The Six Nations returns this weekend with all to play for in the first and last games.
First we have Scotland hosting Wales at; Murrayfield with Kick-off: 1430 GMT Saturday, 9 March. We have Johnnie Beattie in the starting fifteen for Scotland and we will be looking to him doing more work than he did in the last game against Ireland. This will be a big challenge for Scotland as Wales bring a powerful scrum that they will have to contain up front. Also Wales play an expansive style making them hard to shut down. It should be an exciting game if the weather does not ruin it. Whatever we are going for a narrow Wales win in a high scoring game.
For Wales our man is on the bench his place taken by the fit again Alun Wyn Jones. So we will report on both players unless Andrew Coombs gets on early. The officials for the game are referee Craig Joubert but running the line it is good to see Glen Jackson back in the UK and with him is Lourens van der Merwe from South Africa. The TMO is Italian Giulio De Santis.
Teams:
Scotland: Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland, Sean Lamont, Matt Scott, Tim Visser, Duncan Weir, Greig Laidlaw; Ryan Grant, Ross Ford, Euan Murray, Richie Gray, Jim Hamilton, Robert Harley, Kelly Brown (C), Johnnie Beattie.
Replacements: Dougie Hall, Moray Low, Geoff Cross, Alastair Kellock, Ryan Wilson, Henry Pyrgos, Ruaridh Jackson, Max Evans
Wales: Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, George North, Dan Biggar, Mike Phillips; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Ian Evans, Ryan Jones (C), Sam Warburton, Toby Faletau.
Replacements: Ken Owens, Scott Andrews, Ryan Bevington, Andrew Coombs, Justin Tipuric, Lloyd Williams, James Hook, Scott Williams.
RBS Six Nations: IRELAND V FRANCE at the: Aviva Stadium, Dublin on 9 March with Kick-off: 17:00 GMT. Here both our selected players are in the starting fifteens and in their ideal positions. For Ireland our man Paddy Jackson gets his second chance at 10 and plenty to prove. We think he will have a better day especially given it is a home game. The trouble is we cannot see the irish holding France up front meaning a lot of ball will probably be on the back foot. It will be a hard day at the office and unless France implode again then we have it as an away win. Our French choice Wesley Fofana is in at twelve and we expect great things from him in this game.
Teams:
Ireland: R Kearney; F McFadden, B O’Driscoll, L Marshall, K Earls, P Jackson, C Murray; C Healy, R Best, M Ross; M McCarthy, D Ryan; P O’Mahony, S O’Brien, J Heaslip
Replacements: S Cronin, D Kilcoyne, S Archer; D O’Callaghan, I Henderson, E Reddan; I Madigan, L Fitzgerald
France: Yoann Huget, Vincent Clerc, Florian Fritz, Wesley Fofana, Maxime Medard, Frederic Michalak, Morgan Parra; Thomas Domingo. Benjamin Kayser, Nicolas Mas, Christophe Samson, Yoann Maestri, Yannick Nyanga, Thierry Dusautoir, Louis Picamoles.
Replacements: Guilhem Guirado, Vincent Debaty, Luc Ducalcon, Sebastien Vahaamahina, Antonie Claassen, Maxime Machenaud, Francois Trinh-Duc, Mathieu Bastareaud
Officials:
Referee: Steve Walsh
Touch judges: Wayne Barnes (Eng) and Greg Garner (Eng)
TMO: Nigel Whitehouse (Wal)
RBS Six Nations Sunday England v Italy Twickenham Stadium Kick-off 15:00 GMT.
This one should not be hard to call as we all expect England to win, the style be be controlled by the weather although it looks like the best day of the weekend will be Sunday. Our man Joe Launchbury is starting and we expect to see him galloping around the field. Hopefully the new England front row will secure plenty of ball for us to see some running rugby from both backs and forwards and a high scoring try feast and England win to stay on track for the Championship and clean sweep.
For Italy our man is yet again wearing the fifteen shirt, this will probably mean that yet again with his roaming defence role he will get caught out of position and will probably struggle to feature well on our post match review. The major good news for the Italians must be the return of talismanic Parisse
Teams:
England: 15. Alex Goode (Saracens), 14. Chris Ashton (Saracens), 13. Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), 12. Brad Barritt (Saracens, ), 11. Mike Brown (Harlequins); 10. Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers), 9. Danny Care (Harlequins); 1. Mako Vunipola (Saracens), 2. Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers, ), 3. Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), 4. Joe Launchbury (London Wasps,), 5. Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers), 6. James Haskell (London Wasps), 7. Chris Robshaw (Harlequins(C), 8. Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, )
Replacements: 16. Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), 17. David Wilson (Bath Rugby), 18. Joe Marler (Harlequins), 19. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), 20. Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), 21. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers), 22. Freddie Burns (Gloucester), 23. Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester)
Italy: 15. Andrea Masi (Wasps) 14. Giovanbattista Venditti (Zebre) 13. Gonzalo Canale (La Rochelle) 12. Gonzalo Garcia (Zebre) 11. Luke Mclean (Treviso) 10. Luciano Orquera (Zebre) 9.Edoardo Gori (Treviso) 8. Sergio Parisse (capt, Stade Francais) 7. Robert Barbieri (Treviso) 6. Alessandro Zanni (Treviso) 5. Joshua Furno (Narbonne) 4. Quintin Geldenhuys (Zebre) 3. Martin Castrogiovanni (Leicester) 2. Leonardo Ghiraldini (Treviso) 1. Alberto De Marchi (Treviso).
Replacements: 16. Davide Giazzon (Zebre) 17. Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing Metro) 18. Lorenzo Cittadini (Treviso) 19. Antonio Pavanello (Treviso) 20. Francesco Minto (Treviso) 21. Simone Favaro (Treviso) 22. Tobias Botes (Treviso) 23. Tommaso Benvenuti (Treviso).
Officials:
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Touch judges: Nigel Owens (Wales) & Mathieu Raynal (France)
TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland)