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4 Feb 2005, 12:34
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#1
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mmm lambs
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: London
Posts: 1,906
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Rugby Six Nations
So who do you think will win it this year? In the past 4 years it has gone England, France, England, France with the last 3 all being grand slams.
Wales - I seem to be forever thinking this but we have been showing a lot of improvement recently and it is about time we actually started converting some of these close matches into victories. The opening game against England will probably be our toughest (we better win or I will regret not flogging my ticket for £250 heh). Losing Charvis will hurt the Welsh but England also have quite a few injuries of their own so I will go for a home win. Same then for the home match against Ireland. I expect to win the away games to Italy and Scotland unless something goes drastically wrong and then the other match in France will probably be a defeat. They are in a bit of poor form at the moment but I just can't see us winning this one unfortunatly.
France - Grand Slam winners last year but had a poor Autumn international season and have some tricky games. With home matches against Scotland and Wales likely to be victories they then have 2 tricky away games. The match in Italy should be a a French win easy. The games against the Irish and English could go either way in my opinion though. I have a feeling England will win a close game at Twickenham but the Irish will probably lose but just a few points to a late score.
England - Unfortunate in that two of their home games are against the weakest teams in the competition, Scotland and Italy, both of which should be easy wins. The other home match then is France which as I said above, I expect to be a fairly close game but England should just scrape a victory. The away game to Wales then will be a comfortable Welsh win (tempting fate a bit here) and I think after losing their opening game, and the match at Twickenham last year they will be determined not to lose this as well so should just manage to win in Ireland.
Ireland - They start with away games to Italy and Scotland which they should win. They then have the advantage of having the two most difficult teams coming to them. Despite their good recent form though I just can't see them keeping it up throughout the tournament and this will lead to them losing their last 3 games to the teams above.
Scotland - Are only not bottom because the game against Italy is in Scotland. They have shown very little improvement recently and I can see them getting hammered in the other 4 games. Small consolation in not retaining the wooden spoon.
Italy - Have been getting better in recent years but, without an easy home game I can't see them winning anything this year. May manage to run Scotland away close and Wales at home.
Final Table
Code:
Team Played Won Drawn Lost Points
Wales 5 4 0 1 8
France 5 4 0 1 8
England 5 4 0 1 8
Ireland 5 2 0 3 4
Scotland 5 1 0 4 2
Italy 5 0 0 5 0
So hopefully that will be the final table though it will depend on points for/against.
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Last edited by midge5; 4 Feb 2005 at 13:06.
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4 Feb 2005, 13:04
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#2
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Registered Awesome Person
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 5,676
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
I reckon that it'll be a tie on points for the top between Wales/England/Ireland. Its a tough one this year though.
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4 Feb 2005, 13:08
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#3
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lolly roffle
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,514
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
I'm going to go for an Ireland win because they play England and France at home which gives them a slight advantage.
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4 Feb 2005, 13:09
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#4
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WANNASEEMYNEWCHAINSAW
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Éire
Posts: 2,738
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Ireland will trounce everyone and emerge the kings of the universe (and offical title recently added).
Actually my gut feeling doesn't tell me they'll win, not sure why. On paper they have the best chance.
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4 Feb 2005, 13:41
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 386
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Ireland/France/England all joint top with Ireland winning on points difference.
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5 Feb 2005, 11:07
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#6
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Banned
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Further to the right
Posts: 19,441
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
You'd never guess that midge is welsh
My money's on France although this is probably Ireland's best chance in 20 years to win the championship. If our front row stays injury free and our back line performs at their peak we can win it but I have my doubts.
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5 Feb 2005, 11:43
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#7
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mmm lambs
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: London
Posts: 1,906
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonnyBGood
You'd never guess that midge is welsh
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What give it away? I'm sure it couldn't be my totally unbiased analysis of the possible results
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5 Feb 2005, 11:53
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#8
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lolly roffle
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,514
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by midge5
What give it away?
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Your accent.
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5 Feb 2005, 12:40
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#9
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Made of Twigs
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,459
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by midge5
What give it away? I
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The sheep.
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5 Feb 2005, 12:54
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#10
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
England are using a couple of untried people which is a bit of a gamble
but if tait comes through (as well as a couple of other gambles coming off), i can see us winning it
EXIT: i can still see france coming second though, but i have missed the buildup due to being a very busy bee, so i'm not sure as to what their side is like at the moment.
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5 Feb 2005, 13:08
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#11
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Made of Twigs
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,459
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
The odds suggest it's quite open.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sporting Odds
Six Nations 2005
France 7/4
England 2/1
Ireland 11/4
Wales 9/1
Scotland 150/1
Italy 750/1
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If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor - James
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am - Muhammad Ali
So **** y'all, all of y'all; if y'all don't like me, blow me! - Dr. Dre
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5 Feb 2005, 14:21
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#12
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
well, they have france as favourites, but i do think thats because england are carrying a lot of injuries, it all depends on our young players really
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5 Feb 2005, 14:36
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#13
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Has Soup On His Head
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 10,095
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
I have but one thing to say on this topic
Welsh Rugby
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5 Feb 2005, 14:45
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#14
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Made of Twigs
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,459
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Kura.
