Date KO (GMT) Home Score Away Fri 4th Feb 11 19:45 Wales v England Sat 5th Feb 11 14:30 Italy v Ireland Sat 5th Feb 11 17:00 France v Scotland Sat 12th Feb 11 14:30 England v Italy Sat 12th Feb 11 17:00 Scotland v Wales Sun 13th Feb 11 15:00 Ireland v France Sat 26th Feb 11 14:30 Italy v Wales Sat 26th Feb 11 17:00 England v France Sun 27th Feb 11 15:00 Scotland v Ireland Sat 12th Mar 11 14:30 Italy v France Sat 12th Mar 11 17:00 Wales v Ireland Sun 13th Mar 11 15:00 England v Scotland Sat 19th Mar 11 14:30 Scotland v Italy Sat 19th Mar 11 17:00 Ireland v England Sat 19th Mar 11 19:45 France v Wales Odds: England 7/4 France 5/2 Ireland 3/1 Wales 11/2 Scotland 14/1 Italy 250/1
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight England Overview Selection was always going to be fascinating once injuries to Lewis Moody, Tom Croft and Courtney Lawes robbed Martin Johnson of the most athletic pack in world rugby. He's resisted the temptation to go big – although there are options on the bench – and a debut at blindside flanker for Tom Wood obviously adds to the lineout options, which otherwise might have looked a little limited. Tactics England's autumn was interesting, with the swing from victory over Australia to painful defeat by a very motivated Springbok side. But if it proved anything it was that Johnson has a back three to worry the best. In Ben Foden, Chris Ashton and Mark Cueto there is a willingness to run and any poor kicking, sluggish kick-chasing, turnover or lack of precision will result in an England counterattack. France Overview The first question to ask is which France will it be? The one that did the grand slam last season or the one that did so poorly in South Africa and Argentina before losing its wheels in the second half against Australia? A lot of people will be looking to Paris at tea-time tomorrow to see whether Marc Lièvremont has got the show back on the road or whether Scotland are the force they promise to be. Tactics Damien Traille at full-back and Imanol Harinordoquy back in the pack. No need to guess at the tactics. France have five targets in the lineout and are particularly good on their opponents' ball. So Traille boots it deep and the opposition hooker has a nightmare trying to find a safe target to aim for. With a full lineout there isn't one, so expect Scotland to call a few four-man varieties. Ireland Overview There comes a time when a team slip from being experienced to being too old. A strength becomes a weakness. Add a string of injuries that removes guys such as Tommy Bowe, John Hayes, Jamie Heaslip, Shane Horgan, Rob Kearney, Jerry Flannery, Geordan Murphy and Andrew Trimble from the match-day 22 and on the face of it Ireland have trouble. However, ever since he's been in place Declan Kidney has said that he's been building a squad. Now we'll see how far he's got. Tactics Injuries will play a part but the old adage that "Munster provide the forwards, Leinster the backs" has long gone and the key man in Rome this weekend could be Mike Ross, the former Harlequin tighthead who now plays his rugby in Dublin. With John Hayes, a much-unsung prop hero, thinking more about life on his farm, Kidney has tried a few replacements but Ross is probably the most solid. The only Irish debutant is the wing Fergus McFadden, not so long ago a centre replacement on the Leinster bench. Italy Overview The way rugby is currently played has gone against the forward-dominated game played for a decade by Italy. Now there is more adventure and it was interesting to see the ambition shown for Italy A by the Pratichetti brothers and the wing Giulio Toniolatti against England Saxons at Worcester last week. Despite being well beaten, they tried things previously beyond most Italian teams. Tactics Having two teams in the Magners League and playing regularly at a higher level obviously helps, but finding the talent to pull the strings is still a problem. The last time Italy had half?backs to match their forwards was when Diego Dominguez and Alessandro Troncon were still in harness. And this Six Nations there is no Craig Gower either, so Nick Mallett turns to Treviso's Australian fly-half Kristopher Burton. Scotland Overview A lot of people are wondering if Scotland are the dark horses. With Nathan Hines at No6 they certainly won't lack for bulk, but the issue is always whether they can score enough tries to win a championship like the Six Nations. Were the opener in Edinburgh and in filthy weather you'd look for a first-day upset. In Paris it's a bit less of a possibility. Tactics Scotland are on a run, but three tries in 13 Tests? Andy Robinson is looking to Max Evans and Nikki Walker for an edge and Joe Ansbro, making his Six Nations debut at outside-centre, looked good for Northampton against Castres, but if you pick Dan Parks at fly-half you are going for territory on the back of a good set piece. The scrums will be fun in Paris, for example – the might of Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford and Euan Murray versus the technique of Nicolas Mas, William Servat and Thomas Domingo. Wales Overview Injuries continue to haunt Warren Gatland, who is without his two leading props and two right?wings. The return of Shane Williams, Jonathan Davies and Jamie Roberts behind will sharpen their attacking edge, but it is in defence where Wales need to tighten up. They suffered too many concentration lapses last year. Tactics Wales were deliberately physical and confrontational against the southern?hemisphere big boys in the autumn when they lacked options behind. The tactic should have worked against Australia and South Africa, but they were defensively vulnerable when they were turned over at the breakdown. They will not mind winning ugly tonight and they will pay more attention to stopping England, Youngs and Foden in particular, than they have in this fixture in recent years. Gatland caused a surprise in his selection by omitting the veteran openside flanker Martyn Williams, but they use his replacement, Sam Warburton, in a different way at the breakdown.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight will be looking for streams to post at 2:45 PM EST
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Just curious of who is a big fan of rugby on here? I'm admittedly really not. I don't dislike it, just don't really follow it. I do remember when Wales won this three years ago, I was in NYC and some REALLY drunk welsh guys were in a pub and so happy they'd won. They were singing and kissing people on the cheek (including dudes, but not in a homo way). Was pretty cool to see how big of a deal it was to them. /coolstoryhansel
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight I love to watch it, I wish I had Fox Soccer Plus so I could follow other competitions and not just the international matches. Only problem is that right now, rugby is similar to soccer 5 yrs ago when it comes to streaming it online and since we dont get any coverage in the US it is really hard to follow. Also a lot of the big games are played in Australia and New Zealand and those time zones are just insane.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Myp2p.eu page http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=104312&part=sports
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Any Rugby or Cricket that is televised anywhere in the world is on at my local (they'll either pay out of the ass on DirecTV or get a stream that they can put onto the TV's), so I will probably catch a fair share of this there. They've had cricket on a lot lately with Australia and England playing (saw some of it during mid-week Arsenal replays after work).
