honestly united

Yeah was thinking the likes of what was left of Scotland, England Wales and Ireland after the lions were off (so probably Scotland at full strength) then France A, Italy and all the teams from 2nd tier, Georgia, Romania, Spain, Russia, Germany and Belgium at present. I think could be a decent tournament.

The pro14 teams don't play their internationals on the current rest weeks in the 6 nations now so don't see why they would in a 7 team scenario. I'm all for some sort of euro tournament, maybe run it in lions years to begin with, and with France A, would give a fairly level playing field as a starter

I know its not the promotion relegation match yet, but Italy play Georgia during the November tests which if Georgia win in Rome will go a long way to making this happen. I agree that the promotion relegation should be every 2 years to give everyone a fair home and away balance. You could even go to 7 teams, in the same space as we have now, but everyone gets a week off. The main issue is the TV deal, as you would only be able to set it for 2 years - or longer but with break clause if you get relegated, so no guaranteed income

waiting till next year when the star wars land at hollywood studios open. Cant wait, only been a couple of years since I last went

Haven't eir got rights to all of Leinster, Munster and Connaught h&a games so premier may not want to cover them and focus on the Scottish and Welsh teams. Or they may do it on the cheap and just buy in coverage from eir / SA tv. I would be disappointed if s4c keep Welsh language coverage but alba lose theirs. Friday nights won't be the same without the warriors games on Alba. Although might pay for premier if they cover a decent amount of games Sent from my Redmi 4X using Pie and Bovril mobile app

Sounds like its more money for Pro14, but less access to games. Doesn't mention Alba which I assume is a separate contract to BBC Wales?

to be fair, a lot of the time Tom English writes what everyone else is feeling. It must be really frustrating as a journalistic and as a fan) to have your hopes built up every summer tour and autumn international (and he has written some positive columns over the years about how we have turned the corner etc), only to have them utterly crushed come the first 6 Nations game.

Im sure he has played for Irish most weeks, and probably been there player of the season. I think its more a case of Irish are now resigned to going down, Sarries have a few injuries and international call ups so win win for everyone. Irish save some cash, Sarries get cover, and Cowan gets to showcase his talents at the top of the table rather than the bottom, as I am assuming he will be moving on from Irish at the end of the season.

Feel a bit sorry for Jon Welsh dropping out, but it is pretty much back to full strength, bar (you could argue) Dickinson, Dell, Strauss, Ashe, Visser & Taylor

I thought Cowan had been in some of the recent squads? Or was that back in summer? He has been up against Barclay, Watson, hardy, Bradbury etc for a start, but I would have thought good enough to at least be in the squad

I think they are suffering from having stadiums built for the world cup, plus they were used for Superrugby, which used to get decent crowds but have dwindled recently for all the SA clubs. Pro14 crowds have been a lot worse though than superrugby. I think they hoped they could tap into to fans of other clubs going along as there is no other rugby in the winter but it hasnt worked out

i remember Barclay, Brown and Beattie getting thrown in the deep end against New Zealand in the World Cup, but came away with a lot of credit for their performance. Barclay and Brown were / are both great servants, I liked Beattie, but much like Wilson now is maybe a bit small as an international 8, and defineatly not the big ball carrier like Denton or Strauss, although may be a better fit to the team now than he was at his prime, as he had lovely hands, some great offloads from him.

I reckon the likes of White, Taylor, Blair and Lamont would all be in the squad if they were playing now. Hogg at 35 ish is still playing for Newcastle so would be there or there abouts

Scott MacLeaod was a decent 2nd row, a bit lightweight but good player. It was Kerr I was struggling with. Going back to Saturday’s glorious performance, I think its easy (and only fair) that people have been bigging up the performances from the back row and Russell and Jones. However I think one thing that has been over looked is the performances from Reid and Bergham in the front row. Given that England had approx 40kg advantage in weight, the fact we only gave away one penalty at scrums, and didn’t once take a step backwards was huge. It was one of my main concerns and we dealt with the English scrum brilliantly. Given Reid was nowhere near the squad 6 months ago, and isn’t even 1st choice at London irish who are sitting bottom of the Aviva is huge credit to him

at the moment the play offs are 2 Scottish, 2 Irish, 1 Welsh and 1 SA thats proper seethe from the Welsh and those that thought the SA's would bring nothing. Plus Ulster. Pleasing

Just realised we have Nigel Owens reffing tomorrow. I would say that lifts my level of optimism that we can get some sort of result as Owens doesn't pander to the favourites normally (unlike the majority of the Irish refs) so we should get a fairly reffed game for a change

This is a strange one, didn't the SRU pay for temporary stands to be in place for the next few years? Has there been some sort of falling out?

There was talk a few weeks ago of SRU buying Worcester also

I too used to like Ireland (the whole celtic cousins thing) but since the provinces started winning in Europe they are now insufferable. Internationally I dont really hate Wales, its more individuals like Gatland and Jonathan Davies I hate. Have a bit of a soft spot for Argentina, Georgia and Romania as basically they were (Argentina until recently) left to get on with developing the game in their countries and never allowed in to the big competitions like 6 nations and Super Rugby / Championship even though they are more than capable of competing. For all rugby goes on about it ethos of fairness and its a game for everyone, they dont have try and keep their on little boys clubs cliques together and exclude others. Same goes for the PI's etc, always love it when one of the so called Tier 2 countries beats the big boys.

Reports that Nel has been training this week with Scotland and hopefully fit for England game.

I think as things stand would be good enough segregation of teams that want to progress and those that dont / cant afford to. Club licence required for entry to LL / HL would keep those interested in playing locally only in either EoS, SoS, WoS, NCL, North / East / West Junior top league. Further up the SPFL there are already miniumum requirements so those could be kept as at present I dont think are prohibative (now the 10k all seater has been removed) Below that for entry into other levels could be set as required - ie minimum changing facilities and fenced off pitch for ammy teams wanting in at the bottom of the leagues mentioned above.

I take it you have forgotten the games he played there previously? It was horrible to watch big forwards running over the top of him for fun, he's to small to play a full match there. Plus he isn't actually that good a 10 which is why he went back to scrum half as soon Jackson came on the scene Sent from my Redmi 4X using Pie and Bovril mobile app

Not had a chance to review this years entries - im usually at least read through bio's by now at least!

Solid performance after another poor start. I think the difference today was the work rate in the forwards compared to last week. Against Wales I thought the likes of Gray and Barclay, who usually have huge games for Scotland, were fairly average, and it wasn't helped that du Preez did nothing, and Reid and Welsh, although solid in the scrums, dont get around the park as much as Fagerson / Dell / Marfo etc so the difference in defence was noticeable. On Russell Im more dissapointed that Townsend hasn't got him playing. They are / were similar players and you would have thought Townsend would be able to get the best out of him. Maybe though that is the problem that Townsend is just telling him to play and not to keep things simple. I think that we should keep Laidlaw at 9 for England game, as the difference when Price came on in terms of tempo was huge and could be just what is need if its a tight game. Will be interesting to see who is back fit, I think Marfo and Dunbar are back, maybe Fagerson so could be big changes to come.

Just watched the Glasgow game, conditions looked horrible, but still far to many dropped balls and knock ons in the forwards. Backs looked fairly good, without overly threatening. Dont think we ever looked like losing, and Dragons spent most of the 2nd half in their own 22 but we couldnt hold on to the ball long enough to get the score. And what was the carry on with the first conversion, if we had got that we would have won!