It seems an awfully long time ago since the last round of the Six Nations - two weeks without international rugby in a lockdown feels like an eternity.
And so to my utterly unreliable predictions for Round 3:
Italy v Ireland
There is no doubt that Franco Smith has Italy playing some decent, attractive rugby at the moment and at times they look pretty darned accomplished in possession. The problem is that defensively they cough up way too many soft tries and right now they just can't buy a win. Ireland, for all their lack of inventiveness and predicatbility, will be too strong over 80 odd minutes and should secure their first vistory of the campaign relatively comfortably.
Ireland by at least 15.
Wales v England
I predicted that Wales would lose Narrowly to Ireland. They won narrowly. I predicted that they would lose narrowly to Scotland. They won narrowly again. This time (sorry Wales) I am going for a narrow Welsh victory over an England team that appears to be stuck in a rut and lacks the wherewithall to escape the tactical straighjacket in which it finds itself. Eddie Jones has again put his faith in a number of players who are struggling for form (Luke Cowan-Dickie, for instance, must be spitting feathers). This Six Nations is increasingly looking like a lost opportunity.
Wales by 6-9.
France v Scotland
Postponed - which was inevitable once an 11th French player was declared Covid-19 positive. It was always a long shot that this Six Nations would escape disruption owing to the pandemic and so it proved. What we don't know yet is (a) the source of the original infection (and if it happened on the weekend of the Ireland game, how come no Irish players tested postive? and (b) how has the virus spread amongst the French squad given that the players are supposed to have been self-isolating for the best part ofthe last 2 weeks? As to when the fixture will be played, who knows?
