Bonus Points is back, this time with a predictable slant on the news of the week.
Parisse returns again
Pretty soon they are going to have to rewrite the heirachy of those who inflict pain upon themselves for pleasure. First will be the sado-masochists, then the masochists and finally, way above them, will be Sergio Parisse. This will be the 15th year that Parisse has spent behind the lumbering Italian pack and the fifth year of being national captain. Like a Ferrari stuck behind a trail of cattle trucks on a single track road, he’s purred along discontentedly whilst all around him contrive to stuff things up for him. That said, Saturday’s side to open the tournament against Wales is pretty much that which beat the Springboks in November,. Even though that tells us more about how far South African rugby has fallen than it does about how far Italy have come, it should still give them confidence as they go up against a Welsh side which is, at the end of the day, coached by Rob Howley, a man who looks even more out of his depth in international rugby than Allister Coetzee does.
Speaking of Howley
It isn’t all bad news in the Welsh camp, though. Howley has at least had the sense to return the mighty Samson Lee to the tight head position, whilst Jake Ball will add the weight of his enormous beard to the second row in place of the injured Luke Charteris. As expected, Talupe Faletau is also unfit, so Ross Moriarty gets the gig at 8 and will have the unenviable task of trying to work out what the hell Rhys Webb is going to try and do next. Further behind the scrum, Scott Williams‘ good form means that Dr Jamie Roberts is only on the bench, whilst Liam Williams will take his patented impression of a man looking startled to find himself in the middle of a rugby match out to the left wing.
Daly’s back
Remember that bit in the autumn where England decided to play Elliot Daly out of position on the wing, only for him to get sent off after five minutes? Well, they’ve obviously decided that France need a bit of a helping hand, because they’ve picked him there again. Otherwise, the XV is entirely predictable, with Joe Launchbury replacing the injured George Kruis in the second row, Maro Itoje moving to the back row, and Teimana Harrison slated for a quick ten minutes off the bench for no apparent reason.
What’s left of France
France have had such injury problems going into this tournament that it would be easy to start feeling sorry for Guy Noves – but we caught ourselves just in time, because there really is no injury crisis too big to justify still having Scott Speddings at full back. The situation is compounded by the selection of Damian Chouly, who somehow wins a 44th cap of an international career that has seen him do absolutely nothing in 41 of the previous 43 games.
Scotland expects
After their performances in the autumn, the weight of expectation is once again on Scottish shoulders. In recent seasons that weight has been limited to ‘we don’t expect you to finish below Italy, OK’, but now there is a real thought that they could win the thing to see Vern Cotter off in style. Boldly, they’ve decided to take on the best front row in the tournament by picking the least experienced, with Allan Dell packing down alongside Fraser Brown and Zander Fagerson. For once the backs look relatively settled, which probably means that one of them will be injured or sent off within the opening ten minutes.
And finally Ireland
We had to put them last, as this is almost certainly the last time this team will find themselves at the bottom of the Six Nations pile. Losing Jonny Sexton will hurt them, but not as much as it would’ve done twelve months ago, when Paddy Jackson was still doing his impression of a man having a panic attack in a field. His club form has been superb this season and if he translates that to Murrayfield the inexperience of Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw outside of him won’t matter too much. Up front, Iain Henderson gets the start in the second row, with Ultan Dillane still condemned to a bench role as Ireland try to sort out a lineout that has been chaotic at best since Paul O’Connell retired.
The post BONUS POINTS – Six Nations Preview Edition appeared first on Blood & Mud.
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