UKC

I'm looking forward to the 2021 Six Nations starting this afternoon. 2 fine games to start with. Wales v Ireland I've got Ireland down to win by 7 to 10.

England v Scotland should be a classic.  England undercooked and missing some experience in the pack and Scotland with lots of attacking flair but can their forwards win enough ball? Tense!!

It'll be interesting to see how all the teams fare, especially with the lack of crowd making home-ground advantage much less of a factor.

Watching the football (for reference only of course), it certainly seems more 'upsets' happen.

The Autumn Nations cup didn't seem to be badly affected by a lack of crowds. I think all the games were played behind closed doors apart from the final when 2000 fans were allowed to attend at Twickenham. I'm just hoping for less kicking and more running (and an England grand slam!!)

Depends if Finn Russell has one of his world class basically unplayable days or one of those ones where he throws a few interception passes.

Scotland's last few wins against England (all at Murrayfield) have come from winning the backrow battle but having Wilson in for England gives them someone who does the hard, boring, unseen work and let's Curry do what he does best. Curry up against Hamish Watson is going to be a cracker of a battle!

England to just have a bit too much upfront for Scotland today I think.

couldn't agree more I can see curry having an MOM performance this afternoon...

Dreadful weather so I can see England putting in EVEN more kicks than usual. 

Yep, my fear is Scotland losing the battle up front. Scotland have to start well and get some parity in the scrum. If they can do that... 

Zander Fagerson has really improved in that over the last year so fingers crossed for parity. Lineout with a new hooker might be a problem though. Going to be a long day for Scotland if they get stuffed at the set piece.

Backrow and second row look pretty even although I'm yet to be convinced by any of the Scottish contenders for No.8, no one has really nailed down the starting spot. Hopefully Graham will do so this tournament, he's been excellent for Newcastle so far this season.

Excited to see Redpath and Lawrence line up opposite each other, both good prospects but totally different styles of 12.

Seeing the players socially distanced for the anthems seems a bit pointless given that they'll all be rucking and scrummaging together in 5 minutes!

Would prefer they played some decent recordings of crowds or choirs singing the anthems. Hearing 15 men mumble along in an empty stadium while being drowned out by a single bagpiper makes the anthems a bit lacklustre and anticlimactic.

Scotland winning comfortably at the moment. England leaking penalties left right and centre. Poor discipline will cost them this game if there isn't a rapid change in performance. 

Very lucky to be within 2 points. Still every chance of winning this, but outplayed for 35 mins 

Winning comfortably but not scoring freely. England look dangerous the couple of times they've managed to keep hold of the ball in the opposition's half. Agreed the penalty count is terrible, great pressure from Scotland to force a lot of those.

First 10 minutes of this 2nd half should be interesting, been a riveting watch so far!

Cameron Redpath has had a great game so far, fingers crossed he can keep it going.

Indeed. I can't help feeling the game will be different in the last 20 mins and England will turn the tide then. 

Let's see! The Scots have been very impressive.

Impressive opening 5 minutes from Scotland.

Edit: impressive opening 13 minutes.

Would help if England could stop aimlessly kicking all their possession away. Hogg and Russell are on fire at returning those kicks with interest today.

Yeah we’ll have to see if Ford can give them some shape, or Lawes give them some go forward. 

Very impressive. Englands backs have been poor, particularly the full back. Still leaking penalties. 25 minutes to go and its Scotlands to lose.

I'm a big Jamie George fan, solid and dependable but Dan Robson brings and extra challenge for the Scottish pack.

The heads seem to be dropping for the white shirts here.

Russell is playing really well and I can't see Hogg making any errors today.

I think Ford's coming on too late here. 

England have been poor all game. 2nd best at the set piece, 2nd best at the breakdown and 2nd best in the loose. Scotland would be out of sight if they had nailed their kicks.

My prediction of England's forwards just having the edge today has been well and truly torn to bits by the whole Scottish pack. Herculean effort so far.

Still only one score in it, proper nail biter.

Well done Scotland. Deserved winners.

England have been well and truly blown away by Scotland today. 

Not so much a case of England's being poor as Scotland being great for me. Seen this performance from them at Murrayfield but not at Twickenham for a lot of years.

well played Scotland. totally deserved. 
This England team is full of athletes but short on rugby brains. 

Scotland were very good but England were very poor. England backs and forwards went missing for large parts of the game and Scotland deserve all the credit they get. Hogg was every bit as good as Daly was bad. Shame the fans couldn't have been there to witness it.

Agree. Speaking as an Englishman a very well deserved win for Scotland. Given the way the game went it would have been a travesty if England had picnhed it at the end.

Well done Scotland.

Dave

Dear Eddie ,

FGIRUY !

Could be a very open 6 nations competition this year, apart from Italy that is!

Pretty hard to do much when you're losing the collisions all the time. Felt a bit like watching England smash NZ off the park in the last world cup. 

