6N Bolters

Someone always impresses every year, who will it be in 2021?

Doesn't necessarily have to be an uncapped player, maybe someone has hit a run of form? Coming to their peak just at the right moment?

Who will standout from your team this 6N?

DTH Van Der Merwe surely?

I reckon Gary Graham may be one of our standouts. If Cameron redpath gets good ball he could well be one of the players of the tournament

Cummings
A standout performance against Itoje, the the same against AWJ could not just catapult him to one of our players of the tournament but book his ticket to South Africa

If Willis gets a shot for England with Underhill out he might raise a few eyebrows. Eddie doesn't seem his biggest fan but he's the Prem's turnover king. He's mobile and physical so a bit of an all rounder.

Ben Earl I reckon for England. He always impresses whenever I see him play.

Jalibert or Carbonel for France. With Ntamack injured one of those pivots will be playing outside Dupont with stellar backline outside him.

I think this ability to call bolters for england is summarised nicely by sam and king above. We dont know which players are going to get the chance in the first place!

Willis to me is absolute class and a perfect fit at 6 for me. Strang carrier, lineout option and the best turnover merchant around.
Earl is just about the quickest flanker around and can cover 8. Picks great lines.
Lawrence didnt get the chance in the ais but everything he does just looks the right choice to me...just need him to get the ball more. Could see him at 12 with farrell back to his favoured position.
Odogwu...probably seen as a 13 rather than a winger. Probably, along with the amount of turnovers you'll see from willis, will be the most eye catching as his game is all about picking lines and powering through.
Malins as an outsider. Dodgy positioning for me at 15 but ball in hand he can pick a pass dance round you or use his serious pace.

I'll pick one at 11am!

For England, if they get their backs right..it could be Ollie Lawrence or Odogwu.
Both are very impressive ball carriers in their own style, but Lawrence is also a very strong defender.

For Ireland, I'd love to see Gavin Coombes get a run out after being called into the squad for injury cover. I don't think it'll happen just yet but he's been mightily impressive for Munster in the back row. Power to burn and pace to match, look out if not this year then next.
Likewise Ryan Baird, see above but for Leinster.

Lawrence looks class to me, doesn't have the same carrying threat as Tuilagi (who does?) but he has a more rounded game, can pass, decent boot and rock solid defensively. Would not be surprised to see him at 12 with Odogwu at 13 at some point.

I'll be watching Wainwright, Earl, Willis, Connors, Graham in the first round. I also think Johnny Hill has got a big performance in him that will impress fans this 6N.

I'd like to see Russell have a good tournament and string together five solid performances like Hastings did for Scotland last 6N (Italy kicking excluded).

Wales losing Adams for the first two rounds makes it interesting to see who slots in to the match day XXIII, good chance there for a young winger, something Wales are never short of. I would have been interested to see Halaholo but he didn't even get selected?!

As a Scotland fan I'm immensely relieved that Willis hasn't been selected for this weekend, I rate him very highly indeed and would very much rather be facing Mark Wilson than either Willis or Earl

Dont underestimate Mark Wilson...very different player to Earl or Willis.

As much as I rate Wilson I'm slightly disappointed that neither of Earl/Willis is starting.

Ritchie and Watson offer a big breakdown threat though so England likely prioritising retaining their own ball over challenging for Scotland's. Wilson, Itoje and Curry are all excellent in that category. Part of me wonders if England would have gone down that route had Billy had a run of games or Marler/Mako/Sinckler had been available though. Ho hum.

The selection of Jonny Hill opens up interesting bolter style conversations around the lineout for the Calcutta Cup. Hill is excellent there for Chiefs but inexperienced at international and Jamie George hasn't played since the ANC final. Meanwhile Scotland have two good lineout locks but a hooker in Turner who can struggle with his darts. I honestly have no idea how to call what will happen at the lineout but if one side gets a significant upper-hand then we might see either Hill or Cummings getting a lot of column inches for their performance.

