The Six Nations General Banter Thread. *Read Mod Warning. Post no.5*

IrishKev

Jaysus, is he playing on Saturday? Haven't heard the French line out

Podge_irl

Yup, in for the injured Rougerie. I already have money on him to score a try.

sock puppet

Podge_irl wrote: »

He scored two against us in the WC. He's scored 7 feckin tries against Ireland.

Almost a third of his international tries:(

Judgement Day

Podge_irl wrote: »

Yup, in for the injured Rougerie. I already have money on him to score a try.

Yep, I'll be having some of that, at 12/5 to score one try and 12/1 to score two but I'll still be expecting Ireland to win!

toomevara

Bortolami and Masi in for the eyeties against England.

PhatPiggins

Judgement Day wrote: »

Yep, I'll be having some of that, at 12/5 to score one try and 12/1 to score two but I'll still be expecting Ireland to win!

You must be expecting us to score at least 25 points then

Judgement Day

PhatPiggins wrote: »

You must be expecting us to score at least 25 points then

Three missed conversions - so 16 points will do.

toomevara

Well done L'Aquila RFC...

Heroic players help L'Aquila to find its feet.

By Peter Bills. The Independent.

Sunday, 14 February.

As England arrive in Rome to take on Italy in the Six Nations today, just 100 miles away the rugby town of L'Aquila is still recovering from the earthquake that struck 10 months ago, sending shockwaves which were felt as far away as the capital.

For the marketing and communications official for L'Aquila Rugby Club, Marco Molina, the memories of that disaster are all too fresh. Awoken by the rumbling noise, he knew what it meant; there had been several thousand foreshocks which told of impending disaster.

High in the Apennine mountains of central Italy, the capital of the Abruzzo region was no stranger to earthquakes: the last major one, in 1703, had killed 5,000 people. In the early hours of 6 April 2009, Molina was terrified for his young sons.

"It was 3.30am and the bed was dancing on the floor," he said. "I knew, there had been warning quakes. But it was still impossible to imagine this. In our apartment block, where we live on the third floor, the staircase collapsed first. So there was no way out. We had to wait, to hold on and just hope we would be alive when it ended.

"I was ready to die. I thought to myself, 'I am 40, I have had a good life. It is not important for me to live. But how can my sons, Massimo aged six and Ricardo aged three, die? They are much too young to die'."

The building was swaying in complete darkness. All around there were screams. "The earthquake lasted one minute 32 seconds and we were trapped," said Molina. "But the apartment block moved for 12 to 13 minutes. When it finally stopped we started to climb down over the broken building.

"When I got out of my house with my wife and my sons, it was like Apocalypse Now. There was a strange yellow light, a fog of dust, pieces of wall laying broken in the street, people saying nothing. The street kept moving from aftershocks because the quake is like a wave."

It is estimated that more than 300 people died. Today, L'Aquila remains a haunting, desolate place, but it is slowly finding its feet thanks to the courage and commitment to the community which members of the rugby club demonstrated that night – and continue to do.

Strong young men, such as current players Lorenzo Bocchini and Dario Pallotta, rushed to the local hospital to help. Pallotta, 25, recalls: "Just after the quake everyone ran outside to escape the crumbling buildings. As we all made for the square I heard a woman's voice calling for help. She was trapped inside her house. The collapsed staircase had blocked the front door, so I had to knock it down. The pipes were severed and the place was wet, with a dreadful smell of gas. I found an old lady there with her husband and lifted them in turn on to my shoulder to carry them outside.

"I then heard that help was needed at the main hospital, where some of the floors were about to collapse. We spread the word among our team-mates and rushed to the spot. We helped evacuate the patients and the necessary equipment. A new field hospital was set up in a nearby field.

"Our stadium became a huge camp to host evacuees," he adds. "We were exhausted and absolutely shattered, but nobody wanted to leave. Of course we could feel the aftershocks, there were several. But we stayed to do everything we could to help."

Promising young prop Lorenzo Sebastiani lost his life, one of 10 who died as their five-storey apartment block collapsed. The only reminder of it is the jagged, broken walls little more than head high. The centre of the once beautiful town is still cordoned off and guarded by the Italian army; but the long, arduous task of reconstruction has at last begun.