I think France might win today's game.
Match Betting
France 1/40
Scotland 16/1
Draw 40/1
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If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor - James
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am - Muhammad Ali
So **** y'all, all of y'all; if y'all don't like me, blow me! - Dr. Dre
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5 Feb 2005, 14:49
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 386
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
You didn't really need the odds to tell you that Scotland are crap
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5 Feb 2005, 14:56
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#16
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
poor scotland, they reallt shouldn't be as crap as they are
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5 Feb 2005, 15:41
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#17
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mmm lambs
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: London
Posts: 1,906
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurashima
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Quote:
poor scotland, they reallt shouldn't be as crap as they are
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They have had a surprisingly good start, I know France are reknowned for being inconsistent but this is quite shocking. They must be toying with them just to give me false hope that Wales may actually beat them
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5 Feb 2005, 16:27
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#18
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
scotland winning would be a hell of a boon to england
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lazy
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5 Feb 2005, 16:34
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#19
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 386
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
harsh try just disallowed for the scots.
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5 Feb 2005, 16:34
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#20
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mmm lambs
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: London
Posts: 1,906
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Poor Scotland, that looked like a try to me.
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5 Feb 2005, 16:44
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#21
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
well, its gone to a draw now, hope that scotland can pull something out of the bag!
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lazy
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5 Feb 2005, 16:50
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#22
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
oh well, never mind ey scotland, your still crap
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lazy
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5 Feb 2005, 18:54
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#23
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Banned
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 2,635
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Are we (England) still shit at rugby union?
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5 Feb 2005, 19:10
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#24
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Banned
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Further to the right
Posts: 19,441
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Judging by this performance 'hell yes'.
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5 Feb 2005, 19:12
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#25
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Punk
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Aberdeen
Posts: 397
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
even if it wont happen i want scotland to win. Gotta support your own country
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5 Feb 2005, 20:35
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#26
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Godfather
Join Date: May 2000
Location: England
Posts: 5,185
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
i sat watching the game in a pub full of welsh people screaming at the tv 'yes'.
we played shit and frankly we deserved to lose. well played wales...
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5 Feb 2005, 20:38
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#27
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
[bitter]well played wales[/bitter]
more seriously though, it was a good game, only watched the second half cos i was (finally) fixing my wireless broadband in the first half
wales deserved the win, although i can see midges prediction more coming true now (not the wales overall victory, although that looks more likely, but the whole wales/france/england all losing 1 game to each other)
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5 Feb 2005, 20:38
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#28
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Banned
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Further to the right
Posts: 19,441
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Wales weren't as good as I expected. Apart from Henson who I'd only ever seen play pants. The less said about England and that 14 year old you had playing at centre the better.
PS That was not a good game of rugby rr. And Wales won't win. Trust the bookies.
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5 Feb 2005, 20:40
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#29
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Banned
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 2,635
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by JammyJim
well played wales...
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Yup. I predict France will win the 6 nations again.
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5 Feb 2005, 20:43
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#30
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
it wasn't a really bad game of rugby though, was a bit scrappy i admit
wether wales win depends on if they can beat the french
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lazy
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5 Feb 2005, 20:44
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#31
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 386
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by Weeks
Yup. I predict France will win the 6 nations again.
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Not if they play anything like they did today again they won't. Ireland certainly have the advantage with both England and France having to go to Dublin
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5 Feb 2005, 20:47
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#32
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Banned
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Further to the right
Posts: 19,441
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrunner_0
it wasn't a really bad game of rugby though, was a bit scrappy i admit
wether wales win depends on if they can beat the french
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Ireland are a far better team than Wales dude.
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5 Feb 2005, 20:56
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#33
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mmm lambs
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: London
Posts: 1,906
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by Weeks
Yup. I predict France will win the 6 nations again.
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On todays performances they will lose in Ireland and [optimist]Wales will win in Paris [/optimist]
Quote:
Ireland are a far better team than Wales dude.
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You are a more consistent team but I believe when we play at our best we are better than you, we just rarely manage to do that.
As for todays game, if it hadn't been so tense then it would probably have been a pretty poor game, as it was I enjoyed it immensely though we needed to be more clinical in some of our finishing, our line out bottled it in their 22 too often and we just didn't get the ball often enough. Was happy with our defence though as other than a few breaks by Robinson I didn't think England really looked like scoring any tries.
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5 Feb 2005, 21:14
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#34
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Banned
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Further to the right
Posts: 19,441
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by midge5
You are a more consistent team but I believe when we play at our best we are better than you, we just rarely manage to do that.
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What are you talking about? Before today wales hadn't beaten a decent team in god knows how long. In what departments do you think wales have the better players?
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Some might ask what good is life without purpose but I'm anticipating a good lunch.
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5 Feb 2005, 21:15
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#35
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It was a Stupid Dream
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Winchester, UK
Posts: 2,077
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Midge I was on the other side of the stadium, and all I have to say is this, you outplayed us totally and you totally deserved that win.