Absolutely.

Totally agree, it's great to out muscle teams but you need something for when that's not happening (beyond hoping for a Johnny May length of the field special).

Can't take anything away from Scotland today, immense performance.

Nice touch letting the 2 new caps lift the trophy first

Called it - big upset. Just saying!

Eddie looks a bit shell shocked. Bless him.

at least he had the script ready from the world cup!

Really gritty match - type 2 fun for an England fan - Hogg and Russell in with a heavy pencil for the lions?

Hogg, Zander Fagerson and Johnny Gray I'd think, Russell needs a few more games like that without any major crazy decisions to be in contention.

Hogg a certainty 

As an England fan I have to say Scotland were awesome and played us off the park. Fantastic performance 

yes - an Itoje/Gray second row is a tempting prospect - it would be great to have decent Scottish presence in this years squad - they have been largely absent for too long.

I think Liam Williams has been the best British fullback for the past few years. But Hogg had a great game, and Williams can play on the wing too.

Well done Scotland. England woeful. 

yes, Williams and Hogg should be on the plane - Elliot daly is the conundrum - gifted enough in the back three to make it into the lions team, but seems fairly ineffective for England at fullback - a failed experiment?

Would have been a good day to have Little Jack playing.

Hamish Watson should be going as well, bet he won't though. Always good, often outstanding, and constantly underrated outside Scotland.

I know France were only playing Italy but they seem to be playing a different game to Scotland & England. Ireland or Wales are going to have to produce something special to convince me France won't win the GS

agree - he has been great for a few years and should have gone last time around.

shit hair though.

Well that was a fast end to dry February. Still shaking from the last 15 minutes. Brilliant, brilliant game.

I dearly hope they do win it. For the first time this century France is playing with the Gallic flair of old. And I love it. If there’s a better player on the planet than Dupont, then I haven’t seen him. He was ridiculously good today.

100%. Watson is absolute class and must be a nightmare to play against.

Sounds like he's head and shoulders above everyone else.

Are we overreacting, here?

ONE good game from Scotland; and (let's be honest) a narrow win over a mis-firing England team, and the Lions test side is now full of Scots! 

It'd be worth bearing in mind:

The England players hadn't had a game in 7 weeks  Some of them aren't even playing in the premiership.

They don't have an attack coach - he's marooned in Australia because of Covid.

5 of the English first choice forwards and 2 of their first choice backs are unavailable. Some of yeaterdays team were 3rd choice! 

Scotland were almost bound to win, weren't they? 

Well I think people have suggested 4? Hogg has been a consistent tourist, Watson is very good - but obviously a crowded field, Gray is excellent -same comment applies re competition...

the fact that we can talk in terms of Scotland providing so many Lions really does reflect the development in there squad. They are the smallest of the 4 nations in rugby terms, and have done really well in the last year or so.

Yes, because suggesting 4 Scotland players who have been consistently good for a few years make the Lions squad is definitely overreacting.

Anyone else find Rugby a bit boring nowadays ?? Incessant box kicking, scrum feeding, scrum restarts, nearly always resulting in scrum penalties, no real contest in the line-outs. One out runners, Very little in the way of attacking play, more a case of letting the opposition have the ball and hope they mess it up. 

Are the players too fit now ?? We used to get space opening up later in the game when tiredness started to creep in. Now we just change half the team and carry on.

I watched both the Leicester and England game yesterday, and whilst the Leicester game was ok, there still wasn't much in the way of exiting play.

Guess I'll add that despite the west coast isles user name I'm English and an England fan but i do like seeing good rugby whoever the team is, so I didn't enjoy the result yesterday but I enjoyed the Scottish performance.

England have had the problem of going into their shells if the game doesn't go well in the first 20 minutes or so and struggling to get going, especially if they get matched up front. Happened in the world cup final, happened in Paris last 6N and happened again yesterday. Don't think it matters who England were missing because it's a team problem not down to individual players. 

Anyway, hopefully they can learn from this and improve. Really looking forward to Wales Ireland later.

It's been this way for a good few years now, not only players very very fit but defences incredibly well drilled and organised. 

The answer that gets thrown up regularly is to limit substitutes to injury only but as the game is pro that would be open to constant abuse from players faking injury (or being pressured to fake injury by coaches etc). 

Making the pitch bigger could work but that's not really an option in a lot of stadiums.

Actually applying the rules that already exist regards scrum feeds, keeping the ball in rucks for too long, offsides etc would help.

I think they should chuck an extra ball on every now and again and play with two. LOL.

Agree, he rarely puts a foot wrong, is often in the right place at the right time and just gets on with his job, a good very reliable player.

Dave

I agree with all that plus on field lack of discipline gifts possession to the opposition. Sometimes you have to concede a penalty but probably half of Englands penalties were avoidable.