There is mixed injury news in the England camp, one Wales legend was disgusted with the performance of his countrymen, while praise has been flowing in the direction of Brian O’Driscoll since Saturday afternoon.
Manu’s back but Morgan’s out
After what went on at the weekend, anticipation is building ahead of Ireland’s clash with England on Sunday, a game that is already looking as if it might have a defining impact on this year’s Six Nations.
Much as it might pain us to admit it, England looked pretty good against Scotland on Saturday and their prospects have been boosted by the news that Manu Tuilagi is set to be available once again. His replacement, Billy Twelvetrees, played pretty well and scored a try against the Scots, but Tuilagi at his best is an absolute monster and could well be drafted straight into the starting-line up.
Number eight Ben Morgan, on the other hand, is set to miss out having hurt his ankle, which is currently encased in one of those huge, astronaut-like boots which have become all the rage these days.
Commenting on the injury situation in the England camp, Coach Stuart Lancaster said: “The last message we had about Manu was that he’s fit and available to train.
“Ben is still in a boot. The last prognosis is that he will struggle to be available for the weekend, I’ll know definitely tomorrow.
“But Manu’s coming in this afternoon. He’s available for Sunday. We’ll have a good look at him in the next couple of days.”
Take those extra few days off and give this weekend a miss, Manu, you’ll be glad of it further down the line… we promise.
Over-reaction, much?
While Irish rugby fans were given plenty to be excited about on Saturday, one should not forget the paucity of the Welsh performance in the first 50 minutes before getting carried away.
While there has, thankfully, been little evidence of a hysterical over-reaction to Ireland’s performance, our Welsh counterparts have not been shy of putting the boot into their own players for their lacklustre showing in Cardiff.
And it’s not just any old punter who’s giving out yards about the men in red, but Wales and Lions legend Barry John, who fears that his countrymen could be spanked with the wooden spoon this year.
“Embarrassing, lacklustre – any word in that category could sum up Wales’ first-half performance yesterday,” John wrote in Wales on Sunday at the weekend, words that also appeared in The Irish Times today.
“Yes, they were that bad. Wales produced an amazing recovery in the second half but if they hadn’t come with that urgency and pace the whole campaign would have collapsed on the spot.
“They had to be carefree at 30-3 but why they don’t that from the start is beyond me. Perhaps I was over-confident about my Six Nations predictions last week. I feared we could be in the second tier of the Championship this time and I wouldn’t rule out a wooden spoon.”
Ouch.
Pundits gushing in praise for BOD
Brian O’Driscoll can never receive enough plaudits as far as we’re concerned, but some of the fawning praise in the direction of the great man since Saturday is as over-the-top as the rush to write him off was before the game even started.
Take this from Greg Gowden’s column on espnscrum.com.
“After such a resourceful effort, Gatland has probably already printed out a London-Sydney airline ticket which has seat 1A assigned to O’Driscoll,” Greg writes gushingly.
“And if O’Driscoll continues to dominate over the next month and a half, they may as well get him to pilot the Lions plane to the other side of the world.”
Basically, what you’re saying Greg, is that, by dint of his brilliant performance against Wales, O’Driscoll has pretty much secured his place on the Lions party to tour Australia in the summer.
Except you make it sound as convoluted as the time Alan Partridge wanted to get a message across to a rival of his.
“Phillip Parsons, if you’re watching, in five minutes time, I will be strapped to a Wheel of Death and you will have a plate with some words and a knife and a fork,” Partridge said.
“What I’m trying to say is you’re going to eat your words.”
Plenty of pundits had plates with some words and knives and forks after BOD’s exploits this weekend.
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