It's that time of year again, with the 2025 6 nations Championship kicking off tomorrow night in Paris, with France hosting Wales. Scotland play Italy in the early match on Saturday afternoon, whilst England travel to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to play the current holders, Ireland.

The French should be far too good for a Welsh team that did not win any of their Internationals in 2024, whilst Scotland will surely better Italy in Edinburgh. Ireland are favourites to beat England, who have Maro Itoje installed as a new captain. France to win by 30-35 points, Scotland by 15-20 and Ireland to win by 8-15 points ... the only certainty being that not all of these predictions will be correct !

All games are live on either BBC and ITV ..

My m8 Rob has been on about the up coming "Egg chasing" for weeks

The 6 starting XVs and replacements have all been named now. Just spent an entertaining hour compiling my fantasy 6N team - though I might alter that before 20.00 tomorrow.
You can have a max of 4 from each nation in your XV + 1 sub. Ive gone for the full 4 French and 4 Scots in my team with a couple each from the other 4 teams in this round. You can completely change your team for each round and I think the next round looks less clear cut on which teams might score a lot of tries.

I'll have to find a pub in Portsmouth to catch (most of) Ireland v England on Saturday but Fr v Wales tomorrow night is a must armchair view for me (though Ill keep a tab on Rovers v PNE).

Bookies reckon: France to win by 28, Scotland by 17, Ireland by 7.

Always enjoy this tournament. France win, Scotland win and hopefully an England win but a tough start against a very good Irish team.

Bosscat wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 30, 2025 5:19 pm

My m8 Rob has been on about the up coming "Egg chasing" for weeks

Proper rugby starts mid February.not the kick and clap crap.

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It’s a must watch for me but recorded. With all Union I ff every scrum and line-out until the ball is back in play and HT.It can save over 35mins although I believe new rules have been brought in to speed up the re-starts.
I’ll be watching the Deadwood match and then enjoy the rugby.

Yep here we go again . Hate to say but will miss the first round as sailing to Spain then driving across this weekend . But will go France by 22points , Ireland by 12 and Scotland by 18

Think france might run amok, Welsh Rugby is in disarray, absolutely convinced Gatland is trying to get sacked with his ommissions France by 40. Scotland, it's now or never, Tuipulotu is a massive miss for them but they've still way too much for Italy, scotland by 15.
Ireland are in a state of flux, struggled in the autumn, changes at the top and it might just be too soon for Prendergast. Englands bench looks far the stronger and it's a 23 man game now. That said, have Englands defensive frailties been fixed, heart says England, head says Ireland by 3.

Round Two almost upon us ... Italy host Wales in Rome at 2.15 today. Italy have a competent pack, whilst Wales seem to lack the size and power up front needed in the modern game. Wales are without a win in 13 games, and need a big performance today. England host a superb French side at Twickenham ( 4.45 ), and have to be regarded as underdogs ... Scotland host Ireland at Murrayfield tomorrow at 3.00pm, in a game that Ireland should win ..

Italy by 5-10 points, France by 15-20 and Ireland by 10-15 points tomorrow ...

Wow real Boys Own stuff there. Well done England.

Deserved that for battling to the end. Well played England.

They need to get someone who can kick for the next game.

A couple of those weren't that difficult.

dougcollins wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 08, 2025 6:46 pm

They need to get someone who can kick for the next game.

A couple of those weren't that difficult.

Brilliant. Really exciting game, fantastic finish in a game they weren’t expected to win, and in the true tradition of this forum, has to have a moan about something.

Well done England. They looked fitter than France at the end and ultimately it won them the game.

Bloody brilliant……..

Or as they say en France

“Blooooody Brilliaaaant”

Rosbifs done tres bon.

France should've more or less tied the game up in the first half but England stuck at it and despite the great disappointment of going from 1 pt up to 6 down with 5/6 mins left, found the winning 7 points. Top effort. Ireland looking good for the championship now with France to play in Dublin 8th March.

Missed the Italy match but did see the England game . So many handling mistakes by the French not like them at all . Hey fair play to England to win it at the death .As for today I think it will not be a great game but Ireland should edge it by 5 points .

Awayfromburnley wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 08, 2025 8:41 pm

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Is that a Status Quo gig?

