RUGBY: The Six Nations is upon us once again. Hurrah! In fact, the first match kicked off last night – which makes it rather awkward for us to do a preview.
Still talking about things we’re not quite sure about is what BBM does best, so we can at least ignore the England and Wales game to talk about the rest of the matches this weekend. Last year’s runners-up Ireland face Italy in Rome tonight (Saturday).
A cursory glance suggests Ireland should trash the perennial wooden-spooners, but it might be quite that straightforward as the Irish have an injury list that would make Darren Anderton wince. As a result, Italy have a fighting chance (and fighting’s what they do best) to spring a shock in the competitions opening round.
Later on, Scotland take on reigning champions France in Paris. Another cursory glance suggests France should piss all over the Scotch… and that’s pretty much what’s going to happen. Scotland are still only slightly better than Italy – although their hilarious beating of the Springboks in November should give them some much-needed confidence going into this clash.
Of course the big elephant in the room for this year’s tournament is the fact it’s a World Cup year and despite what everyone’s saying, it’s clearly going to be a major distraction.
“I think the World Cup will be pretty far back in [everyone’s] minds. It will certainly be pretty far back in mine,” lied Scotland’s Nathan Hines. “All we are worried about is the Six Nations campaign and getting off on the right foot.”
