6 Nations 2012

[S.E.Arising]

England's 32-man Elite Player Squad for the Six Nations Championship:

Forwards: M Botha (Saracens), C Clark (Northampton Saints), A Corbisiero (London Irish), D Cole (Leicester Tigers), T Croft (Leicester Tigers), L Deacon (Leicester Tigers), P Dowson (Northampton Saints), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), J Marler (Harlequins), L Mears (Bath Rugby), B Morgan (Scarlets), T Palmer (Stade Francais), C Robshaw (Harlequins), M Stevens (Saracens), R Webber (London Wasps), D Wilson (Bath Rugby), T Wood (Northampton Saints).

Backs: C Ashton (Northampton Saints), B Barritt (Saracens), M Brown (Harlequins), L Dickson (Northampton Saints), O Farrell (Saracens), T Flood (Leicester Tigers), B Foden (Northampton Saints), C Hodgson (Saracens), J Simpson (London Wasps), C Sharples (Gloucester Rugby), D Strettle (Saracens), M Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), J Turner-Hall (Harlequins), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers).

[Speedy]

Looks good, finally starting to get rid of a lot of the dead wood that's been hanging on for years. Hopefully Lancaster won't lose faith in blooding youngsters if a few results go against him, every fixtures going to be a tough one this year.

Also Lawes, Flood and Tuilagi will all miss at least the first game with injury.

[IrishManc.]

Ben Morgan's inclusion won't go down well in Wales. Looks like a really top prospect and has been in great form for the Scarlets. I like the look of Charlie Sharples aswell.

[Speedy]

Pretty sure he was born in England and had lived there most of his life though. Will be interesting to see the 15 for the Scotland game, could be a completely different side form the one that played France at the world cup, at most only 6 or 7 players can keep their place.

[JSNFRMN_MUFC]

We don't need Morgan we've got Faletau. Morgan's good but Faletau is better. Some people even suggesting he chose England because Faletau is going to have the Welsh 8 jersey for years to come and judging on his performance last week vs Ospreys it's unsurprising.

[Speedy]

I like Faletau at no. 8 but he played flanker when he was younger and I could see him going back there considering he's so quick round park and has such good ball skills, Morgan is quite a bit bigger and heavier, better suited to number 8 in my opinion. Morgan chose England because he's English as far as I can tell, would have been fairly easy to re-jig the Welsh back row if he had chosen Wales.

[JSNFRMN_MUFC]

Faletau against the Ospreys the other night carried the ball more metres than the whole Ospreys pack combined including subs. He won't move back to Flanker, we've got a host of flankers who are better than him at Flanker. Our back row is very young but talented, very professional lads too.

Last year Morgan turned down the chance to play for England Saxons as it would have meant not being able to play for Wales. There was obviously doubt there until after the World Cup where Faletau shined at No.8 and has shone there ever since.

[Speedy]

Yeah you've got probably the most talented back row in the Northern Hemisphere and IMO the best overall pack when everyone's fit. Faletau will stay at 8 now but could easily have seen him moving to blindside if the management wanted to bring in Morgan, Warburton has openside nailed down but blindside is up for grabs. Jones is a natural 8 but can cover 6, Lydiate is a very good player but a back 3 of Faletau, Warburton and Morgan would be extremely impressive if they all progress as expected.

I know he turned down the Saxons for more reasons than just it ruled out playing for Wales although that was part of it. IIRC it was the Saxons squad that was going to Canada to play in the Churchill Cup in June or July. Sure he said at the time he wanted a full pre-season so he could nail down his spot at Scarletts and possibly try and get in a World Cup squad or summat along those lines.

[JSNFRMN_MUFC]

Ryan Jones has been outstanding in the last month at 4. Picked up Ospreys fans' Player of the Month today.

Tipuric is the next young flanker to watch out for from Wales. He's got Warburton in his way though. Both players are leaders, very professional lads.

We're starting to see the results of Regional rugby in Wales, there's more players coming through now, there's players going to France but there's players stepping up in their place. Ospreys lost Mike Phillips, James Hook and Lee Byrne in the summer and new young Welsh players have stepped up in their place.

The only thing missing in Welsh rugby right now is crowd's at league games.

[IrishManc.]

Ireland's problem is that domestically the clubs are dominant but for whatever reason when they put on an Ireland shirt it's a different story. Leinster play with such a freedom that you don't see with Ireland even though it's practically the same group of players minus Nacewa and Strauss.

We are 4th favourites this year which is fair enough to a degree because we play away to France and England but I think we have a decent group of players at a good age. Ferris, O'Brien Heaslip at backrow and Murray and Sexton at half back give us reason to believe we have a shout.

Can't see anyone stopping France this year though, they finally have a sane head coach.

[S.E.Arising]

Wales Squad

Backs: Mike Phillips (Bayonne), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues), Rhys Webb (Ospreys), Rhys Preistland (Scarlets), James Hook (Perpignan), Jamie Roberts (Cardiff Blues), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Gavin Henson (Cardiff Blues), Ashley Beck (Ospreys), George North (Scarlets), Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), Harry Robinson (Cardiff Blues), Liam Williams (Scarlets), Lee Bryne (Clermont Auvergne)

Forwards: Craig Mitchell (Exeter Chiefs), Adam Jones (Ospreys), Ryan Bevington (Ospreys), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Paul James (Ospreys), Rhys Gill (Saracens), Rhodri Jones (Scarlets), Matthew Rees (Scarlets), Huw Bennett (Ospreys), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Bradley Davies (Cardiff Blues), Ian Evans (Ospreys), Lou Reed (Scarlets), Ryan Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Newport Gwent Dragons), Sam Warburton (capt, Cardiff Blues), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Toby Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons), Andy Powell (Sale Sharks).

