Previous posts
- Journey's end
- Several points to prove against Ireland
- A Roman battle and a huge game to come!
- An Azzurri adventure
- Mixed Magners results and a World Cup Sevens Victory!
- Lost in France
- 24 hours in Paris but returned empty-handed
- À Paris, mes amis!
- A tale of two cities (Cardiff and Paris!)
- Moving on up - Cardiff and the Magners Cup
- No small feat, but an aching head!
- A hat-trick against England?
- Roadblock for our fan
- Rhys Evans - Fan on the move
Six Nations Blog
An Azzurri adventure
Only two games left in the Six Nations Championship 2009!! Nooooo! Hasn't the time flown? I'm starting to worry what I'll do when it's all over!! The plan for Saturday is to get up early, watch Man U beat Liverpool then head into the centre of Cardiff to watch the rugby. I feel another long day's drinking coming on, I think - lovely!
The next team to challenge Wales is Italy. Now this is a team that hasn't had any success in the Championship so far, but has quite a good record against the Welsh in Rome. Gatland has had a comprehensive reorganisation of the team that's done so well so far, changing 9 of the players that played France a fortnight ago.
I was looking forward to seeing Dwayne Peel play, I have to say, and when I heard he'd picked up an injury that would keep him out of the rest of the Championship, I was really disappointed. The injury must be a real blow for Peel. Finally, he had a chance to show that he's the best scrum-half in Wales and compete for a place in the team that face Ireland next week. I hope we see him back soon to show Ian McGeechan what he's made of!
Since the Championship was expanded to include 6 countries instead of 5,the British and French teams have mostly expected to beat Italy easily. Lately, however, the Italians have improved, and have beaten Wales and Scotland several times. D'you remember the last time Wales lost in Rome, when the ref misled the players, and the clock had run down without the Wales team realising? I remember going nuts!!
I think Italy's the weakest team in the Championship so far, not having won a game. They look quite old-fashioned, and a little bit behind Ireland, Wales and France. The difference is that Wales - and especially France - have strength in depth throughout the squad, where as Italy depends on star players like Sergio Parisse to shine and carry the rest of the team. Although everything points to a Wales win, I'm a bit nervous. I hope all the changes don't have a negative effect on Wales' playing pattern.
In spite of my worries, I think it'll be a close game but a fairly comfortable win for Wales in the end. I'm going to predict that Wales will score 5 tries, with Mark Jones scoring for the first time in the Championship. I hope to goodness we don't lose, because I'm so looking forward to the showdown with Ireland!! I'm searching high and low for a ticket for the Ireland game, so please let me know if you've got a spare!!
Enjoy the game!
Back soon
Rhys
This blog has been translated from Welsh.