Now it begins

THE Six Nations starts today: 4.15pm Wales v Scotland; 6.45pm France v Ireland. Tomorrow: 5pm Italy v England. Normally you would be about to read a long, detailed piece on the Six Nations detailing the prospects of the teams and their final table positions, but this year’s competition is far from normal. What’s the problem? In a word: injuries.

There are so many of them that there is no way a sensible prediction can be made for Six Nations fixtures, barring perhaps the games where Italy are involved — and even then some squads are so decimated that even the hapless Italians will fancy their chances. The last time I looked (Wednesday) there were an average 10 injuries per expected match-day squad per country.

England alone have 18 players currently undergoing treatment, though their strength in depth should hopefully insulate their title chances to some extent.

Those with smaller pools to choose from will be up against it, however.

The reasons for the injury crisis are manifold, with stricter concussion protocols foremost among them, but the elephant in the room is the fact that today’s rugby players are getting bigger and stronger. We all love to see crunching tackles but I would wager that none among us would like to be on the other end of the contact from a 20-stone behemoth.

Still, we are where we are, so here’s my final table: 1 Ireland, 2 England, 3 Scotland, 4 Wales, 5 France, 6 Italy. Key games: Scotland v England, Ireland v England.

Invoking the gods

With Islam Slimani joining Mohamed Diame, Isaac Hayden, Christian Atsu and Jesus Gamez at Newcastle, I think it’s fair to say that the Toon have most of the deities covered in their battle to avoid relegation.

Quote of the week

“We’ve trained all week without a ball. We’ve just been running around chasing shadows.” Cardiff manager Neil Warnock detailing his intense preparation for Cardiff’s Cup tie with Pep Guardiola’s Citeh last weekend. He failed to mention that when practising tackling they seemingly didn’t bother with a ball either.

Sixty years ago

I used to keep my precious football programme collection in my parents’ loft. Within that collection there were some marvellous mementos of some fantastic moments in my Lilywhite-supporting life, but additionally there was one programme from a game I hadn’t even been to that I treasured in particular. That game took place at Highbury on February 1, 1958 and the score was Arsenal 4-5 Manchester United.

In those long-ago days Highbury was probably the easiest ground to get to for a noncar-owning exiled Celtic fan in Welwyn Garden City and my Dad, along with likeminded friends, often went to Highbury for their football fix. The added attraction on that particular day was the visit of the Busby Babes, who were going for their third championship on the bounce.

The game wasn’t as close as the scoreline suggests, as United raced into a three-goal lead before conserving their energy for their upcoming trip to Belgrade for their European Cup quarter-final second-leg clash with Red Star.

Five days later, having reached the semi-finals, the United team boarded their flight from Belgrade to Manchester via a refuelling stop in Munich and the rest is history.

I can’t really say whether or not hyperbole played a part, but my Dad was adamant that the Busby Babes really were as good as advertised and that Duncan Edwards was at the very least the measure of the late Dave Mackay. That comparison caught my attention big time because my Dad absolutely revered the ex-Hearts and Spurs great and wasn’t one for fanciful comparisons.

Number of the week

It’s 281: millions of pounds spent on Citeh’s defence by Pep Guardiola since he pitched up in Manchester. If Citeh were a country their defence spending would rank them 94th in the world. Thankfully they aren’t buying guns and tanks (yet), just footballers.

Team of the week

Ben Foster, West Brom; Kyle Walker, Citeh; Marcos Alonso, Chelsea; Victor Kompany, Citeh; Grzegorz Krychowiak, West Brom; Joss Labadie, Newport; Fousenni Diabate, Leicester; Demarai Gray, Leicester; Jay Rodriguez, West Brom; Will Grigg, Wigan; Eden Hazard, Chelsea. Manager: Alan Pardew, West Brom.

This week’s big footie

Today: 2.30pm Burnley v Citeh; 5pm Bournemouth v Stoke, Brighton v West Ham, Leicester v Swansea, United v Huddersfield, West Brom v Southampton; 7.30pm Arsenal v Everton. Tomorrow: 4.15pm Palace v Newcastle; 6.30pm Liverpool v Spurs. Monday: 10pm Watford v Chelsea. Big game: Liverpool v Spurs. If Spurs go in all guns blazing, Liverpool to win by two. If Spurs play on the counter then an away win is on the cards. I hope for the latter but fearfully expect the former.

And finally

Last week’s question went like this: Owen Hargreaves earned his first English caps before he ever actually played for an English club. In the Sixties another player did the same thing, playing for Hibs before joining Arsenal via Torino; name him. The player in question was Joe Baker, who was born in Liverpool of an American father and Scottish mother during WWII. Six weeks after his birth Joe and elder brother Gerry found themselves being raised in their mother’s birthplace and to all intents and purposes considered themselves Scottish.

Both of the Baker boys went on to enjoy success with Scottish clubs — Joe at Hibs and Gerry at St Mirren — but were unable to play for Scotland because of their “foreign” birthplaces. (Now anyone who can sing the first line of Ye cannae shove yer Granny aff a bus in any language qualifies.) This led to Liverpool-born Joe playing for England and New York-born Gerry playing for the US. Arch Gooner Peter Monk was first with the correct answer with wee Jimmy the Hibby (obviously arch Hibs fan), ancient Gooner Phil Lucock and arch Canary John Grundey close behind.

This week: when Joe was playing in Italy he had a fellow Brit as a team-mate in Turin, while at the same time another two Brits were making things happen in Milan. Name the three Brits.

The usually quiet and unassuming Stanley John Penn was understandably a wee bit full of himself after West Brom deservedly turfed Liverpool out of the Cup at Anfield last Saturday. Before he gets too far ahead of himself, though, it’s perhaps worth pointing out that when they last won the Cup their club nickname was the Throstles rather than the Baggies, and it was that long ago it was the first final to be broadcast in colour.

That year (1968) they beat Liverpool en route to the final, so perhaps the runes are looking good for Stan.

Guardian comment of the week — “The place [Hampden Park] has awful sight lines.” Retort: “True, if the stands faced away from the pitch, the experience would be much improved.” This was taken from a debate over whether Hampden should continue to be Scotland’s national stadium. If any sensitive Scots out there would like to take umbrage, don’t shoot the messenger.