Six Nations Round 4 Preview (Wales v. Ireland)

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 

Six Nations Round 4 Preview (England v. Scotland)

England v. Scotland (Twickenham)

The Calcutta cup contested every year by these 2 teams...ridiculous lookin yoke

Scotland have made several changes again due to Robinson running out of ideas. Scotland will look for their first win in the championship when they take on England on Sunday. Simon Danielli, Joe Ansbro and Rory Lawson come into the backline at the expense of Nikki Walker, Nick de Hopeless (Luca) and Mike "whats the big deal about anyway?" Blair. The other change sees Nathan Hines in the backrow with Kelly Brown switching to 8 for the injured John Beatie.

The rugby romantics out there (and there are quite a few) will be hedging their bets on a Scotland win here. There is a belief out there that Scotland can upset the apple cart just like they have done on previous occasions. I don't share the same strange optimism however. Scotland have been 3 pretty different shades of shit in the last 3 outings. Compare this with England and well the results speak for themselves. 3 loses v. 3 wins. That my friends is the reality of the situation. England are on their way to the Aviva in a weeks time for the big one. This is one apple cart firmly placed on the road to glory, whatever about Ireland upsetting it, Scotland certainly won't.

RT Prediction: England

Six Nations Round 4 Preview ( Italy v. France)

Italy v. France ( Stadio Flaminio)

France have disappointed me this season. Theres no lack of flair or creativity among the backs while the forwards are one of the tightest units in the competition this year. I can't quite put my finger on it though. They lack that French killer instinct that they had only a year ago. Lievermont is trying personally to anger people by picking Chabal ahead of Harinordoquay yet again. I really don't know what his problem is with team selection but he just has a tendency to go clean nuts!

None of this matters of course, in relation to the Italian game... France would need to seriously lose the run of themselves for this tie to go in the favour of Italy! Since 2000 Italy have conceded a total of 228 points to France in the Stadio Flaminio and only managed to score 70.



Paddy power says France by 16... I say France by 30!

RT Prediction : France


Hows about it: Sergio to shove Chabal up his own hole in the first minute :)

Supa Dupa Rugby Roundup with Francois “The man who would be king” Badenhorst (Week 3)

Gather round children because it’s time for me to bring you tales from the distant south. Shit got real in Super Rugby this week and I’m gonna shed light on it like some kind of rugby watching wikileaks . Yeah.
Round 3 of Super Rugby started in Nouvelle Zealande with the Crusaders playing the Waratahs in some small kiwi backwater called Nelson. The Crusaders are playing there for the rest of the season due to the quake. The Waratahs, who started the season in blazing form, got handed their first loss by a clearly emotional and pumped ‘Saders team. The Crusaders clocked up a 33-18 win and didn’t show any rustiness after their 2 week quake break and won convincingly. Crusaders outside centre Robert Freuan, who I am convinced is in fact a gorilla, was rampant and collected himself a brace. Another standout was ‘Tahs Hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau who was nailing some guys as per usual. The other game played in New Zealand was between the Chiefs and the Rebels. It was basically 80 minutes of Sitiveni Sivivatu sidestepping the entire Rebels team with the Chiefs winning 38-10.
Over on Cut Throat Island, or Australia if ya gonna be anal about it, the Brumbies and the Reds faced off in Canberra with both teams desperate for a victory. The Reds got mauled by the Waratahs last week and the Brumbies got embarrassingly beaten by the Rebels. The desperation showed from the start with big hits flying in from all angles. It was the Reds that ran out with the win in the end, outscoring the Brumbies 31-25. The other game played in Australia was The Force against The Sharks from Durban with the Sharks winning comfortably 39-12. The Force crippled any chance they had against the Sharkies after centre Rory Sidey got a red car early on for a shocking spear on Odwa Ndungane. The 14 man force stood no chance against the muscular Sharks and the boys from Durban have yet to concede a try in this year’s Super Rugby. Sharks inside centre Meyer Bosman continued his strong form so far this year and Force wing Mitch Inman was particularly impressive despite the fact that he has the most ridiculous hair this side of the 1980’s.
In South Africa, the resurgent Lions faced The Blues in Jo’Burg on Friday night. The Lions search for their first win this year continued however as they fell short to the Blues with a scoreline of 41-32. The Lions played some great rugby but they clearly lack the maturity to close out matches. This was the third match this year where they led until late but just couldn’t hold on. Luke “Thunder Thighs” McAllister was hugely instrumental in the Blues comeback and was their best player. 19 year old Lions fullback Jaco Taute played brilliantly and broke the Blues defensive line at will. He shows immense promise and shows a creative spark that South African back so often lack. In Pretoria, the Highlanders became the first team in 3 years to beat the Bulls at Loftus by winning 35-28. To put this in perspective, the Bulls last lost a game at home when George Bush was still the American president. An amazing display by the Highlanders capped off a deserved win and their captain Adam Thomson was hugely inspirational. Kade Poki was on the tear as well and will be wearing the famed black jersey in no time. The Bulls deserved to lose this one but they’ll be back and I feel sorry for whichever team plays them at Loftus next. The Weekends fixtures ended in Cape Town with the Stormers beating the Cheetahs 21-15. The less said the better. A shit game played by two teams playing shit rugby. The Stormers really need to kick into gear if they want to reach the heady heights of last year and the only player who pulled his weight on the pitch was flyhalf Peter Grant.
And that’s all folks, catch you on the flipside