Six Nations League - not long left to join
The stage is now set for the opening matches in the 2008 RBS 6 Nations - and time is running out to join the Six Nations Betting league that we are running here on The Rugby Blog.
Follow this link for all the details, but here is a quick summary:
1. Click here to go to our very own page on Betfair
2. Open an account and deposit £10
3. Email me your Betfair username
4. Read this guide on how to make money on Betfair
5. Place your bets for the opening weekend
The person that makes the most money by betting on Six Nations markets will win - they range from tournament winner to when the first try will be scored.
Prizes
All those entered in the competition by 31st January will go into a prize draw to win two tickets to the England v Barbarians match at Twickenham on June 1st. The other prizes will be awarded to those that make the most money.
1st prize - £250
2nd prize - £200
3rd prize - £150
We have also had the following additional prizes donated:
4th prize - 4 weekend passes (with camping) to the Bournemouth Sevens
5th prize - framed Rugby print from Devoted to Sport
6th prize - your choice of any item of clothing from Front Up
Those in 7th to 10th place will receive a T-Shirt from the I Want a Match of the Day for Rugby campaign.
Fantasy Rugby - Women’s XV
A formidable back row
Following one or two questionable decisions in Brian Ashton’s England squad yesterday, here are some real issues to thrash out. Kemlo Longstaff and Mike Wallace have put together this bevy of belles and rather worryingly, I think I’d rather have Kelly Holmes over Iain Balshaw as the last line of defence.
With 50% of the world’s population to choose from, the Women’s XV has a large squad. Generally not the most attractive bunch but then I guess that’s not the point.
Women’s XV
1. Fern Britton - Our very own Jason Leonard a.k.a. the big fun bus.
2. Jenna Jameson - Only a porn star will tolerate being called a hooker without running off crying. Unlikely to throw straight at a line out, obviously…
3. Ann Widdecombe - Front row enforcer. There to bully the opposition.
4. Jodie Kidd - Should dominate the lineout. Has a bit more grit to her than the average supermodel.
5. News Night’s Kirsty Wark - Liable to punch holes through any defence.
6. Charlie Dimmock - Unafraid to get her hands dirty, and toil on the floor. Sports bra would need to be provided to prevent serious injuries.
7. Dame Ellen MacArthur (cpt, obviously) – She’ll chase relentlessly around the pitch all day long. Emotional leader.
8. Margaret Thatcher - This No 8 is not for turning. Always up for playing the Pumas.
9. Lily Savage - Purely for chatting down the oppo…dubious whether she meets the selection criteria though, I admit.
10. Queen Elizabeth 1st - Vital in battle, great organiser. Proud to play for her country.
11. Marion Jones - If we allow dirty, rotten cheats in the team, she’s the girl for the wing.
12. Mary Magdelene - Elusive. Has God on her side.
13. Her Majesty, The Queen - Elegant, stylish running lines. Impossible to put down.
14. The Next model (name unknown) – With legs that long she must be rapid…question marks over her defence though.
15. Kelly Holmes - To chase down breakaway runners and nab them before they reach the line.
Surely a lot to debate in this selection!
England team for Six Nations opener
Balshaw, Sackey, Tindall, Flood, Strettle, Wilkinson, Gomarsall, Sheridan, Regan, Vickery, Shaw, Borthwick, Haskell, Moody, Narraway.
Subs: Mears, Stevens, Kay, Rees, Wigglesworth, Cipriani, Vainikolo.
Mathew Tait is not even in the 22, despite being our most exciting back; Mark Regan starts at hooker despite being so old he can’t see straight, let alone throw straight; Simon Shaw has obviously made a miraculous recovery; Luke Narraway will make his debut at Number 8.
Otherwise it’s pretty much as expected, with Lesley Vainikolo likely to be capped just so he can’t play for Tonga!
What are your thoughts?
Guinness Premiership Round-up - 29/01/08
With the completion of the Heineken Cup group stages comes the recommencement of the stop-start Guinness Premiership campaign. With the excitement of the World Cup, Heineken Cup and Six Nations, it seems like the Premiership hasn’t really captured people’s imagination like it was supposed to, considering the influx of foreign stars. Would you, avid reader, agree?
The saving grace of the competition may be that all teams should have something to fight for come the end of the season, be it the title, a Heineken cup spot or survival.