Clarets4me wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 08, 2025 1:27 pm

Round Two almost upon us ... Italy host Wales in Rome at 2.15 today. Italy have a competent pack, whilst Wales seem to lack the size and power up front needed in the modern game. Wales are without a win in 13 games, and need a big performance today. England host a superb French side at Twickenham ( 4.45 ), and have to be regarded as underdogs ... Scotland host Ireland at Murrayfield tomorrow at 3.00pm, in a game that Ireland should win ..

Italy by 5-10 points, France by 15-20 and Ireland by 10-15 points tomorrow ...

Two out of three ain't bad, as Meatloaf once said .... never been happier to be wrong about England !

Scotland were well below par there but a very professional performance by Ireland who never let Scotland get into the game.

Odds on Scotland will be better than that at Twickenham next round (in a fortnight). Ireland will most likely win by a bundle in Cardiff that same weekend.

Round 3 this weekend, with Wales hosting Ireland in Cardiff tomorrow ( ko 2.15pm ). Ireland are much changed, as are Wales under new Coach Matt Sherratt. Eight new players plus 2 positional switches for Wales with Gareth Anscombe making his first start for Wales in 6 years at fly half. England face Scotland at Twickenham, at 4.45pm, in the unusual position of having lost the last 4 Calcutta Cup games ... Sunday see Italy host France in Rome, their first meeting since Italy's shock 13-13 draw last year, a game they should have won ... France made wholesale changes for that game, an exercise they have not repeated this time round ...

I expect Ireland to beat Wales by 20-25 points but Wales to be much improved, England should prevent Scotland from making it a record 5 match winning streak ( 10-15 points ), and France should have too much for Italy, France to win by 15-20 points ...

Meanwhile Hull KR narrowly pipped Wakefield last night to make it 2 wins from 2. Good effort by Trinity and great to see a capacity crowd

Clarets4me wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:31 pm

Round 3 this weekend, with Wales hosting Ireland in Cardiff tomorrow ( ko 2.15pm ). Ireland are much changed, as are Wales under new Coach Matt Sherratt. Eight new players plus 2 positional switches for Wales with Gareth Anscombe making his first start for Wales in 6 years at fly half. England face Scotland at Twickenham, at 4.45pm, in the unusual position of having lost the last 4 Calcutta Cup games ... Sunday see Italy host France in Rome, their first meeting since Italy's shock 13-13 draw last year, a game they should have won ... France made wholesale changes for that game, an exercise they have not repeated this time round ...

I expect Ireland to beat Wales by 20-25 points but Wales to be much improved, England should prevent Scotland from making it a record 5 match winning streak ( 10-15 points ), and France should have too much for Italy, France to win by 15-20 points ...

The Ireland changes (mostly injuries I think) dont weaken the squad much and they should beat Wales convincingly in Cardiff; glad to see Anscombe in the Welsh side though.
Bookies reckon Ireland by 22/23 points but I hope its more competitive than that- say 16-20 range.

England v Scotland is a difficult call, Bookies see it as England by 8/9 points and given home advantage I think a close England win looks right.

Italy have some of their best results v France but I think France will be well up for this having lost to les rosbifs in the last round. They've even dropped Penaud (for low work-rate it seems). They've gone for 7 forwards and only one back on the bench which is a bit of a gamble but Italy will be hard-pressed to get a lot of the ball I think. I expect a big win for France (16-20 points?) but hope Italy can keep the home crowd happy for most of the game.

The Eng v Scot, Wales v Ireland U20 equivalent games are this evening, The former kicks off 19.15 so should be able to watch most of that before Clarets 20.00 kick off (both on TV for me).

Right then, going for Ireland by 24 points , just have too much for Wales , Scotland , yep 5 in a row is on by 3 points , and France by 10 points

LeadBelly wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 21, 2025 3:46 pm

The Eng v Scot, Wales v Ireland U20 equivalent games are this evening, The former kicks off 19.15 so should be able to watch most of that before Clarets 20.00 kick off (both on TV for me).

I take it you had a very enjoyable evening, given the England u20's and Burnley's result ...

Just read that Ireland will be wearing their predominately white " change " kit for the game in Cardiff. The reason is to make viewing easier for the 4.5% of people ( the vast majority men ) who suffer from colour-blindness. The inability to discern green from red is one of the most common disadvantages ...

And for those who are watching in Black and White , Spurs are in yellow. Classic........

Tribesmen wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 22, 2025 1:22 pm

And for those who are watching in Black and White , Spurs are in yellow. Classic ...

