Wales v. Ireland (Millenium Stadium)
This will be the tightest game of the weekend. For me its a really hard one to call. Ireland have been scoring tries fairly handy but have been conceding penalties for the sheer craic. Kidney has apparently given them a good talking too on that front, time will only tell. Wales lost their first game to England but have since got their shit together reasonably well. They didn't hammer Italy but neither did we. They beat Scotland comfortably unlike us and they lost a tight game to an English side going well, while our only loss came from the France game.
The Ireland team remains the same for this game while Gatland makes 2 changes to the Welsh backline. Leigh Halfpenny comes in for the injured Stoddart and Jonathan Davies comes in at 12 to partner Robberts with Hook moving to 10. According to Frankie Sheehan, this is a bad thing as both Davies and Robberts are 2 first centres. This is infact true, however, against Scotland that partnership showed signs of being dangerous. Hook at 10 is quality while Stephen Jones sits on the bench. Frankie has labelled this 10,12,13 combo as unbalanced but I beg to differ. It is an area of strength for the Welsh and I expect them to pose a few problems for Ireland.
Paddy Power is giving a handicap of 2 in favour of Wales. This is probably down to home advantage. I'd love to sit here and say Ireland are going to win, but this week, I'm not so sure. I'm sticking firmly to my belief that Wales are to do well this year.Lets just remember, they are placed 2nd and have a points difference of 19 which isn't bad compared to our points difference of 2. (For the record, England are sitting on top with a points difference of 61 so the chances of anyone catching them is unlikely).
Back to the task at hand though, my prediction this week is ever so slightly in favour of the Welsh. Like I said, theres a close match is in store and in fairness, those are the games that Ireland know how to win but Wales are due a win against us and this is it.
RT Prediction: Wales
One defeat in Cardiff since 1984! And the welsh are the only team in the competition with a worse penalty count than Ireland.....if Ireland stay disciplined they will slay the dragon and with room to spare i think.
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