Big weakness for wales is S Williams severe lack of gas at 13 in combination with one untried winger and one who has been tried and proven to be a very poor defender. Expect to see Hogg attacking the outside shoulder or Williams and the wingers not knowing when to step in or stay wide. 1/2p to either have a very busy day or get his head on the wrong side and get sparked 5mins in.

So – Magic Sponges?  Haskell, Robshaw, Nowell and Brown suddenly likely to get game time at the weekend.   Not sure if that was all games by Jones but I hope he’s not risking players by bringing them in early.

Also noted is the potentially inclusion of Nowell at 13.  Now THATS interesting and could really open a few teams with Daly/Watson outside, and reduces Nowells potential weakness under the high ball.   I think the comparison with Conrad Smith is a tad ambitious!

Hask is banned so doubt the magic sponge would be much good on him?

The Hask is banned so won’t be playing.

Maybe the others are just fit? Robshaw’s back was a niggle. The only real surprise is Nowell.

Wasps haven’t renewed Haskells contract for next season so he is off elsewhere – linked to Bristol and Saints.

As opposed to the wonderful insight of Inverdale, Healy or God save us; Davies?

<span style=”display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: ‘Helvetica Neue’,’Helvetica’,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 14.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;”>As opposed to the wonderful insight of Inverdale, Healy or God save us; Davies?</span><b></b><i></i><u></u>

By implication then, Guscott is the best pundit?

Gotta be honest I find Nicol the most unbearably one-eyed of them all. He doesn’t even bother to hide it, and very rarely compliments the opposing team. He’s not a very well balanced pundit/commentator even in the context of 6N coverage.

Still the best pundit image ever from the 6N

Wrecker, you have just described Davies for anybody not Welsh. Since Bill McLaren is dead,Moore is the best in my opinion.

Moore and Butler combo for me. Moore is pretty much always brutally honest about what’s going on on the field.

Obviously, pundits are supposed to be a bit one-eyed. It’s all part of the pantomime of TV coverage. Nicol leaves them all in his trail though.

Moore for me.  I recently whatched a game without commentry tho – what joy.  Being able to hear everything on the refs mike and no stupidity from commentators.  I’d prefer matches without commentators

Butler is awful – gets the refs decisions wrong allthe time and talks over the ref mike

Butler’s over pronunciation of foreign names gets on my tits more than anything. I’ve ever heard my French aunt pronounce French names the way he does!

Andy Nicol is just bloody dull, Guscott can’t get off the fence, Jiffy is well Jiffy. Moore is OK but overall it’s not a great team.

I checked in to see what STW’s thoughts about team selection were and found you all about to start an argument about who the best commentator is – obvious national bias is obvious.

Checks out to talk to a real person about rugby.

Nicol is abysmal btw.

🙂

“I checked in to see what STW’s thoughts about team selection were and found you all about to start an argument about who the best commentator is ”

I think the consensus is they are all shit. Moore the least bad. The bbc coverage is just flimsy platitudes and some national bias…mind you I still prefer it to World Cups on IT lets break for ads 10s before kick off T or Sky Spurts.
I reckon it’ll be 5mins into the Wales Scotland game when Jiffy will shriek “numbers” or “its on”.

Bottoms up!

Scotland team

Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors);

Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors),

Chris Harris (Newcastle Falcons),

Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors),

Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks)

Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors),

Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors);

Gordon Reid (London Irish),

Stuart McInally (Edinburgh)

, Jon Welsh (Newcastle Falcons),

Ben Toolis (Edinburgh)

, Jonny Gray

, John Barclay (Scarlets, captain)

, Hamish Watson (Edinburgh),

Cornell du Preez (Edinburgh).

<b>Replacements:</b> Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), Murray McCallum (Edinburgh), Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne), Pete Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Sean Maitland (Saracens).

A couple of spins of the Toonbola  I don’t think many of us expected Harris at 13 and Jones at 12.  thats a very attacking selection but we were missing a few centres

Gone with the experienced props to start and hope they last most of the game – the replacements are inexperienced bar the hooker

Laidlaw benched – presumably as  a “finisher”

Gonna be some game .  could be a real cracker

YOu know what really gets me.  during all those years when we really were rubbish we could face a six nations hoping to steal a win with a backs to the wall effort and take pride in decent performances.  Now we have a good chance of doing more than that.  Its actually more painful to have realistic hope!

I think Scotland will win, and have hope they will win well – but honestly I am shiteing myself over the chance we could lose cos that would be such a disappointment given we have real hope at long last.

My bet today is scotland to win by a score in half a dozen and that Scotland will build a good lead then nearly ( or even actually) blow it

I am hoping Wales try to play. The thing that really upsets me is that a confident Scotland team is coming down to Wales to play attacking running rugby and we are shitting ourselves and talking of keeping it tight!!!
I’d rather we go down swinging than try to grind out a narrow win.

This is Wales!!!

