Round 2 – Fortune Favours the Brave

In a high scoring second 6 Nations Weekend it was time to be bold.  Three home wins with double digit spreads meant decisive win forecasts were needed.

None more so than in Dublin, where a pulsating match saw Ireland give probably their best performance yet under Andy Farrell, against a French side that could not be given an inch or a second.

Jubilation and despair – the French defence contemplate another week of Sean Edwards giving out to them

Finn Russell once again gave a masterclass in Murrayfield, Scotland cruising home with the biggest win of the weekend, leaving Wales to ponder their battle against the old enemy in Cardiff next time out.

Steve Borthwick will have slept soundly Sunday night, England cruising home against Italy after a solid if unexciting first half performance.  A strong scrum and maul won the game for England, with Italy having little to show in the way of running rugby.  With canny old Jamie George using his extensive bag of front row tricks, scrum penalties will be a serious weapon in England’s armoury this season.

Leaderboard

Eoin Dennehy stays top of the table this weekend with a strong 30 point performance, but Padraig Carton has pulled him back to a 1 point gap.

“A big performance from Padraig in fairness” said Dennehy from his perch pigeon spotting atop the Ringsend chimneys.  “Next time will be the decider between us I think”.

“I need Wales to play out of their skins against England next time” said Carton from the coffee shop out in Microsoft.  “If they can do it I’m in with a good chance, but if not I’m a gonner”

Brendan Rushe, Clive Reynolds and Eimear O’Keefe are all very much in the running with 70 points plus, but don’t write any of the above off given the volatility of results yet to come.

Weekend Winners

Top score of the weekend and hence the RKD Form before Function Award goes to Daniel Smith, who scored 43 points.

“That’s great news” said Smith from his triathlon training camp.  “Looking forward to it, whatever it is”.  Smith wins an immersive weekend in post-colonial Stalinist concrete structural forms in Bellarus, or at least €200 towards it, when able to travel.

The Dornan Engineering Top Woman Award goes to Isobel Owens, and architect at RKD.  “Gosh that Post-Colonial Stalinist weekend sounds fabulous, I’ve heard they have some of the most depressing architecture in the world there, would be a great learning experience.  Delighted to win something though, anything really” said Owens from her drawing board.

She wins a weeks’ free work experience connecting cables in a difficult to reach data centre site in outer Scandinavia, or the monetary equivalent.

Team Table

The F6NF 2023 Team competition is hotting up, with Big Bad Barry taking the lead very narrowly from the Men of War – only 0.2 of a point separates them.

Wrong Direction and C’Mon the Jocks are chasing hard – see the full table on Teams.