England and Wales were the most impressive teams last weekend, and now they go head to head at Twickenham as both try to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive. Ireland’s last-gasp win in Paris also keeps them on track for an unbeaten Championship, and now face three home games starting with Italy.
Here are my predictions for Round 2 of the Six Nations.
Ireland v Italy
The Azzurri looked slightly more impressive in attack than they have in recent years and they should pose some threats to Ireland, but they also leaked plenty of tries at home to England and will likely struggle in Dublin. I can’t see anything but an emphatic win for the home team. The last five winning margins for Ireland have been 53, 43, 7, 23 and 39.
Ireland by 43
England v Wales
This is huge. Nobody was talking about Wales before the tournament started, but now they are, and some people think they can win at Twickenham. I don’t think they can though – it’s the same second-string team that they put out against Scotland, and whilst there will be some threats at the breakdown, I dare say that if I can see that, Eddie Jones can too, and he’ll have a plan to deal with it. England’s attacking game looked much sharper against Italy than it did for much of the autumn, the defence will be stronger for Jonathan Joseph’s presence, and if the pack can provide some quick ball (the main if, in my book), then England should win. I actually think it will be fairly comfortable.
England by 13
Scotland v France
Scotland was very disappointing in Cardiff last weekend, and made the Welsh look like the All Blacks at times, gifting them easy points at the same time. They never recovered from those two early tries, and were always chasing the game. Les Bleus offered little in attack in a dull game in Paris, and whilst they have a different fly-half in the shape of Lionel Beauxis this week and threatening-looking players out wide, the French are better on paper than they will be at Murrayfield. I’m backing Scotland to bounce back and potentially put themselves back in contention.
Scotland by 7
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I have got the calculator out again and the stats say:
England by 10.
Ireland by 24.
France by 9.
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There are whites lies, black lies and Statistics …………………………………………………………………
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What say you then BigDai?
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Want to see a Welsh win but it’s at Twickenham. Don’t think stats having any real bearing on this match it’s about who want’s it the most; who’s discipline is the best, rub of the green, the way the restarts and breakdown areas are referred. No more than 6 points as a winning margin.
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Anyone know who the ref is?
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Jerome Garces
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Garces not too bad. Anyone but Poite, hope he is not even on the touchline.
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BigDai I wasn’t far off :-).
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thank you for the recognition Mr B
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Yes bang on the money there sir, well done, hats off.
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Wales by 4
Ireland by 25
Scotland by 3
I think the England v Wales will be the best to watch and I’m expected both teams to be around the 25pt mark but I’m going for wales to win for 3 reasons
1) they are on the back of a big win against a team who were on form prior (not so much on the day) and England struggled far to long against Italy
2) everyone is saying wales are 2nd string well they crushed scotland so maybe they have been in the past but this could be the new wales squad (with minor changes) and I back Patchell until proven otherwise
3) every good streak has to come to an end and Wales would love to do it in Twickenham ahead of the upcoming World Cup – England whilst very strong have nipped a few games close to the end against weaker teams than Wales.
Just one mans opinion and acceptable a welsh man with faith 😀
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Did England really struggle? They always looked fairly comfortable and never in any danger of losing the game. I think people seem to take England’s ability to really pull away from sides, or pinch games at the death, as signs of weakness when really they’re a key component of how the side goes about playing – they have a majorly impactful bench and they really crank the tempo up in the final quarter of matches, it’s not a coincidence they tend to end strongly – indeed it’s a vital part of their gameplan (only time, interestingly, that a side has outscored England in the second half under Eddie Jones is this corresponding fixture two years ago, where Wales nearly came back from the dead to snatch a win). It also undersells Italy, who in recent years have started the tournament with strong performances (Wales didn’t get a try bonus point in their opening trip to Rome last year for example, while France only just scraped past them in 2016 in Paris) only to fade away as it progresses.
On the game tomorrow, I think a few Wales fans might be guilty of the same sort of thinking that Scotland fans were both last week and last year at Twickenham – that they will just turn up away from home, be allowed to play how they like and it will all go swimmingly. History shows us in the 6N that that’s rarely the case! If we look at Wales the hype is currently only really based on one game against a Scotland side that crumbled in the face of adversity early on (again, much like they did at Twickenham last year) and while it was a much improved performance it wasn’t as fearsomely clinical and creative as it’s been made out. Against that porous Scottish defence one Welsh try came from an intercept and another should’ve been called for a forward pass: I think the other sides in the top 5 of the rankings would’ve put more points on that team in that particular game. That said, I do think this side has a better chance to turn England over than the one Gatland would’ve put out without injuries; it’s a more cohesive and skilful backline, so if they have the edge up front they will do damage. It’s interesting sometimes how it takes injuries to steer a coach towards their best side, that sometimes they almost ‘luck’ into it if you get what I mean, and I think that’s what’s happened here. Overall I feel England are being undersold a touch – I think Eddie does too, hence why he came out swinging at the press conference! – and are favourites but a Welsh upset wouldn’t at all surprise me.
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Just to highlight I don’t doubt England’s ability to end games strongly but I would say they struggled against Italy in the first half particularly – you say that any top 5 team would have performed better against Scotland but the same logic should apply to the England game – yes it was a clear win but should it have taken until the last 20min? Not in the slightest.
Strength in depth is an asset of the English squad but I’m not sure how much of that comes down to the other teams not having that quality of depth, Wales just shown that the depth chart is better than expected and that club connection is a huge factor.
Tomorrow we get to see the all stars vs a team – I will back the team
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i take your point Mike in that I wonder if the England lads are getting into a “last twenty” mindset? The obvious problem being that you become lassaiz fair about the first sixty and then have a hell of a mountain to overcome if you are twenty five points behind at the sixty mark. I would like to see England demonstrate a plan b and try to exert pressure from minute one, really turn the screw , just to see if it can be done.
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3 home wins by varying degrees.
Ireland will have far too much for Italy and should win by around 30 pts.
England to win by around 14 pts. Understand the concern, but really we have better players and are a better team. We rarely lose at home and it would be a surprise if we lost tomorrow against a side seriously under strength.
Scotland to bounce back and win narrowly by about 5pts.
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Wales are largely a club side whereas England have the best of all the clubs.Anything less than a comfortable home win would be disappointing.A welsh win would mean a very poor performance by England
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The commentarget too on both channels is as always first class. Mr Flatmate brings some welcome banter and quick wit alongside the professionals.
Goes without saying for myself, egg chasing is far more entertaining and fairer than the spherical type!
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Commentary rather
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