Coming up to my favourite time of the year as the first hints of Spring are in the air and of course the beginning of the Six Nations rugby tournament.
Last week was fairly poor in terms of predictions with only four correct resulting in a £3 loss and taking overall profits for the blog down to £34. This was mainly due to the complete unpredictability of the FA Cup which I guess has always been it's charm and attraction. It is superb for Non-League Crawley town to have moved through to the fifth round of this prestigious competition and to have gained the ultimate prize of taking on Manchester United at Old Trafford.
This week in addition to the beginning of the RBS Six Nations there is the Superbowl taking place in Dallas. The two teams competing for the top prize in the NFL are two of the best supported across the US - the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. I am predicting a narrow win for the Packers which will be a truly remarkable result as they were only the sixth seed from the NFC.
With the Rugby World Cup on the horizon later in the year this Six Nations championship is the last real chance for the top European teams to show they have what it takes to triumph in New Zealand and for players on the fringes of their national teams to prove they have what it takes to be involved later in the year. A number of the sides are having to contend with injuries to key players, not least Wales and England who meet tonight at the Millennium stadium. France are so mercurial that it is impossible to know which team will turn up on any given day, my belief is that Irish are probably 18 months past their best and are also plagued with injuries, the Scots have had some very good form in their last few matches (excluding the thrashing they received from the All Blacks) and the Italians just don't have the strength in depth needed to be successful.
As a patriotic Englishman I am keen to see them do well but have two concerns, firstly that with the injuries in the pack their lineout may suffer and the ability to win quick ball in broken play, and secondly I am still not convinced they have the right centre partnership to release an exciting back three. Having said that I think they will grind out wins over the course of the championship and therefore predict them to win the tournament but perhaps not with the elusive Grand Slam. I think the French will be their closest challengers and will probably play the most exciting rugby these next few weeks. After that it is hard to call but I'm going for the Scots in third place, the Irish fourth, the Welsh fifth and finally the Italians to pick up the Wooden Spoon.
As for this weekend's predictions my forecasts are England to triumph in Wales, Ireland to win but by less than 12 points in Italy and for France to similarly win by less than 12 against the Scots.
Injuries also seem to be the name of the game when it comes to England's cricket team with literally their whole bowling attack suffering from one niggle or another. It has been a long tour down under and I'm sure all of the team are looking forward to completing the ODI series in Perth on Sunday and getting back to the UK for a few days R&R. This series has dragged on a bit but I'm predicting England to finish on a high by triumphing on the ground where they were thoroughly outplayed in the Ashes, their only blip in that stage of the tour. What ever the outcome of the game the tour will be viewed as a huge success because of the performance in the Test matches and I'm not sure their failures in the One Day series will have too much of an effect on their capability to do well in the upcoming World Cup.
My final set of predictions relate to Barclays Premier League football. A few short weeks ago the title race was wide open with five clubs all with a shout of winning, but looking at the table it looks like that it is fast becoming a two horse race between the unbeaten Manchester United and Arsenal. It is well known that this is the time of the season when United make a surge and this season has been no different and to make it worse for the opposition their main striker, Wayne Rooney appears to be finding some form as well. Manchester City and Chelsea occupy the other two Champions League slots and unless Spurs start converting draws into wins they are going to struggle to match their fourth place finish of last season, especially as their injury woes are worsening by the day.
Before Christmas most pundits had West Ham written off as relegation certainties but over the last few weeks they have improved, made a couple of what look like being significant signings in the transfer window and therefore could get out of trouble between now and the end of the season.
Based on this information my predictions for this weekend are for Aston Villa to defeat Fulham in Birmingham, Newcastle to draw with Arsenal, Spurs to defeat Bolton at White Hart Lane, West Ham to beat Birmingham and finally in the big game of the weekend for Chelsea to draw with Liverpool, Chelsea either with or without their new record signing from Liverpool - Fernando Torres!
In summary my weekend predictions are as follows:
Superbowl
Packers to defeat the Steelers at 8/11
RBS Six Nations
England to win in Wales at 8/13
Ireland to beat Italy by 12 points or less at 7/4
France to defeat Scotland by 12 points or less at 2/1
ODI Cricket in Perth
England to beat Australia at 11/10
Barclays Premier League Football
Aston Villa to beat Fulham at Evens
Newcastle to draw with Arsenal at 3/1
Spurs to beat Bolton at 5/8
West Ham to beat Birmingham at 11/10
Chelsea to draw with Liverpool at 16/5
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