Rugby

The 6 Nations starts tomorrow so I thought it would be a good time to start a thread on rugby where we can discuss the 6 Nations, the Heinken Cup , the Lions Tour, Tri-Nations and the world cup in a few years. There should be a bit of interest in rugby from members from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy, Australia and New zealand.

I think we should concentrate on 6 nations for awhile and then onto the Heineken Cup etc when the q/finals take place. Munster is my local team in that, was at the Heinken Cup semi final last year when we lost to London wasps eventual champions. wasps have however been knocked out in the group stage this year, Munster still there but not playing as well as last year. I think Toulouse will win this year.

For those of you who dont know the Heinken Cup is rugby's equivalent to the champions league while the 6 Nations is international and similar to the european championship.

the 6 nations matches at the weekend are Wales V England, France v Scotland and Italy v Ireland. I am very hopeful this will be Irelands year after coming second for a few years. Our backline of Murphy, Horgan, Darcy, O' Driscoll (surely the lions captain?) and Hickie is our best ever back line. england and France will also fancy their chances and rightly so.

Here is a preview:

RBS 6 NATIONS TOURNAMENT 2005
Intriguing and involving as ever, the 2005 RBS 6 Nations Championship will be the absorbing highlight of the rugby year.

Champions France will need to be at the top of their game against the toughest opposition possible: world champions England, 2004 Triple Crown winners Ireland, resurgent Wales, ever-improving Italy and a Scotland side determined to forget last year's wooden spoon. French coach Bernard Laporte enjoyed a 2004 Grand Slam, but the Autumn revealed chinks in Les Bleus' armour.

Tough away matches at Twickenham and Lansdowne Road will be true tests of their title credentials.

England lost their grip on the title after a world-beating 2003. But in 2004, the red rose nation lost their northern hemisphere dominance and a list of championship winning players - and, ultimately, inspirational coach Sir Clive Woodward.

Woodward's deputy Andy Robinson has stepped in, and masterminded victory over Tri-Nations champions South Africa ahead of his debut RBS 6 Nations campaign.

In 2004, Eddie O'Sullivan's Ireland pushed France all the way, only blotting their copy book with defeat in Paris. England and France must travel to Ireland's Lansdowne Road stronghold, where victory is a Herculean task.

Ireland enter 2005 full of confidence following a clean sweep of Autumn victories and this well-balanced team could be celebrating success come March.

There is a real belief that Wales, under Mike Ruddock, are on the brink of something special.

Eleven years after their last Five Nations' Championship and following such promise under Steve Hansen, Ruddock's men are desperate to finally nail the major scalp. And how sweet it would be if they opened with a home win over England. Ruddock succeeded Hansen in 2004 and is committed to playing attractive, attacking rugby, with plenty of talent at his disposal.

John Kirwan's goal when taking over as Italy coach three years ago was to ensure the Azzurri remained competitive. And he believes they are. The coach, though, feels they must aim higher than their best-placed finish of fifth in 2004.

Autumn wins over Canada and USA raised spirits, but they were counter-balanced by defeats to Romania and a youthful New Zealand. Matt Williams knows Scotland must improve on their 2004 RBS 6 Nations whitewash.

Coming into 2005, Williams has found success hard to come by. But a season finale at Twickenham against the Auld Enemy awaits, and what better way would there be to sign off?

It should be a good 6 nations tournament this year as there is no clear winner. As you said, England, France and Ireland will all see themselves as potential champs and Wales have an outside chance too.

I will of course be backing England and i think we have a good chance again. We seem to have turned the corner after a troublesome start to last year, my main worry is whether the players will have time to adapt to the personnel/tactical changes...

I think England have too many injuries and too many changes in personel for things to gel, i'm not sure we'll be consistent enough to win it. So i think Ireland or France are favourites, depending on who's playing where etc.

It'll be close though, which is always a good thing.

While i was expecting it to be close, i didn't think the opening game would be THAT close. France were absolutely awful ... no flow, no fight, no nothing. Some curious selections didn't help either and they were incredibly lucky to gain a completely undeserved victory against Scotland. Having said that, Scotland made some disappointing mistakes to hand the victory to the French ... a stupid penalty for holding onto the ball out of touch, another bad error near the posts for a penalty and then a suicidal play that put the kicker under alot of pressure for the final score of the match ...

France will surely not play that badly again, while the other teams can take alot of heart from the fact that the French aren't as concrete as they were 12 months ago. Scotland must not be too hard on themselves, yes they lost but that was some of the best rugby they've played in a long long time.

As for the match tonight, it'll be just as close. England are in a similar position to France, alot of new faces and they'll have to gel quickly to beat the Welsh.

poor scotland to lose like that after such a great battling perfromance by them must be absolutley galling. i think this game does two things, firstly it makes ireland and england clear favourites, and also leaving italy as clear wodden spooners

as for tonights game, its a new england agaisnt a pumped up wales, the atmosphere will be electric and i can't wait for the game, this should be mighty might close and a fantastic battle

While i was expecting it to be close, i didn't think the opening game would be THAT close. France were absolutely awful ... no flow, no fight, no nothing. Some curious selections didn't help either and they were incredibly lucky to gain a completely undeserved victory against Scotland. Having said that, Scotland made some disappointing mistakes to hand the victory to the French ... a stupid penalty for holding onto the ball out of touch, another bad error near the posts for a penalty and then a suicidal play that put the kicker under alot of pressure for the final score of the match ...

yeah, Scotland couldnt have messed up more if they had been trying

They were unlucky not to get the try when he supposedly stepped onto the line (didnt look like he had to me?) but the final few minutes were suicidal

England arent doing much better in Cardiff i missed most of the first half to watch Arsenal - Villa but Arsenal had it won by half time..

I like watching Union.
But the league isn't telecast where I live. I don't think the six-nations will be either.

Don't have any favourite teams (though I am hoping rugby takes off here in my country).
But I certainly don't like the teams from the Southern hemisphere. And yes, before anybody tries to be smart and point out, I do know that the six-nations tournament does not feature teams from the Southern hemisphere.




My country does have a team (made up of part-timers, as there is no official league or a proper governing body). But they disappoint me. And how. They recently lost to some country like Burma or something, and even failed to score.

Originally Posted by Stezagud

i missed most of the first half to watch Arsenal - Villa

Why???????????????????

As i feared, all the new names and faces meant a lack of cohesion in attack and defence .... combine that with a rejuvinated Welsh side and it was a shambles waiting to happen. Well done to Wales, they played really well for most of the game and had us stretched to breaking point on a few occassions. However, i was disappointed with some of Englands tactics, when we had the ball, for some reason Dawson kept kicking it up straight from the scrum ... what was that about ? It came off about twice i think. Also, when we had to kick it, we ended up kicking it straight to either Henson or Jones, their two best kickers ... talk about giving them the chance to cause us trouble. I felt we could win when Wales lost momentum and tried to play the game our way, but then we gave away 2 stupid penalties, one of which cost us and that was it.

It'll take alot for Andy Robinson to turn all this around, good luck to him.

Why???????????????????

because Arsenal were without Campbell and Toure and i though Villa *might* just be able to inflict more agony on the Gooners. Unfortunately not

England were quite poor yesterday and Wales deserved their win. The team is definately going to take some time to gel and i think we can probably say goodbye to this years 6 nations already as long as they are ready to defend our World Cup then thats the important thing

results and standings after round 1

Country P W D L For Against Points
Ireland 1 1 0 0 28 17 2
France 1 1 0 0 16 9 2
Wales 1 1 0 0 11 9 2
England 1 0 0 1 9 11 0
Scotland 1 0 0 1 9 16 0
Italy 1 0 0 1 17 28 0


Saturday 5th February 2005
14:00 GMT France 16-9 Scotland
17:30 GMT Wales 11-9 England
Sunday 6th February 2005
14:30 GMT Italy 17-28 Ireland


worst french performance in years, i know they had a couple of injuries but their coach made loads of errors too in selecting team for example how can he leave out Micalack at out-half? scotland played well though and if a few decisions had gone their way they could have won.

wales england, gavin henson what can you say, great performance, think wales deserved win and they have to be considered contenders now to win the 6 nations.
England will be disappointed with performance, their young centres didnt quite cut it.

Italy gave Ireland a great game of it but O' Driscoll's magic was the difference. Murphy also very good. huge blow though that Darcy and O'Driscoll both picked up hamstring injuries and are a major doubt for Scotland next week.

Next week its:
Italy V Wales
Scotland V Ireland
England V France

i missed the italy -ireland game and was stunned to see the final score, i didn't think that we'd (italy) would get that close, and now that i've seen the highlights we could have won it. the game agaisnt scotland will be huge to see who doesn't come last!

as for the big 3, all of them have failed to impress and the winner of the tournament atm could be anyone of 4.

Scotland V Ireland
O'Driscoll and Darcy have both been named to play Scotland despite hamstring injuries picked up at the weekend. They are expected to be fit for the weekend. Poor Scotland!

Italy V Wales

I think we could have a surprise here. The Italin team is full of Rino Gattuso type characters who give 110%. Will be a good game.

England V France

This game has perhaps lost some of its significance afters Englands loss to Wales but these two dont like losing to each other and if both teams perform to their potential (big question marks about this happening) it will be a classic.
I think France will shade it but Mickalack has to be picked.

What way does everyone else see the weekend going?

i'm really looking forward to this week's games, all should be close and its virtually impossible to pick a winner


scotland v ireland; ireland have a terrible record in scotland winning only once in the last 10 occaisons, if o'driscoll and darcy are fit then, i'd bet on ireland, if they aren't scotland may well ruin they're grand slam ambitions.


italy v wales; i think italy's pack can win them the game, but wales' backs can destroy their italian counterparts so all i all i home that our home advantage can pull us through, but it will be very close, (i hope)

england v france; game of the week by a mile, as almilan said, france need to pick their best team, especially at scrum-half and fly-half, they also need their 6,7 and 8's back, they were sorely missed agaisnt scotland, however only betson will be available. england on the other hand are playing poorly, but its france at twickenham, and this is one game they do not want to lose and i don't think they will.

You know your rugby well Lombardia. Tell me is the average Italin interested in rugby or is it only a few Italins? Your right about the Italin pack, they are very good. they got the better of the Irish pack. France have left out Mickalack again for reasons only known to French coach.

regarding Scotland versus Ireland while O Driscoll and Darcy have been named its subject to late fitness tests. I think we will need only 1 of them to beat Scotland. One definite change from the Italy game is Munster's Leamy is dropped for Wasps O'Connor at number 7.