The 2014 Six Nations Thread

[Dinny Breen]

Betfair:
England 2.74
Ireland 3.05
Wales 5.7
France 6.8

That's pretty tight on the exchanges, Ireland have Italy at home England have them away and we already have a 21 point advantage, it really must be Ireland's record in Paris that is putting doubts in the backers.

[seafoid]

Betfair:
England 2.74
Ireland 3.05
Wales 5.7
France 6.8

That's pretty tight on the exchanges, Ireland have Italy at home England have them away and we already have a 21 point advantage, it really must be Ireland's record in Paris that is putting doubts in the backers.

Woodward was on BBC saying England would kick on from the match and go into the stratosphere but I don't think they were so convincing. Wales to beat them. That betting may have the Cork problem when there is a wall of money in Cork on Cork and the prices come way down. The prices are inconsistent too with France so far out and Ireland worse than England.

[Wildweasel74]

I differ to what a few say on here, this is not a good England team, fairly poor in the scrummage without Sheridan, 2 immobile 2nd rowers, men at the back of the pack although bullish have not ball ability, Danny Care the best player they have, Farrell plays like old Johnny, cant link the backs up, abit of bosh bosh in the centres, 2 dodgy wingers and a really good fullback. Come world cup time they wont really count and wales style of play will be a bigger threat

[seafoid]

I differ to what a few say on here, this is not a good England team, fairly poor in the scrummage without Sheridan, 2 immobile 2nd rowers, men at the back of the pack although bullish have not ball ability, Danny Care the best player they have, Farrell plays like old Johnny, cant link the backs up, abit of bosh bosh in the centres, 2 dodgy wingers and a really good fullback. Come world cup time they wont really count and wales style of play will be a bigger threat

Good summary.
Maybe Ireland could have won it with a slightly different team.

[Bord na Mona man]

Betfair:
England 2.74
Ireland 3.05
Wales 5.7
France 6.8

That's pretty tight on the exchanges, Ireland have Italy at home England have them away and we already have a 21 point advantage, it really must be Ireland's record in Paris that is putting doubts in the backers.

Woodward was on BBC saying England would kick on from the match and go into the stratosphere but I don't think they were so convincing. Wales to beat them. That betting may have the Cork problem when there is a wall of money in Cork on Cork and the prices come way down. The prices are inconsistent too with France so far out and Ireland worse than England.

Can't see much scope for improvement, even though they are a very tough side to play against at the moment. Not much creativity there if they want to go far from brute force rugby. Their find of the season Mike Brown will be 30 for the next World Cup, most of the rest are crash artists.

This is the 2nd year in a row that Ireland have lost to England by not being able to execute a slightly more ambitious game plan, whereas England have won by keeping it simple.

[trileacman]

I also would have to strongly disagree with Dinny. England are hard to beat but that does not make them a good rugby side. They won by their superior physicality which has been allowed to flourish due to professionalism and the rules being tinkered with no realisation of what the consequences could be.

The Irish team were dead on there feet out there, with a few, notably Sexton suffering the results of heavy knocks to the head. I could see Healy and others at times nursing sore arms or dead legs. We have included some quite good technicians in our team whereas with England it's smash artists with smash artist subs (Morgan) to take their place. Off their own patch or unable to kick from distance with an injury to Farrell and these guys are very beatable, unlike previous French or Welsh sides who could play consistently away from home.

Farrell is not a great 10 either. Safe with the ball and a barely legal tackler (Shoulder charge on Sexton matched with some late tackles in last years competitions) his only world-class asset is his place-kicking, which to be fair is top drawer, his distribution is pretty poor and Care and Brown represent the true leaders and directors of that back-line.

Hard to know with Wales, will they kick on strongly as they did last year after we beat them? Hard to know. They will offer alot more potency in midfield where Ireland are now almost completely impotent. Watching Darcy with ball in hand is like looking at Sgarbi or Morrision who used to be with scotland, ie a 12 going nowhere. Really need to look at the Ulster options, the longer we leave it the harder it'll be to integrate them. It's funny after all the complaints of Eddie and Declan relying heavily on the old lads, Schmidt has been very poor, very poor at introducing fresh blood. The injury forced inclusions of O'Mahoney and Toner aside, Henry and Dave Kearney are the only new faces and Henry is by no means a spring chicken. It's funny how little criticism Schmidt takes for that.

[seafoid]

Concussion is a much bigger risk in the 5/6 Nations than it was when Ollie Campbell was pinging them over. The size of the players of today and the ferociousness of the hits- I bet there are going to be consequences health wise for the current generation of players.

[Dinny Breen]

Ireland had Henderson, Moore, Jackson and J Murphy on the bench yesterday all 22. He has bedded in Toner, Henry and O'Mahony as first choices and has given starts to D Kearney and Marshall. He has also promoted Touhy and Jack McGrath to the squad.  So 11 players who are far from spring chickens so  maybe that's why Schmidt doesn't get any criticism and maybe the fact that he is only 6 games into his International coaching career.

The lack of respect England get astounds me, they are a physical side boo-hoo! last time I checked rugby was a physical game, they play to their strengths, shock and awe it's the way they have always played, even before professionalism, think Dean Richards. They dominated the collisions yesterday and apart from the scrums it's hard to think of any area they weren't superior to Ireland, their back 3 had something our back 3 didn't and that was pace in abundance.