I suspect you're perhaps old enough to remember Wales changing to black shorts in the early/mid 1970's when they played Ireland, not because of Colour blindness, but because so many households were still watching TV in black and white ....

England's tedious box-kicking sh1te is killing the game for me...fair play to the ""Scotland"" team though...far more idea than Borthwick's utterly turgid crap in the first half at least.

Can't see it happening but a good drubbing for us today might help get shut of the clown.
Doubt it'll happen though...can see us ragging a win.

Goodness Ireland got out of jail , Aki was the man for me when he came on .

Just love the internationals. Very enjoyable.

I also like that referee has to explain his decisions.

Clarets4me wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 22, 2025 10:09 am

I take it you had a very enjoyable evening, given the England u20's and Burnley's result ...

Just read that Ireland will be wearing their predominately white " change " kit for the game in Cardiff. The reason is to make viewing easier for the 4.5% of people ( the vast majority men ) who suffer from colour-blindness. The inability to discern green from red is one of the most common disadvantages ...

I did enjoy Friday evening.
I also spotted that there would be an Ireland colour change for the reason you state. Until I read the reasoning this am I hadn't realized that red/green colour blindness was very much a male thing. (1 in 12 males, 1 in 200 females,).

Well done England. Always nice to "gub" the Sweaties

Here we go again .
So First up is the big one , whoever wins wins the championship .
Hate to say this but it's France . They have too much going on and they will win by 5 points .
Wales v Scotland going to be another close game but Wales had their moment playing Ireland so Scotland to win by 10 points .
England v Italy yer straight forward win , will make hard work of it for 60 mins then run away with it by 34 points .
Hate to back against the Irish .

Tomorrow sees the finale of this year's 6 Nations, with all three final fixtures being played ...

Ireland should put their disappointment from last week aside and get a bonus point win by 20-25 points in Rome, I fear for England against a rejuvenated Wales in Cardiff. Marcus Smith, for all his talents, is vulnerable under the high ball at Full Back, but England's pack should be too strong so I'm going for England by 7-12 points. France will clinch the title by 20-25 points under the lights in Paris on Saturday evening.

Mrs Clarets4me and I were at Twickenham for the Italy game last Sunday, very much enjoyed it although could have done without the half-time DJ. A low-light of the weekend was twice being offered a seat on a train by a younger person. It was very kind of them, but a reminder of our advancing years ....

And for the last time this season .
So after the huge disappointment last week , but hate to say I saw it coming, this weeks call is .Ireland to get its mojo back again in an open game 42 -28 .
Wales humm not good enough and will lose by 21 points 36- 15 . France , well only one outcome 56 -18 and will rip the Scots apart .

I'm looking forward to all these games today.
Italy v Ireland: Ireland will be determined to bounce back after last week's disappointment. Italy have a lot of attacking flair in the centres and backs but Ireland much too street-wise up front and some pretty good backs themselves. Ireland by 16-20.

Wales v England: Wales have had poor results but have always had decent patches in each game- just making too many errors/bad decisions. They have slowly improved and England are decent up-front now but nothing special behind and with a fair bit of experimentation. England by 6-10

France v Scotland; If les bleus play something like their best (as per last week) there's no stopping them; no Dupont is a blow though and Scotland have some very speedy backs. France are so powerful in the forwards though so can only see a home win here with a fair few tries by both teams. France by 16-20

England have early lead

England Double their lead

Great results in South Wales this afternoon. Excellent win for Clarets and England XV hammer Wales.

Really good display by England, great physicality and determination through the match. No slacking, they even launcjed a scoring attack adfter the 80 mins was up rather than hoof it off to end things. Young team still too.

Looking forward to France v Scotland now, hope the rendition of Marseillaise matches the earlier Mae hen wlad fy nhadau in Cardiff.

Wales 14 -68 England ... one for the ages !

Too late methinks, with Scotland having to beat France in Paris for England to take the title ...

The jocks doing ok so far

Did they show a TMO replay for the Scottish foot on the line, if so, I missed it.

No replay

Thought the French, whilst worthy tournament winners benefitted from some very generous officiating.

Scotland played pretty well there and the game was a closer than the score suggests I think.

France have deserved to be 6N champions though & Wales's largely poor performances worthy of the wooden spoon.
Some promise from England's youngish team whilst Ireland's great era maybe coming to an end with a few retirements and maybe some staleness from their big names.

It'll be interesting to see how the LIons selections go after all that.