Cian Healy (picture http://bit.ly/2kYzs4u )
Week two of the 6 Nations looms large, after an opening weekend where only Scotland were impressive, and everyone else looked ropey enough.
This weekend Ireland travel to Rome to take on Italy, reputation in tatters, pride bruised. The team must have felt like bold school boys all this week in training. Normally this match is where the team can be opened up and a few experiments made. However, after last weekends loss, it's nearly the same as you were, with Healy and Ryan the only changes. It's likely to be brutal to watch - the Italians are annoyingly difficult to play against, the games are littered with mistakes, you get sucked down into an arm wrestle - then in the last 20 minutes they run out of steam and you can put a decent score on them.
I need intense concentration and complete silence to watch rugby, and to minimise interruptions while I watch - this is serious stuff, like mass - I've developed hand singles to communicate with the family. Tipping my hand up means 'Ireland are playing badly, I need something stronger than coffee'. Fingers walking through the air means 'Keatley's come on, I'm going to walk the dogs'. Knife and fork signs means 'Dinner will be ready after the Wales/England match - it's filleted, tenderised skewered Aberdeen Angus beef'. Not that I'm bitter about last weekend or anything.
We really need to get a bonus point out of this weekend, and the Italians won't be scared to death of us based on our performance last weekend, might even sniff an upset. However,though it might only come right at the end I think/hope/ pray we'll end up with the win and a bonus point.
England travel to the Millenium Stadium to take on Wales after that, and English coach Eddie Jones has been stirring it up, wondering why England have a poor record there. 'I have been there and it is just another ground,” said England’s head coach. “We will have to work out why England don’t play well in Wales - they are only a country of three million people.' Well Eddie, there's no self respecting Welshman (or Irish/Scots/Frenchmen for that matter) who wouldn't suddenly grow ten foot tall and do their utmost to smash England when they come to town. Wales will have to seriously pull themselves together to beat England, who also need to pull their socks up. England should just about scrape this.
Finally, the 6 Nations surprise package Scotland travel to Paris to take on the French, bursting with confidence. They don't tend to travel to well though, and France have a team that is 'formidable' ( voila, francaise encore! Mais oui). Physically, the French will match the Scots, and if their back three cut loose they could run riot. However, a close win for France should be the result. And Scotland are in with a chance here.
Saturday 11th February
Italy 14:25 Ireland
Wales 16:50 England
Sunday 12th February
France 15:00 Scotland
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