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight You will catch all of the Six Nations then because it is only the UK teams and Ireland. Watch the game now and see if you like it.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Interesting....I only see one game on their schedule http://www.theglobepub.com/pdfs/schedule_international_2010.pdf I think they may have to show this in the back room and charge cover because it's only on pay per view. I know it used to be like this in the pre FSC days; it was all pay-per-view. I remember my buddy telling me there would literally be a guy that worked for Setanta collecting money at the door.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight South American WC qualifiers are still like that and it is big money in S.FLa. But nothing better than going to a bar full of Chileans and Argentinians and talk shit all game and then actually beat them. Felt like I was at the stadium again. Anyway, game is about to start. Man the BBC preview was awesome, I didnt know how the Welsh hate the English so much and for good reason.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Apparently, I can't read / am blind, because there is more than that.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight confusing because they call it six nations and carling nations which is the same
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Yeah, this is an interesting phenomenon that I see at the pub a lot. There is a very wide array of different supporters groups that come in to watch football. Generally, the fans of the English clubs come in more than just on game days. Pretty much nobody else does though. The Barca-Real matches always get huge crowds of people that never come in for anything else. They're largely not American fans either (I'm a racial profiling novice, and while most speak Spanish, 99% are not actually "Spanish"). This also happens with international friendlies. The most interesting one I saw was during the African Cup of Nations. Literally, like 200 cab drivers showed up (I'm not being funny, the entire street was cabs for like a 1/4 mile on each side of the street in both directions). They were going nuts. The staff all hated them because they tried bringing in food and drinks or just ordering water. Cheap fucks.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight In the UK there is literally a red button on the remote control for your cable / satellite box to order pay per view programming.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight awesome it said that you could listen to the game in Welsh, listen to the referee, listen to the coaches...awesome we need that in the NFL.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight and stream dies...welcome to rugby streaming ugh
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Scotland - France will be shown live on BBCAmerica
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Italy beating Ireland 3-0 in the first half...got a decent Sopcast stream from myp2p
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight unimpressive Irish offense or good Italian defense?
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight A truly shocking performance. It's only a matter of time before Italy produces a half back or outside back of world class. When they do they will make the step up.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight I was raging so hard when we took sexton off, but I guess it worked out. Why O'Callaghan/Wallace/O'Leary played i'm not sure. also the drops
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight you guys watching france v scotland..pretty good half
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight yeah, i'm not missing a minute of the 6 nations. french scrum is excellent and will destroy Ireland's
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Yea France looking pretty impressive...loved the first try.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Wallace isn't a Test match 80 minute player anymore, he got shown up against the All Blacks in Nov. He didn't have that bad a game today though to be fair to him. Jennings should have played though. Handling was dire. I dunno wtf Darcy and O'Driscoll were upto today. We didn't transfer our Leinster form to Ireland. Bowe and Heaslip our the BOD/O'Connell of two years back, our best forward and back. Missing Ferris too is a blow as he is just sick when fit. I'm worried about the coaching tbh. Hopefully he turns it around, he has the track record of doing so with Munster.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight yeah Kidney is a question mark. Luke was good at fullback i thought.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight I thought I had BBCAmerica but I dont so it's back to streams for me...at least I found a reliable Sopcast feed. Hope it works all tournament long.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight It's Luke's natural position. Did you ever see him play there when he was in school, mother of God he was sick. French are going to tear our arseholes a new one in the scrums. It makes little sense though that something so solid for Leinster would be shit for Ireland with the same props. The push from behind is an issue. That Riche Gray kid for Scotland is fucking deadly, such a lanky fucker though.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight hopefully Leo replaces O'Callaghan. Jennings takes wallace/leamy spot unless Ferris/Heaslip are fit also we basically have no young 2nd row players apart from Toner but I dunno if he is any good at international level
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight What a lovely try from the French. Pass through the legs. Holy shit.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight AMAZING so is France this good or does Scotland suck?
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight The French always have the ability to play like this. They also have the ability to stink out he joint. It's weird. For instance in the 1999 WC they played amazing to knock out the heavily favoured All Blacks in the semis. Then were shit in the final. Same thing in 2007, they beat the All Blacks in the quarters then lost to a shit England team in the semis. The '99 semi is worth a watch off actually; All Blacks vs France 1999 RWC Semi Final
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight New to this thread and a to IT for pointing me here. Will check back in throughout the 6 nations.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight i thought we lost the rugby thread in the crash? i've been missing it. IT, my friend Hanno finally signed with the Ospreys....he had a try against Cardiff.
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight we did, i made a new one. nice work, what position?
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight hopefully, looks like o'leary might be out and Heaslip is back.. but im not confident
Re: The Rugby Thread - 6 Nations 2011 starts tonight Hopefully that one stream site works this weekend again. It was the BBC feed so it was great.