This weekend might be all about the big one at Twickenham for Irish rugby fans, but make sure to keep an eye on events elsewhere, for the sake of your team in The Irish Times Fantasy Rugby League at least.
By this stage, all of you with even the slightest interest are already, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly like, engaging in a pre-match ritual of sit-ups and listening to inspirational music in an effort to gee yourselves up for the England game, but may we suggest that you take half an hour today to pore over the formbook so your Fantasy Rugby Team doesn’t suffer from your single-minded focus on events at Twickenham tomorrow.
That’s not to say that the meeting of Ireland won’t play a huge part in your tactical approach to Fantasy Rugby matters – it will and indeed should – and we might as well start off our preview with the biggest game of the weekend and what could turn out to be the biggest game of this year’s Six Nations.
It will be asking a lot of Ireland to repeat the 27-point average they have managed in the competition so far, but there’s still a lot of potential for big point returns for Irish players. Members of the Irish pack have been responsible for two man of the match awards so far and those two players, Jamie Heaslip and Peter O’Mahony. are playing well enough that either of them picking up another individual accolade isn’t entirely out of the question.
We’ve been banging this drum for long enough, meanwhile, but we remain convinced Paul O’Connell is going to win one man of the match award this season and what better place than Twickenham to do so?
He’s due a man of the match award, we’re sure of it
Further back the field, Jonathan Sexton is most certainly in a groove at the moment and with ten successful kicks out of 12 so far making him the highest-scorer in the competition, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to hand him the kicking duties this weekend.
On the other side, Mike Brown is the form guy with two tries and a man of the match award under his belt already and Luther Burrell will take watching after his try against Scotland. Up front, there’ll be a big emphasis on stopping the Irish back row after their influence in the opening two games so if Stuart Lancaster’s men can manage it (God forbid), then the likes of captain Chris Robshaw and Billy Vunipola could be sniffing around the valuable five points awarded for man of the match.
In the Millennium Stadium tonight, meanwhile, Wales will be on the hunt for redemption after their sterile display at the Aviva, but they’ll be up against some very much in-form players in blue jerseys.
After three conversions and three penalties Jean-Marc Doussain is an interesting alternative as kicker to the likes of Sexton, Halfpenny and Farrell, although if Wales are to atone for the Ireland defeat, you’d imagine that their kicking machine will have a big part to play.
Elsewhere, one of the stars of last year’s competition (certainly from a Fantasy Rugby perspective), Wesley Fofana, went to town against Italy with a try and a man of the match award, while gain-line breaker supreme Louis Picamoles will fancy adding to the try he scored against the Azzurri last time out.
Aside from Halfpenny, Warren Gatland will be looking to his monstrous backline to break the French spirit and George North might profit from a try or two if his move to the centre proves a success.
No offence to Scotland and Italy, but their clash in Rome on Saturday afternoon is likely to be the most meaningless from both the perspective of both the tournament and Fantasy Rugby. It’s hard to draw any other conclusion when Scotland have managed a measly average of three points per game over two games and Italy, although spirited in defeat to Wales and France, have yet to really make their mark on the competition.
Italy are deserved favourites for this one and if they do come out on top, then we would expect that their try scorers so far – Michele Campagnaro and Tomasso Iannone – as well as that man Sergio Parisse will be to the fore.
NB: Remember that with Wales playing France tonight, the deadline for making changes passes shortly before kick-off, so be sure to act fast.
