Bad news for Scotland if this is the case
Glasgow's head coach says Tuipulotu's injury is a serious one.
Tuipolotu ruled out of 6n
Jamie George has a hamstring injury
Massive pity for the tournament imo, he's so good.
BKT are now on board as a sponsor with the Men's and women's 6n
*tyre, dammit!
French squad looks seriously stacked, I think they'll take the trophy this year.
Ranking the injuries in order of importance from an Irish POV.
This is written with a bit of tongue in cheek!
1.) Charles Ollivon (OUT)
2.) Gael Fickou (Return Date v ITA 23rd Feb) TBC
3.) Jonathan Danty (Return Date v IRE 8th Mar) TBC
4.) Jamie George (OUT)
5.) Feyi-Waboso (OUT)
6.) George Furbank (OUT)
7.) Sam Underhill (OUT)
8.) Tuipulotu (OUT) Give me Bundee EVERY single day. His record v Irish sides: Played 11 Won 3 (v Con, Uls and Mun). Its Scotland.
9.) Scott Cummings (OUT)
10.) Dewi Lake (OUT)
Gatland has been shown up for what he is. They are on a record losing run of 12 successive Test matches. I think they will win the Wooden Spoon.
11.) Sam Costelloe (OUT)
Check out his replacements wiki page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Edwards
12.) Adam Beard (Return Date v IRE 8th Mar) TBC
IF Ireland beat England next week they WILL win the Triple Crown in Cardiff.
2001 6N - Wales 6 v 36 Ireland. 2025? Something similar.
Championship on the line v France.
…and then the Grand Slam v Italy!
I'm unsure how the England game could go.
Ireland and the Provinces have looked average this season, or at least below where they were over the last couple of seasons.
English injuries and home field advantage might just tip the balance.
Win that game and Ireland have a real chance of winning a Championship.
History would suggest otherwise.
It would be the 1st EVER 3-In-A-Row winner of the Championship in its 142 year history!
Tuipulotu is probably out for the rest of the season. It's a 4-5 month recovery period for a torn pec. Considering he's probably Glasgow's most important player, they'll struggle to make the latter stages of the URC without him.
He probably needed a big Six Nations/Champions Cup/URC campaign to assure a Lions spot as well. Too much competition in the centres to select him after such a long period out.
Yeah, it's a loss for Glasgow & Scotland. But it's a huge loss for Sione. A Lions Tour to the land of his birth following on from captaining his country in the 6 Nations & suddenly it's all falling apart. Feel for the guy.
Wales.....
fleeing the sinking ship
fully expect Gatland to throw anyone and everyone he can under the bus.
To be replaced by Rob Howley.
England seem to be in a spot of bother, concerns over the fitness of Mitchell also their 2nd choice scrum-half is also injured.
Looks like Frisch has been cut from the French squad.
Has an updated squad been announced? They could only keep 23 players over the weekend, presumably the original squad all come back in tomorrow. Though some will have to be released again midweek thanks to the agreement with LNR.
Here:
https://extra.ie/2025/01/27/sport/rugby/tnt-sports-six-nations-tv-rights
Not great news for 6 Nations fans in the uk
Will RTE/ whomever have rights for all the games or just the Irish ones?
Not great for anyone really. It is mind-bendingly short sighted.
All that for an estimated 10m more to split between 6 teamz
Yeah, that's pathetic. If they were doubling the fee I'd still be skeptical, but for 1.3M each union after the CVC cut it is a joke.
Can't imagine advertisers and sponsors will be happy with a massively reduced audience either
The original RugbyPass article, which the Extra.ie article is using as essentially its only source, has been heavily rewritten since it was first published and now makes clear that TNT are only at this stage “considering” a bid. The RFT hasn’t even issued yet. In other words the gun was jumped. I’d be more willing to accept bad reporting if the owners of RugbyPass weren’t none other than World Rugby.
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/tnt-sports-to-consider-six-nations-tv-deal-bid/
There is no way the 6N is going exclusively PPV.
The sport would die.
I don’t agree with subscription for sports. I don’t and never will pay for it.
If we all did that it wouldn’t be even a discussion.
It’s inevitable CVC will push for it in order to flip a profit. It’s only a question of who will stand firm. It won’t be the Welsh or the Scottish.
Surprised England are going with Curry twins.
Clearly going after the ruck as their main priority.
6-2 Split/
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jan/28/england-team-face-ireland-tom-ben-curry-marcus-smith-rugby-union-six-nations
My guess based on the above and they will target scrum and lineout from the bench
Steward; Freeman, Slade, Lawerence, Sleightholme; F.Smith, Mitchell;
Genge, Dickie, Stuart; Itoje, Martin; T.Curry, B.Curry, Earl.
Reps: Dan, Baxter, Fordjour, Chessum, Willis, Randall or van Poortvliet, M.Smith
cant see Borthwick keeping M Smith on the Bench.
Plus, id be delighted to see B Earl at 8 and not T Willis.
england name early
6-2, no center cover
Lots of hefty from the bench.
That's an impactful bench, but I wonder what England's thinking is with their starting backrow?
The smart money would be to disrupt Ireland's lineout, as most of our trys come from set piece launches off of it. The Curry's and Earl are groundhogs rather than lineout options though. Looks like they're targeting the ruck instead. New Zealand did that to great effect in November tbf.
I think this raises the stakes at 6. and 20. for Ireland.
This in an unusual approach for an English pack. Mobility over Power.
I'm pretty sure POM cant bench. He wont last more than 60mins.
Its all about balance from Lock to BR.
Should POM start this one? If it was Chessum starting I'd say 100%.
I forgot about that South fella. He's impressive.
Im leaning towards Beirne, McCarthy; Doris, vdF, Conan. 19.Ryan 20.Baird