I was a little annoyed so I drove quite quickly.
But Henson played quite well and eventually will be quite a cornerstone in the welsh team, I have seen him play for the ospreys and to be honest he did not seem that inspiring but today he did
As long as England beat France I am happy
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5 Feb 2005, 21:54
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#36
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 386
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
How can you claim that Wales are better than Ireland? Ireland beat a far stronger England side at Twickenham last year than the one that Wales beat today. At the moment, Ireland's pack imposes itself around the park much better than England's and will take the Welsh pack apart, as it's not that strong. Henson was by far the best player on the park, and i think with that performance alone has booked his place on the Lions tour. But the rest of the Welsh backs didn't look that good, England made them look a lot better than they actually are.
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5 Feb 2005, 23:07
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#37
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mmm lambs
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: London
Posts: 1,906
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonnyBGood
What are you talking about? Before today wales hadn't beaten a decent team in god knows how long. In what departments do you think wales have the better players?
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Okay, I may have got caught up in the excitement of todays win and you are the better team, we will still win next month though
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6 Feb 2005, 20:31
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#38
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Wick
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: #ABIGBOX
Posts: 107
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by arbondigo
How can you claim that Wales are better than Ireland? Ireland beat a far stronger England side at Twickenham last year than the one that Wales beat today. At the moment, Ireland's pack imposes itself around the park much better than England's and will take the Welsh pack apart, as it's not that strong. Henson was by far the best player on the park, and i think with that performance alone has booked his place on the Lions tour. But the rest of the Welsh backs didn't look that good, England made them look a lot better than they actually are.
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The Irish scrum didnt look particularly strong against the italians today, Italy's front row really did put pressure on the Irish. Lineouts are obviously going to be an Irish strong point with O'Connell and O'Kelly. They're also quite a 'mobile' set of forwards who can carry the ball well, which reminds me where is Victor Costello? He was awesome the 3-4 times I've seen him play.
Wales could easily improve their packs if they played Chris Wyatt at second row in my opinion.
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7 Feb 2005, 14:28
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#39
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Scotland
Posts: 43
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
okay Scotland could be good if they just played the same all the way through thier games!
they start well but then in the second half it all goes tits up.
even if we only beat one team this year JUST ONE i hope its england
beating wales would also give me some gloating power but thats not essential.
so i'll do what i always do SUPPORT MY COUNTRY! GO SCOTLAND.
also that wales-england game on the edge of my seat at the end fingers chewed to the bone, thank you for winning
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7 Feb 2005, 15:04
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#40
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WANNASEEMYNEWCHAINSAW
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Éire
Posts: 2,738
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Well Ireland could be in trouble now as Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy have been injured. What looked like our dream centre pairing now might miss key games.
We've lost quite a bit of creativity and spark there. Judging by the performance yesterday, we need that badly. We also need Ronan O'Gara to ****ing kick straight. The nob.
Our front row was in tatters, our ball recycling was abysmal and we desperately needed some structure at times.
Unless they sort it out there'll be no grand slam, triple crown or many more wins for us. Hopefully it was just early jitters and hopefully the two centres only have mild injuries.
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7 Feb 2005, 15:23
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#41
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 386
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Quote:
Originally Posted by IncubusGod
Well Ireland could be in trouble now as Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy have been injured. What looked like our dream centre pairing now might miss key games.
We've lost quite a bit of creativity and spark there. Judging by the performance yesterday, we need that badly. We also need Ronan O'Gara to ****ing kick straight. The nob.
Our front row was in tatters, our ball recycling was abysmal and we desperately needed some structure at times.
Unless they sort it out there'll be no grand slam, triple crown or many more wins for us. Hopefully it was just early jitters and hopefully the two centres only have mild injuries.
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None of the supposed "favourites" played well over the weekend. England and France can't play much worse than they did on Saturday, and hopefully the game at Twickenham between the two on Sunday should be a good one. Ireland going to Scotland won't be easy, but i can only see an Ireland win, and Italy Wales will be a close one too. With Wales, i think the question is whether they will be up for the Italy match even half as much as they were for the match against England? I don't think they will be, but should still scrape a win.
O'Gara was awful early doors with his kicking. BBC were blaming it on a different type of ball used, which although true, he has had a couple of days to work with it. His kicking improved as the game went on, and backing using the "normal" ball i can see his long raking kicks coming back too. Looks like O'Driscoll at least will be out of the Scotland game, he was awesome yesterday with his breaks which led to 2 of your tries.
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7 Feb 2005, 15:40
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#42
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WANNASEEMYNEWCHAINSAW
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Éire
Posts: 2,738
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Re: Rugby Six Nations
Complaining about the ball is one thing. The fact that he had a week training with it voided most of his protests. He said it took 10 yards off his kicks. Fine. Shorten your targets by 10 yards then, if you know you'll come up short.
It was just poor kicking to begin with.
To be honest I can't see Ireland loose to Scotland this weekend but I can't see it being a walkover from our performance yesterday. Plus Scotland will have had an extras days rest.
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