Something resembling first-choice teams have been named. Let’s hope they all survive the weekend.
International rugby on the telly this weekend
Friday 6th September
| Scotland v Georgia | 19:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
| England v Italy | 19:45 | Sky Sports Action / Sky Sports Main Event |
Saturday 7th September
| New Zealand v Tonga | 3:35 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Australia v Samoa | 10:30 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Ireland v Wales | 14:00 | Channel 4 / RTÉ Two |
Ovally Balls 
Cruel, Chimpie. A steak and kidney pie at my desk doesn’t count as a lunch engagement.
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Prorogation deemed unlawful by Scottish courts.
This should be “fun”
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Harsh times, Deebee.
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What does that mean in reality Ticht? What’s the jurisdiction of the Scottish court in question?
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To be honest, Deebee, I think the government will just ignore it, call it a biased judgement and carry on. They’ve ignored the law, just passed, to publish details of Operation Yellowhammer – the “oh shit, what do we do now?” preparations for crashing out without a deal
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medium to long term, though, if they do go down that route it is more fuel to the Independence fire
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How long can they simply ignore the law for? Hell, even here where politicians routinely give two finders to court judgments, they eventually have to come clean. Although much of that is because very little stays confidential here for very long, making denials even more stupid in the longer run.
This is starting to look like the T-Bot was actually a great PM. Scary!
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It’s certainly a mess, Deebee. It’s impossible to predict what is going to happen, but when you have a government that is ignoring the will of Parliament and judgement of the Court of Session you can pretty much assume we are in trouble.
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Come now Deebee, let’s not go too far!
This all reminds me of when trump became president and I tended to temper my panic somewhat with the view that the established institutions would at least stop him doing anything really stupid.
Won’t be making that error again. Bojo is willing to ignore or break the law and lie to everyone including the Queen (which to me is no worse than lying to the public but I’d have thought he’d think differently).
Worse than all of that is that I suspect as and when we get the chance to kick him out he’ll be returned with a comfortable majority either as tories or in a pact with the Brexit lot so it’s only going to get worse.
And even worse still, we’ve lost the ashes and Mako has apparently been feeling that hamstring again.
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Jamie Ritchie is flying out to join the Scotland squad, but he hasn’t had the final all-clear yet. Magnus Bradbury is staying in Japan as emergency cover. IIRC he can stay in Japan but not train with the squad, according to the rules – the Scottish logistics team were saying it takes 8 days to get over the jet lag, going by one day per time zone.
I never had any jet lag when I went to and from the US, obviously staying drunk is probably not an option for World Cup participants.
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staying drunk
The only rational choice for any situation.
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And even worse still, we’ve lost the ashes and Mako has apparently been feeling that hamstring again.
Technically you didn’t lose the Ashes – Australia retained them. I wouldn’t worry about Mako’s hammy, you’ve got plenty of beef to cover him. Billy V on the other hand….
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‘Cept driving, of course Craigs.
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Interesting article on the decline of numbers in schoolboy rugby in New Zealand below. The set up in terms of it being semi-pro sounds very similar to SA, with poaching, recruiting of top coaches from professional unions etc very much a part of the mix here. I’m not aware of a drop in numbers on our side though.
https://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/RugbyWorldCup2019/alarm-at-new-zealands-falling-schoolboy-rugby-numbers-20190911
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I have to add, it didn’t cause me any alarm reading about their woes.
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I didn’t actually have to add that, I just wanted to.
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Mrs Deebee finishes her Smoke Enders course today and is scheduled to finally kick the habit this evening. Do I:
1) Rush home and congratulate her with open arms and risk a swift knee to the groin?
2) Rush home and offer to cook dinner, with lovely red wine and risk a swift knee to the groin?
3) Linger at the office for a while and risk a swift knee to the groin?
4) Saunter in, ignore her achievement, demand wine and dinner and ensure a swift knee to the groin?
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In 1995 the Springboks were paired with the defending champions, beat them, and went on to win the World Cup.
In 2007, the Springboks were paired with the defending champions, beat them, and went on to win the World Cup.
In 2019, the Springboks are paired with the defending champions.
12 years between World Cup 1 and 2 for the Boks. 12 years since our last win.
The Lions toured SA in 1997, when we were defending World Cup champions. They also toured in 2009 when we were defending World Cup champions. They tour again in two years time.
Dare I say it?
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Wouldn’t surprise me to see the boks go top of the log. Been onna good ‘roid programme judging by the picture from the other day.
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In chimpie’s fantasy world cup, Boks top their group leaving unzud floundering in their wake.
Scotland heroically beat back the evil green tide and scrape past Samoa and Japan, then an historic first win over the ballsacks to send us on to final glory, only for the boks to pip us in the final.
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Would prefer us to win the thing obviously but think that’s just a bit of fantasy too far.
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*wakes up*
Ah. Still concerned we’ll struggle to make the quarters.
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Scotland heroically beat back the evil green tide and scrape past Samoa and Japan, then an historic first win over the ballsacks to send us on to final glory, only for the boks to pip us in the final.
I think we can all get on board with this.
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I think we can all get on board with this.
*phone rings*
Deebs: Hello
Caller: g’day mate this is Eddie Jones…
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Option 2 deebs.
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Caller: g’day mate this is Eddie Jones
Deebs: Splendid! Leave the canapes and champagne downstairs, don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out!
