6 Nations 2023 - The Other Teams

[John23]

3 away wins in one round! Anoraks on my first whistle. When is the last time that happened if ever?

[riocard911]

Apart from trying to run the ball from crazy positions, Italy showed that France are eminently beatable. It's possible they even sowed some doubt in French heads as to the latters' own supposed invincibility. Both outcomes, I imagine, can only be positive from an Irish point of view. Similar to the recent Leinster match vs Racing, Fikou was great. He's the defensive steel in the Les Bleus backline.

[RoboProp]

Capuozzo has some moxie, joy to watch

[Xanthippe]

3 away wins in one round! Anoraks on my first whistle. When is the last time that happened if ever?

Believe it or not it happened just last year - in round 4 France beat Wales 9-13 in the MilStad, Scotland beat Italy 22-33 in Rome and we had that fantastic 15-32 bonus point win against England in Twickers

[John23]

3 away wins in one round! Anoraks on my first whistle. When is the last time that happened if ever?

Believe it or not it happened just last year - in round 4 France beat Wales 9-13 in the MilStad, Scotland beat Italy 22-33 in Rome and we had that fantastic 15-32 bonus point win against England in Twickers

Thank you Xan. Apologies for my failing memory and or sheer laziness.

[Xanthippe]

3 away wins in one round! Anoraks on my first whistle. When is the last time that happened if ever?

Believe it or not it happened just last year - in round 4 France beat Wales 9-13 in the MilStad, Scotland beat Italy 22-33 in Rome and we had that fantastic 15-32 bonus point win against England in Twickers

Thank you Xan. Apologies for my failing memory and or sheer laziness.

No problem - it’s actually only the 4th time it’s happened with the other two being round 5 in 2006 and round 2 in 2005

[blockhead]

Three bonus-point away wins is a first in the Six Nations though.
also,
Scotland spent only one minute and 44 seconds in Englands 22 on Saturday, scored 4 tries.

[ronk]

Borthwick absolutely laying into Jones. That's pretty damning and a high risk strategy.

https://www.the42.ie/england-have-a-lot ... 5-Feb2023/

[IanD]

BBC News - Six Nations 2023: England forwards coach Richard Cockerill to leave
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64553331

England coaching merry go round continues. Cockerill to leave after 6 Nations.

[paddyor]

BBC News - Six Nations 2023: England forwards coach Richard Cockerill to leave
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64553331

England coaching merry go round continues. Cockerill to leave after 6 Nations.

Borthwick absolutely laying into Jones. That's pretty damning and a high risk strategy.

https://www.the42.ie/england-have-a-lot ... 5-Feb2023/

[hugonaut]

Apart from trying to run the ball from crazy positions, Italy showed that France are eminently beatable. It's possible they even sowed some doubt in French heads as to the latters' own supposed invincibility. Both outcomes, I imagine, can only be positive from an Irish point of view. Similar to the recent Leinster match vs Racing, Fikou was great. He's the defensive steel in the Les Bleus backline.

France away from home are a different kettle of fish than when they are defending their home patch. Obviously the World Cup is taking place in France, so it is something of a moot point in the middle term. But I think that they can be got at away from home at the weekend. They are not going to flop around like easy beats, but they can be got at.

They only beat us by two points two years ago and that was one of those funny-fish covid games with nobody in the stadium. We will probably have ten changes from the team that started that day [source: https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/report/ ... atch-stats] – nine personnel, one positional – with only Keenan, Ringrose, Lowe, Beirne, van der Flier and Porter likely to start.

[CiaranIrl]

Apart from trying to run the ball from crazy positions, Italy showed that France are eminently beatable. It's possible they even sowed some doubt in French heads as to the latters' own supposed invincibility. Both outcomes, I imagine, can only be positive from an Irish point of view. Similar to the recent Leinster match vs Racing, Fikou was great. He's the defensive steel in the Les Bleus backline.

France away from home are a different kettle of fish than when they are defending their home patch. Obviously the World Cup is taking place in France, so it is something of a moot point in the middle term. But I think that they can be got at away from home at the weekend. They are not going to flop around like easy beats, but they can be got at.

They only beat us by two points two years ago and that was one of those funny-fish covid games with nobody in the stadium. We will probably have ten changes from the team that started that day [source: https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/report/ ... atch-stats] – nine personnel, one positional – with only Keenan, Ringrose, Lowe, Beirne, van der Flier and Porter likely to start.

Really interesting to see that team now. We have a much better team now. Players like Keenan, VDF, Ringrose, Lowe and Beirne are far better now than they were then. Doris is a huge improvement on Stander. Having Sexton is FAR better than Burns obviously. Front row is improved as well.

The question though is how much better are France than they were then. We'll see.

