In the Rugby Rebels forum

The vexed question of which team should Warren Gatland pick to play Italy is a talking point in the Welsh Message Board (WMB). RR poster “Hook”, poses this question and offers Gatland the following advice:  “I think its important we don’t make the same mistake as Gats did last year but I would make a couple of changes and give some players a chance.” His team for Italy is: Byrne, Halfpenny, Shanklin, Roberts, James, Biggar, Phillips, Jones, Williams, Warbuton, Davies, J Thomas, Jones, Rees, Gill.

HorridM takes issue and says: “I hope we put out a good team for two reasons: 1) We need to build some confidence, 2) I’m going to that game. I can’t see us putting out too weak a team, because if we win our next two games we’ll be playing for the championship, if we don’t win them we’ll need to regain some pride.

Over in the England forum, Sharks fan Tiggers says: Back to proper rugby! Dafydd James makes his home debut and Gavin Kerr starts against his former club. Jones said, “Leeds will be hard to beat. They’ve got a good set piece and they’re desperate for a win. It’s a game that a lot of things hinge on so we really need to improve our discipline in our game. Leeds showed us back in November that they are a good side, but we have trained well this week and my players are ready and prepared for the challenge.”

In another thread on the England message board: “Time to blood another no 8? Poster and England fan JNGF says: “I’m not the biggest Easter fan, but I suspect MJ will stick with him at 8. It’s just a concern that we haven’t blooded a decent more dynamic specialist No.8 alternative with not that much time before RWC 2011.  In a sense Haskell showed he had the potential to offer this in the AIs though his short term future looks more likely to be at 6 expecially as Stade don’t play him at 8 (even with Parisse injured) which is perhaps a pity for England. Narraway seems to be off the radar at the moment. Crane imo is a bit too much of an Easter tribute band, and imo not one of our two best No8s we have to pick from. ”

“I keep harping on about this but I honestly think we need to give DWS (my preference) or Dowson (a lot of folks on here’s preference) at least one starting test in the remainder of the 6 Nations (which realistically I see us finishing mid table again, given the games coming up). Perhaps its an act of faith on my part but I still think DWS (or Dowson) could add an extra dimension to England’s ball carrying (should we break free from the awful 90s style kick and chase we’ve been subjected too recently) and provide an alternative to Easter. After all the 6 and 7 slots both have at least 3 tried and tested candidates who could do a good job there, can’t say that’s the case at No.8.”

Meanwhile, in the Scotland forum they are previewing the Edinburgh v Munster game.  Switchskier says: “So the big match this weekend will be a forerunner of the upcoming Scotland – Ireland 6N match as both national sides go back to what they know best following an indifferent 5 first matches of the championship. Seriously though, probably not a good time to play Munster as they have less players than ever in the Ireland squad I think and in some cases the second string is arguably more dangerous than the first choice (fly-half?). On the other hand we should be less effected as well and shouldn’t be that far off first choice. Big opportunity for some like the centres, Chunk and Thompson to put their hands up.”

The Ireland message board has issued an official statement – at least the poster known as the Phantom has:  “Cheryl Cole is not hiding out in my gaff. Any statements to the contrary will be dealt with by my lawyers. BTW, Cheryl love, if yer reading this, PM me and I’ll give my address. I could have the missus thrown out given 30 mins notice.”

And Mao Zedong has responded to this with “The press watchdog has decided not to uphold a complaint by Serj. Wildgoose about a Daily Mail article on the sexuality of his pint. The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) received a record 0.2 complaints about the Unca Bob comment piece which was perceived by many to be homophobic and which also lambasted the state of the durty shinner’s munshter shirt The watchdog’s head said aspects of the piece were ‘extremely distasteful but, there again, so is this Wildgoose fella’.  But the PCC said it was an essential point of principle that papers could print views which might offend readers.  Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service has ruled the article did not break the law.”

But all is not bellix in the IMB – Eugene Wrayburn postulates that the Irish team vs England should be:  15. Duffy – Oh for felix jones. or Kearney. or fitzy. Or Hurley. 14. Bowe – he’s been very disappointing for me, in both attack and defence. he needs to get with his FB and support in order for them to be able to counter-attack and he needs to come off his wing more. 13. Hisself. 12. D’Arcy. he’s been in good form. i think we may need to go back to Mincer eventually because the back 3 haven’t been getting much ball and we need to move the ball wider quicker. 11. Earls- I’ll go for his better kicking ability over Trimble but only just. 10. Sexton – best 10 we have. the problem with ROG against the French apart from his missed tackle was that the french just ignored him and drifted onto D’Arcy and BOD limiting any chance we had of breaking through the middle,. knowing that the back row could mop ROG up because he was never going to get very far. 9. Reddan. TOL was awful. really bad. you could pour a pint of Guinness in the time he spent looking at the ball at the back of rucks. 1. Healy. We have no better either in the scrum or in the loose. Is he lifting Cullen? 2. Best. Change will be forced but I’d have made it anyway. It’s been a while since Fla had a really good game for Ireland and Best has been consistently excellent. 3. Court. Time to deal with the succession issues. Hayes has been a great servant but we need more dynamism and Court has good hands runs well and we didn’t lose anything in the scrum when he played thp. 4. Cullen. Our line out has been immense. it’s not been this good in a long time. It’s nice to be attacking and winning opposition ball again. 5. POC. 6. 1F. 7. Wallace. I think we’re soon coming to the point where we need to try someone else. Not because he isn’t performing, but because we don’t want the first time we do to be in a RWC. 8. Heaslip 16. Brady. 17. Hayes – Her can come on for his glorious 100.  18. DOC, if he’s fit. If not Ryan. 19. SOB. 20. TOL. Even though I’m tempted by Boss. 21. Mincer. 22. Trimble – Earls moves to FB if needs be.

And if you can understand that… Clearly Spifflicators does as he opines: “I think you’ll see Earls starting at FB and Trimble back on the wing. Maybe Shaggy as an outside bet for a bit of muscle and aggro.”

In the Latin Quarter, Tigran says of the Flannery stamp:  “We really are paranoiacs and punish Flannery for what was one of the meanest act I’ve seen in international rugby. The Irish coach feels there’s nothing wrong in it .. the french papers say he is risking from 4 weeks to 52.. What do you guys reckon ? Interestingly the chairman is Irish.” Canute responds by saying he will probably get 2 weeks, but deserves 6, which, as everyone now knows is what he got – well done Canute for letting the tribunal know what they had to do…