In their defense...Leinster can be smug, but not Ulster, Munster or Connacht!

 

 Jack O’Donoghue

Munster got things going with a close defeat in Glasgow on Friday night. Munster fans won’t be happy, but I thought it was big step up from their performance last week, a really ballsy effort that showed a lot of heart. They have some defensive deficiencies they have to sort out. But they wouldn’t lie down, kept getting up and making the tackles, making the metres, and all the more impressive when you look at the age of some of the players. Robin Copeland going off was a big setback, and if Frances Saili was playing he would have cut Duncan Weir in half before he got anywhere near the tryline. It’s going to turn soon. Players like Jack O’Donoghue, O’Mahoney and Sweetnam could go a long way.

On Saturday Leinster slugged it out in in a howling gale in Cardiff. They don’t come much harder fought than that, and was only the second loss at home for the Blues. Leinster built that game on defense, Conan was excellent and, Mick Kearney looks like he is going to make a big impact. We are going to have to work on our discipline, just too many yellow cards recently. But apart from that, four good points in a hostile environment, against a committed team – job well done.

It was raining tries in Zebre as Connacht came out well the right side of the score line, scoring a rake of tries, but conceding a good few too. Matt Healy is in Rolls Royce form, as is Bundi Akee, as the men from the west reclaimed the top spot from Leinster.

Finally, it ended up a miserable afternoon at Kingsholm, as Ulster failed to hold the Scarlets out. There were a few bright spots, including the form of Craig Gilroy and Luke Marshall. But what wasn’t impressive was their defence – the Scarlets seemed to find it all too easy to get round on the outside and through the middle – how many ways are left? Ulster had to really toil to get their points, while at the same powerless to stop leaking points behind them. The Scarlets are a really competent outfit, this year is a big opportunity for them to win the whole thing, but you still feel Ulster could have derailed them with more intensity.

Overall though, three out four of the provinces need some major work on their defence!

Friday, February 19
Benetton Treviso 19 - 17    Dragons
Ospreys 27 - 13    Edinburgh
Glasgow Warriors 27 - 24    Munster
Saturday, February 20
Cardiff Blues 13 - 14    Leinster
Zebre 34 - 51    Connacht
Sunday, February 21
Ulster 20 - 21    Scarlets

It all came to tears for Ireland in France!

 

 Iain Henderson - needed

Match 2 seems a bit early for it all to come to tears for Ireland in this years 6 Nations – but that’s what happened on Saturday against France. After dominating France in the first half, and for the first 10 minutes of the second half, we fell away in spectacular fashion, our scrum crumbled, we conceded a try and the lead, and didn’t look like getting back into it after that. This match followed last week’s early loss of players, and with O’Brien and Dave Kearney both off, we were running out of players and running out of energy too. I don’t want to go through a gruesome autopsy of our failings right now. We’re getting into the right positions, but can’t take our opportunities – we are missing Paul O’Connell, and could really do with Ian Henderson back. It could be a long Championship. And just to cheer you up even more, both the ladies and the U20’s got hockeyed by the French.

Scotland hung in there…for a long time, then got blown away by the Welsh power. The Scots are getting better and playing better, but not getting better results. It must be very frustrating for their fans! Let’s hope it doesn’t all come together against Ireland! Wales, meanwhile, move forward with purpose.

Italy were right, right in the game against England right up until the 50^th minute – an then they weren’t. After getting over the initial shock of a testosterone powered surge from the Italians, England regrouped, and then landed telling blow after telling blow, while the hapless Italians staggered around in disarray. Could still be in for a few twists and turns, but otherwise it’s shaping up to be England v Wales for the Championship.

Meanwhile, in the Pro12, it was wins for all the Irish provinces bar Munster. Connacht had a great win over the Scarlets. Munster’s match was an epic battle, which the Ospreys had to win to stay in touch with the top six. I’d love to see what Munster would look with Sam Davies pulling the strings

Saturday, February 13
France 10 - 9	Ireland
Wales 27 - 23	Scotland
Sunday, February 14
Italy 9 - 40	England

Friday, February 12
Leinster 52 - 0	Zebre
Ulster 13 - 10	Glasgow Warriors
Scarlets 22 - 21	Edinburgh
Saturday, February 13
Benetton Treviso 13 - 7	Cardiff Blues
Sunday, February 14
Munster 17 - 21	Ospreys

Ireland, Wales and England with the victories this weekend!

 

Valentine’s Day 2016 is the day after Ireland will be in Paris, the city of love, planning to beat the French to a bloody pulp, and not expecting anything kinder back in return. Ah, the romance of it! Well, after a draw we could kind of live with against Wales, we now head into a game we can’t really lose if we have any serious ambitions of winning the tournament. On the basis of form, we are looking pretty good, Wales and Ireland set the bar for discipline, structure and performance, while France were cheerfully all  over the place, and came within a whisker of losing to Italy. We have a decent track record now against France too, we’ve beaten them the last three times we’ve played and drawn the two before that. IRELAND are now their bête noir! On the basis of our coach, and a few guys coming back into contention, we should get the win.

Wales and Scotland will be an epic battle, neither team really felt like they did themselves justice last weekend. Wales found Ireland to be unexpectedly good, and by the time they’d woken up, we’d racked up enough points to eventually get the draw. Meanwhile Scotland found that while they could keep tantalisingly close to England, they couldn’t push on for the victory. And their game was littered with mistakes, missed opportunities and too much indiscipline. I’m going with Wales if they bring the same intensity as they brought to the Aviva stadium.

Finally, England get to travel to Rome to take on the Italians. Coach Eddie Jones has demanded a big performance from England, and they need it too, the Championship has been decided on by points difference in the last two years. Has he yet instilled that ruthless edge to get England to really put the Italians away? We’ll find out on Sunday, but I’d expect Italy to be annoyingly competent up until the last 20 minutes when the score will start to blow out.

Ireland’s ladies are also going to be in action, they got off to a good start with a victory against Wales, and their match against France (likely to be a tough affair) will be televised on Friday, while the Under 20’s will be hoping to bounce back after losing to Wales last weekend.

And on the other side of the world, there’s an inaugural Americas 6 Nations, with the USA, Canada, Argentina A, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil taking part, available online if you’re twiddling your thumbs.

Six Nations
13 Feb 2016
France vs Ireland 14:25
Wales vs Scotland 16:50
14 Feb 2016
Italy vs England 14:00