Blood & Mud

6 Nations 2008: Round 1 preview

It’s here at last!  For an entire nuclear winter we have waited for meaningful international rugby to start again while enduring matches involving the Barbarians or an utterly uninterested South African team.  Until now.

The RBS 6 Nations 2008 kicks off this weekend and it is one of the most difficult to predict for years.  Let’s take a look at the fixtures that await us in round one.

England v Wales.  Twickenham, 16:30 Saturday
For years, Wales have comforted themselves with the famous Stereophonics refrain, “As long as we beat the English, we don’t care”,  however, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards will care.  A lot. So expect them to treat this game the same as any other as they try to turn Wales around. Gatland has picked a record 13 players from the same region in his first competitive fifteen, leaving England with the task of beating the Ospreys plus Martyn Williams and Mark Jones.

For all the uplifted spirits in the Principality at the minute, the simple fact is that England are still a very strong outfit up-front, and they are playing at home with the metronomic Wilkinson ready to kick all day.  For far too long Wales have had no forward strength in the loose, plus a line-out that the Keystone Cops would be ashamed of.  As good a management team as Gatland and Edwards are, even they can’t turn that round in the fortnight they have had with the squad so far.

England to win by 12.

Ireland v Italy.  Croke Park, 14:00 Saturday
Who knows what to expect from Ireland?  Eddie O’Sullivan has stuck with largely the same players who failed so utterly in last year’s World Cup, claiming that is was the preparation, rather than the personnel that did for them in France.  They are at home in Dublin, however, and should have recovered sufficiently to beat an Italy side in a state of transition.

Nick Mallett, the new Italy coach, has been dealt a rough hand for his first game: away from home; his pack-leader Bortolami is injured; and the solid object of Alessandro Troncon at scrum-half has retired.  Add to this that his specialist fly-halves are in such poor form that he has been forced to select wing/centre Andrea Masi in the role, and you have a recipe for a good hiding.

Ireland to win by 20

Scotland v France.  Murrayfield, 15:00 Sunday
With all the upheaval and problems in the other home nations, there has been very little talk about Scotland, a team that have been slowly improving for the previous 18 months.  Coach Frank Hadden was criticised for being overly negative in their trip to the quarter-finals in the World Cup, he argued that he is taking small steps on an improvement journey. Or something like that.  Murrayfield is never an easy place to go for any team though, least of all a team in France’s current state.

France are impossible to call this year.  New man in charge Marc Lievremont has dispensed with a number of players from  the World Cup, which when added to the retirements of Ibanez, Dominici, Pelous and Betsen, leaves his squad with a serious lack of experience .  His team looks like it will go quick and wide from the off, which will mean either a thumping for Scotland or a excruciating succession of knock-ons and poor organisation that sees the tartan boys claim victory.  I go for the latter.

Scotland to win by 5

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6 Nations 2008: Round 1 preview

It’s here at last!  For an entire nuclear winter we have waited for meaningful international rugby to start again while enduring matches involving the Barbarians or an utterly uninterested South African team.  Until now.

The RBS 6 Nations 2008 kicks off this weekend and it is one of the most difficult to predict for years.  Let’s take a look at the fixtures that await us in round one.

England v Wales.  Twickenham, 16:30 Saturday
For years, Wales have comforted themselves with the famous Stereophonics refrain, “As long as we beat the English, we don’t care”,  however, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards will care.  A lot. So expect them to treat this game the same as any other as they try to turn Wales around. Gatland has picked a record 13 players from the same region in his first competitive fifteen, leaving England with the task of beating the Ospreys plus Martyn Williams and Mark Jones.

For all the uplifted spirits in the Principality at the minute, the simple fact is that England are still a very strong outfit up-front, and they are playing at home with the metronomic Wilkinson ready to kick all day.  For far too long Wales have had no forward strength in the loose, plus a line-out that the Keystone Cops would be ashamed of.  As good a management team as Gatland and Edwards are, even they can’t turn that round in the fortnight they have had with the squad so far.

England to win by 12.