As I’d predicted earlier in the week Scotland won this encounter by 20 – 23 but I must admit that I was a bit surprised at how comfortable Scotland’s victory was and how quickly Kidney’s decision making dissolved when Ireland went behind.

Anyone who had been following the Magners League would know that Scotland had the potential to be better than their previous results in this competition had indicated and Ireland’s form in the Six Nations had been nothing to write home about with a standard victory over a weak Italy and default wins over self destructing England and Wales.   More ... (904 words, 1 image)

As the 6N comes to a sedate close there has been little of consequence to mull over and much that is predictable. Ireland were beaten well by France predictably and Wales played a lot of rugby but generally, the suicidal Scots apart, were pretty.

Pretty but ineffective that is until it was too late. Against Ireland, despite all that possession they were ineffective even when it was expected they would mount the by now obligatory 2^nd half revival. Predictably France play for the Slam and Ireland the Triple Crown this coming weekend.

The rest play for the minor placing whilst the old Northern Hemisphere hierarchy is re-established following last year’s blip by the unpredictable France.   More ... (1509 words, 1 image)

Ulster’s scrum half problems deepened as Cillian Willis suffered a leg break in the Ravens narrow 19 – 18 defeat in the outskirts of Dublin yesterday afternoon.

You can view the full report here on Ulster Rugby and there’s not much we can add as I didn’t manage to make the trip down.

Suffice to say that all at The FRU wish Cillian a speedy recovery and hope that he’s back in action for next season.

With both Ian Porter and now Cillian Willis being out of action for the remainder of this season, I would like to think that Ulster Rugby will consider the concerns of the supporter and quickly release an update on their progress to replace the departing scrum halfs’ Isaac Boss and, allegedly, Paul Marshall as the unfortunate injuries show just how limited our scrum half stock is for next season.   More ... (213 words, 1 image)

Depending on the injuries to D’Arcy there are no changes to the Ireland team for the match against Scotland to the one that started against Wales.

Not going to bother rehashing that one, but at the moment I reckon that Ireland’s World Cup ambitions are 3 injuries away from disaster. There are six to eight stand-in players who need at least six starts to find their international feet and there aren’t going to be enough games between now and the World Cup to slot them in smoothly into the existing team without wholesale disruption or meaningless ‘second string’ matches over the summer.   More ... (350 words, 1 image)

You can view Week 27 results here.

Two spectacular full houses last week from Rocky and Michael Canavan sees them both scoop a fantastic 12 points for last weeks efforts.

It’s the last week of the RBS Six Nations this weekend with all the Internationals on Saturday and there’s three rearranged Magners League fixtures which start on Wednesday so make sure you get your predictions in by Wednesday if you want all the matches included. (Don’t panic if you forget, just enter what you can and I’ll adjust any late entries.)

One point for each match where you correctly predict the winner, five points if you correctly predict a draw and we’ll give out a bonus point for each group of three matches that you get correct.   More ... (263 words, 1 image)

I had been predicting on Friday night that Wales would give Ireland a bit of trouble in this match but Ireland swatted a disjointed Wales aside with comparative ease to win comfortably.

Thomas O’Leary had one of his best games for Ireland, breaking well and bagging a try and Keith Earls looked much more comfortable with his forced move to the centre adding a brace. Sexton blew hot and cold with the boot but managed to add three penalties and a conversion.

Ireland won this game up front, where my own personal man of the match, Rory Best, had an absolute stormer of a game appearing to be at the involved in every breakdown, turning over the ball or slowing down Welsh possession. Easily the Ulsterman’s most impressive performance in an Ireland shirt.   More ... (355 words, 1 image)