Six Nations 2007

A blow for France already with star fly half Frederic Michalak injured for up to four months.

I still think Wales will challenge hard in 2007 for another Grand Slam. We will have to see how a full strength Wales does against New Zealand in a few weeks time before seeing how ready they are to take on Ireland and France again.

The poll so far -

Who will win the 2007 Six Nations Championship?

Ireland - 50%
England - 33%
Wales - 16%
France - 0%
Scotland - 0%
Italy - 0%
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My predictions for the Six Nations

1) England
2) France
3) Ireland
4) Wales
5) Scotland
6) Italy

England are going through a transitional period, bringing in new, younger players. Now we're back.

From now on we'll just get stronger. The teams in the 2007 World Cup will have to beware. Once England's young team starts to mature and get more experience they'll be unstoppable like they were in 2003.

England to win the Six Nations and then to meet New Zealand in the World Cup Final which will be a closely contested game.

Ireland won't win the Six Nations. I don't think they've won it since the 1940s. Once again it'll be another false dawn for them.

The last team to do it was in the late 1940s, there was no rugby during world war two as everyone's best players were either locked up in Colditz or fighting in North Africa!!!

SIX NATIONS FACTS AND FIGURES (These include when it was also the Five Nations before Italy joined it in 2000)

NUMBER OF TIMES EACH TEAM HAS WON THE TOURNAMENT

England - 25
Wales - 23
France - 15
Scotland - 14
Ireland - 10
Italy - 0
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NUMBER OF GRANDSLAMS EACH TEAM HAS WON (i.e winning ALL the games they played in one year's tournament)

England - 12
Wales - 9
France - 8
Scotland - 3
Ireland - 1
Italy - 0
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NUMBER OF WINS OF THE TRIPLE CROWN (The triple crown only involves the 4 British teams - England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales - and a team wins the Triple Crown if they beat all the three other British teams in a tournament)

England - 23
Wales - 19
Scotland - 10
Ireland - 8
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Longest periods of time gone by for each team without winning the tournament

France - 44 years (37 tournaments: 1910-1954)
Scotland - 28 years (21 tournaments: 1938-1964)
Ireland - 22+ years (1985-present)
England - 18 years (1892-1910)
Wales - 11 years (1994-2005)
Italy - 7+ years (2000-present)
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THE YEAR IN WHICH EACH TEAM LAST WON THE TOURNAMENT

France - 2006
Wales - 2005 (Grand Slam)
England - 2003 (Grand Slam)
Scotland - 1999
Ireland - 1985
Italy - Never
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THE LAST YEAR IN WHICH THE TITLE WAS SHARED

1988 (Wales and France)
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THE LAST YEAR IN WHICH, INCREDIBLY. ALL THE TEAMS FINISHED ON EQUAL POINTS ARE SO WERE ALL DECLARED WINNERS

1973 (When it was still the Five Nations)
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Each team's stadium -

England: Twickenham, London
Ireland: Croke Park, Dublin
Scotland: Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Wales: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
France: Stade de France, Saint-Denis (near Paris)
Italy: Stadio Flaminio, Rome

The Six National Anthems each team sings before a game -

England: God Save The Queen
France: La Marseillaise
Ireland: Ireland's Call
Italy: Fratelli d'Italia
Scotland: Flower of Scotland
Wales: Hen Wlad fy Nhadau

3 weeks to go til the opening weekend!! Can't wait.

To get geared up, here are some wallpapers and screensavers from the official site.

The link I've provided is for the supporters pack, but you can select your team from the homepage and go to their respective sites.

http://www.rbs6nations.com/supporterspack.htm

Scotland training session list:

http://www.scottishrugby.org/sru/intern ... B27366B571

News update, 17 days to go!

England: Telegraph:England's way forward – and no fat fees!

Scotland:Injury headache magically turns into selection headache!

England's squad for the 2007 Six Nations Championship. New additions include Englishman/Irishman Shane Geraghty, who turned down an offer to play for Ireland to play for England instead.

England kick off their Six Nations campaign on February 3rd against Scotland.

Brian Ashton (Coach)

Alex Brown
Andy Farrell
Dan Ward-Smith
Danny Grewcock
George Chuter
Harry Ellis
Iain Balshaw
Jamie Noon
Jason Robinson
Joe Worsley
Jonny Wilkinson
Josh Lewsey
Julian White
Lee Mears
Lewis Moody
Louis Deacon
Mark Cueto
Martin Corry
Mathew Tait
Mike Catt
Mike Tindall
Paul Sackey
Perry Freshwater
Peter Richards
Phil Vickery (c)
Shane Geraghty
Shaun Perry
Steve Thompson
Tim Payne
Toby Flood
Tom Palmer
Tom Rees

Why do they call it The 6 Nation's Cup?

I mean really...

England
Scotland
Ireland
Wales

they're all just really governed by # 10 Downing.

Why don't they just call it 2 Nations and 1 Other One With a Few Teams with Slightly Different Accents?

Hell why don't we change the Memorial Cup to the 10 or even 13 Nations Cup?

*laughs softly*

Its because the United Kingdom is a Union of three nations (four arguably now that Northern Ireland has its own assembly). Ireland has been happily independent since the 1920s.

I really wouldn't say that to an Irish guy...unless you want to be thrown through a window that is

Anyway, it used to be called the "Home Nations", then France as allowed in and it became the 5 Nations. Italy was allowed in around 1999/2000 and it became the Six Nations. It isn't called the "Six Nations Cup", its just called the "Six Nations."

There are several cups that are up for grabs during this competition. The most important are:

Some random trophy you get if you come top at the end of the Six Nations
The Calcutta Cup: England vs Scotland
The Millenium Shield: England vs Ireland
The wooden spoon for the bottom placed team.

Most importantly though, teams hunt for a grand slam which is more bragging rights than any concrete trophy.

The premise is the same with the British & Irish Lions (or "British Lions" if you are old fashioned), four nations put together a dream team of Northern Hemisphere rugby to tour the south.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I did not know all that.

And, yes I was just trying to get people's goat. I was actually a little disapointed I received a polite and informative answer.

I used to work with an Irishman and a Scot. I teased them both relentlessly about being English. You can imagine what I was called back. All in good fun though.

To be fair, Rugby fans are far better than Soccer fans.

Just be prepared for loads of banter, but you could quite happily sit in the middle of a crowd of opposing team fans without any trouble at all. Heck, they'll probabbly buy you a pint or something.

Also, going into the wrong bar is not a problem either. I went to a Worcester Warriors vs Gloucester match at Gloucester's home stadium at Kingsholm. It only has a capacity of 13,000 (going to be 18,000 by 2010) but it has one of the most rowdiest crowds in all of England with the most rabid fans in a cattle shed style spectator stand known as "The Shed" (the slogan of Gloucester Rugby is "can you survive the Shed?"

Anyway, you can quite happily go to the adjoining pub to the stadium (which is obviously staunchly pro-Gloucester) in your Worcester or other visiting team jersey and the home fans won't even bat an eyelid, unless you jump the queue for the bar that is!

I wouldn't go in the Shed though...actually, Dimorien, next time Edinburgh play Gloucester at Kingsholm...go visit and book a ticket for the Shed...I'm sure the Gloucester fans would love to see a Female, Canadian Edinburgh fan in their midst

LOL Prestwick

Did you hear that Chris Paterson is thinking about NOT renewing his contract with Edinburgh next year and moving to Gloucester?