I don’t want to lose money 
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Traitor! 
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Scotland 
Wales 
Ireland 
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France
Wales
Ireland
I ‘ll be at the big game on Saturday -Newport v RGC - before returning home for the minor event at HQ.
The only time I was at Twickers Wales lost to a last minute Rob Andrew drop goal!
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Wales Team
Wales team to face England: Winnett; Dyer, North, Tompkins, Adams; Lloyd, Williams; G Thomas, Dee, Assiratti, Jenkins (capt), Beard, Mann, Reffell, Wainwright.
Replacements: Elias, Domachowski, Griffin, Rowlands, Basham, Hardy, Evans, Grady.
North, 31, becomes only the fifth Welshman to play 50 championship games, following Martyn Williams, Stephen Jones, Gethin Jenkins and Alun Wyn Jones.
Full-back Cameron Winnett wins only his second cap while Josh Adams escapes punishment after being singled out by Gatland for a petulant and costly penalty against Scotland.
‘Critical’
Gatland said: "We’ve been critical and tough on ourselves this week. That first half was nowhere near the standards we expect. We simply cannot start the same way this Saturday.
"We showed in the second half against Scotland what we are capable of. Now it’s about building on that performance and playing with some tempo from the off.
"We’ve made a few changes to the starting line-up this weekend which gives opportunities to the players coming in. We need to be accurate and keep our discipline.
"This is a massive game, not only because of the history and what it means to everyone in Wales. But it’s an opportunity to get things on track a bit more.
“England are in a rebuilding phase. We’ll go there with a lot of confidence we can build on that second-half and belief.”
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So it’s a bumper rugby 
weekend! Enjoy it!
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Just in from my game and caught the end of Scotland France.
Scotland were robbed.
That final act a clear try!
Not a fan of TMO’s!
Going well at Twickers at HT.
England down to 13 at one point,the conversion incident ( interesting interpretation by the ref)
and all round a much better first half than last week.
Not pretty though
…
Shame about the second half…but that deliberate knock on ….can’t shoot yourself in the foot.
I suppose the ref, if forced to act on his own decision and linesman, could have given the try but still could have gone either way.
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My brief summary on events so far
Wales faded against England but are definitely a work in progress.
England continue to underperform but have managed two wins.
France not that great.
Italy not so good against a better Ireland side.
So the real battle is who finishes second!
And as Phil Steele puts it-Wales are top of the losing bonus point table.
For me the new rules have made every team in rugby play exactly the same game. Safety may have been improved but the game is so repetitive. Teams pick and go a million times and penalties are awarded for miniscule infringements so that no team takes any risks. It is a war of attrition where sparkling back play is discouraged because no wants to be turned over out wide or behind the gain line giving the other team short field. So teams prefer to either hit the ball up a hundred more times or engage in arial kicking duels. Similar to football(soccer) players passing the ball sideways or backwards all game for fear of being picked off. England does well because they always have a gigantic forward pack and are always good at set pieces. South Africa won the world cup because they reverted to Afrikana rugby with 7 forwards on the bench and two kicking halves.
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The 1906 Springboks were the first national team to utilise the 3–4–1 scrum formation, perfecting it by 1949 under ‘Oubaas Mark’ Markötter’s instigation, and his protégé Danie Craven.
What other Afrikaner rugby would you be referring too?
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I like watching my club side play because at our level players are smaller and we still have space to run in spectacular tries.
Which Newport are very good at!
We are on you tube live tonight.
1930 GMT.
With a watch.
Although it is likely to be hammering down.
Plastic pitch at Merthyr though.
The 2023 world cup winning team played Afrikanner style rugby forward dominance backed by two kicking halves. They used 7 forwards and only one back on the reserve bench.
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So, rugby teams almost always opt for a 5-3 or 6-2 split among their replacements on the bench.
The Boks innovated within the rules of the game with the 7-1 split in the reserves. Granted we take a calculated risk of leaving so little cover for our backs.
A bit of context around the terminology ‘Afrikaner’, locally it has negative connotations in the context of apartheid.
We have worked tirelessly to diversify our national team and we have talented players who are Boks by merit and quota. It’s a combination that is working well for our national team which is why they are so enthusiastically supported.
So, innovating with the use of a diverse bench is hardly ‘Afrikaner’ style rugby. I take umbrage to that terminology as a non-white South African.
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I am sorry you have that point of view but I still believe the win was based on Afrikanner rugby “style”. The 1995 win was an Afrikanner victory as was the 2003 win under Jake White. The 2019 win was a genuine multicultural win. But the 2023 team went back to the Afrikanner style. 7 forwards on the bench is total proof of that as the Afrikaaners dominate the forwards where as the non Afrikaaner players dominate the back three. 4 penalty goals is proof of the possession based penalty chasing style. I believe the Boks were lucky Mbongeni went off so early in the first minutes as he was regarded as a weakness by the All Blacks and was replaced by another Afrikaaner. The only other non Afrikanner on the bench was Trevor Nyakane who came on late and hardly touched the ball. These are just my points of view of a long time rugby follower.
There is one change to the starting XV that played England at Twickenham on 10 February, with Sam Costelow returning for Wales at fly half.
Among the replacements back-row Mackenzie Martin is in line to win his first senior cap this weekend and would become the 1,200th Wales men’s international.
Tight-head prop Dillon Lewis would be making his first appearance of this Championship if called on from the bench.
Gatland said: “We are excited to go out to Dublin and test ourselves against one of the leading sides in world rugby. It’s a challenge we are relishing.
“We’ve made steps in the last couple of games and now it’s about building on that, learning from those experiences and taking that into this weekend.
“It’s about continuing to work hard, looking for accuracy in our performance across 80 minutes and also keeping our discipline.”
Wales senior men’s team to play Ireland at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin in the Guinness Six Nations, Saturday 24 February KO 2.15pm GMT. Live on ITV and S4C.
15. Cameron Winnett (Cardiff Rugby – 2 caps)
14. Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby – 56 caps)
13. George North (Ospreys – 119 caps)
12. Nick Tompkins (Saracens – 34 caps)
11. Rio Dyer (Dragons – 16 caps)
10. Sam Costelow (Scarlets – 9 caps)
9. Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 55 caps)
- Gareth Thomas (Ospreys – 27 caps)
- Elliot Dee (Dragons – 48 caps)
- Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Rugby – 4 caps)
- Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs – 14 caps) Captain / Capten
- Adam Beard (Ospreys – 53 caps)
- Alex Mann (Cardiff Rugby – 2 caps)
- Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers – 15 caps)
- Aaron Wainwright (Dragons – 45 caps)
Replacements
- Ryan Elias (Scarlets – 40 caps)
- Corey Domachowski (Cardiff Rugby – 8 caps)
- Dillon Lewis (Harlequins – 54 caps)
- Will Rowlands (Racing 92 – 30 caps)
- Mackenzie Martin (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped)
- Kieran Hardy (Scarlets – 19 caps)
- Ioan Lloyd (Scarlets – 4 caps)
- Mason Grady (Cardiff Rugby – 8 caps