New Zealand, South Africa and Australia will not win the Grand Slam … because they weren’t invited. The tournament for the rest of us: A Six Nations thread.

Predictions :

England 18 Wales 21
Ireland 29 Italy 12
Scotland 11 France 32

1Eng
2Fra
3Sco
4Ita
5Ire
6Wal
Beleeeevve

Dr C are you Welsh? Whatever, England will whip Welsh asses

Ireland: Started OK, but were really under pressure from Italy for the second half. (NB I know next to nowt about rugby, but this tournament is as good a place to start as any I guess, with p2p tv and all.)

England looking pretty good to my untutored eyes, at least in bursts. Ooh video refereeing disgruntlage.

What's with the weird waterskiing posture taken by Wilkinson upon kicktaking?

England looking pretty good to my untutored eyes, at least in bursts.

Not this half though! Lots of stuff even I can see is really weak (also from Wales tbf).

wowow England MAJORLY fucking things up for themselves! Will Dr C lead the prediction game after all?

This is fun! I love ref being miked-up.

Wales 26 - England 19

LOL

Dr C are you Welsh? Whatever, England will whip Welsh asses

You were saying?

;_;

Whatever, England will whip Welsh asses

-- whatever, Friday, 1 February 2008 23:37 (5 days ago) Link

Any thoughts on this coming weekend, whatever? Still waiting to hear from you, mate.

My predictions, anyway :

Wales 29 Scotland 11
France 32 Ireland 15
Italy 18 England 21

What's with the weird waterskiing posture taken by Wilkinson upon kicktaking?

Apparently it's a tai chi sort of thing, centring himself, focussing completely on the task ahead, that sort of stuff.

Scotland weren't very good on Sunday, eh?

erm, no...they weren't. Especially since France didn't play particularly well. Scotland's problems are many and varied : a) horrible lack of pace/penetration at centre/fly half, b)no link between half backs and three-quarters, c) powder puff front row, d) no ball carriers in the back-row.

If our forwards play like they did in the second half against England it could be a cricket score on Saturday. I'm predicting a modest win however, because I think Scotland will show some resiliance.

England team to be announced at lunchtime. I'm predicting that Balshaw, Gomersall, and possibly Regan and Moody will get axed. Tindall, Rees, Strettle are out through injury.

England team:
Iain Balshaw (Gloucester), Paul Sackey (Wasps), Jamie Noon (Newcastle), Toby Flood (Newcastle), Lesley Vainikolo (Gloucester), Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle), Andy Gomarsall (Harlequins); Tim Payne (Wasps), Mark Regan (Bristol), Phil Vickery (Wasps - captain), Simon Shaw (Wasps), Steve Borthwick (Bath), James Haskell (Wasps), Michael Lipman (Bath), Nick Easter (Harlequins).
Replacements: Lee Mears (Bath), Matt Stevens (Bath), Ben Kay (Leicester), Luke Narraway (Gloucester), Richard Wigglesworth (Sale), Danny Cipriani (Wasps), Mathew Tait (Newcastle)

Well, here's England. A fairly bonkers selection by Ashton. Balshaw still inexplicably in, Gomersall only still on because there's absolutely no-one else, a very, very pedestrian back row and the almost certainly completely useless Vainikolo on the wing. Go Italy!

And for Ailsa :

Scotland: Chris Paterson (Gloucester), Nikki Walker (Ospreys), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh), Andrew Henderson (Glasgow Warriors), Simon Webster (Edinburgh), Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors), Mike Blair (Edinburgh), Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), Euan Murray (Northampton Saints), Nathan Hines (Perpignan), Jim Hamilton (Leicester Tigers), Jason White (Sale Sharks) capt, Kelly Brown (Glasgow Warriors), John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors).
Replacements: Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors), Gavin Kerr (Edinburgh), Scott MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), Chris Cusiter (Perpignan), Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), Hugo Southwell (Edinburgh).

Brown and Paterson in for Lamont and Callam. I suppose Paterson will at least kick for goal better than Parks, but it doesn't look great otherwise. The De Luca/Henderson/Parks midfield is way below what's required at international level.

Nikki Walker (Ospreys)... Kelly Brown (Glasgow Warriors)

I see where we're going wrong, we're playing with girls in the team.

But they do Dan Parks's hair!

Scotland: still shite.

Is Jonny Wilkinson wearing lipstick?

scotland: not shite any more. Excellent defensive play throughout. Nothing great or flashy, but they did what they had to, and did it very well.

is there a 2009 thread?