Hello and welcome to a hastily-created blog to serve former followers of AoD and any other random rugby union fanatics as well.
Now that rugby season is upon us, it seemed intolerable not to have somewhere to share our pain, our hopes and our squabbles.
Please pile in BTL! There will no doubt be much tinkering with the site. Suggestions for improvements are welcome but may be discarded out of hand. We do not possess Sag-like wizardry.
thaumaturge
Ovally Balls 
Lots of anger that Anscombe didn’t come off immediately after his knee was hurt.
With a torn ACL it probably wouldn’t have made any difference in the end, once it’s buggered, it’s buggered. You can often ‘run it off’ and even keep playing, but it’ll swell up and hurt like fu*k after a while.
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Is Ruaridh McConnochie any good? Could he get into the Scotland team?
If not, that’s…. A bit…. Worrying.
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@Expro – speaking of which, how’re your ailments?
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And where is Cat? There is so much Bloodborne to cover.
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Afternoon all! If you can tear yourselves away from the England centres debate for a moment or two, you’ll find a very happy Bok supporter lurking amongst you. No, not AVS, although he’s doubtless thrilled at some competition being reinjected into the RC, or FD, who’s side likes to call themselves Green and Gold despite playing in yellow.
My take on the weekend’s matches – Aus were sublime, but the ABs were abject at the same time. Tame, timid and strangely unable to react to the situation on the field. Read seems to be past his sublime best and is now just very, very good, whilst the props look ponderous and not much up to scrummaging. 2nd row will be better if Retallick makes it back in time, but not much depth there either. Is Mo’unga really the best they can do at 10? Aussies seem to have clicked at just the right time, but it’ll all be meaningless unless they can man up at Eden Park and repeat the dose.
Boks really surprised me with the drubbing they handed Argentina. Thought it would be closer, but I’m glad we’re seeing real depth in most positions, bar the centres, which I described as akin to Vogon poetry on ‘Bru. We seem to have good depth in most areas of the pack, although there is some concern that when Siya Kolisi comes back, it’ll unbalance the loose trio. Still not electric on attack, but decent on defence – 15, 16 and 13 conceded this 4N.
Not sure what to say about Ireland, they did what was expected of them, with a largely reserve side from what I gather, but still looked comfortable enough. England really look like they’re going to be a handful this time, with good depth in the tight five and loosies, if Big Billy stays fit, whilst they’ve got some fabulous gas, erm, behind.
Wales weren’t at the party, neither were Italy in their match and Argentina’s fabulous run to the Super Rugby Final shows the difference between club and country stuff.
Finally – a huge thanks to Thaum for setting this up!
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@Craigs
Missed my MRI as went to Turkey.
There is still some limited movement, pain and instability but I am running again (actually nailed a 21 minute 5k last week).
I am banned from RL for nine months*, so focusing on other sports.
That thug who threw his missus over a hedge then battered my club captain back in April managed to get his ban overturned** on appeal and deliberately joined our bitter rival, played against us in the final, and when they fluked a last minute win he spent some time gloating, waving and kissing his medal, taunting us on social media etc.
As a recently resigned official I still had access to the main social media account of the sport here and made a satirical post about him and those rotters that managed to be offensive and true. Caused a bit of a shitstorm so I’m banned, sacked from all boards and team roles etc.
**actually the appeal panel just said the ban should be ‘reduced’ as there were some procedural errors in its imposition, and the local management of the game then inexplicably reduced their original 18 month ban to 3.
I stand by my actions 100%.
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@Deebee
I thought Read was getting away with murder at the breakdown on Saturday. Seemed to join every ruck from the side while off his feet.
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@Craigsman
I’m not changing my Gravatar again!
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@Expro – it’s funny how things take longer and longer to heal. I fucked my shoulder up at the gym about 6 weeks ago. It still hurts.
I’m glad you’ve gone out in a blaze of glory though. No bridges spared etc. 😂
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Don’t even know if McConnochie is SQ although his name hints at some kind of ancestry. Anyhoo he’s never been interested in anything apart from England as far as I’m aware.
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No true Scotsman!!!
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Test reply post
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News for Scottish domestic rugby fans (yes, yes all 3 of them) super 6 is to be televised on’t beeb, one match per weekend.
‘The competition involves Ayrshire Bulls, Southern Knights, Boroughmuir Bears, Watsonians, Stirling County and Heriot.’
For the curious, the southern knights are, in fact, Melrose. Some marketeer somewhere needs shot.
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Apparently Smoochie is quite good and has 7s experience. So I’m largely sanguine.
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Smoochie or Coochie…
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FYI: this is what happens on the iOS WordPress app when you press reply: https://imgur.com/aWyqJM3
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First day of the new school session today! So nice to see all the enthusiastic, happy faces of the newbies, and the slightly cynical expressions of the old hands.
No doubt it’ll be the same when the kids start on Wednesday….
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I hope the Patch isn’t wetting himself about the opportunity before him.
Time for The Priest? What a story that would be.
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At least in my mind.
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Talking of injuries, I’m currently sidelined from riding my bike to work due to bone spurs in my neck? Would love to claim it’s a rugby injury but my last outing at hooker was about 18 years ago.
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IKS! How are you, you old bugger! I’ve missed sharing my excellent musical taste with you…..
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Well, you lot have been busy while I was slaving away down t’pit today! Great to see so many have found us already.
For those of you who can’t access the blog from work, is that the case with all WordPress blogs, or is it just this one? Perhaps putting balls in the title wasn’t a great idea, but I had to think of something fast….
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BB! I’ve missed your musical interludes too. All those hours to fill before the needle finally bumps in the groove at the end of side one.
