Alright folks, anyone about?

Early thoughts ahead of this weekend's Six Nations kick-off?

england dealt a big blow with manu being out for the first game, but should still have enough to beat scotland

my predictions

wales 21-20 ireland
england 22-9 scotland
italy 11-28 france

how do we reckon england will line up then on saturday in the midfield, farrell at 10? or bring flood in to 10 and play farrell at 12 and barritt at 13?

I fancy Ireland to steal it against Wales, but they won't win by any more than 3 points. England to beat Scotland and France to beat Italy.

Not sure about the line up of England yet, depends on any more injuries!

I cant go against Ireland being Irish. But my own logic is kinda giving me dirty looks!
Anyway -
Ireland 18 wales 14 going with my heart.

I fancy Scotland to take an almighty pounding from England. They are just not good enough. Will Vicer make a difference to the scots though? Ye but not enough I reckon.
England 28 - Scotland - 15

France know that beating Italy by a big margin gives them a comfort zone regarding points difference should they drop a game at some point. Don't forget they were World cup finalist recently! I reckon the will be going out there to put up a monster score and to be fair they usually do against Italy.

France 36 - Italy 18


England and France should really be going out this weekend with the mindset of we are better and we should score as much as possible. Because this year does not look like a Grand Slam year in terms of one team being massively better than the rest so points difference could be a big factor.

Ireland and Wales will probably be a straight up dog fight and with many welsh injuries it could come down to mental experience and toughness which is why i give it to Ireland by a nose. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get throttled! That said, wales could also get a throttling from us! Stranger things have happened

I think England should go with Flood, TT, JJ. Farrell is not a player to fire the backline and to be honest he would not be on my bench either. Hopefully Foden or Brown start at full-back too.
I think you rate Scotland too low Ding, although I feel England will win it won't be easy. I can see Scotland beating one of Wales or Ireland at home too.

goode has to start at 15 for me, he's been superb all autumn at full back, foden at 11 and ashton at 14 for me

I think England have a better chance this weekend of getting their points difference up, as they're at home and although I expect France to win it's always a disadvantage playing away.

Who does everyone reckon the top points scorer will be from each team and overall?

RKW to answer your question. The Fly half of each team will score the most mate.

Top Try scorer for each team, i think is the question you meant. My guesses below. (total guesses to be honest)

Scotland - Vicer
Ireland - Zebo

England - Tuilagi (spelling) even though he misses the first game i still reckon he will score more trys than his team mates.

France - No idea! Don't even know what team is gonna rock up yet. They are always a mystery and they never select who you think they will. But i bet who ever scores more trys for france he will be within the forward. 1 - 8

Italy - Im gonna take a punt on captain fantastic Parrise

Wales - North again i think he might miss the opener, but he's got it all that guy and will score a few for sure.

Top scorer for the whole tournament?
I'm going to take a Punt on Simon Zebo for Ireland. He's just hit electric form lately and can't stop scoring. First major year for him in an irish shirt also so his tail will be up. Maybe, possibly... ah who the hell knows.

DingBatMan - I knew that I suppose my main question was who was going to score the most points overall.

Is that your non-bias prediction of Zebo for top points scorer?

Honestly it is non biased. Hes on fire at the moment.
The top scorer is still gonna be a fly half and in that case who has the best kicking percentage? Thats gonna be your top scorer

Think I fancy Tuilagi - like you said he misses the first game but I reckon England are going to win the tournament this year and he'll play a key part.

Only a couple of days to go until we kick-off now.

RKW i wouldn't have any argument with that call either. He's certainly got what it takes to score more trys than anyone in less games :D

Saturday's line-ups announced from the four nations competing.

Reactions people?

RKW

Very happy with England's line up not seen the others yet but will take a look

Wales v Ireland line ups: http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/matchcentre/7991.php?section=lineups&fixid=153764

England v Scotland line ups: http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/matchcentre/7991.php?section=lineups&fixid=153765

Italy v France (Sunday) line ups: http://www.rbs6nations.com/en/matchcentre/7991.php?section=lineups&fixid=153766

is tommy bowe injured?

Yes Mex' he's injured long term. But not as big a loss as you might think. Zebo and Gilroy are epic finishers. But defensively.... Well that's another story

DingBatMan - you confident ahead of tomorrow then. No gimmick that opening fixture at the Millennium Stadium.

ill be doing match threads for both games tomorrow so pop along and comment if you want cant promise a thread for every game but will do one for all the england games for certain

Why not discuss on here?

well its more of a general discussion thread on here isnt it?

Bit of both mate, general discussion and match discussion.

Thought it would save multiple threads etc. If you're doing threads though it's up to you, I'll be sure to pop along if you do.

ill leave the rest of the games then, ill just do the england games wales v ireland should be an absolute cracker to kick off with tomorrow