Not far away now so this one could be an interesting one if say results for week one go England , France and Italy , now I don't think they will as it will be the other way around but it would open up the Six Nations if it happened for sure .
So England, have to beat Ireland on Saturday otherwise they are gone simple as that , just so dislike Eddie Jones so hope they get burnt but we will know after game one .
Scotland , on the way up I must say had a very good six nations last year think they will do well .
Wales , going to be 1st or 2nd , very strong watch this space .
Italy , love them to win a game they are getting better in the pro 14 one win will keep O'Shea running the show again injuries would kill them .
France , goodness you never know , world beaters one minute and dire the next first game is the key .
Ireland , have to be Favs can't see them winning the slam but the team to beat them will win it simple as that very strong on all areas and a super bench when needed .Going to come down to the last game with Wales as winner takes all .

Standings

Ireland
Wales
Scotland
France
England
Italy .

England have the strongest squad in the Six Nations and have a point to prove after last year. Expect fireworks.

Papabendi wrote:England have the strongest squad in the Six Nations and have a point to prove after last year. Expect fireworks.

not seen the injury list then - we would be better resting players for Japan if we knew and understood the style we were going to play - premiership rugby is brutal and as a consequence weakens club sides in Europe and the national team. Also cannot get my head around English weakness at the breakdown - we have been behind the world in this forever and a day

Come on England

Too close to call. Should be a fantastic tournament.

I think the winner of Ireland vs England in Dublin, on Saturday, will win the tournament.

( though those years, every second year, where England have to play in both Dublin AND Cardiff, makes it very difficult for England)

Friday night’s curtain raiser, France vs Wales, should be a belter.

Soon to be a thing of the past. World league on the horizon.

Chester Perry wrote:not seen the injury list then - we would be better resting players for Japan if we knew and understood the style we were going to play - premiership rugby is brutal and as a consequence weakens club sides in Europe and the national team. Also cannot get my head around English weakness at the breakdown - we have been behind the world in this forever and a day

for which team are you referring? they all do and it was part of my point

Can't wait, if Wales can win in Paris as we did last year then they could be hard to stop, our last game is against them in Cardiff, could be a decider, assuming we beat England, and there's definitely no assumption in that. Anyone with a nervous disposition should watch with care, it's going to be brutal. Think I might have a few quid on a Burnley Ireland double

Papabendi wrote:for which team are you referring? they all do and it was part of my point

England - been a nightmare for a few years now

England - been a nightmare for a few years now

No they haven't!

Not long ago we were number 2 in the world and we almost beat the world record for consecutive wins!

We had a 100% winning rate for 2016 and a 90.90% winning rate for 2017 ....

The downturn coincided with the after affects of The British Lion Tour. History has shown time and time again that the country who takes the most players with the British Lions suffer the most immediately for a while after with performances and results.

This was compounded with the amount of minutes English players play compared to other nations. In that bad period after the Lions tour, Courtney Laws for example and had played more minutes of rugby than any other International in the world and lot of the England players had played a massive amount more than for example the Irish. It didn't help that Eddie Jones didn't rest his Lions players after the tour that he promised to do as well because he wanted to keep the good run of results going which is just human nature.

Watching Mako Vunipola away to France after the Lions tour, in the last 6 nations, I have never seen a player so knackered in my life. Mako was actually walking in the 2nd half. I've never seen that in the 36 years iv'e been watching Rugby Union. Eddie Jones has admitted as much that he should of freshened up the squad with new players after the Lions tour.

History has also shown that when we get a lot of injuries, results suffer. Other nations will say we have the biggest player base in the world but you need continuity and having half the squad missing most of the time is not conducive with a winning team.

Ireland and NZ look after their players really well and have a great system in place with the central contracts but it's to late for that in England because the clubs have too much power but looking at the current 6 nations squad it's fairly strong. There are still a few injuries in the back row but we should be competitive at the very least.

Looking forward to the next World Cup ... The players will be with England from the summer right through to the winter so providing Eddie doesn't break a few players (which he's well known for) we should have a very strong squad. Don't let the 2018 results fool you into thinking we do not have a decent team. If everything falls into place we will be there or there abouts.

Scotland currently have 29 players on the injured list. I'd like to see them do well but think the timing isn't right for them to put out a competitive side for every game.

I suspect we may see the difference between teams trying to win the six nations and teams trying to win the World Cup.

Really?

Surely any team that thinks it wants to win the World Cup or has a chance of winning it.. has to go hard in the Six Nations ?.. no other way.

Which team(s) are you thinking of?

the nightmare I was referring too was our record at the breakdown - I was also one of a few who spoke about the likely after effects of the Lions tour on here in advance of the trip (and roundly trashed for doing so) last season was a debacle on the field and tactically very poor.

I have hopes for England but the are quite restrained

hampsteadclaret wrote:I think the winner of Ireland vs England in Dublin, on Saturday, will win the tournament.
( though those years, every second year, where England have to play in both Dublin AND Cardiff, makes it very difficult for England)
Friday night’s curtain raiser, Scotland vs Wales, should be a belter.

I think you mean France v Wales on Friday night, m' learned friend !!

Agree with your analysis, though, the winner of Ireland v England should have a great chance of taking the title, if not necessarily a Grand Slam. Wales are a match for anyone ! Scotland are resurgent, although have a number of players out with injury, which given their relatively small pool of talent, could hurt them in the later stages. France, will be, well France ! Brilliant or dreadful, depending on their mood, and regrettably, I can only see 5 defeats for the Italians ...

Then again, it's the 6 Nations so who knows ?? That's what makes it great ...

LET'S GO SCOTLAND!!! I feel another Grand Slam in the works.