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Option 2 it is, by overwhelming majority it seems.
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And on that (potentially squeaky) note, I’ll be leaving you all in peace for the day.
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Warbs description of that tackle and anticipating a French heavyweight rather than a titchy wing is almost word for word what NostradamIks said at the time. It’s in the Historical Records.
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Or it would be if we could get access to them…..
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Still don’t think that was a red for Warbs at the time, just going by how other very similar tackles were being dealt with.
Now it would be no question, deffo a red
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Wasn’t a red imo. Plus, if the French players punched him they should’ve got cards too.
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“The set up in terms of it being semi-pro sounds very similar to SA, with poaching, recruiting of top coaches from professional unions etc very much a part of the mix here. I’m not aware of a drop in numbers on our side though”
Deebee, this is a blogpost by Theo Garrun, who used to write the Star Schools Sports supplement:
https://theogarrun.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-downside-of-having-super-schools.html
Your old school has seen a drop off in the number of teams I think. Jeppe and KES can still put out the out 20+ teams vs the likes of Affies and Pretoria Boys High. Affies-Maritzburg had 25 games this year and Affies-Grey 27.
Apparently, hockey’s becoming more popular with parents who don’t like their lads getting smashed on the hard grounds.
It’s pleasing that Mapimpi and Am have made it to the Boks from two schools that I’d imagine are virtually unknown outside their towns – Jim Mvabaza and De Vos Malan , respectively.
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Doing the weekly shop tonight, noticed Sainsburys have Christmas mince pies for sale – use before October 2nd. What’s the point? Who’s going to buy mince pies to eat them in October?!
Not me anyway – can’t stand the bloody things.
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It’s 8 years ago and the wounds are still healing but a definite red. I know other players sometimes weren’t getting reds for similar things but that was the fault of the refs in those situations. The law was clear, the law was applied.
We still should have won the game anyway. Big Sexy gets nearer the posts, Leigh’s kick has a bit more on it, The Count attempts a fucking drop goal, Hooky don’t play like a drain, Adam doesn’t go off injured (maybe a bigger loss than Warbs). Aargggggggggggggggggh!
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Ah, the long memories of the blog!
Me, I still remember that Welsh illegal throw-in that decided the match…. And the 16 men on the pitch…!
These are the vagaries of rugby.
*And I do remember the tackle in question, and thinking it wasn’t a red at the time. And also the red that Kearney got for a tackle ‘in the air’, that no-one had even been penalised for before.
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*grrr, Dan Biggar and his amazing flying knees, grrr, *
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I look forward to an extract of Finn’s autobiography in the Daily Record about the day when he felt he shouldn’t not have been sent off in a game that did nothing to decide the Six Nations. Hopefully someone will step forward to say Scotland might have won anyway but for Jim Hamilton’s strange celebration.
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At least it seems I’ve been spared Boris winning a General Election displacing the Warburton incident as best birthday present ever.
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The Warburton red probably has most in common with the Payne one for Ulster in terms of the ref being entitled to do what he did, but it being out of line with what refs had been doing up to that point and it not seeeming a really sensible point to make the change. Never mind. Why anyone would think he wouldn’t still be upset about it is beyond me though.
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“Why anyone would think he wouldn’t still be upset about it is beyond me though.”
Getting sent off early in a world cup semi final?
Pfft the lad is taking it all a bit too seriously if you ask me.
It’s not like a refereeing howler awarding a match-winning penalty to the opposition in the last minute of the quarters.
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I do feel for Warbs, though. I remember being in a pub a few years ago and that tackle was replayed and one of the Welsh supporters said something like, “that tackle will dog that lad for all his days, it’s all they will ever replay”
I’m not sure that is correct now – personally I never think of that incident when I think of SW, the one thing that springs to mind is the remark reported between him and Kieran Read in the deciding ABs v Lions test when at a break in play Read apparently said to Warbs, “Now this is rugby!”
I was taken by how Read was able to appreciate the bigger picture whilst still being in the moment, and Warburton was a big part of it all, he always comes across as a good guy
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I woulddefinitely still be upset about that decision at the end of Scotland’s QF too.
On an individual level I think it would be harder to cope with something that was clearly your own fault though. If faced with the choice I think I might rather be Warburton watching his sending off than Gavin Hastings watching that kick from 1991 for example.
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For the avoidance of doubt, the bit about Warbs and “pffft” was a set up for the punchline about penaltygate
– twas a yellow for Sam at most
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No one feels sorry for the ultimate nice guy – Mr Robshaw not taking the penalty.
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Jim Hamilton’s strange celebration.
Fave bit of commentary ever after the ‘manshaming’.
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Aah Warbs, the Frenchy threw himself upside down, you was done like a kipper. Bad luck fella, move on, you are still a hero in my eyes.
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Fly back to the UK just after the Poomas game, for a month, to help out with Brexit shortages and possibly stand in a general election. Handily enough, visit coincides with a few games of rugby on telly. Any sort of meet up thingys planned for the south east at any point?
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“possibly stand in a general election”
I’d vote for you. Multiple times.
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That Warbs is promoting his retirement biography though, rather than having an ‘I couldda been a contender’ whinge. I bet that extract about the night before the Lions third test is more the sort of thing that lingers in the mind.
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