The second match of the final round sees Ireland take on Scotland in the last match to be played at Croke Park before Irish rugby returns to Landsdowne Road.
My instinct says that Ireland will see off a winless Scottish side in a fitting end to the hospitality of Croke Park. Brian O’Driscoll’s side were ruthless against Wales last week, and I’m expecting more of the same to earn them yet another Triple Crown.
Declan Kidney has the luxury of naming an unchanged side, and it’s no surprise given the quality of players in every position. Scotland’s back row has been talked up over the last few weeks, but it’s still hugely inferior to Ireland’s – I’m a big fan of the Stephen Ferris, David Wallace, Jamie Heaslip trio – and I think this will be the key difference once again.
Scotland have relied on Kelly Brown, Johnnie Beattie and John Barclay to keep them in contention in three our of the four games they’ve played so far, but they couldn’t live with the French, and they’ll face similar problems in Dublin.
Scotland are also unchanged from last week’s turgid draw with England, but there is only one Scottish player that I would select in a combined Ireland / Scotland team (Euan Murray), suggesting that this game should be fairly one-sided.
Again, the pressure is off now that France have all but lifted the trophy, and it will hopefully be an exciting game to watch. I’m backing Ireland to open up, with Keith Earls and Tommy Bowe featuring prominently once more, and it should be fairly comfortable for the home side.
My SportGuru prediction is Ireland by 19. Is that too optimistic?
Ireland for sure, but it could be close, as Scotland will want one final flourish to end on a positive note. Ireland do have weaknesses as exposed by France and AR will have studied the tapes, so it could be an interesting end to six nations 2010.
we have three clear favourits and three matche that we could get upsets, love the 6N.
France, Ireland and Wales should win, especialy France.
One of them will mess up, I’m going for Wales to lose, Ireland to be pushed close but have too much class and France to easily beat england.
Irelands try was a forward pass, more so than Wales’ not a peep out of commentary????
Pleased that we got a game of rugby to watch at last from 2 home nations teams. Pleased that Scotland avoided the wooden spoon, they would not have deserved it to be honest. Sorry Ireland missed out on the triple crown but they only blame themselves, rugby is alive and well, thank god.
Pleased that we got a game of rugby to watch at last from 2 home nations teams. Pleased that Scotland avoided the wooden spoon, they would not have deserved it to be honest. Sorry Ireland missed out on the triple crown but they only blame themselves to blame, rugby is alive and well, thank god.
Sorry about that, wish I could type fast without mistakes!!!!
Soctland deserved their win, they have been much better than their results have shown, I like what Robinson is doing with the team and they seemed to heading somewhere at least.
Ireland didn’t deserve to be in the game, one try was a forward pass and for the other try the grounding was a bit debatable.
Dan parks, what a star he has played 4 games and won three man of the match awards. What a kick.
What a game, really exciting stuff yes there were lots of errors but when teams try to play then there will be errors.
Thought the scotish backrow dominated the irish, but it was a hell of a contest, scots pipped it because of their turnovers and counter rucking, they were also tremendious at the lineout, Ford had a great first half, perfect lineout, good scrumaging and some telling carries.
O’Connel was also back to his best.