[S.E.Arising]

England team vs. Scotland: Ben Foden; Chris Ashton; Brad Barritt, Owen Farrell, David Strettle; Charlie Hodgson; Ben Youngs; Alex Corbisiero, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole; Mouritz Botha, Tom Palmer; Tom Croft, Chris Robshaw (captain), Phil Dowson.

Replacements: Rob Webber, Matt Stevens, Geoff Parling, Ben Morgan, Lee Dickson, Jordan Turner-Hall, Mike Brown.

[Speedy]

Looking forward to seeing Farrell and Barritt in the centre's. Ultimately see Farrell at fly half but should help it be an attacking game. Barritt will have to impress with Tualigi back later on in the tournament but being club mate with Farrell will work in his favour. Disappointed Cockerill didn't give Twelvetree's more of a chance at Leicester, if he and Tuilagi had struck up an understanding would have helped the national team a lot.

[Sideshow Bob]

Not a huge rugby fan but enjoy watching the 6 nations. I see France are tipped favourites to win the competition. Is this based on their World Cup showing because I thought Wales looked the better team during the tournament.

[JSNFRMN_MUFC]

Wales: L Halfpenny, A Cuthbert, J Davies, J Roberts, G North, R Priestland, M Phillips; R Gill, H Bennett, A Jones, B Davies, I Evans, R Jones, S Warburton, T Faletau.
Subs: K Owens, P James, A Powell, J Tipuric, L Williams, J Hook, Scott Williams (not Shane).

Keith Earls has pulled out of Sunday's game v Wales as his baby daughter is ill. Best wishes to them. Fergus McFadden replaces him.

[Speedy]

I would put France as favourites but they're never a safe bet as their is always a chance they'll implode. Wales have a good chance but their still a young team in general. Ireland are an outside bet but I've seen some decent odds on them. If England come through their first 2 games unscathed away at Scotland and Italy and play well then we could have a say in it too but France away is never a nice game to see on your fixture list. Could be quite a close one this year.

[IrishManc.]

Yeah best wishes to Earls. Good opportunity for McFadden, he's probably a better defender than Earls so he will be better suited to playing Roberts and J. Davies imo. Are you watching the under 20's game tonight Jason? Any Welsh players worth looking out for?

There's a lad playing on the wing for Ireland that played for Naas when he was younger, where I used to live. Heaslip, Carr and Geordan Murphy came through there and also Sam Byrne played for the soccer club there when he was younger also...... This lad that's playing tonight though has made a remarkable recovery because last January he was diagnosed with meningitis and there were fears for his life at one stage. His name is Sam Coughlan-Murray incase you're watching. He's a flying winger.

As for why France are favourites.... The fixtures suit them this year and also they have a decent head coach for the first time in ages. If Wales beat Ireland on Sunday then the odds will be similar between the two sides. Can't see any team winning the grand slam this year so points difference will be important.

[JSNFRMN_MUFC]

I saw the start, went out after 20 mins so can't say much about them on last night. A lot of the best U20s are still at their regions playing rugby in the EDF Cup. Matthew Morgan for one (would probably be with Senior squad if not for Ospreys needing him). Dan Thomas at Flanker is the one a few seem to be talking about, i've not seen much of him but seems like another Warburton. Bringing through a lot of flankers in Wales at the moment which is relieving after we lost one of the best in Martyn Williams. As an Ospreys fan i've heard a good things about Ross Jones and Sam Davies. Will Griff John, a Scarlets prop, seems another a few are talking about.

[Speedy]

Been quite impressed by Italy so far, lack a cutting edge but have managed to have plenty of possession. England will have a tough game next week in Rome.

[JSNFRMN_MUFC]

They will indeed. Thought the game was a bit boring, there was zero atmosphere in the crowd for most of the game too. Hope the next one will liven things up. England - Scotland at Murrayfield are usually massive battles, England usually struggle in this fixture especially when it rains...

[Speedy]

Think the lack of atmosphere was a result of Italy keeping France fairly quiet for the majority of the first 60 minutes. Still think France showed that they're the team to beat this year.

Calcutta cup games are normally pretty good, lot of questions about both teams so will be interesting. Only going to be able to watch the first half though, does the rugby go up on iPlayer?

[IrishManc.]

England were very lucky from what I saw. Despite all the new faces they still lacked any spark or invention. That said Scotland were very good. The back row, especially Denton, made a big impression.

[Speedy]

England won the game because they made less errors than Scotland. Scotland played well but made schoolboy errors in the England 22, really should have won the game fairly comfortably. Thought England's back row and Barritt played well but we're still a work in progress and lacked a cutting edge and an understanding between a lot of the players. I also thought Owen Farrell did well with his kicking considering the boo's (correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure rugby crowds are normally more sporting.....). Tuilagi would have provided some much needed pace in the midfield but Barritt was one of our better players defensively at least so not sure what to do there when Tuilagi is back. Not sure about Hodgson at fly half although there's probably not too many other options, would be good if George Ford could get a game at Leicester instead of the predictable Toby Flood. There's massive potential in the England back 3 and it needs to be unleashed with a top class 10 and 12 partnership, I like the look of Twelvetrees at Leicester (soon to be Gloucester).

[Sideshow Bob]

Solid defence and Scotland's inability to convert chances were two important factors. The victory was a good win for a new look England and something for the team to build on. Not giving away countless penalties is a huge positive.

[JSNFRMN_MUFC]

Poor decision making and unforced errors still costing Scotland. They just can't score tries. I think England did what was needed, they've often not done that at Murrayfield, I think yesterday was a big and important win for this new look England side.