6N 2017: Wales v Ireland, 10 March

First topic message reminder :


WALES v IRELAND
10 March 2017
KO: 20:05 GMT
Principality Stadium, Cardiff

Live on [ITV, RTE, SC4, FR2, DMAX / BBC (H)]

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: [tbc]
TMO: [tbc]

A. Head to Head

124 Played 124
50 Won 67
7 Drawn 7
67 Lost 50
1,477 Points 1,381

B. Recent Form

7 February 2016
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
16 – 16 draw

29 August 2015
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
10 – 16 to Wales

8 August 2015
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
21 – 35 to Ireland

14 March 2015
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
23 – 16 to Wales

8 February 2014
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
26 – 3 to Ireland

2 February 2013
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
22 – 30 to Ireland

5 February 2012
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
21 – 23 to Wales

8 October 2011
Regional Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand
22 – 10 to Wales

C. Teams

WALES 


Halfpenny; North, J Davies, S Williams, L Williams, Biggar, Webb, Evans, Owens, Francis, Ball, A Jones, Warburton, Tipuric, Moriarty.

Replacements: Roberts for S Williams (67), S Davies for Biggar (80), G Davies for Webb (67), Smith for Evans (67), Baldwin for Owens (72), Lee for Francis (70), Charteris for Ball (63), Faletau for Moriarty (67).

IRELAND


Kearney; Earls, Ringrose, Henshaw, Zebo; Sexton, Murray; McGrath, Best, Furlong, D Ryan, Toner, Stander, O'Brien, Heaslip.

Replacements: Bowe for Kearney (70), Jackson for Sexton (19), Marmion for Murray (46), C Healy for McGrath (59), Scannell for Best (80), J Ryan for Furlong (80), Henderson for Toner (63), O'Mahony for Stander (63).

When is the last example of a team putting an 80 minute performance together? All games are ups and downs.

EWT Spoons wrote:

Ninjarugby wrote:Does anybody know can Scotland overtake Ireland in the rankings this weekend and if so can Ireland (re)overtake Scotland next week by beating England.
Also can Australia be pushed out to 5th in the rankings by both Ireland/Scotland by the end of the 6 Nations?

Ranking permutations can get confusing sometimes.

Thanks

Yes, yes and don't think so.

If Ireland lose and Scotland win then we get a huge boost by beating England.  Likewise if Ireland beat England then they get the same boost the following week.  Oz I think are too far ahead to be troubled either way, unless there are some insane points scored.

Bear in mind if england have lost to scotland their rating will drop by a good whack, and the Irleand game is a +3 home weighting ..so the rating exhange wouldactually be almost equal for that fixture

Without going to the calculator Im pretty certain that Aus cant end up below Scotland, and Irelands only chance of getting above them is if England retain a high rating by beating Scotland.

Scottrf wrote:When is the last example of a team putting an 80 minute performance together? All games are ups and downs.

Alright, Mr Pedantic!

It's just a saying. Of course games have ups and downs, otherwise there'd be no score as scores are due to mistakes in defense and infringements. I didn't want to just say 'Wales are due a good game' because some smarty pants would come along and say 'but they had a good game against England'. No, we lost that so IMO it can't be seen as good.

So to rephrase: I hope this is Wales' FIRST good game of the tournament with a good performance overall, and no silly mistakes leading to an end of the game loss.

Luckily enough, we're not trying to beat Australia tonight. Wales will be tough enough. Let's just concentrate on Wales.

Griff wrote: I hope this is Wales' FIRST good game of the tournament with a good performance overall, and no silly mistakes leading to an end of the game loss.

I hope it's Ireland's first good game too.  We left about three tries behind us against France.... tunnel eat-the-dirt vision.

Tonight will see the first red card of the tournament. I have a feeling.
Or that could be crabs.
Either way I'm gonna feel on edge for the game

carpet baboon wrote:Tonight will see the first red card of the tournament. I have a feeling.
Or that could be crabs.
Either way I'm gonna feel on edge for the game

Oh shut it, carpet. Don't bring that into the equation. You know for a fact that if it's a Red then it's a Green one..

I just hope the game is entertaining, these two have been boring to watch so far. Kick chase, aerial pin pong is not good entertainment.

Gooseberry wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:

Ninjarugby wrote:Does anybody know can Scotland overtake Ireland in the rankings this weekend and if so can Ireland (re)overtake Scotland next week by beating England.
Also can Australia be pushed out to 5th in the rankings by both Ireland/Scotland by the end of the 6 Nations?

Ranking permutations can get confusing sometimes.

Thanks

Yes, yes and don't think so.

If Ireland lose and Scotland win then we get a huge boost by beating England.  Likewise if Ireland beat England then they get the same boost the following week.  Oz I think are too far ahead to be troubled either way, unless there are some insane points scored.

Bear in mind if england have lost to scotland their rating will drop by a good whack, and the Irleand game is a +3 home weighting ..so the rating exhange wouldactually be almost equal for that fixture

Without going to the calculator Im pretty certain that Aus cant end up below Scotland, and Irelands only chance of getting above them is if England retain a high rating by beating Scotland.

I factored that into my calculations.

I mean if Scotland thrash England by more than 14 points then yeah it might alter things a bit there, but England are so far ahead points wise in the rankings that it shouldn't matter

Traditionally Wales get better as the tourney goes on but then traditionally we don't lose to Scotland so i predict an Irish hammering. I think we've become so obsessed with defense - just listen to Edwards in any presser - that we've simply forgotten you need to score points, in fact our attack has turned into Scottish attack under Robinson. But all is not lost, if we lose this its another nail in Howley's coffin.

