That's no way to talk about your wife...
although mine left too (the wife that is- we don't have a dog).
Saw England wallop the Scots in the local pub - one of the regulars is too tight to have a TV at home but loves rugby, so is glued to the tv in the pub. He gets mighty upset when someone grabs the remote and changes channel mid-view, so nabs said remote for himself while the game is on.
What he doesnt know now (but will next week) is that any remote will turn the TV off....
I love it when a plan comes together.
Superb rugby ...
... looking forward to the France/Italy game tomorrow.
Impressed with England, although I feel all the problems came from bad decisions by Brown, the kick that set Scotlands first seemed to affect him and he made a couple of run not kick decisions in deep defence that put us under unecessary pressure as well as giving them another three points!
for punters
I used to bet on rugby semi-professionally i.e. it was a nice little earner until all the bookies had me on £5 maximum bets.
Italy were always my favourite team in the Six Nations. They had a run where on handicap betting they "won" 18 out of 20 matches, I backed them in all 20. This method in my view needs a bit more care since I stopped in 2009, because various coaches have made silly decisions which have led to big defeats - for example a match against France is not a good time to see if your number 9 can play fly half!
But the reasons for backing Italy are fundamentally unchanged, especially against the UK teams. Mug punters are never really going to be backing Italy so the folk who set the betting lines just add 4 or 5 points. So the general line today is Italy are getting a 12 point start, if I ran my hadicapping model on this match it would come up with 7 or 8 points and I'd gladly back Italy on plus 12, try for +13 or +14 nearer the kick-off as the general rule is to back the favourite ealry and the underdog late.
Well done Italia 1 thanks
, and what a good match - good to see a prop getting a try too.
Italy are not the joke they once were and the day will come when they are serious contenders
Agreed
Yep, with virtually all their squad now in either Top 14, English Premier or Pro 12 the playing standard and ability to go 80 minutes is now miles better.
Squad depth is still lacking though. The average impact of one player switch in a team's results is 0.9 points - or it was 4 years ago. With Italy, key guys like Castro and Parisse are probably more like 3 or 4 points apiece. So squad changes can massively affect their chances of winning a given match, more than the other 5 teams who have better backups.
Getting late to this - excellent 1st week
I off to Dublin tomorrow with Mrs D. Looking forward to the match, I'll be the one with a green scarf if you are looking out for me. Really looks like this could be the crucial match for the tournament.
If the rest of the mattches are up the the level of the 1st weekend's well i for one will be a happy camper.
A great afternoon
Two classic games, dog left the room with all the shouting.