Two teams with their eyes firmly fixed on the play-offs faced off against each other on Friday night in a game which promised tries aplenty but failed to deliver. Sale began the match against Harlequins with all their usual power and poise but allowed a mediocre Quins team back into the match late on in the first half through indiscipline. Jarvis, the Harlequins 10, seemed to have lost the ability to catch at the beginning of the fixture but regained his composure to guide his side to a losing bonus point as Sale won 20-13.
Saturday brought about an excellent win for Worcester over Bristol, 25 – 5. The Kiwi triple signing of Rawlinson, Gear and Tuitupou has now had time to bed in and the results are coming. With a 6 nations break that allows Worcester players to recover from their mid-season knocks, rather than pick up more on international duty, February and March could see the Warriors make a dent in the seven points they have to make up on Bristol to climb a place in the league.
Two other matches on Saturday saw Leicester thrash Newcastle (41 – 14) and Gloucester edge out Wasps (18 – 17). Newcastle now have a fit, settled squad and cannot keep losing against the big boys of the Premiership in this manner. Wading in on the Jonny debate, if Mr Wilkinson can’t get a backline including Flood, Noon and Tait firing against Leicester, what hope is there of those same players causing damage against any Six Nations opponents? Jumping straight back onto the proverbial fence, he will have the best of the Leicester pack to work behind so that could make a difference!
Wasps’ season is slipping away. Having allowed Gloucester a healthy lead they did well to claw the points back but threw away their opportunities to win it at the end. It could be that one barren season will spur them on to win more silverware next year, creating the “dynasty” that their players and coaches routinely talk of.
Sunday offered up two ding-dong battles involving Saracens v Bath and Leeds v London Irish. Bath lost track on Gloucester and allowed Leicester to skip ahead of them by capitulating to Saracens 26-20. A Brent “speedy legs” Russell brace and Glen Jackson’s reliable boot was enough to see off the west country men.
Leeds put up another spirited fight but ended up second best again, this time to a London Irish side who hadn’t won away all season in the Premiership. Irish scored four tries and ran out winners by 26 – 24. Putting this result alongside Worcester’s excellent win against Bristol means Leeds are now 6 points adrift at the bottom of the league and will need to fight for every point if they have any chance of staying up.
And just like that, the Premiership shuts down for another fortnight…
By Jon Hobbs
Concerns over England’s forwards
There’s less than a week to go until the 2008 Six Nations, and Brian Ashton must be facing a few dilemmas over selection today - the weekend saw a number of probable England starters trying to impress for their clubs, with fairly mixed results.
A headline on BBC Sport this morning reads, ‘Regan concerns ease for England’ - not in my book. That story is about a shoulder niggle, but I’m more worried about his lienout throwing.
The veteran hooker was almost single-handedly responsible for giving Worcester their first Guinness Premiership win, since he could hardly find his lineout targets all afternoon.
The lineout will be one of the key battlegrounds for England in this year’s campaign, and hooker appears to be a problem position, given that the only alternatives are George Chuter and Lee Mears.
Whoever is selected will need some top-quality lineout jumpers, but this again appears to be an issue. Steve Borthwick and Ben Kay are the pick of the bunch in this area, but neither is really a number 2 jumper. With Simon Shaw injured, Ashton may have to turn to Louis Deacon - where is Danny Grewcock when you need him?!
With these concerns in mind, I’d turn to Tom Croft at blindside as an extra lineout option, with Lewis Moody at openside and James Haskell at eight. Sadly, I think Ashton will want to stick with Nick Easter, but I’ve never been a massive fan of the Quins Number 8.
Here’s my suggested pack: Sheridan, Mears, Vickery, Kay, Deacon, Croft, Moody, Haskell.
What do you think will start against Wales on Saturday?
Brute force and bunking off - Mrs Jonny’s diary
So I have a confession to make – I bunked off training last week and that’s why (as I’m sure you all noticed!) there was no blog from Mrs J.
What can I say? I’d spent the day over in London village and was tired from hours of travelling on primitive modes of transport and from all the high-powered business deals I’d been cutting. The train was late and there was most definitely a threat of rain in the air. What if it had turned into a freezing downpour?? It could have been breaking point!
