Better than the world cup?

I know that in most sports a six team competition might not seem that exciting but for whatever reason it just works in rugby,

I think that it's the closeness of the teams. The historic rivalries and the compeditive nature of the games that makes it so special.

Coming into any six nations tournament we never have a clue which team is going to win it.

5 of the teams competing for the six nations are in the world top ten with Ireland sitting pretty at the number one spot right now.

But that means nothing to these teams. They will all think that they could win out the tournament bar Italy.

Wales V Ireland.

On paper this should be irelands win all day long. They have a great team, a fantasitc run of form, the clubs are flying high in Europe and yet wales won't care in the slightest. You can bet the Warren Gatland will have them fully fired up in a charged atmoshere in Cardiff. It always is.

I will still back Ireland as the Welsh are not in the best run of form at the moment but i do think that it's going to be a hard fought battle and that Wales are going to come out for the match with every intention of knocking the Irish down a peg or two. They won't like to see us at the top of the pile and will make sure that the team know it.

England V Scotland.

Again on paper England have a hugely superior record against the Scots. They have dominated these meetings over the past 20 years and especially at home so my money has to go with the old enemy.

With that said these two always produce a hugely entertaining game and scotland have been able to match England over the past few years, even winning the last two games between them. It doesn't change my mind but there is the potential for a big upset.

Italy V France.

While Italy tend to make life tough for their home matches, this one is never in doubt. France are just too good to lose to Italy this weekend and it's as close to a banker as you can get. It might take a while to break down the stubborn Italian defense but ove rthe course of the match and with the huge French forward line at some stage that resistence will break. And when it does there is no coming back from it.

My biggest problem for the weekend is finding the time to watch all of the sport thats on. My parents are calling up today so hopefully i can pass the kids over to my mam for some quality time. Then myself and dad will be able to watch the first match together. After that I will have to briibe the kids with something good for enough time to watch the brits take on the scots. 'll make it work.