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Pick 6

Pick 6: featuring Ireland v Argentina and much, much more

In which six of our writers answer the questions that nobody has even asked.

HERE’S HOW IT works. Every week, we choose six of the weekend’s biggest sporting events. Then we ask six of TheScore.ie’s finest minds to have their say. Come Monday, everybody looks and feels a little bit sillier than usual.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Pick 6.

Meet this week’s pickers *drumroll*:

  • Patrick McCarry: Aspiring cricketer.
  • Paul Fennessy: Applied for the Chelsea job. Was unsuccessful.
  • Hugh O’Connell: Renegade (news) master.
  • Steven O’Rourke: Foolishly revealed that his nickname is “Turkey.”
  • Ben Blake: A big fan of Pierre Emerick-Aubemayang.
  • Niall Kelly: Still hasn’t seen Goodfellas.

November Internationals: Ireland (-5) v Argentina

PMC: Ireland to win but it should be very close – I’ll back Argentina to beat the spread.

PF: Having seen the starting XV, I think Ireland will win but only just. The -5 does make it interesting though and I can see it being a very tight game, so I’ll back Argentina to lose (as strange as that sounds) by less than five points.

HOC: Ireland should do this. The importance of the game will make us rise to the occasion.

SOR: I think Ireland will win but, given how hard fought these encounters usually are, I think Argentina will beat the spread.

BB: The rest of the lads are backing Ireland to nick it by a couple of points. Sod it, I’m going with a home win by more than five.

NK: I reckon Ireland will get the job done — but only just. Argentina with the spread.

Connacht SFC Final: Ballaghadereen v St Brigid’s

PMC: Ballaghadereen are missing Andy Moran and St Brigid’s have battered their way to the final so I’ll give them my vote.

PF: St Brigid’s have been very impressive of late, with the likes of Karol Mannion and Darragh Donnelly driving them on, so I can’t see anything other than a win for the Roscommon side.

HOC: In my considered (and very much not expert) opinion, I am plucking for Ballaghadereen.

SOR: Well if you read Fintan’s preview earlier, you’d know that the big controversy here is that both teams come from Roscommon. Oh, and St Brigid’s will win.

BB: Ballaghadereen to cause an upset and put a halt to St Brigid’s three-in-a-row bid at McHale Park.

NK: Brigid’s for me please, Jeff.

Pro12: Glasgow v Leinster

PMC: Leinster to get their season back on track and record a much-needed away win against a side placed higher than them in the Pro12. Leinster have a back-row of McLaughlin, Jennings and O’Brien, and Nacewa is back while the Scots are threadbare at the moment. No Kellock, Sean Lamont or Stuart Hogg for the Scots.

PF: It’s actually a pretty impressive Leinster starting team, given the amount of players away on international duty. Then again, Glasgow have some big names back from injury/international duty and they’ve won their last six consecutive Pro12 games, so I think they’ll narrowly prevail.

HOC: Leinster in this one.

SOR: Hard to bet against Leinster being the more likely to overcome the loss key internationals so I expect a win and return to form for the Blues for me.

BB: The return of Sean O’Brien to inspire Leinster to victory.

NK: Leinster might be missing a whole bundle of internationals but the Tullow Tank Sean O’Brien returns to the back row. Destructive ball carrying ftw.

Premier League: Chelsea v Man City

PMC: No way in heck City are coming away from Stamford Bridge with a win but Chelsea are in a spiral and Rafa’s goatee will take a while to bed in. I’m going for a draw here.

PF: There’ll undoubtedly be an abundance of attacking talent on the pitch, so I suspect it’ll be a good game to watch. I don’t expect either side will be particularly cautious as a consequence, though I think they’re relatively well-matched right now, so I’m going for a score draw.

HOC: Rafa to get things going with a ‘qwalateee’ Chelsea win over Citeh. Is a FACT.

SOR: These two clubs are proof that money can’t buy you happiness. I hate to say it but a score draw looks the most likely outcome.

BB: Fancy a score draw in Rafa Benitez’s first game in charge of the Pensioners at the Bridge.

NK: The Rafalution will be televised — it’s on Sky Sports on Sunday afternoon. Get Torres on the pitch and a Chelsea win is sure to follow.

NFL: Green Bay Packers at New York Giants

PMC: Green Bay have the slightly better record this year but I’ll stick my reasonably sized neck out and siding with the Giants here. They defeated the Packers 37-20 when the sides last met in New York [in January].

PF: The Giants have been below-par lately with star Eli Manning off form, so on that basis, it’s Green Bay for me.

HOC: Green Bay.

SOR: The Giants need the win but the Packers look to be finding their form at the right time. Green Bay by 6.

BB: The Giants have been out of sorts and their poor form continued in the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals before their bye-week, but I reckon they’ll bounce back here.

NK: I’ve learned my lesson the hard way by going against Steven’s words of wisdom in the past. He says Green Bay, I say Green Bay.

X Factor: Who’ll be eliminated this week? (There’s not much going on…)

PMC: James Arthur to get a royal booting off the show after he scandalously survived last week’s elimination (my information/guess comes courtesy of these guys)

PF: To say I have an encyclopedic knowledge of X Factor would be a lie — I mainly think of it as being possibly the most common newspaper typo ever (it’s often written as ‘X-Factor’). With that in mind, I’ll go with Rylan, purely because he’s the only contestant I’ve heard of.

HOC: Ideally one of Rylan or Chris. I’ll go for Rylan, surely the luck has run out and we all want to see him do this right?

SOR: What’s an X Factor? All I know is that everyone on Twitter seems to think some guy called Rylan is rubbish so I’ll go with him.

BB: Union J for the chop. There are already far too many muck boy bands knocking about these days.

NK: Rylan to go the way of Jedward and the other novelty acts of X Factors past. See ya at the Eurovision so.