My namesake would be very disappointed with me, of course – it takes at least a torn ligament to get Mr Jonny off the pitch. (Or a highly suspect selection decision… Cipriani? Don’t make me laugh…)
Anyway, it turned out to be a most sensible decision on my part. While the weather was as calm and collected as could be expected at this time of year, the training was anything but. As my Welsh rugby-novice companion informed me the following morning – let’s call her Mrs Henson, shall we? – the main focus of the training exercises was on the following weekend’s planned grudge match with our sworn enemies – the nastiest team in our league. The enormous bruises and crusty scabs on her shins were testament to just how physical it all got.
Rough and ready and from – how can I put this without sounding like a posh twat? – the somewhat less desirable part of town, the team my new friends were preparing to face is the only thing between us and the top of the league.
But they’re pretty vicious girls by all accounts – lots of dirty tricks and language fruity enough to make a sailor blush. You remember our scrum-half I mentioned in the first week? The Gobby Little Pipsqueak? Last time we played this team, the ref had to send one of them to the sin-bin for threatening to “mess up that pretty little face” of hers – and then actually trying to. While the ball was in touch. So you get the picture. Anyone would think we were playing football!
It turns out the weather saved their skins though and with lots of rain later in the week (I knew it was on its way!) the water-logged pitch forced a re-scheduling of the match.
This week, I was far more full of beans and toddled along for my ritual boot camp experience. And get this – I have even acquired for myself a shiny new pair of real-life rugby boots (well, okay, Junior-size football boots with new studs) so I totally look the part. What with my smart new rugby shirt and menacing gumshield, I am certainly starting to look like a pro, even if I can’t actually play the game. “All the gear, no idea” as the saying goes!
But who cares? I felt very buoyant by the end of the session – lots of running around and charging up and down the pitch to practise different passing formations and the like (you’ve got to love those cones!) And as I jumped up to catch a rather nifty pass and shimmy past the defender, I even began to entertain the possibility that I might just be ready for a match. We have a friendly coming up in two weeks’ time; I’m free that day; the opposition aren’t that good; I’m actually not that shite – so why not, eh…?
It was somewhat deflating then to discover that the cancelled grudge match from last weekend, against the Narly Teenage Mums, has been rescheduled for – yep, you guessed it – two weeks’ time.
I feel another bout of skiving coming on…
The 6 Nations – Where are you putting your money?
The 2008 tournament sees the launch of The Rugby Blog 6 Nations Betting League so here are some hints from Stuart Peel on where he will be putting his money in light of recent events in the European Cup.
So another exhilarating Heineken Cup is put to bed for a few months and attention returns to the international game, namely the Six Nations. Inevitably the question arises of what predictions can be made for Europe’s leading international competition based upon the events of the leading club variety.
First of all there will be a huge number of high profile individuals who feel they have a point to prove. Due to the quite extraordinary seeding system which is the only significant Achilles heel of the Heineken Cup, many of Europe’s bigger clubs, and by definition biggest players, are currently contemplating a few weeks on the sidelines when the tournament resumes. You would have got pretty big odds on none of Stade Francais, Biarritz, Clermont Auvergne, Leinster, Wasps and Leicester making it through the pool stages and the tournament is poorer for it. Taking nothing away from those who have qualified, the quarter final line-up would probably look stronger if these big beasts were present.
For many players then, the Six Nations represents something of a shot at redemption, being their only chance of success this season beyond the domestic. This should add to the competitive edge as a huge amount of personal pride will come into play. Hopefully we will see a championship with rather more intensity than those served up immediately after previous World Cups.
Secondly, the more competitive pools in the Heineken Cup demonstrated clearly the prevalence of home advantage in the modern game. In Group 5, Wasps, Munster and Clermont Auvergne all won their home games against each other. It was Munster who showed above all the importance of fighting for every minute in the Heineken Cup, winning 3 crucial bonus points in their games against their closest rivals. Wasps by contrast squandered 3 very achievable bonus points and gave away two to their opponents. This resulted in Munster winning a pool in which, in terms of pure quality, they were probably the third best team.
Group 6 was just as competitive with Toulouse sealing it by virtue of being the only team to win away from home, burgling a narrow victory at Edinburgh who managed to turn over both Leinster and Leicester at Murrayfield. Indeed no team managed a 100% record in the tournament with only 5 out of 24 teams managing more than 1 away win, all of which were in fairly easy pools, and there was not a single away win which could be described in any way as a surprise.
