Have a read of all the notions about the Nations in the News this Noontime, including the English players having the quack before the game this weekend.
By Adrian Collins
England squad
If you’ve missed the team news today, you can grab a read of it here and here, but the big headline is that Manusamoa Tuilagi will not start against Ireland, which is good news, but he may well feature late in the game when some tired legs can’t deal with his ferocity, which could be bad news too.
That aside, there’s some quack being had by Geoff Parling and Dan Cole, who were asked about some deep, philosophical questions featuring topics such as ducks and horses, as well as equal marriage rights. Although these are some truly contentious issues, they weren’t ducking the questions.
The Crepes of Wrath
Depending on how this weekend goes, the lemon on Pancake Tuesday’s crepe-a-thon may be too bitter for some French fans. That all depends on their result against Wales of course.
Phillippe Saint-André has possibly the most French sounding name ever, and he’s been speaking about his players needing to hate their Welsh opponents this weekend, but where is this philosophy from? Could it be our own Intermission?
As Colm Meaney’s character Detective Gerry Lynch said, “My da used to say ‘hate your opponent’, ‘hate him and you’ll never give less than a hundred per-cent…that’s why I’m such an anmial man”.
Hate is a very strong word from Phillippe, can’t we just bet that all the players have a good time?
The weekend in pictures
It looks like our lads have been hard at work in training, and here’s the evidence.
Luke Fitzgerald is either practising his Simon Zebo impression or he’s decided to switch to the round ball game in order to get a cap for Ireland. Trap might pick him, you never know.
It also looks like Jamie Heaslip’s driving licence should be rescinded, he’s totally misunderstood how a steering wheel works. Cian Healy helpfully stated in a tweet that Heaslip was “getting a good hold of killer there”. No further comment needed from us then.
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