We’re back with the annual rugby pin stickers exercise that is the 2020 PSA Academies 6 Nations Predictions Challenge
First the line up;
Neil Marchant (2019 Challenge Position – 1st – 70pts) – after a few years of being the butt of the office jokes, the ‘simple beer drinking fan’ came out tops, riding the tide of England’s Grand Slam run. The question is has he recovered from the Rugby World Cup Final nightmare?
Cory Brown (2019 Challenge Position – 2nd – 65pts) – our resident Kiwi rugby-know-it-all couldn’t quite claw back his Xplore office mate, ruing supporting Ireland in the opening defeat at home to England. Is it the bearded genius’s turn this year?
Philippe Saint-Andre (2019 Challenge Position – 4th – 55pts) – the big chief is still waiting for his first title and with France strongly fancied by nearly everyone this year, is he going to do a ‘Neil’ on it and ride to victory off the back of his home nation’s successes?
Ian Lewis ‘Lewi’ (2017 Challenge Position – 5th – 50pts) – a solid effort by Lewi but what’s middle table irrelevance to a proud rugby man. He’ll be trying a bit harder this time!
Johne Murphy (2019 Challenge Position – 6th – 45pts) – a very poor effort by our second resident pro rugby expert. Some excuse as the 6 Nations coincides with Leinster Senior Cup time but surely Johne watches the 6 Nations too? A man on a big recovery mission.
Ben Sinclair (2019 Challenge Position – 7th – 40pts) – Ben was going great until he went off skiing and didn’t bother sending his entries. With new fatherly duties calling, this one could go either way for Ben!
Graham Ross (2019 Challenge Position – Last – 35pts) – an out of character performance for a shrewd rugby mind, who fell into the trap of believing in the power ‘Ordinary Joe’ to much. Expect a much better showing this time around.
2020 Weekly Mystery Guest – new for 2020, we are inviting a mystery guest from the wider rugby world to join us with their predictions for the week. For the opening weekend we’re delighted to welcome Nattapol Hemyoo, the Vide Chairman of the Thai RFU to the party!
Next, the 2020 6 Nations Predictions Challenge rules are simple. Each competitor needs to give us a winner prediction and winning margin (if a draw was predicted, they need to predict the total match points). It is 5 points for a correct result prediction and 5 points for a correct winning margin/total draw match points total.
The ‘expert’ with the most points at the end of the tournament is crowned the 6 Nations Predictions Challenge ‘King of the Picks’.
Saturday 1 February – Wales v Italy, 1415hrs kick off
Neil Marchant (Twitter @NeilMarchant2) – Prediction – Wales by 22 points
Cory Brown (Instagram corybrown6) – Prediction – Wales by 18 points
Philippe Saint-André (Twitter @PSaintAndre) – Prediction – Wales by 22 points
Ian Lewis (Twitter @Lewi_xplore) – Prediction – Wales by 18 points
Johne Murphy (Twitter @MurphyJohne) – Prediction – Wales by 27 points
Ben Sinclair (Instagram ben_sinclair18) – Prediction – Wales by 27 points
Graham Ross (Twitter @GrahamRoss76) – Prediction – Wales by 28 points
Mystery Guest – Nattapol Hemyoo (Instagram thailandrugbyunion) – Prediction – Wales by 25 points
Saturday 1 February – Ireland v Scotland, 1645hrs kick off
Neil Marchant – Prediction – Ireland by 8 points
Cory Brown – Prediction – Ireland by 11 points
Philippe Saint-André – Prediction – Ireland by 10 points
Ian Lewis – Prediction – Ireland by 12 points
Johne Murphy – Prediction – Ireland by 13 points
Ben Sinclair – Prediction – Ireland by 15 points
Graham Ross – Prediction – Ireland by 17 points
Mystery Guest – Nattapol Hemyoo – Prediction– Ireland by 5 points
Sunday 2 February – France v England, 1500hrs kick off
Neil Marchant – Prediction – England by 5 points
Cory Brown – Prediction – England by 8 points
Philippe Saint-André – Prediction – France by 2 points
Ian Lewis – Prediction – England by 9 points
Johne Murphy – Prediction – France by 3 points
Ben Sinclair – Prediction – England by 6 points
Graham Ross – Prediction – Draw (24-24)
Mystery Guest – Nattapol Hemyoo – Prediction – England by 15 points
Best of luck to all involved in the 2020 PSA Academies 6 Nations Predictions Challenge and enjoy the rugby wherever you are this weekend.
