Six Nations Weekend Roundup - It's Wide Open

With one week left to play, The Six Nations Championship (Rugby Union) is wide open. Well... kind of...

This weekend we saw three incredible, closely fought contests that all yielded unexpected results:

In Scotland, Ireland decided they had already done enough to win the tournament and therefore needn't turn up. Fortunately for them two silly Scotish mistakes gave them the penalties they needed to squeeze out the win by one point. Scotland 18 - Ireland 19.

In Italy the Sheep Shaggers (Wales) proved that they are indeed, the only people on the planet that still think the Welsh team is an international force. Italy played a hard physical game ('cause thats all they can do, lets face it) and deserved the win. there was controversy at the end when they were awarded a penalty that they could have kicked to draw the game in the dying seconds. Instead they kicked for touch to go for the win... and ran out of time.  The Welsh team have been complaining about this moment all damned weekend but the truth of the matter is that the Ref plainly said to them "You've got ten seconds left" and yet they went for the kick to touch anyway. There's no gurantee that Hook wuld have made the difficult kick anyway and whats the difference between 3 losses and one draw and four losses anyway? It's just "Painting over the cracks", as former Welsh international (and the best damned announcer in th business) said. Wales 20 - Italy 23

Then on Sunday came the big one. England vs. France and all to play for. If France had won they would have almost definitely closed out the tournament with just Scotland to play next week. Luckily the reigning World Champions finally showed a bit of what used to make them great. They played the 'no fear' style they use in the southern hemisphere, which basically means that you attack from deep in your own half and bollocks to the consequences. In David Strettle, England have found their new speed man. He is an awesome winger whose play speaks volumes; 'Just Give Me the Damned Ball' it says, 'I'll find ths Space!' A great win for England that keeps them (and unfortunately, Ireland) in the tournament. France 18 - England 26. Woot.

What does this mean for the tournament? Well its simple really... or not. There can be three winners via four different outcomes:

1. France beat Scotland by more then Ireland beat Italy. (Unlikely)

2. Ireland hammer Italy by five points more then France beat Scotland. (Likely)

3. England beat Wales by 48 points to win the tournament. (Extremely unlikely) 

4. France, Ireland and England all lose leaving France to take the tournament. Just. (If this happens I'm moving to Canada and watching golf 'til I die)

Oh and one more thing; Will everybody please shut the fuck up about England's supposed 'fly-half conundrum'? It's very simple: If Johnny Wilkinson is fit then he plays. He won us the world cup and he invigorates the entire team when he plays. He is the Talisman baby, Flood and Geraghty just don't come close.