Archive for 6 Nations

RBS 6 Nations Player of the Championship – POLL NOW OPEN

The final shortlist for the official 2012 RBS Player of the Championship has been announced today with a fans’s poll open now to decide the winner.

You can vote for your winner now by clicking this link: RBS 6 Nations Player of the Championship, and voting closes at midnight on Sunday 18th March.

The short-listed players are as follows:

Wales
Triple Crown winners Wales are favourites to lift the trophy this coming Saturday and their quality across the board is reflected in the four players selected for the vote:

  • Sam Warburton
  • Dan Lydiate
  • Alex Cuthbert
  • Mike Philips

France
Despite not being in the running for the title in 2012, three players get nominated:

  • Julien Malzieu
  • Yoann Maestri
  • Imanol Harinordoquy

Ireland
Two of the Ireland squad made the list:

  • Jonathan Sexton
  • Donnacha Ryan

Scotland
In spite of being in the running for the wooden spoon, along side Italy, Scotland get two players on the list:

  • David Denton
  • Ross Rennie

 Italy
Italy’s Captain gets the nod:

  • Sergio Parisse

Notable by their absence is England – none of their players made the short-list.

Who do you think deserves to win it? There are some big names in there – choose wisely and vote here.

Under Armour roll our Exclusive Red Mouthguard for Wales as they face England at Twickenham

Under Armour, suppliers of the Welsh rugby kit, have made an exclusive mouth guard for the Wales team for their clash against England tomorrow at Twickenham.

Wales have the pressure piled high on their shoulders this weekend: a win will bag them the triple crown for 2012.

Keep an eye out for this exclusive bit of kit on the field tomorrow.

Chris Robshaw to captain England

The RFU announced yesterday that Chris Robshaw will captain England for the rest of the RBS 6 Nations.

Chris Robshaw with the Calcutta Cup 2012

They’re obviously pleased with his work against Scotland and Italy and have made the official announcement that he’ll keep the skippers role for the rest of the Tournament.

Head Coach, Stuart Lancaster, had this to say about the decision:

Chris has stepped into the role well and led a new team in two tough away fixtures. He is one of many leaders we could have chosen against Scotland and Italy but he has shown on and off the field the qualities required to captain a side. We feel it is right to make a call now that Chris will lead England for the rest of the RBS 6 Nations.

Robshaw, obviously delighted with the decision, said:

Captaining the team against Scotland was the proudest day of my life and to get the chance again against Italy was fantastic. To do so at Twickenham would be something else and I’m thankful to the coaches for giving me that opportunity and to all the lads for helping me over the last few weeks. For now I’m just focusing on training hard and helping us get ready to play a strong Welsh team.

It’ll be interesting to see how he measures up at Twickenham on the 25th when England face Wales. It should be a tough test for both the captain and the new England squad.

France vs Ireland match rescheduled for 4th March

RBS 6 Nations have announced that the France vs Ireland match, which was postponed at the weekend due to an unsafe frozen pitch, has been rescheduled for Sunday 4th March.

 

The have also announced that French and Irish fans who cannot make this new date will receive a full refund for their match tickets.

We can’t help but feel sorry for all those fans that made the trip to France only to find out at the last minute it was cancelled, but player safety is the primary concern. It’s understandable, but it would have been better planning if they made the decision sooner.

Read on for the full press release which explains how you can get a refund on your tickets.

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Wales injured players: North & Warburton back training next week

RBS 6 Nations released a press update from the WRU on the status of injured players.

 

After spraining his ankle against Scotland, George North has been going through some intense physio and hopes to return to training next week.

Both Huw Bennett and Ryan Jones  picked up injuries in their victory over Scotland – both players are getting physio and rehab and again aim to be back training next week.

Sam Warburton’s thigh injury ruled him out of the Scotland clash at the last minute, but he too is expected to be back training next week.

It’s all looking good for Wales; let’s hope they got a fully fit squad to challenge England, at Twickenham, on the 25th!

Read on for the full press release…

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Rescheduled France vs Ireland… not this weekend

The 6 Nations Council have just confirmed that the France vs Ireland match postponed on Saturday due to a frozen pitch, will NOT be rescheduled for this weekend (17, 18 or 19 Feb).

See below for the full press release… let’s see what news we get tomorrow.

 

SIX NATIONS COUNCIL UPDATE
Further to a meeting of the Six Nations Council today, we can confirm that the postponed RBS Six Nations France vs Ireland match will not take place this weekend (Feb 17/18/19).

A further meeting of the Council will take place tomorrow to hopefully resolve the issues of rescheduling and ticket policy.  There are very significant logistical issues arising from this situation, and we would wish to be in a position to give a comprehensive clarification following the meeting.

England Women storm to 43-3 victory over Italy

England Women continued their dominant form on Sunday [12 Feb 2012] with an impressive win over hosts Italy. they put 7 tries past the Hosts for a 43-3 win.

A last minute change of venue, due to freezing conditions in Milan, had the game moved to the artificial pitch at Recco. The astro-turf was a first for a 6 Nations match, but didn’t seem to bother England too much with try no. 1 coming only 6 minutes into the game.

Italy’s only 3 points came from a penalty as England went down to 14 players, with earlier try scorer Rochelle Clark sent to the sin bin.

After the match, England Head Coach Gary Street had this to say on their performance:

“We’re delighted to get another win under our belts. The performance was a mixed bag really. Some of our tries were world class and we showed some real brilliance but we also struggled a bit. We tried too hard sometimes with passes going amiss or by making simple mistakes.

“Next up we face Wales at Twickenham in two weeks’ time. We now have a week to iron out some areas of our game as we know Wales will like nothing better than inflicting a win on us on our home turf.”

That’s two strong performances in as many weeks – can they keep up their form for a Home encounter with Wales? Roll on Saturday 25th February!