few years ago voluntary bodies and charities were getting free tickets, the games were advertised on buses and there were halfway decent crowds at meadowbank.

The SRU should be looking to build audiences. free tickets distributed round schools and clubs, kids in for free, cheap deals and advertise the games. The audience is there as can be seen from the crowds at the 1872 cup and last HC games. It just needs to be mobilised

I just hope welsh and scottish rugby can hold on long enough for the french league to rip the heart out of the aviva and then we can have a british league with promotion and relegation. It’ll likely never happen though and the game in wales will wither and die.

TJ, I have run touch/ done bin/benches at both pro teams perhaps a dozen times now. Firhill is ok, but even with the fans at touch Murrayfield is a shocking place to play. They need to take it on the road. Play at Livvy, Kirkaldy, hell even Perth.I did touch at Melrose/Dundee last week,2000+ borderers screaming for central belt blood. Yet the Borders team played in front of 500 people.To build a fan base they need to break the partisan nature of fans.To put it in context, I get freebies for all the pro team games; will I travel 80/100 miles to go and see them? No chance. Would I travel the 50 to Perth? absolutely. I suspect the Welsh have the same problem building fan loyalty.

Oh no. Banahan in for injury cover. After a wooden performance for the Saxon’s how did that happen? There’s so much better surely…

Makes sense, experienced and can cover wing or centre. As a Scotsman, I hope he gets on next week. 😀

I was at Kingsholm on Saturday to see Glaws destroy a bunch of imposters posing as Cardiff Blues, the place was jumping, every time I have seen the Ospreys at the Liberty this year it has been like watching in a morgue.

Cover yes, do anything exciting and move english rugby on to 2015 success? No.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/16789481.stm

Idiot. Never been a fan of his by any stretch, even less so if this turns out to be true.

Armitage is a moron not even that good a player seen him twice live and he is always giving cheap shots. More suited to wendyball.

Who is this new england captain? big ask to captain your first 6 nations game.

Armitage has lost the plot and I really dislike the way he nowadays jumps for a high ball with his studs up. I hope he will be back ‘cos at his best he can be very good indeed but he seems to be missing a bit between the ears. Made a lot of ground against Edinburgh last week.

The hootsmon seems to be sure Parks is going to play for scotland – *sobs*

I suspect Robshaw is just cover for Tom Wood who will be back for game 3. The question is where he will play Robshaw because I’m not sure he is a 7 or an 8 which means he plays at 6 in place of Tom Croft. Interesting.

PSA – There’s a Scrum V special on (I think) Thursday night, showing a classic Wales/Ireland game. I’ll be tuning in for that (Channel 945 on freeview)

If robshaw has only been picked as a stop gap till wood is fit then the coach needs to be taken outside a slapped around with a wet fish.
Shame about Armitage as i really rate him as a player but he seems to be a trouble magnet. The odd spat in a night club is fine but his on field antics are poor.

Armitage has lost the plot and I really dislike the way he nowadays jumps for a high ball with his studs up

Interesting. Lee Byrne was (I think) the first to do that, and it was a very effective defensive method of taking a high ball. At least before tackles in the air were properly reffed, which I think they are now.

I have noticed Armitage doing it – interesting you think Byrne did so first. I think its a very nasty tactic and should be banned. One scots player got a very hasty injury from Armitage ( and a penalty against him)

Nothing wrong with keeping your feet up when jumping for the ball,especially if some daft sweaty is trying to assault your feet with his face. I think it was jonathan davis who said one of the things he learnt quickly when going to league was to kick his kicking foot up after punting, anyone intent on hitting you late had to get past the boot first.

I would also ad that if you are trying to jump your feet will come up, i’m not sure its intentional. TJ are you sure your not thinking of bryne who has been hit in the air seaveral times against scotland recently once the scot got knocked (Cross?) the more recent one it might have been southwell who got his face rearranged.

Hmmmm – I think jumping into a crowd of players with your studs showing is not a decent way to play. Armitge almost does it like a kung fu kick. I shall look out for others doing it.

Certainly in the incident I mention none of the scots players complained particularly

Edit – crossed posts – maybe thats the incident but I have certainly noticed Armitage doing it I am sure its intentional as he leads with a raised foot studs showing

Double edit – yes it was Byrne / southwell on more googling

http://www.rugbydump.com/2011/02/1829/hugo-southwell-gets-introduced-to-lee-byrnes-boot

Nothing wrong from byrne, eyes on the ball, jumps and stupid scot runs face first into his boot, southwell should have got a yellow like Cross got the year before.

.

TJ if you think Byrne did anything wrong there then you know nothing about rugby. The jock was lucky not to sit out 10 mins.

Pigfce – no not according to the rules – it was rightly given a penalty against southwell as I said above. However I don’t like the tactic of jumping studs up into groups of players when catching a ball which is something I have seen more and more and Armitage seems to do a lot. Someone will get seriously injured from it at some point and its verging on dangerous play.

Would need a rule change / guidance to change things tho

Person in the air is far more at risk than the dumb **** running into boots.

TJ not getting into a long winded thing with you over this, you have form but IMO you are very wrong on this.

Pigface – I don’t think Byrne did anything wrong by the rules. Penalty right given against Southwell.

Merely debating / asking if others think this is a dangerous way to play? Listening to the opinions given in return.