Six Nations 2023 General Discussion

Varney and Allan cost Italy the game today - France weren't properly tuned in and were there for the taking. Surely Italy can find a better scrum half than Varney in the short term - he's a 21 year old Welsh lad who, presumably, Wales took a pass on.

The French win might have been better from an Irish point of view though, I'm sure they'll be much improved next week either way, but the last thing we needed was them turning up in Dublin desperate to prove a point after losing to Italy.

To be fair I think Gatland had Wales as fired up as it was possible for that bunch of geriatrics to be. They were just nowhere near good enough.

I have a feeling today's game may be rewritten by the end of the year as one of those nonsensical turning point stories - "we were one missed tackle away from disaster against Italy in February, but we've won the World Cup in October" kind of things.

For the purist this was awful but it was an exciting spectacle on the television. Getting away from a less than less than stellar French performance, Italy were playing some of the best football that I've ever seen them out of them.

The forwards worked hard all day; there was a lot of decisive carries with the set pieces being solid platforms throughout. The backs backed themselves way more than they normally do and regularly caused a lot of hassle for the French without having had specific moments of saucers. And although they had several instances of kick away, this was happening after several phases of play and mainly to to try for position as distinct to them hitting the wall.

Yes, there were several instances of imbalance at half back but this is a younger team and they'll surely take that over years of imbalance from a 15 drawn from club journeymen in the European game. I hope that they are playing like this in late March as much for the sake of entertainment as anything but certainly it is abundantly clear that Italian investment into things behind the scenes are bearing rather rich fruit.

after questioning ther worthiness in the 6 Nations only a couple of years ago, delighted now Italy have stepped up, making such progress at 20s too - very unlucky today , but in 2 short years now add so much to tournament

We tanked in the 6 nations in 2019 and it didn’t help us much.

Looks like Gatland's Plan A for 2023 - drag one more year out of the old guard - is already in the bin after one game. A combined 15 caps across the starting back row for this weekend's game with Scotland and a two cap international in for AWJ. Is this going to be like Ireland v Scotland 2000 where he gave a new generation of quality Irish players their chance on the big stage, or is it just pure panic due to Wales not having the quality needed regardless of who they pick in the forwards?

Wales team v Scotland

15. Liam Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 82 caps), 14. Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby – 45 caps), 13. George North (Ospreys – 110 caps), 12. Joe Hawkins (Ospreys – 2 caps), 11. Rio Dyer (Dragons – 4 caps), 10. Dan Biggar (Toulon – 104 caps), 9. Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 41 caps), 1. Wyn Jones (Scarlets – 45 caps), 2. Ken Owens (Scarlets – 87 caps) captain, 3. Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Rugby – 46 caps), 4. Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs – 2 caps), 5. Adam Beard (Ospreys – 42 caps), 6. Christ Tshiunza (Exeter Chiefs – 3 caps), 7. Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers – 5 caps), 8. Jac Morgan (Ospreys – 7 caps).

Replacements: 16. Scott Baldwin (Ospreys – 35 caps), 17. Rhys Carre (Cardiff Rugby – 18 caps), 18. Leon Brown (Dragons – 22 caps), 19. Rhys Davies (Ospreys – uncapped), 20. Taulupe Faletau (Cardiff Rugby – 96 caps), 21. Rhys Webb (Ospreys – 37 caps), 22. Rhys Patchell (Scarlets – 21 caps), 23. Alex Cuthbert (Ospreys – 56 caps).

He tells a brilliant story about it here:

Is Ford injured?