England are also a lot younger than Ireland and are building for a World Cup on home soil, they're a likeable team with a likeable coach who are evolving, until BOD, POC and D'Arcy move on we won't be able to really start our evolution fully under Schmidt.

[Syferus]

Love the symetry offered by the game in Paris; Saint Denis, where Henry thieved a nation's dreams, where we've known too many defeats, where O'Driscoll's legend began and will end. The papers today were lamenting that the Hollywood ending was off for O'Driscoll but was could be more Hollywood than a backs-to-the-wall final act?

Italy won't beat us and we should beat them by enough to make our only real concern in Paris be getting the victory by any means necessary.

[johnneycool]

Whilst the game wasn't a high scoring try fest, it was an intriguing enough contest with England having the lions share of possession and territory, yet Ireland hanging on, but making a decent enough bit of leeway when they did get the ball in the England half.

The game was all about defence and not making mistakes, Ireland got off with a five pointer when somehow the English winger failed to ground what should have been a gimme at this level, but a trimble catch and a pass which Rob Kearney couldn't take without losing momentum and the chance was lost.

Kearneys try will the first time I'd seen a lad hit a flatish pass at speed to break the line and there was no stopping him, the momentum was with Ireland, then the start off in the from Sexton was a disaster, straight out, missed tackles from the resultant scrum, Brown was away with Care on his shoulder and you knew it would be an uphill struggle from then on.
At the same time the Irish lads didn't fold and kept at it but didn't have that cutting edge to get the points to either draw or win, but it wasn't the depressingly poor performance some are making out..

As I've said before, I hate that crash bang wallop game England and Wales have now adopted thanks to a few south sea islanders, but it is effective and their line speed does stifle any creativity in the backs, so Schmitt will need to come up with something else come world cup time to counteract it, the chip/grubber kick through needs to be away from the sweeping outhalf, easier said than done though.

Ireland are reasonably placed to take the championship, a visit to a disjointed France will be the make and breaking of it, with Wales and England crashing into each other deciding who's going to be the main threat to that.

Its not all lost yet.

[Hardy]

Schmitt will need to come up with something else come world cup time

I think we should stick with that thing where O'Connell holds on to the would-be tackler so that Kearney can run through the gap. That works well.

[johnneycool]

Schmitt will need to come up with something else come world cup time

I think we should stick with that thing where O'Connell holds on to the would-be tackler so that Kearney can run through the gap. That works well.

yip,
    more of the same please 

[Keyser soze]

Concussion is a much bigger risk in the 5/6 Nations than it was when Ollie Campbell was pinging them over. The size of the players of today and the ferociousness of the hits- I bet there are going to be consequences health wise for the current generation of players.

Is there any empirical evidence that this is so, either for increased incidence of concussion or that hits are more ferocious.

[seafoid]

Concussion is a much bigger risk in the 5/6 Nations than it was when Ollie Campbell was pinging them over. The size of the players of today and the ferociousness of the hits- I bet there are going to be consequences health wise for the current generation of players.

Is there any empirical evidence that this is so, either for increased incidence of concussion or that hits are more ferocious.

It seems to be an issue . BOD has taken an awful lot of hits.   I wonder if he'll have any problems later in life. 

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/nov/07/rugby-union-legal-claims-concussion


Rugby union will face huge legal claims over concussion, says doctor

• Barry O'Driscoll claims lawyers 'are licking their lips'
• Authorities accused of being 'cavalier in the extreme'




The Guardian, Thursday 7 November 2013 22.14 GMT   

A leading sports doctor has warned that rugby union should expect to face a series of legal claims from former players suffering with the aftereffects of concussion injuries. Barry O'Driscoll, a former Ireland international, says the sport will soon find itself in a similar situation to American football. The National Football League recently reached a $765m settlement with a group of more than 4,500 former players who claimed that it had concealed the risk of long-term brain damage.

O'Driscoll, a speaker at Thursday's Professional Rugby Concussion forum, claimed that rugby's authorities were "mad" and "cavalier in the extreme" in their approach towards concussion. His strong words came on the day that the Labour MP Chris Bryant, a rugby player himself, called for an urgent debate in parliament on concussion in sport.

"There is real evidence that people, when they are forced to play again after being concussed, can all too easily end up suffering," Bryant said.

The forum brought together players, coaches, and doctors in an effort to improve the collective understanding of issues around concussion. O'Driscoll, who resigned from the International Rugby Board's medical advisory board in protest at its handling of concussion injuries, was at the extreme end of the range of views represented.

He feels the IRB's new Pitch-side Concussion Assessment (PCSA), which means players who are suspected to be suffering with concussion have to leave the field for five minutes to undergo standardised tests, provides inadequate protection against the risk of serious injury.

He also argues that the suspicion of concussion alone should be reason enough to remove a player from a game. "I think the lawyers are licking their lips, I really do," he said. O'Driscoll added that players who have a PSCA and are allowed to go back on could, in five or 10 years, "start getting severely depressed or migrained".

The Rugby Football Union's head of sports medicine, Dr Simon Kemp, pointed out that since the PSCA was introduced, instances of players returning to the field while suffering concussion had fallen from 56% to 13% of all diagnosed cases.

[rodney trotter]

Wesley Fofana ruled out of the rest of the 6nations,fractured rib. Good boost ahead of the trip to Paris.