I don't follow the egg-chasing that closely but it's hard to see past Ireland for the title,they do have three away games,but one of those is in Italy,if they beat England first up they will be firm favourites,Scotland are dark horses they have 3 games at Murrayfield and their home record is strong,England have a tough task to win in Dublin and Cardiff,France who knows they are more unpredictable than a weather forecaster.

Ireland
Wales
Scotland
England
France
Italy

That's my punt for what it's worth,i'll likely have egg on my face in March.

tiger76 wrote:I don't follow the egg-chasing that closely but it's hard to see past Ireland for the title,they do have three away games,but one of those is in Italy,if they beat England first up they will be firm favourites,Scotland are dark horses they have 3 games at Murrayfield and their home record is strong,England have a tough task to win in Dublin and Cardiff,France who knows they are more unpredictable than a weather forecaster.

Ireland
Wales
Scotland
England
France
Italy

That's my punt for what it's worth,i'll likely have egg on my face in March.

We just have the close to same mind set when it comes to the final table .

Grand Slam for the winner of the Wales/Ireland game.

Tomorrow's opening game will be a cracker and predict Wales to take it.

I'm a fan of the (15 or 13 man) egg-chasing & really looking forward to this 6N
Apart from Italy, it seems pretty open. The key nowadays is getting an away win against one of the other top teams.. Also, the way the fixtures fall plays a role as some have 3H/2A; some 2H/3A.
Scotland have improved a lot these last 2 years but have a lot of injuries going into this competition so I dont think they can come out on top.
France have been below par for a number of years now & it's difficult to see that run ending
I see it between Ireland, Wales & England. Wales have England and Ireland both at home so I make them favourites.

For those really into 6N - Telegraph is running a free FANTASY RUGBY competition. Ive only ever done fantasy footy before but Ive had a go at this as there's only 5 rounds of games over 6 weeks to contend with and you can make 4 changes between each round to cater for high injury levels etc. Ive joined a small league with my son and a couple of his mates to make it more interesting. Scoring is a bit more complex than the footy versions as there's points for turnovers/tackles made etc.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... hance-win/

Extended checklist this year


https://twitter.com/Danny_McMoomins/sta ... 01152?s=19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Current betting for the tournament is...

Ireland 5/6
England 10/3
Wales 5/1
France 16/1
Scotland 16/1
Italy 1000/1

- can't really argue with that.

Massive French pack tonight with some smallish clever quick French backs....Wales for me tonight.

Lots of Welsh fans with match tickets and hotels booked, could not get there because their flights were cancelled.

It's a good job the French aren't kicking too well.

Very unlucky there for the Welsh.

Keep trying !!!!

One good thing about Vokes leaving is I no longer have any dubious split loyalties when Wales play football. In a similar vain good to see France upset the form guide tonight.

Cant bloody watch....ref keeps shouting Crouch!!!!

Brings me out in a cold sweat.

Bit of a turnaround this second half. Didn’t see this coming.

Wales take the lead 16-17, and France have lost their form [65 minutes].

Enjoying this game but France haven’t half made some mistakes.

Well done Wales. Brilliant comeback. France went a bit Spursy

France blew it two tries gifted to Wales ..hopefully better fare on offer tomorrow

France are dogsh1t.

They'll finish bottom of the table

fatboy47 wrote:France are dogsh1t.

They'll finish bottom of the table

Language please .. merde du chien!

Dreadful Wales until their first try. Then they were immense. George North got the breaks with his two tries but as with all finishers if you get in position the gods might smile on you.

Conditions weren't great- particularly in the 1st half but it was a topsy-turvy error strewn game. France played (just) Ok first half and Wales made mistakes; 2nd half Wales played much better & France made even more/ bigger mistakes.
Although Wales weren't great, they won away & have England and Ireland to play at home in Cardiff (after Italy away) so are probably 6N favourites now.

The Ireland v England ladies 6N match earlier was a good game to watch, much more play with backs trying to evade tacklers rather than run over them. England won 51-7, some really good running with the ball.

Really enjoyed that.a real game of two halves.

Big result for the Welsh,it's never easy to win in Paris,for all the talk about the Irish,this was a 10th straight win for Wales,Gatland could be ending his tenure in style,another Six Nations title could await and then the World Cup.

LeadBelly wrote:
The Ireland v England ladies 6N match earlier was a good game to watch, much more play with backs trying to evade tacklers rather than run over them. England won 51-7, some really good running with the ball.

Just to add to that you should have watched the under 20s game also , ohhhh Ireland won

Tribesmen wrote: France , goodness you never know , world beaters one minute and dire the next first game is the key .

.

Hate to say this but i could never have been so right in a game of two halves . Shocking how France threw it away .

Strong start from the Scots 12-3 ahead thanks to 2 Kinghorn tries,i knew Italy were bad but didn't realise they had lost 17 straight Six Nations matches,questions have to be asked how long can their participation be justified at this level.

Yep Scotland are going to go far in this game , well unless they do a France that is .

What an excellent match..they will all be black and blue tomorrow...a great performance by England.

They are winning 13-25 with 5 minutes left.

- and they've just scored another try..Farrell converts [bonus point]

Well deserved all of it.

13-32....4 mins left.

Cracking game, great result so far

Fantastic England performance. We need a good six nations to build on for the World Cup. Hope Itoje is OK.

Fair play England, no complaints, better team won even if there were a couple of dodgy decisions

- the Johnny May kick-ahead late on and subsequent try was fantastic rugby, but borderline legal.

Yep the forward pass try was the killer blow . Hey not sure what to say but we move on .

Brilliant win

One of England's better away performances this, beat a strong Irish side in Dublin, a few dubious decisions by an indecisive ref but could have had a 3rd try before halftime with a better video ref.