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Well I’ve got to do something while waiting for you to finish feeding every duck in Germany.
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@Thaumaturge You had to think of something fast and so you thought of balls… If that’s who you are, that’s who you are!
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This might be for BB, or the ducks:
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Dab – ha, but of course they’re ovally balls, which sounds like ovary balls, which amused me. Yes, I’m easily amused.
Thinking of a rugby-themed name that wasn’t already taken was taxing.
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Rugby is fine but golf (while Cat isn’t here yet) can be too.
I’ve been lucky enough to qualify for our annual match vs the British press. It will take place in Carnoustie from Sept 30 to Oct 2. Probably too hard a course for me, but hey!
With a couple of friends I’m going to fly in earlier or out later, or both so as to play on a few courses around Edinburgh (Gullane, North Berthwick, etc…), before or after our little Wryter Cup.
I wonder if some Scottish AoDers play the game and would be interested to meet us.
Let me know and get my email from Brookter.
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testing……………………
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wheyhey!
logged in yesterday under wrong name – got it right now!
thanks again Thaum (ovaryballs)
Cole over Williams – wonder why?
And ‘hello’ to all old friends……………………..
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Ovaries and balls of course serve the same function: storing the seed. It’s just that women more sensibly do this inside the body, making the ovaries less vulnerable.
The biological equivalent of ‘stick it up yer jumper’.
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@thaum/slade – they have an unpredictable bounce these ovaryballs.
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Hi to everyone. Good work, thaum. Great work, in fact.
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*Stands to attention*
TomP!
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@Flair. That tcod has been ripping up trees on the fairways of Ireland. Giving him a nudge might be worthwhile.
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Wotcha, Iksy. Was your side last month. God love small German towns and their splendid municipal swimming pools.
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“you all missed the ‘raising a wren chick from tiny’ saga”
If it’s not still tiny then you’ve done something wrong.
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“we did that too, snipping the mealworms in two ”
Even more of a wrong ‘un than I thought.
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We had a couple of old friends visiting for a week at the end of July. One of them went to the municipal pool around the corner every morning at around 8:30. I think it was the highlight of her visit.
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“Am unhappy with having shaved off my beard last week due to kids having headlice (they apparently don’t live in beards but I got paranoid).”
I can imagine it would have been disappointing not to find any that you could cut in half and feed to tiny birds.
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A tiny chick can become a tiny bird, even if the tiny bird is 4 times the size of the tiny chick.
Thaum must be so proud to have rebuilt a place where such wisdom can once more thrive.
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And tiny worms can become two tiny worms at least for eating purposes.
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Clyde! A little (OK, tiny wren) bird told me you were in my old part of the world recently?
Or it may have been that I saw your post in the Graun…..
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“And to think we missed an entire cricket world cup”
Bit concerned about the direction of travel on the sporting front. Wales Grand Slam, Norwich won the Championship, England won the World Cup, all was well. England thrashed at Edgbaston, Norwich captain scores an own goal seven minutes into the new season and they’re 4-0 down by half time, Provisional number ones Wales lose at Twickenham to make them officially a number two. Still time for everything to turn round again though…
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The perfect chance to ask BB what we should have done in Kelso!
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I did have unrealistic hopes that I would run into you among the many Glasgow daytrippers in Inverary when we stopped at the George for lunch on our way from camping at Tayvallich (near Lochgilphead) to our cottage in Kelso. That said the best advice you could have given me at that point would have been not to try to get there on a day when the road down Loch Lomondside and the one through Helensburgh would both be closed for accidents etc. Hadn’t really intended to go to Crianlarich or Stirling to get to the Borders, but so it goes.
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Anyway we had a nice time even if we perhaps didn’t entirely make the most of it as we were a bit knackered. Kids loved the playpark at Harestanes and we managed to get a good walk out of them there as well. Nice part of the world that we hadn’t really been to at all before.
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CMW…….
I remember from living in Helensburgh that dreadful accidents occurred from time to time by Loch Lomond…………not infrequently caused by tourists in hire cars leaving the first roundabout after picking up their car at the airport, in the wrong lane – resulting in severe head-ons just above Loch Lomond Hotel…………….
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@Expro: “I thought Read was getting away with murder at the breakdown on Saturday. Seemed to join every ruck from the side while off his feet.”
No small irony that the All Blacks are wailing away about alleged Australian indiscretions at the breakdown – from illegal entry to neck rolls, it seems they’d have murdered the Wobblies if it weren’t for this dastardly behaviour.
For me Read simply hasn’t been the dynamic player of a couple of seasons back, when he was a fantastic link-man off the scrums or out wide who gave them an extra option and a couple of extra gears going forward. I’m not sure if having Coles and Ardie in the side means they’re supposed to be picking up this role, but Read just doesn’t look 100% to me.
Barrett banned for 3 weeks also illustrates the depth problem the Kiwis have in the 2nd row, with only Sam Whitelock a classy option for Bledisloe 2 this weekend. Retallick is being hugely missed, Barrett is a good, but not great replacement and now sans him, they’re down to Tuipoluto, I’d imagine. England, the Boks and probably Ireland have two tight fives that are arguably better than the Kiwis 1st choice at the moment. Aus have at least parity going on this weekend’s game.
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Slade – there are still a lot of accidents along there, sadly often fatal ones. Mainly because there are quite a few tempting but often pointless and horribly dangerous overtaking opportunities. Going north (well west and south really, but we have to do the north bit first) I generally wait until we’re past Tarbet and on our way to Campbeltown before I look to overtake anything. I think we’ve used every route not involving a boat in or out at some point or other, thankfully this time the road north from Loch Lomond was open (long wait for them to turn people round on that though) so we didn’t have to go back round via Dalmally.
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