Come on the Ginga messiah, show that Fin Russel how its done!!!!

keep it tight and play warren ball kicking every ball you have in yourhalf way and yo will lose.  Scotland will run your kicks back all day log.  Got to play the scarlets way in this game –

Just saw Gatland on the news:

“There hasn’t been a lot of first-up games against Scotland or Italy in the past, they’ve tended to be pretty tough games. I think we’ve played England first-up, or Ireland…”

The fact that Gatland puts us on a par with Italy explains a lot about his Lions selections.

“The fact that Gatland puts us on a par with Italy explains a lot about his Lions selections.”

Whilst you are obviously entitled to be professional offended over the last 10 years results he’s not wrong is he!

There is no doubt at all that Gatlands strange anti scots bias weakened the lions.  Look at the wy (IIRC) Jon Welsh was treated.  Gatland / rowtree refused to let him on as a sub despite the man on the pitch being obviously flagging.  Why – because they had never seen Walsh play so didn’t trust him.

I know that you’re an amazing rugby watcher. You’ve told us how great you are many times on this thread so I’ll bow to your superior knowledge and accept that Gatland is not dismissive of Scotland every year.

What was the result of the Scotland – Wales game last year, again?

sorry – not Jon Walsh – Ryan Grant

“Grant, a member of Glasgow’s Pro12-winning squad of 2015, was called up by Gatland to join the victorious 2013 tour of Australia, after rivals Cian Healy and Gethin Jenkins suffered injuries.

The Scot was named as a substitute for the second Test – which the Lions lost – but with starting loose-head Mako Vunipola tiring, he was not introduced, and left out of the squad for the series-deciding third international.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow even now, to be so close and to really feel like the team could have benefited from me coming on,” Grant added. “Mako was clearly wrecked and we were under the pump, and a bit of fresh legs would have benefited the team. It kind of made it a bit worse that the scrum wasn’t going particularly well.

“I kind of avoided [forwards coach] Graham Rowntree for a few days after that because I was bitterly disappointed and if we spoke sooner, I would probably say something stupid.

“So I let it cool down for a couple of days, went and spoke to him, and he just kind of said to me that he hadn’t seen enough of me and he wasn’t sure he could trust me in a Test match like that, and it was the one they lost.

“I just had to say, ‘listen, I totally disagree with you, and if you’d watched any of the Six Nations games you’d know I could handle myself, so we’ll agree to disagree’ – I don’t think we’ve said a single word to each other since.

“Mako was cramping up and he was down every two minutes, so it was kind of an extra kick in the face. But it is what it is – it was four years ago now.”

“Look at the wy (IIRC) Jon Welsh was treated. Gatland / rowtree refused to let him on as a sub despite the man on the pitch being obviously flagging. Why – because they had never seen Walsh play so didn’t trust him.”

Same reason Cory BIL Hill didnt get on. It was the shit storm over the geographic lions and none of them were played. If you want to have a go at Gatlands Lions bias try sticking to the easy wins.

“What was the result of the Scotland – Wales game last year, again?”

What are the results over the last 10 years…shit wales have probably won more games than Scotland scored tries in that time frame.
Scotland are a better side than the depleted team Wales are playing and will likely win playing good rugby and good luck to them so try not to let your twisted knickers over past perceived injustices cover your eyes to the facts.

Oh I see now so it was the Lions tour before that..sorry crossed wires, so the English coach was blamed by the player but its Gatlands fault?

Gatland was the boss – the buck stops with him.  Why did he pick a player he didn’t want to play?

“Gatland was the boss – the buck stops with him. Why did he pick a player he didn’t want to play?”

I understand the Scots hate him, but when the player himself is angry with another person maybe you need to look at an easier win.

I don’t think you’ll have to look too far to see someone who is way more prone to twisted knickers than me.

And so it starts…

Yep, we’re off.

It’s been far too civilised up till now. 😀

England team out:

Brown
Watson
Te’o
Faz
May
Ford
Youngs

Mako
Hartley
Cole
Launchbury
Itoje
Lawes
Robshaw
Simmonds

George
Hepburn
Williams
Kruis
Underhill
Care
JJ
Nowell

Sorry dudes – not intended to be uncivil and I didn’t think the tone was either my posts or the replies

Gatland / lions stuff is all in the past bar a few scots will have a wee bit extra motivation tomorrow

I am still shiteing myself tho.  I almost miss the days of being no hopers 😉

Mindmap – thats a very mobile back 5 in the pack – but a bit lightweight?

Yep, didn’t mean to restart the Gatland Lions debate. My point is that he was accused of having an anti-scots bias last year so you’d think that he would at least try to avoid saying things that confirm that but apparently not.

I really don’t like him is my point.

*Unpins grenade*

Wales are all short arse pot noodle miners with two left hands and 6 fingers on each all coated in butter and gatland smells of wee

*ducks and covers*

TJ – that was my convern previously; there’s not a huge amount of heft which I guess is why Te’o is back so soon.

Lawes has been carrying pretty well this season but he’s no Billy. Simmonds is small, quick and makes yards using those attributes. Mako will be expected to do a fair amount of the grunt I expect.

Not a good look on your day off when the Irish captain and starting 2nd row head to the rape trial of former? teammates in court…