h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm taking part in a sort of fantasy six nations sweepstake thing but I don't know too much about who's doing well currently since I haven't been paying much attention since last six nations and only tend to watch internationals.So I thought I would ask the great minds of h2g2 to help (aka cheat).

We have to predict winners of each game and points difference (0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, or 20+) and the overall winner.

But what I need most help with is choosing 5 try scorers and 2 kickers for which I get as many points as they score.

So any suggestions?

With my very limited knowledge of rugby, I would definitely consider Peter Stringer as a try scorer, and Ronan O'Gara as a kicker.

If you want to include a French suggestion for try scorer you could do worse than either Dominici or Jauzion. They're both fairly reliable*

For kickers, I would second O'Gara and then add perhaps Stephen Jones (or is he injured at the mo?).


*Disclaimer - this reseacher accepts no responsibility if either player proceeds to play like a donkey/gets injured in the first match.

Thank you both, they sound like good suggestions to me (bearing in mind that I usually judge these things by who I've heard of!)

5 try scorers - Dominici, Horgan, O'Driscoll, Farrell, and the little welsh guy whose name I have forgotten.

2 Kickers - O'Gara and Michalak, if he's playing.

Definitely don't take Michalak as he's got a knee injury and prob won't play at least a couple of games.

I think the little welsh guy Blues was thinking of is Shane Williams, which again isn't a bad suggestion.

I would however put a bit of a health warning on Andy Farrell as a (rather frustrated) Saracens fan, he'll probably only go and break his big toe again....

Hmm, didn't know about Michalak. Whose kicking for Italy this year? They score the majority of their points through kicking and usually produce somebody up to the job.

And it was indeed Shane Williams I was thinking of.

And I hear what you say about Farrell but if he stays fit he could have a monstrous tournament - certainly better than Ian 'must keep my kit whiote' Balshaw.

Given that nearly everybody thinks the French will, in effect, be playing mix'n'match rugby, I think it would be unwise to include anyone from their team, as it doesn't seem any of them will get enough playing time to score a lot of individual points.

Cusiter might be a good bet for the Scots, but again he does come with a health warning.

Andrea Scanavacca is going to kick for Italy...

I certainly wouldn't include anyone from England - even their pundits are saying that the Irish are going to walk it....

I wouldn't say Ireland will walk it, I know they beat us today (I'm Welsh by the way and still feeling hard done by, stupid ref!!)but they didn't win by as big a margin as I thought they would!

From what everyone's been saying Ireland are infallible, but they made some really stupid mistakes today, even if they weren't yellow-carded or penalised when they should've been!

Also Wales played a lot better than last year (they couldn't get any worse! )and so I think we're in with a chance!!

We should've scored a try, one at least, but we were thwarted at every opportunity by a really good Irish defense, I hope we do better from now on and show how we can really play in the rest of the competition!!

But, for now, I'm comforting myself with a large glass of and looking forward (very hopefully!) to the next match!!

That said, I would still recommend O'Gara (like hitting a brick wall), O'Driscoll (like hitting a breeze block wall), Stringer (he's tiny but brilliant!), Stephen Jones (he's cute), Jonny Wilkinson (he's gorgeous), Shane Williams (he's beautiful & really fast on the pitch) and Scott Murray for Scotland (he's 6'6"!!)

L x

P.s. I wish hootoo would do a daffodil smiley, so much more me!! x

So Syren, cqn you update us on who you chose? And how did you do? This weekend's results were fairly predictable, but there was some good rugby to be seen...

Oh and I'm pleased that both my try scorers (Dominici and Jauzion) scored.

Now where's my lottery ticket?

I picked Stephen Jones and O'Gara as my kickers (though everyone picked O'Gara so everyone gets his points).
O'Driscoll, Dominici, D'Arcy, Andy Farrell and Kevin Morgan (Shane Williams was injured so I just picked another welshman) are my try scorers.

I predicted the first two results correctly but with the wrong score differences. Unfortunately I predicted Wales to win, and I think they were quite unlucky not to do better. (I got the right points difference for this match, but it doesn't count if you pick the wrong winner!)

So overall I'm doing ok, but not great. However I don't know how everyone else did yet, so I can't compare.

Hmm, don't pick anyone from England eh? I think we all missed a trick there as an English player scored the most individual points of the weekend...

I'd lose O'Driscoll now as well - the Irish are very doubtful he'll play next week. I'd think Johnny and Jason R might be good bets as both had a storming game against the Scots and the Italians look even worse than the Auld Enemy.

Strangely, I was going to suggest Chabal as a good outside bet. Shoulda put my money where my mouth was, eh?

And let's be honest, the Welsh weren't unlucky they were robbed by a blind ref.

I can only hope that the same blind ref has control of the France v Ireland game so Betson's habitual habit of slowing the ball in the breakdown by the expedient of lying on top of it, his crashing in from the side and frequent offside excursions don't get called either.

It would have been a very optimistic person who would have predicted JW, as let's face it, he's not had an easy ride over the last 3 years and has shown rather a propensity to getting injured whenever hee picks up a ball.

However, it goes to show that faith can sometimes be rewarded. I'm glad to see him back and I hope that it's for good this time.

Optimistic yes, but it's only fantasy...

Blues Shark - unfortunately we can't change players, you pick them for the whole tournament, so I'm hoping O'Driscoll will be ok!

As for predicting Jonny, we had almost a 50-50 split betwen those choosing him as kicker and those choosing Stephen Jones, but then I do know some optimistic englishmen!

Don't think anyone had Wilkinson down as a try scorer though which is just as well since it shouldn't have been a try.

Well unless the tournament is being played by very unusual rules, the points would still stand regardless of whether those involved think it was a try or not. The record books will record JW scored a try on his return to international rugby.

Besides, it offset the Scotland try which wasn't.

Oh, of course it still counts, I was saying that it's just as well noone had him because there probably would have been more arguments about it if they had!