RBS Six Nations Rugby in Udon

Time has come again for SIX NATIONS RUGBY. Scotland,Wales,England,Ireland,Italy and France.

Times are Thailand time kickoff.

Sat 4 Feb.....8.30pm....France -v- Italy......from Stade de France.
Sun 5 Feb....10pm.......Ireland -v- Wales....from Aviva Stadium.
Sun 12 Feb...10pm......Wales -v- Scotland....from Millenium Stadium.
Sat 25 Feb....8.30pm...Ireland -v- Italy.......Aviva Stadium.

MORE TO FOLLOW and dont forget the southern hemisphere Super 15's kicks off 24 Feb. The in-house ref 'Rodders' is going to make a personal appeal to the IRB for the 2 grand finalist's of the 6 Nations to meet the 2 grand finalist's of the Super 16's in a knockout comp.

Rob

Rugby bump.

The France/Italy game may not be everyones cup of tea, but its the first game so I gotta watch it. Come on Italy, hope they make a good go of it and knock over France.

Great Rob!

Some good rugby to look forward to, maybe see you there for the Italy / France game at 830pm.

You seem to have missed the England / Scotland encounter on your schedule which must be at 10pm tonight, follows the Italian game.

The game of the week end will probably be Wales / Ireland at 10pm tommorow ( Sunday )!

No Al did'nt miss it, it kicks off at 5pm Scotland time ......midnight here, too late for us as the bar closures are midnight. And certainly will be watching the Ireland/Wales game tomorrow, it should be a rip snorter.

Saturday, 4 February 2012 RBS Six Nations
France 30-12 Italy
Scotland 6-13 England

Philippe Saint-Andre start as the French coach got off well, although it was at home & to Italy.
He coached my local top flight club, Gloucester, after he finished playing there & liked to play attacking & attractive rugby. The French have rather flip flopped between expansive & dour national rugby of late so it will be interesting to see how his side develop.
Italy have developed into a real banana skin for the unwary in the Six Nations. Their brand of hard tackling forward play can disrupt a side that rely more on skill & finesse. Indeed they recorded their first every victory against France last year.
So initial challenge comfortably taken by France, but rather more difficult ones ahead.

First win at Murrayfield in eight years & they did score the only try, so probably deserved. It was a bit of a battle at times though & maybe was as much due to Scotland's failures as England's successes.
But Rome was not built in a day & some nice débuts for Stuart Lancaster's side.
Owen Farrell had a competent start given that he has the massive Johnny Wilkinson's boots to fill.
But also a huge amount of work plainly visible to do.
The tackling was often poor & allowed players to escape that should have been grounded.
Still too many basic handling & decision making errors as well.
They will have to improve considerably if they are to make any mark on this championship & maybe if they can learn & develop then that is all that can be asked for them at this early stage.
Even more disappointment for Scotland who just seem to have totally forgotten how to score a try. That is 5 out of their last 6 encounters at home against England where they have failed to register a try.

It looks like another battle between Scotland & Italy for the wooden spoon...

What a great game of rugby today after the boring games of yesterday between France and Italy, England and Scotland.

Wales were lucky to sneak in at the end and equally lucky to get the penalty which when watching the replay was not really a spier tackle, but the ref gave the penalty and Wales took full advantage!

The real winner, rugby...well done Wales and Ireland!

BIGAL wrote:What a great game of rugby today after the boring games of yesterday between France and Italy, England and Scotland.

Wales were lucky to sneak in at the end and equally lucky to get the penalty which when watching the replay was not really a spier tackle, but the ref gave the penalty and Wales took full advantage!

The real winner, rugby...well done Wales and Ireland!

Fantastic game of rugby, I wouldnt call Wales lucky as they stayed in contention and dominated the breakdowns for most of the game but either side could have won it (the lead changed 5 times)
Replays are a wonderful thing but having binned Bradley Davies for a similar tackle it was hardly surprising Ferris was going to get the same treatment...
Remember the world cup Warburton got sent off for a similar tackle, ones the legs come above the body the ref is hard pushed not to deal with it...

But I fully agree with Rugby being the winner here what an advert for the sport especially after Saturdays performances!!

What happened to my topic heading....'RBS Six Nations Rugby at Aussie Burger Bar'.

Ok Rob, are you screening any games this week end?

Al, the only one we can watch at the bar is the Wales -v- Scotland match, Sun 10pm kick off from Millenium Stadium.

Rob.

Saturday, 11 February 2012 RBS Six Nations
Italy 15-19 England

This was a close encounter where England rather got themselves off the hook in the second half.
It was certainly weather more suitable for an English winter than an Italian one. Heavy snow had even put the match in danger of a postponement but it did go ahead with snow still on the pitch.
This was a vastly more experienced Italian side that the English one they faced & they made the most of that. At one stage they were in the lead by 9 points at 15 to 6, but from that England fought back to win it.

Because of the weather conditions it is a little difficult to sum up the England performance. Given those conditions, away from home & against very experienced opposition I think it was a reasonable performance.
Still a great deal of work for the side to do before they will become competitive against their final 3 opponents & maybe the draw this year has been very favourable, but still good early signs of improvement from what had been going on before..

The weather is so poor in Europe at the moment that the tie of this round, France against Ireland, was called off 10 minutes before the start. Six Nations officials have confirmed that the match will now be staged during one of the tournament's break weekends, either February 18 and 19 or March 3 and 4...

Given how Scotland looked at home against England in their first game, you have to feel that today will be a bit of a stroll in the park for Wales today. Unless the weather also makes an impact there as well.

Given how Scotland looked at home against England in their first game, you have to feel that today will be a bit of a stroll in the park for Wales today. Unless the weather also makes an impact there as well.

It may not be such a stroll in the park as we would like tho I think Wales have it in them to win.
Fortunately the roof will be closed so I imagine that has been the case all week and will have kept out the adverse weather conditions the UK has been experiencing. Looking forward to another good game.

Wales 27-13 Scotland

Tight first 40 minutes & went in at the break all level at 3 each as Wales had to start without their captain, Sam Warburton.
But, even at that Scotland had to be defensive & rarely threatened much at the other end.
The home side then scored 3 tries in less than 15 second half minutes to put the game out of Scottish reach.
Leigh Halfpenny excelled for Wales as he scored 22 points in just about every conceivable way.
Scotland have the slim satisfaction of finally scoring a try after dry spell but you have to imagine that it will be more of the same for them when they are next up against France.
For Wales it was a task well done & sets them up nicely for their Twickenham encounter with England on Saturday, 25th. February.

Postponed France v Ireland Six Nations game set for 4 March

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/17010572

So no games still this coming weekend....

Italy will undoubtedly be their usual competitive selves but probably do not have the stamina to cause a shock in Ireland. I think that home advantage will eventually tell.

Wales will be looking to win a triple crown in Twickenham, a very rare event even for a side that has often dominated this competition. Much has been made of the 'young England' side but the Welsh backs are not exactly approaching pensionable ages either...
I will not be surprised by a Welsh win but the game might just say a little about exactly how competitive England can be next year & beyond...In a season of change I think that the manner that the new England squad play & conduct themselves is probably as important as the result for the future of the England set up.