L'Aquila's captain, Maurizio Zaffiri, said: "The city is destroyed, but what we have now is a very big pride. After it had happened, all the citizens of L'Aquila wanted the rugby team to restart its matches. It was very important for us and our collective spirit, and was seen as a little step forward."

Is there a sense of cameraderie with other rugby clubs? "We have very big solidarity from everywhere," he grinned. "That has been very good for us, a big comfort. The spirit of Italian rugby has been shown."

gent9662

Who was the man of the match in the France Ireland game yesterday?

BoarHunter

the french TV gave Francois Trinh duc. But i think it was once again Harinordoquy in my mind.

SomeFool

BoarHunter wrote: »

the french TV gave Francois Trinh duc. But i think it was once again Harinordoquy in my mind.

Harinordoqy for me as well. Thought he had an unbelieveable game. If he wanted to come to Munster for a few seasone I wouldn't mind at all.

cruiserweight

More bad news for Scotland, Patterson and Rory Lamont are out for the rest of the championship

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/scottish/8513669.stm

toomevara

cruiserweight wrote: »

More bad news for Scotland, Patterson and Rory Lamont are out for the rest of the championship

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/scottish/8513669.stm

An absolutely disastrous outing for Scotland..never have 10 minutes cost a team so much. Psychologically, physically....hard to see them coming back from this...

cruiserweight

toomevara wrote: »

An absolutely disastrous outing for Scotland..never have 10 minutes cost a team so much. Psychologically, physically....hard to see them coming back from this...

They will have to pick it up for their next game which is arguably their biggest, away to Italy. I guess that Southwell and Max Evans will come into the team anyway, maybe either Danielli or Da Luca depending on how the shuffle the positions

danthefan

toomevara wrote: »

An absolutely disastrous outing for Scotland..never have 10 minutes cost a team so much. Psychologically, physically....hard to see them coming back from this...

I think they'll take encouragement from the game, once the initial hurt has passed. They'll know they threw away a test match but they'll also know they were good enough to go to Cardiff and win, next time in the same situation they'll have learned from yesterday and have a bit more composure.

toomevara

danthefan wrote: »

I think they'll take encouragement from the game, once the initial hurt has passed. They'll know they threw away a test match but they'll also know they were good enough to go to Cardiff and win, next time in the same situation they'll have learned from yesterday and have a bit more composure.

Yeah I guess that kind of experience will break you or make you as a team.

d'Oracle

I hate this six nations.

danthefan

Chris Patterson.
Rory Lamont.
Thom Evans.

All ruled out of the rest of the 6N. Big blow for Scotland.

d'Oracle

danthefan wrote: »

Chris Patterson.


...ruled out of the rest of the 6N.

Thats even worse.

toomevara

Phil Bennett's given us the nod for Twickers while putting the boot into England...cheers Phil....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/english/8516215.stm

toomevara

Wales' Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees and Gareth Williams all out for French game.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/8522324.stm

maherro

So's AWJ. They're going to get butchered up front

toomevara

maherro wrote: »

So's AWJ. They're going to get butchered up front

Totally agree, I think this could be a very messy afternoon for the Welsh.

Wales just have to hope France make a bollocks of it.

toomevara

Deleted User wrote: »

Wales just have to hope France make a bollocks of it.

Yeah, ultimately it is a French away game, so they could conceivably turn up, cock a Gallic snook at proceedings and get hammered....

sock puppet

Are the French squad going to be playing in the Top 14 this weekend?

BoarHunter

Yes but the players picked for the National team are not allowed to play.

Risteard

Ireland manager Declan Kidney will consider a recall for Geordan Murphy after he confirmed today that Rob Kearney will definitely miss the Six Nations meeting with England at Twickenham on Saturday week. The fullback was always likely to miss the clash with the old enemy after sustaining a knee injury against France at the weekend and he may also sit out the visit of Wales to Croke Park on March 13th.

Link

Interesting.

thomond2006

If Murphy proves his fitness, then he is the obvious choice.

myflipflops

thomond2006 wrote: »

If Murphy proves his fitness, then he is the obvious choice.

I was just discussing this with somebody and was under the impression that Geordan Murphy is injured???

If not, he's the obvious choice. If he's out, then Girvan Dempsey needs to start for me.