Yeah…I’ll be nominating France next week
Warren Gatland has made six changes to his Wales side for the Six Nations finale against France in Paris on Saturday.
Gatland has opted for a more experienced centre partnership in George North and Nick Tompkins, with Dan Biggar resuming the fly-half role with Owen Williams dropping to the bench after starting in Italy. Louis Rees-Zammit comes in at full-back to cover the injured Liam Williams, with Leigh Halfpenny on the bench.
Former captain Alun Wyn Jones returns to the second row to partner Adam Beard, while Aaron Wainwright makes his first Wales start in a year as he lines up at No. 6 alongside Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau in the back row. Faletau will earn his 100th Wales cap this weekend.
Wales have one win under their belt from the Six Nations so far, a 29-17 victory over Italy last weekend, and face a daunting task in going head to head with in-form Les Bleus, who annihilated England 53-10 at Twickenham in round four.
France have made two changes from their win in London, with Uini Atonio returning at tighthead and Romain Taofifenua replacing the injured Paul Willemse.
France: 15. Thomas Ramos, 14. Damien Penaud, 13. Gael Fickou, 12. Jonathan Danty, 11. Ethan Dumortier, 10. Romain Ntamack, 9. Antoine Dupont (capt), 1. Cyril Baille 2. Julien Marchand 3. Uini Atonio 4. Thibaud Flament 5. Romain Taofifenua 6. Francois Cros 7. Charles Ollivon, 8. Gregory Alldritt.
Replacements: 16. Peato Mauvaka, 17. Reda Wardi, 18. Sipili Falatea, 19. Bastien Chalureau, 20. Secou Macalou, 21. Maxime Lucu, 22. Yoram Moefana, 23. Melvyn Jaminet.
Wales: 15. Louis Rees-Zammit, 14. Josh Adams, 13. George North, 12. Nick Tompkins, 11. Rio Dyer, 10. Dan Biggar, 9. Rhys Webb, 1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ken Owens (capt), 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Adam Beard, 5. Alun Wyn Jones, 6. Aaron Wainwright, 7. Justin Tipuric, 8. Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: 16. Bradley Roberts, 17. Gareth Thomas, 18. Dillon Lewis, 19. Dafydd Jenkins, 20. Tommy Reffell, 21. Tomos Williams, 22. Owen Williams, 23. Leigh Halfpenny.
All home wins and all by at least 20 points.
Scots hammer Italy by 10
France hammer Wales 20
Ireland take the game by default as England don’t turn up…again (25)
very droll
France by 50…
Scotland by 14
Ireland by 40
Reminder game one is at 1230 GMT.
And the under 20 games are tomorrow.
Wales play France in the last game of that at 2100 French time
But what’s it all in SA and Oz time?
(only joking)
Meanwhile…below the Six Nations…
This weekend…
Badajoz Ready to Host Championship Grand Finals
The big day is almost upon us when the men’s Rugby Europe Championship winners for 2023 will be crowned in the Estadio Nuevo Vivero in Badajoz, Spain.
On Sunday evening Georgia and Portugal will meet in the highly anticipated Grand Final, but before that at the same venue on the same day Romania and Spain will meet in the Bronze Final.
This match up to see who finishes third and fourth overall takes place at 5.15pm local time (4.15pm UTC) and pits the teams who finished runners-up in both Pools.
The Grand Final kicks off at 8pm local (7pm UTC) on Sunday and Pool A winners Georgia are looking to be the best team in the Championship for a sixth year running.
They are 12th in the world currently with Pool B winners Portugal 16th, so the former will start as favourites to lift the trophy, but the latter are improving all of the time.
Belgium v Poland: 12:30 pm CET: 7th Place Final (Amsterdam)
Netherlands v Germany 3 pm CET: 5th Place Final (Amsterdam)
Spain v Romania 5.15 pm CET: Bronze Final (Badajoz)
Georgia v Portugal : 8pm CET: Championship Final (Badajoz)
All games will be live-streamed on the platform – www.rugbyeurope.tv Broadcast partners will include Sportall/RugbyZone (France), Imedi and Rugby TV (Georgia), Sport TV (Portugal), Teledeporte (Spain), Ziggo (The Netherlands) and FloRugby (North America).
Great finish to the game in Murrayfield but with a bit more discipline Italy might have won.
Now for the game that that could be a bit trying…
…
Better than expected in Paris…
And Well done to Ireland.
England also made it harder than might have been expected.
Yes they only scored 41 points against us 
Yeah…but there were signs of what Gatland is trying to achieve…and that ridiculously early World Cup draw may yet serve Wales well.
Well, that’s done and dusted! Ireland was consistent and outstanding! RWC pool round is going to be tough for SA.
Womens Six Nations starts next week.
Although I can’t watch live as I’ll be out at rugby and/or cricket.
And then The Rugby Championship.
Always enjoy that.