Montreal Irish Rugby Football Club 50th Anniversary

Last Saturday's results in the opening weekend of the 6 Nations Championship may have gone the way most pundits expected but the action on the field threw up plenty of surprises..
Many people had expected the Italians (tutored by former France coach Pierre Berbizier) to show their strongest form to date in this year's tournament but there was precious little in this display to suggest they have made any progress in the last five years. Men against boys would be an apt description but for Chabal - more Sasquatch than man in this metaphor.

That game was followed by Scotland getting a drubbing from the English. It's difficult to say what was the biggest shock of the game: the fact that Jonny Wilkinson could score a record number of points on his first international match in four years; the fact that an Irish referee could award JW a try when he had both feet, his bed, his pet seal and garden shed firmly planted in touch; or the fact that JW could play almost an entire match without being crippled (14 stitches to the face excluded).

Then on to Sunday and a scrappy match that could have gone either way but the Welsh gave up too many errors and the referee missed Easterby tripping Czekaj (thus giving the Welsh whining rights for years to come). Once O'Gara found his boot and D'Arcy and O'Driscoll got going the game was always heading Ireland's way.

So, onto this weekend:
Saturday, 10 February 8:30am
These early mornings are going to kill me. England host Italy and should be able to notch up an easy win: how is the fixture list arranged so that England get the two weakest teams first and at home so that the new coach can settle his team down before facing a real challenge? Jonny Wilkinson apparently believes in Karma, in which case Italy will be comfortable winners; others may place more faith in JW's left foot, in which case the point scoring machine may notch up another record tally.

Saturday, 10 February 10:30am
Two of last week's losers get a chance to put some points on the board as Wales travel to Scotland for the second match of the day. Wales will have to make fewer mistakes this week if they want to score some tries rather than gift them to the opposition. Scotland did score tries last week and have the added benefit of having the Edinburgh crowd behind them. The loser of this match could be fighting Italy for the wooden spoon at the end of the tournament. so expect plenty of heart and soul behind the ball.

Sunday, 11 February 2007 10am
For those of you who won't be in Dublin for the match the next Ireland game is on Sunday at 10am when they host France at... Croke Park. As somebody remarked this is literally going to be a whole new ball game. Even after its renovation Landsdowne Road isn't going to be this impressive and we can only hope the team will get an incredible boost from their temporary home. France snatched the title from Ireland on points difference last year so this really is going to be a huge game. The only thing bigger would be if England were playing here... Saturday, 24 February 12:30pm

As before Bill Hurley has offered us the use of the upstairs bar and the price is $10 for MIRFC members (which includes breakfast) and $5 to watch each additional match (on days when there is more than one game). Non-members will be charged twice as much and don't even get breakfast.
I will be there both days to collect membership fees and the Executive will be meeting after the Wales match for those of you that are interested in that kind of thing.
Regards
Martin Buckle
Treasurer