Six Nations: After two rounds, who's worth your money?

Hi Neil, the Ireland Wales game went pretty much exactly how I envisaged. But since you bring England up, I would say that Wales got robbed by an extremely poor TMO decision in 'Fortress Twickenham'. Ireland had an off day in France in extremely poor conditions. I have no doubt that Ireland are a stronger, faster and smarter team than England with more world class players and a better coaching team. I expect 'Fortress Twickenham' to be fully penetrated by rather large Irish appendage on St Patricks day.

They won 37-27.

Not really Bob. In the cauldron that's the Aviva they've only a 65% win rate, when in the same time period, England's is more like 80% at Twickenham. If you want another yardstick, the Irish have 0-3 against NZ in Dublin, whereas England have a 4-1 record in that period in London. No doubt Dublin is a tough place to play, but 'Fortress Twickenham' is becoming even more of a reality under Eddie. Of course, the Paddys have the opportunity to turn that on its head in a few weeks .....

I doubt it will be Ringrose starting for Ireland, more likely Chris Farrell. Word has it that Henderson and Furlong should be fit. Expect a very defensive gameplan from Wales, they will find it very hard to get the ball off Ireland with 1/2p kicking the long range goals. I see this game going one of two ways, Ireland winning by a close margin or Ireland winning with a bonus point, just cant really see Wales winning in Dublin against this Irish side, wins are very rare there for any team probably the toughest rugby assignment outside the AB's in Dunedin.

Gonna be good to see WP Nel again. Even a scrum-imbecile like me can see that he is good when packing down (and if I see someone making a difference in the scrum that probably means they are world class).

David Denton = Zim-Saffa WP Nel = bench

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HenryHoneyBalls I see that 25% of Scotland's starting pack is Saffa. WP Nel and Josh Strauss

Scotland team against England: Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Peter Horne (all Glasgow), Sean Maitland (Saracens), Finn Russell (Glasgow), Greig Laidlaw (Clermont Auvergne); Gordon Reid (London Irish), Stuart McInally, Simon Berghan, Grant Gilchrist (all Edinburgh), Jonny Gray (Glasgow), John Barclay (Scarlets, capt), Hamish Watson (Edinburgh), Ryan Wilson (Glasgow). Replacements: Scott Lawson (Newcastle), Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow), Willem Nel (Edinburgh), Tim Swinson (Glasgow), Dave Denton (Worcester), Ali Price, Nick Grigg (both Glasgow), Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh).

CJ Stander is the only regular South African for Ireland. Quinn Roux and Rob Herring are both a bit down the pecking order and rarely make the bench. On average you might see 1 South African per match day squad for Ireland max.

Saffas started going to Ireland when Gert Smal was coaching there, I think.

They don't like Saffas in Wales, or is the other way around?

The Irish have more Saffas so they will win

Irelands depth will be truly tested if this is correct PA. Feels almost like a make or break for Ireland's short-term ambitions to be a top three nation.

Yep. Henshaw, Luke McGrath out, and it looks like Ringrose, Furlong and possibly Henderson may not be available either for Wales test. Likely 23 to be: McGrath, Best, Porter, Toner, Ryan, O’Mahony, Leavy, Stander Murray, Sexton, Stockdale, Aki, Farrell, Earls, Kearney. Cronin, Healy, Ryan, Roux, Murphy, Marmion, Carbery, Conway.

I don't think Ringrose will start v Wales. It is too soon for him. Id say he will be picked for Leinster for Friday nights game v the Southern Kings. I expect Chris Farrell to be selected instead. Farrell looked decent in November v Fiji. Ringrose should start v Scotland and England though as he looks in great shape.

Disagree. The ball may have touched the finger but it was so marginal that you would never expect a TMO to see that as it required a super slow mo video to see it. In any case it is very unlikely that with that level of contact the ball would have gone forward from his finger and its almost impossible to tell from the video however, it definitely did go forward from his knee. The TMO got it badly wrong. He said that Watson grounded the ball first which is clearly incorrect. I think a try should have been awarded as the touch down from Anscome was clear and obvious whereas the knock on was not.

I think this is a pretty fair analysis overall. It's very difficult to judge what a win over France and Scotland is really worth this season. Scotland absolutely capitulated to Wales which very few people expected and France haven't capitulated in either match which more or less everybody quietly expected, based on perceived poor discipline and lack of fitness. Poor discipline and lack of fitness have definitely been problems, but not to the extent we might have thought. My pre-tournament predictions were: England Ireland (although secretly wanted to back them for a GS) Wales Scotland France Italy So far, things are looking pretty bang on. What I really disagree with is the Georgia coming in to the 6N stuff which I've been seeing a lot of. Georgia competed against Wales for 78 mins. True. But that is their only Tier 1 match of the season. It is the single most important fixture in their calendar. Italy play 8-10 Tier 1 sides every year. They get shellacked because they can't keep their powder dry for any one game. If Georgia had to do that schedule they'd be whipping boys too. The WR rankings are very deceptive on that score because Italy lose to higher ranked sides and Georgia beat lower ranked sides. The rankings can't really make sense of that, hence Georgia's better ranking relative to Italy. Finally, Italy's domestic structures are getting much much better. Benetton have a positive winning record for the first time ever in the Pro14 and are in a play off spot. Zebre have beaten Ulster and Dragons. The Italy U20s have shown real promise and made life difficult for England and Ireland. In the latter case playing with 14 men for about 70 minutes. The senior side sucks just now, but the future is (hopefully) bright.

Liking this TE Nothing better than having a little banter, with a cheeky smile, spiced up with some knowledge. The France-Ireland Test was a bit peculiar. Sometimes it looks like Schmidt dresses his tactics in both braces and straps and thereby make them a bit impotent. And as we all know; you can't fake the funk. I hope Ireland will be a little more adventurous this weekend against Wales, and not bank on that Sexton gonna bail them out again. Fair play if you did not know about Ringrose. I think GR can be the tonic the Irish attack needs. With Aki and Henshaw it is all out crash and bash. GR brings more slick silk and X-factor. I have been lured into a couple ref-debates lately, and I hate myself every time it happens. Rugby is probably the hardest game there is to ref, and when rugby tragics like us can't even agree on what we see after watching hundreds of replays in slo-mo, how can we not give the refs some slack? Gonna try to go back to my philosophical approach again; the ref is an X-factor and he gives and takes just like life gives and takes. 6-0 indeed. I had repressed that Test