I'm bot going to speculate on all of the games but lets just assume Wales are going to dominate France and blow the championship wide open! Thats the result we all want to see surely

Mine:
Wales - France: France by 21 pts
Italy - Scotland: Scotalnd by 15 pts
England - Ireland: Ireland by 5 pts (hope they prove me wrong)

Italy by 3
wales by 3
Ireland by 15

agree the lion is the best place in zurich

Italy by 7
France by 15
Ireland by 3

italy by anything... anything will do...

Forza Azzuri!!!!!

As I said in an earlier post to you (before the match), Italy could have beaten England. I was watching the clock wind down thinking that actually the drop goal wasn't enough and we should have been going for a try. That was a bit too uncomfortable and I am sure the feeling in the Italian camp was of an opportunity missed...

I wish that tomorrow evening my post could say something lyrical like "we rose from the ashes of defeat and with the wing of a phoenix descended on our enemies like brimstone from the heavens and snatched victory with talons of fire"...., but I fear is gonna be more like "aawh, for God sake... not again... we really should give up..."

Wales vs France . . . 15-25
England vs Ireland . . . 15-20
Italy vs Scotland . . . tossup, close result, Scotland to shade it

YEAH BABY YEAH.... (sorry to all the Scots...)

England vs. Ireland

Chronological range of emotions during the match...

:m sncry:

First time for a long time that I saw England play quick ball (at times, and all relative, I know)... spin the ball out wide and take some chances. Given the weather conditions, I thought they played well. The pack also out muscled the Irish. Line out was weak - reverting to type?

First Irish try was lucky from a turnover (although good teams make their own luck), third was straight from the training ground - where was the defence?

Ho hum. I actually thought England might win it... right up until the point that the ref blew England for collapsing the mawl - not quite sure how he worked that one out after England had driven the ball 40-50 m!

I think we can all assume France will win now after the Welsh decided to only turn up for the match in the second half! I can't see England or Italy beating them at home

Following on from the discussion after the Wales Scotland game about the legitimacy of putting the ball into touch from the restart, why weren't Wales awarded a penalty scrum? According the wording of the Laws, Michalak could even have been sin-binned for such a deliberate and pre-meditated infringement.

England - Ireland, well we performed better than I expected, but there were way too many defensive holes. I honestly thought an upset was on the cards when Jonny slotted the drop goal, but then he proceeded to usher Tommy Bowe through for the winning try .

I'd agree that the GS is there for France to loose - but here's hoping!

Yes - I wondered about that too...

My emotions exactly - it was indeed JW who missed the tackle. I thought he was meant to be a tough tackler. He had a bad match overall IMO. Although I've never seen him run so much ball, so maybe he was tired... I was thinking that he should have been taken off the field earlier.

Ireland to beat Wales
France to beat Italy ()
England to beat Scotland (may be close though...)

how's your predictions for this weekend?

Mate, it's Monday morning... we've not even seen the team line-ups!

For what it is worth:
Ireland v Wales - Ireland by 10 - Wales don't seem to have it together at the mo
Scotland v England - Scotland by 3 - I'm going for home advantage to the Scots - they just love to play (& beat) us there
France v Italy - France by 30+ (sorry Walterguariento, I just think the French are going to show us how it should be done)

I think that after 3 rounds we can make an educated guess

30+? bit harsh but () i think true

Ok, now the teams are out (well England), I'm revising my estimates:

Scotland v England - Scotland by 10 - potentially followed by a regime change.

Some of the quotes from the Beeb:

"It is not a reflection at all on how Lewis has played, it is more of a reflection on the strength and depth of the players we have in the squad" (Johnson)


Another quote from the Manual of Coaching, lesson 101

"Johnson said: "It was probably the toughest selection we've had, not because we lost the last game but because the squad we have now, if we lose someone, we have someone in that position who can come in and we wouldn't miss a beat."


"Attack coach Brian Smith said he hoped for England to be "more clinical" against Scotland. "I'm satisfied we are making progress but not with the outcome," said Smith."


Aarrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh FFS

EDIT: so glad I got that off my chest...

"Martin Johnson insists England are improving under his leadership amid continuing criticism of his team's performances in the Six Nations."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/8566718.stm

Jesus, what planet is he on, as for that matter Rikki Flutey!!! thought he was meant to be an insider centre not some bleeding winger.... he was about 20 meters away from both Wilkinson and Flood!!!

As for the forwards..... hopeless, towards the end of the game Nick Easter thought it would be fun to pass the ball into thin air and Hartley thought he was playing for Scotland, at least 4/5 times he was on the wrong side of the ruck facing the England forwards lol.

Unfotunatly for MJ is saddled with a Leicester coaching team who do not cut the mustard at international level.

Oh well France next week.