You’re right about the little interest in the NH teams here in the SH. It’s a great shame but unfortunately – and this is true of a lot of sports – too many fans don’t care about the opposition as long as it’s defeated. Personally, even though I’m a Wallaby fan, I’ll still come out of my chair and applaud if BOD or Sivi or Monye or du Preez makes a great run. (I’ll really cheer if Giteau does, not that that happens too often.) This doesn’t make me a turncoat, it just means I like the game of rugby. So I’m very interested in the quality and history of the players the ABs and the Ws will be up against.

I see that Martin Johnson has announced his 22, and will get around to naming his starters tomorrow. There’s some real ability in the backs, and if the new forwards can get it together the Ws could be in for a hard day. If Wilko goes the 80 minutes he’s capable of kicking them out of the game and reversing the last Oz/England clash at Twickers. I’m scratching my head as to why Johno not only persists in playing Borthwick but also making him captain. Maybe he’s trying to mold him in his image. The best news the Ws have had in ages is that Cooper played so well against Gloucester. Maybe Deans will play him at 10 and Giteau at 12 against you guys at Croke. Ireland always seems to reserve its best rugby for the Ws.

Seems to me the success of the Welsh scrum will depend on how James holds up. Powell, Williams and Jones constitute a damn good back row. And Roberts and Shanklin versus Nonu and Smith should be entertaining.

Good talking to you. I welcome your insights.

In fairness, I haven’t been that quiet on predictions/discussion about the matches. There’s not much interest on Roar except in the Australasia and England teams – understandably. I did an article on the various NH sides, particularly Ireland, about two weeks ago on here, so I’m not going to repeat that – you’ll find it under ‘Cheer Up Wallabies, you’re playing the Northern Teams.’ There’s also a prediction topic on who’ll top the bill out of the 12 teams playing.

Irish media isn’t really doing any predicting so far. More edging around the likely clashes. Talk on Wales is about they should try to get a win after 50 odd years – which isn’t saying much really. And that they’re missing a few key players like Phillips. Running assumption is that NZ are odds-on favourites. Even in Welsh land. Gatland is making the usual expected noises of the coach. Shane Williams has said that Wales can beat NZ. No surprise there, he’s hardly gonna say they’ll lose. Other than that – it’s NZ all over. No big surprises or headlines if NZ beat them since they’re the No 1 team most of the time. Big headlines for Wales if they ‘do the impossible’ – can’t see it happening though based on Magners form to date.

England v Australia is being talked about in terms of who’s gonna be the least worst of the two. One is full of injuries, one is full of something else, but both are playing the poor-me, downtrodden, underdog role very well. I recognise it cos Ireland love to wrap it round themselves all the time. Probably the Aussies have the edge based on the fact they’re already playing and England haven’t yet played and start with a scratch squad. Not much kudos for Aus if they beat them since they’re a SH team and 3rd in IRB. But no doubt there’ll be Pom-bashing headlines the following day if they do. Again, better kudos to England if they win – unlikely though.

Argentina are a somewhat unknown quantity or rather not discussed much. They did well in their games in the summer. Unfortunately, Ireland aren’t playing them this year, as I’d swap a victory over them with Aus or SA most weeks. Media haven’t said much about their game against Wales, and the game against England is probably 50/50 – they had good games against each other in the summer. They’re without Contemponi which will make a difference. England probablly will beat them, and so should Wales.

Am looking forward to watching Fiji and how they’re doing following Pacific split. Samoa also since both teams have a good few players in the various NH leagues and see them regularly.

You’ve been pretty quiet on the panel’s picks, and you’re the guy who’s over there in Ireland and on top of NH rugby. We’d like to hear how you think the games are going to shake out. You get to see the players while most of us on this forum only get to see them now and then on Setanta or whatever. What is the Irish media predicting?

How do you work that one out? The above panel are all regular writers for British media. Their predictions are wins for NZ – all of them. They make no predictions for South Africa – the running assumption is that they will win all their matches, with the proviso that they’ll have a tough game against Ireland.

The Wallabies are predicted to win two games. So that’s 4 wins for NZ, a likely 3 for SA, and 2 for the Wallabies.

What informs your belief that the ‘NH press’ is saying something different?

And what are you predicting that is so markedly different from that?

So how do you see the matches going for the GB teams, VC?