6 Nations Round 2

It's been a busy week pondering and reviewing last weeks disappointing games. With Ireland and France I personally saw two teams win their games in 30 mins and then decide not to show their main rivals anything for today's game. For the other game, well England apparently won but in my view Wales lost and it just so happened their were white shirts in front of them, England didn't do anything to deserve a win.

France v Ireland

Bastareaud, Bastareaud, Bastareaud. The media boy for the week after swatting some Scottish centres away and being 'unstopable'. Personally I think he is more damaging to the team who play with him than a team who can play at him. He allowed Scotland to break the line plenty of times by running up un-flanked from France's blitz defence. Most importantly France were trying to get this right because they know it's one of Ireland's weaknesses against such a defence. He could be as much of a liabilty as wrecking ball to Ireland. Also, I think his opposite centres know how to tackle and tackle hard.

Ireland last week showed they had moves for 20-30mins and then shut up shop, at least we know it's there. The scrum was excellent, Cullen helped POC destory the Italian line-out and Ferris, albeit recovering from injury, will add more to put pressure on the excellent French back row.

The fact is this is the championship decider and it's a pity the powers that be has put it so early in the calendar. I suppose the French & Italian tourist boards must bribe the officals so that they always have a home nation visiting them on Valentine's weekend. This will be a great game, possibly dominated more by power and determination than finesse which will play in Ireland's hands. Ireland go to Paris today with their best ever team in decades with the best coaching ticket they've had and a plus six handicap. You can't say this is the greatest French side, I'm not a fan of Trin-Duc yet and Scotland exposed plenty of holes in their backline and either side of rucks.

With all the talk of a new breed of French players and their superior power and skill, I think they have forgotten about a guy who showed up on the scene 10 years ago in this same fixture, he might have an impact today:





Recommendation: Ireland +6 at evens for one point with VC.