[Ruckedtobits]

From following the French rugby media closely since their Squad went into Camp three weeks ago in Cap Breton, one of the themes that has emerged most strongly is that the French pack and Dupont are their "attackers" and their penalty taker and backs are the "defenders". They win matches with Dupont and the forwards and they 'save' matches through their backs and penalty kicks.

They have no intention of coming to Dublin to play 'French' rugby. They will come to try to grind us down like S Africa and use Dupont like a rapier on front-foot ball. They believe that the Irish back-row will be most effective the further the ball is from set pieces. They want the game to be a series of scrums and line-out mauls. They do not want high continuity in the game.

They are ruthless in their intend and Shawn Edwards was brutally critical of their display against Italy.

Roll on Saturday. Two very different Game Plans in prospect and we're on the side of the gods.

[IanD]

BBC News - Six Nations 2023: Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones now fit to face Scotland
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64527161

[The Doc]

Apart from trying to run the ball from crazy positions, Italy showed that France are eminently beatable. It's possible they even sowed some doubt in French heads as to the latters' own supposed invincibility. Both outcomes, I imagine, can only be positive from an Irish point of view. Similar to the recent Leinster match vs Racing, Fikou was great. He's the defensive steel in the Les Bleus backline.

France away from home are a different kettle of fish than when they are defending their home patch. Obviously the World Cup is taking place in France, so it is something of a moot point in the middle term. But I think that they can be got at away from home at the weekend. They are not going to flop around like easy beats, but they can be got at.

They only beat us by two points two years ago and that was one of those funny-fish covid games with nobody in the stadium. We will probably have ten changes from the team that started that day [source: https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/report/ ... atch-stats] – nine personnel, one positional – with only Keenan, Ringrose, Lowe, Beirne, van der Flier and Porter likely to start.

I also wonder if some of the interpretations are affecting them - we saw Wales pinged a lot for not supporting in rucks - hands on the ground. If France have their poaching threat reduced, or at least their ability to slow ruck ball reduced, suddenly their defense can be stressed more with quick ball and their big lumps having to run around more.

If Barnes continues the same interpretation - it could be interesting. And even more so if it continues into the RWC

[tigerburnie]

The rest of Borthwicks Leicester coaching team joins him for the World Cup, we will miss Aled, he really did get the best out of our players fitness wise. Tigers might be getting Cotter or Cheika or even Townsend..............or none of the above, I put a bid in for Leo Cullen to come back.........

[fourthirtythree]

Apart from trying to run the ball from crazy positions, Italy showed that France are eminently beatable. It's possible they even sowed some doubt in French heads as to the latters' own supposed invincibility. Both outcomes, I imagine, can only be positive from an Irish point of view. Similar to the recent Leinster match vs Racing, Fikou was great. He's the defensive steel in the Les Bleus backline.

France away from home are a different kettle of fish than when they are defending their home patch. Obviously the World Cup is taking place in France, so it is something of a moot point in the middle term. But I think that they can be got at away from home at the weekend. They are not going to flop around like easy beats, but they can be got at.

They only beat us by two points two years ago and that was one of those funny-fish covid games with nobody in the stadium. We will probably have ten changes from the team that started that day [source: https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/report/ ... atch-stats] – nine personnel, one positional – with only Keenan, Ringrose, Lowe, Beirne, van der Flier and Porter likely to start.

I also wonder if some of the interpretations are affecting them - we saw Wales pinged a lot for not supporting in rucks - hands on the ground. If France have their poaching threat reduced, or at least their ability to slow ruck ball reduced, suddenly their defense can be stressed more with quick ball and their big lumps having to run around more.

If Barnes continues the same interpretation - it could be interesting. And even more so if it continues into the RWC

They were very strong on not rolling away where they impeded the protection of ruck ball in both the Welsh/Irish and Italy/France matches. If you went for a poach while the clear out was impeded they blew an attacking penalty. This is in stark contrast to how this has been refereed in the recent past where only stopping the scrum half getting the ball was a penalty.

I can't imagine this was an accident but we'll see how it pans out coming up to the WC.

[paddyor]

Ben Youngs dropped from the travelling party to Italy

[hugonaut]

Ben Youngs dropped from the travelling party to Italy

They brought in Alex Mitchell from Northampton ahead of him. Mitchell is the fella from Northampton who can't f*cking pass. He's actually a really intelligent player, makes space for other players, makes line-breaks, great support player, decent kicker ... but he's a worse passer than Hogie. He makes Luke McGrath look like Graham Bachop.

[outcast eddie]

The rest of Borthwicks Leicester coaching team joins him for the World Cup, we will miss Aled, he really did get the best out of our players fitness wise. Tigers might be getting Cotter or Cheika or even Townsend..............or none of the above, I put a bid in for Leo Cullen to come back.........

You will have to pry Leo from our cold dead fingers.