All this points to a tight championship with no Grand Slam being won this year. Ireland must travel to Paris and London and, while they have shown over recent years that Twickenham holds no fears for them, they appear to have something of a hang up against the French. England must travel to Paris to face a France team hell bent on revenge for being ejected from their own World Cup by the old enemy. Both teams will have a different look and feel about them but the hostility will remain. France have both Ireland and England at home and the championship should be their’s to lose.
With Ireland and Wales both coming to Twickenham, I believe England have as good a chance as France of winning the championship. However, both France and England must travel to Murrayfield and the Scottish clubs in the Heineken Cup turned in impressive performances. Not only that, but Scotland defeated both of them two years ago and I back them to take at least one victory from their two home games. Ireland should dispose of Wales, Scotland and Italy at home and will feel that they have a huge point to prove this year as possibly their strongest side in years crashed and burned in France.
Wales will have to win their home games against Scotland and Italy to salvage anything from the tournament while the Italians will have their eye firmly on the Scotland game as their chance of getting points on the board. The Italian clubs generally produced an improved showing this year in Europe but they still remain some way short of being challengers. If any team manages more than one away win then they will be in pretty good shape to take the title.
Beyond the Heineken Cup, the close proximity of the tournament to the World Cup will make it fascinating to all rugby fans. Those expecting an injection of young blood and an expansion of playing styles could be disappointed but there will be an abundance of talent on show. France will be seeking redemption and the signs are that they will turn their backs on some of their established stars. Both Ireland and Wales endured miserable World Cups but on the evidence of recent weeks they have no better options than the players who underperformed so spectacularly in France. I expect to see them try to rediscover the winning habit with their existing players and then to introduce new players over the course of the next 2 years.
The World Cup came a couple of years too early for Scotland but they are improving and are likely to stick with the current formula, perhaps with a little more audacity grafted on top. They looked more dangerous in the last few minutes against Argentina when they threw caution to the wind than they have done for some time.
England can draw a line under the past 4 years and start introducing young blood alongside the more established names. There is a huge amount of talent around at the moment and I believe they have the right man at the helm to harness it. England should be targeting victory in all their home games and a win at Murrayfield at the very least, with a view to winning the Grand Slam in 2009. I see no reason why they should not be able to achieve this with the ability they have at their disposal.
This tournament has all the makings of a cracker but rugby supporters should be patient. No team will gel or click immediately and the odd ropey performance should not lead to heads being demanded on platters. Anyone who has been looking on with a mixture of bemusement and amusement at the goings-on at Newcastle United and Liverpool will appreciate the value of stability and the coaches should be given time to put their plans into place. I make an exception for Eddie O’Sullivan here as he must surely be sipping last orders in the last chance saloon after Ireland’s disastrous World Cup.
Only one thing is certain - all rugby fans in all the European capitals will have a bloody good time.
By Stuart Peel
Six Nations Preview Video
I’ve produced a Six Nations preview video to get everyone in the mood for what should be a cracking tournament.
If you like it, please send it on to your friends.
Heineken Cup Quarter Finals
The Heineken Cup quarter finals will take place over the weekend of 4th, 5th and 6th April with the fixtures as follows:
Saracens v Ospreys
London Irish v Perpignan
Gloucester v Munster
Toulouse v Cardiff Blues
Gloucester were lacklustre against Ulster on Sunday, leaking tries and not looking too convincing - they will need to raise their game as they welcome Munster. The Irishmen took the defending champions apart on Saturday, with Ronan O’Gara expertly playing the conditions.
London Irish will face their familiar Pool 1 foes in the shape of Perpignan, whilst Saracens will tackle the Ospreys. New tournament favourites, Toulouse, take on Cardiff, the other Welsh side remaining in the competition. Sadly, no Scottish teams qualified for the latter stages.
Toulouse are now available at about 4/1 (best odds at Betfair), Gloucester are at 5/1 with Boylesports, as are Munster at Betfred, whilst the Ospreys are at 9/1, also with Betfred.
Should Ashton drop Jonny?
With Danny Cipriani in the England squad, the number 10 shirt appears to be more than a one-horse race.
Jonny Wilkinson has been the undisputed bearer over the past few years (except when he was injured, obviously) and few can question his place amongst the best players of all time.
But Wasps fly-half Cipriani has been grabbing the limelight recently, leading some people to conclude that Stuart Barnes and Dewi Morris are actually his parents, so deep is their love for him.
Brian Ashton has a big decision to make in the next couple of weeks. Is Jonny really too old at 28? Is Danny ready to step into the breach? What do you think?
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