After the lineups were announced I'm going to say that Lawrence will look good but hopefully he will get more quick ball and space than I think he will. It's that which will take him from doing everything right and making good decisions to actually standing out to the casual viewer.

Think it's going to be Genge that people are raving about. The best scrummager for england even better than Marler for me. Still an excellent carrier as well.

Now that he's been confirmed as starting, I'd like to put forward Tadhg Beirne. I don't think anyone who's watched Scarlets or Munster over the past few seasons will doubt his ability but his international career is yet to take off. He will have to hold off Iain Henderson in the Irish 2nd row, but there's very few, if any, finer jackals in Europe than Beirne.

Beirne is really the big difference between Scarlets success compared to their more recent failures. He was such a standout from second row, doing things second rows aren't supposed to be any good at. His carrying and link play was as good as his breakdown work, he is the Irish Nakarawa!

Two position groups I am interested in

Wales, England and Scotland 12's - There are open Lions spots at centre in play, let alone national spots. J Williams, Lawrence and Redpath are all different types of players who are near the beginning of their international careers. Odds are at least one of them fires and goes into a lean Lions category

Any young French fly half - Jalibert, Carbonel, Belleau. If one fails, the next one will be called up. Ntamack has played 12 regularly for Toulouse and IC is a position France have struggled to settle on. If any of the FH's show up, it could be the next Ford - Farrell partnership

theslosty wrote:Now that he's been confirmed as starting, I'd like to put forward Tadhg Beirne. I don't think anyone who's watched Scarlets or Munster over the past few seasons will doubt his ability but his international career is yet to take off. He will have to hold off Iain Henderson in the Irish 2nd row, but there's very few, if any, finer jackals in Europe than Beirne.

Feeling quite smug about this . Still two matches to go but Beirne's been my player of the tournament. Would go as far as to say he's been Ireland's outstanding performer in all 5 of their matches, which is incredible consistency. Why it's taken this long for him to get a run I'll never know.

Some other good calls on this thread mind, namely VDM and Jalibert

theslosty wrote:

theslosty wrote:Now that he's been confirmed as starting, I'd like to put forward Tadhg Beirne. I don't think anyone who's watched Scarlets or Munster over the past few seasons will doubt his ability but his international career is yet to take off. He will have to hold off Iain Henderson in the Irish 2nd row, but there's very few, if any, finer jackals in Europe than Beirne.

Feeling quite smug about this . Still two matches to go but Beirne's been my player of the tournament. Would go as far as to say he's been Ireland's outstanding performer in all 5 of their matches, which is incredible consistency. Why it's taken this long for him to get a run I'll never know.

Some other good calls on this thread mind, namely VDM and Jalibert

Because he's about 113kg which is too light for some people. Having Quinn Roux start ahead of him was a joke. I wouldn't trade the handling, workrate, line-out ability, breakdown steals etc for a few extra kgs.

All I can really think of is that Beirne had a couple of injuries that were poorly timed and maybe Schmidt didn't see the need for another jackal because we kept so much possession anyway. But he offers much more than just than that and you're absolutely right he must have been livid Quinn Roux was being selected ahead of him. He's a must-pick now if we want to evolve into a more fluid offloading style.

People say he's too light but to me he still carries pretty well with his footwork and lines of running. Maybe it matters in the scrum which is what everyone brings up when Roux is mentioned but I didn't see a struggling Irish scrum yesterday.

His consistency as I say is unbelievable - I don't watch loads of Munster but whenever I do he always seems to be MOTM or pretty close to it.

king_carlos wrote:The selection of Jonny Hill opens up interesting bolter style conversations around the lineout for the Calcutta Cup. Hill is excellent there for Chiefs but inexperienced at international and Jamie George hasn't played since the ANC final. Meanwhile Scotland have two good lineout locks but a hooker in Turner who can struggle with his darts. I honestly have no idea how to call what will happen at the lineout but if one side gets a significant upper-hand then we might see either Hill or Cummings getting a lot of column inches for their performance.

Good prediction on the lineout. It proved to be the decisive factor.