TightHEAD wrote:I just hope the game is entertaining, these two have been boring to watch so far. Kick chase, aerial pin pong is not good entertainment.  

By contrast England games have been really exciting?

SecretFly wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:Tonight will see the first red card of the tournament. I have a feeling.
Or that could be crabs.
Either way I'm gonna feel on edge for the game

Oh shut it, carpet.  Don't bring that into the equation.  You know for a fact that if it's a Red then it's a Green one..

Anything is possible. And law of averages should see Wales getting it. I'm going to for webb

carpet baboon wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:Tonight will see the first red card of the tournament. I have a feeling.
Or that could be crabs.
Either way I'm gonna feel on edge for the game

Oh shut it, carpet.  Don't bring that into the equation.  You know for a fact that if it's a Red then it's a Green one..

Anything is possible. And law of averages should see Wales getting it. I'm going to for webb

SOB will definitely be in the bin for repeatedly not rolling away while the Welsh are allowed to slow down to their hearts content

marty2086 wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:Tonight will see the first red card of the tournament. I have a feeling.
Or that could be crabs.
Either way I'm gonna feel on edge for the game

Oh shut it, carpet.  Don't bring that into the equation.  You know for a fact that if it's a Red then it's a Green one..

Anything is possible. And law of averages should see Wales getting it. I'm going to for webb

SOB will definitely be in the bin for repeatedly not rolling away while the Welsh are allowed to slow down to their hearts content

As long as he's scored the first try (22/1) by then, I don't mind

EWT Spoons wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:

EWT Spoons wrote:

Ninjarugby wrote:Does anybody know can Scotland overtake Ireland in the rankings this weekend and if so can Ireland (re)overtake Scotland next week by beating England.
Also can Australia be pushed out to 5th in the rankings by both Ireland/Scotland by the end of the 6 Nations?

Yes, yes and don't think so.


Without going to the calculator Im pretty certain that Aus cant end up below Scotland, and Irelands only chance of getting above them is if England retain a high rating by beating Scotland.

1 Scotland go ahead of Ireland if Scotland win and Ireland lose
2. Ireland will overtake Scotland the following week if they beat England unless Scotland beat England by > 15pts
3. Australia can't go below 4th. Ireland can overtake them (by 0.11 ranking points) if they beat Wales and England and England win against Scotland . If Scotland beat England Ireland cannot pass Australia unless they win by >15 pts in one of their games.

Wales can, once again, drop out of the top 8 if results are poor this tournament and will be a 3rd seed in for the World Cup. But to be honest, there's been such an improvement in teams outside of the 'established 8' of Tri nations and old 5 nations sides (Arg, Japan, Georgia, Italy, Samoa had a spell of being a real challenge, etc.) that I think we'll start seeing much more competitive World Cup groups. It's quite conceivable to have a top 8 of NZ, SA, Aus, Eng, Ireland, Scotland, France, Argentina and then have potential banana skin teams like Wales, Japan, Georgia, Italy, Samoa in your group to cause an upset. 3rd seeds are becoming some decent teams

Right. I'm off to watch this game. With a Welshman. I hope the tubby taff is crying later and not me.
Good luck all.

carpet baboon wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:Tonight will see the first red card of the tournament. I have a feeling.
Or that could be crabs.
Either way I'm gonna feel on edge for the game

Oh shut it, carpet.  Don't bring that into the equation.  You know for a fact that if it's a Red then it's a Green one..

Anything is possible. And law of averages should see Wales getting it. I'm going to for webb

I think you are referring to the law of being average. Wales will lose despite flattering to deceive in the first half and defending like Olympians because thats what they do, they are impotent in attack, like Cyril.

Good luck both teams, cheering for Wales tonight as it will benefit England.

Come on Wales!

In the states. Does anyone know of any good streams?

I stocked up on some Brains on the way home 'come on Wales'

G'WAN IRELAND!!!

No corner crisis today please. Drinking red for Wales.

So they close the roof and then drench the pitch

TightHEAD wrote:I stocked up on some Brains on the way home 'come on Wales'

Well some have more need of Brains than others

Hey, I just noticed there is Rugby this evening  
And I thought the only match this weekend was England

Typical Barnes there. Clear steal from Stander, tells him to let go.

Great start to the game.

nathan wrote:So they close the roof and then drench the pitch

Only Brains in Wales are behind the bar.

Awful game from Biggar so far

Incredible physicality so far this game!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Incredible physicality so far this game!

Great tempo.

Some huge hits going in from both teams

Important question.

Purely in terms of sheer mechanics, how on earth does Liam Williams manage to run? He surely has the oddest legs in world rugby

Ireland will end up with someone in the bin

Knock kneed

harum scarum stuff

Why are Wales forcing so many passes??

Great play biggar

Bit of a cut on Best.

I think Sexton won't make the lions at this rate

Fair play Webb.

What a cracking try!

Frak off tmo, nothing wrong with that

Was it really that good a finish? Aim fir the weak shoulder and when you are twice the size you should be finishing those

Great kick by Biggar

That's 2 completely needless penalties Webb had given away this championship

AWJ straight in at the side

Barnes loves the Irish.

Scottrf wrote:Barnes loves the Irish.

He did in that case