Wales turn to Scotland for a bit of help catching Ireland

Key stats for the penultimate set of 2009 Six Nations fixtures

Wales’ hopes of retaining the Six Nations for the first time in thirty years were severely dented by defeat in France a fortnight ago and as a result they will be looking for favours from Scotland and England, who host Ireland and France respectively:

Italy v Wales (3pm, Saturday, BBC1)
Defeat is not an option for Wales but their last trip to Italy ended in a shock 23-20 loss while during their last Six Nations defence in 2006 they were held 18-18 at home by the Wooden Spoon regulars. Wales returned to form by thumping them 47-8 last year but the best price of 1/14 offered by Paddy Power on the away win isn’t good enough value for a team who have won just one of their last three against Italy. Another worry for Wales is that they have won just six of their last away games in the competition but they should still be too strong for a team who have lost eight of their last nine.

Scotland v Ireland (5pm, Saturday, BBC1)

Posted: March 13th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

France look to make it eight wins in a row against Ireland

Stats on all of this weekend’s Six Nations openers

With the two biggest football matches of the weekend taking place on Sunday, rugby fever could grip the nation tomorrow and the good news is that by starting off at home to Italy, England should still be in contention by the end of day one:

England v Italy
England have won all fourteen of their meetings with Italy and will be expected to do so again despite their poor recent form. On five of Italy’s last seven visits to Twickenham they have scored precisely one try. Italy have failed to score ten or more points on any of their last three trips to England and in five of their last seven meetings against them overall. Italy have always lost their opening away game of the tournament.

Ireland v France

Posted: February 6th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

New Zealand look to hand England their third home defeat in fifteen days

chickendinner’s look at the last of the autumn internationals

Almost twelve months have passed since England’s rugby team were recognised as the best British sporting team of the year at the Sports Personality of the Year awards and since then it’s all gone downhill. First they flopped once more at the Six Nations, then they were comfortably beaten in New Zealand before the recent home defeats against Australia and South Africa, the latter of which was England’s heaviest ever loss at Twickenham. Have they got a chance against the All Blacks on Saturday? Probably not. chickendinner are undeterred by that though and have scoured around to find some stats that suggest England have some hope:

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» On the last three occasions that England have lost successive games they have bounced back to win the third.

» England’s last loss by a 36 point margin or greater came against South Africa in the World Cup, from which they recovered to win four on the spin and reach the final.

Posted: November 27th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

New Zealand chase twentieth straight win over Wales

The chickendinner preview of all this weekend’s televised rugby

While Sky’s “Super Sunday” this weekend is the rather humble combination of Tottenham/Blackburn and Sunderland/West Ham, there are some big rugby internationals taking place tomorrow where you won’t find many players crying off with injuries. Here’s our guide to all the televised games:

England v South Africa
This is the first time the two nations have clashed since last year’s World Cup final and England have lost their last five encounters with the Springboks. The good news is that England have won six of their last seven collisions at Twickenham, however South Africa have won all twelve of their matches in Europe since their last defeat there.

Ireland v Argentina
Since becoming the first new nation in twelve years to reach the World Cup semi-finals last year, Argentina have been on a downward spiral, losing four of their last five. The most embarrassing of those defeats was a home defeat in June to Italy although they have also been beaten by Scotland, South Africa and France. Ireland haven’t been in great form themselves, losing five of their last six but boast a 100% home record against Los Pumas.

Posted: November 21st, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment