Ireland for the Championship! But then what else would I say...

The Six Nations all comes down to the last ‘Super Saturday’ with all the teams still in with a say on the final winner. England, Ireland and Wales have three wins each, so one of them should win it, but if France, Italy or Scotland have an awful or brilliant day, that will affect their chances. And it’s not totally impossible that Italy, Scotalnd and France could win – then France could win on points difference! Quelle horreur! That’s probably unlikely though…

Italy kick things off when they welcome Wales to Rome in the early kick off. The Italians are missing Sergio Parisse,  which is a massive blow to them, as he IS Italy. Wales might struggle a bit in the scrum, but apart from that they will be itching and able to inflict a big defeat on Italy. The Italians have conceded and average of 30 points a game, Wales just 18. On average then, Wales will win by 12, on the generous side by 30-40, but Italy at home won’t want to lose by much.

Ireland have made a few key changes for Scotland, with Cian Healy and Luke Fitzgerald starting for the first time. I think Joe Schmidt is planning for Ireland to bust some moves this weekend. I reckon we need to beat the Scots by 20 points, that should see us home safely. Who’d be a Scottish fan, their team promises often, but rarely delivers, and they have Ireland arriving hoping to beat a large victory out of them. But their respective coaches go way way back to New Zealand together, they know each other inside out, and Scotland will be desperate to avoid the ‘Whitewash wooden Spoon’ their speciality in recent years. I’d say we’re going to win, by about 20 points, although we’ll only nail it in the last 10 minutes.

Finally, France travel to Twickenham to resume their centuries old sparring with Les Rosboefs. England will know exactly what they need to claim the championship by that stage.  France were poor enough against Italy, while England struggled to put the Scots away. Out of all the teams, the French have the potential to do the most damage, and concede the most abjest of defeats. Their defence is the best in the competiton, as good as Irelands, so while England will toil, and win, they won’t do it by more than Ireland beat Scotland.

So the net effect, then is that the Championship is going to be Origin Green!

Six Nations
Saturday, March 21
Italy vs Wales    12:30
Scotland vs Ireland    14:30
England vs France    17:00