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 
Sofia-Ahtopol-Plovdiv-Sofia
Whoever asked
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Deebee, read this on Friday – http://www.schoolofrugby.co.za/news/10295-the-exodus-of-south-africa-s-rugby-talent-at-junior-level-has-begun
Muller of Grey is a monster. A bit like Duhan vd Merwe. There was talk of him going to the States to try out American football.
Only 30 school-leavers contracted by provinces for next year. Back in 2014 we sat among the Blue Bulls Under 19 squad – Gelant, Snyman et al – to watch a Currie Cup under 21 semi-final and there were at least 30 of them.
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Rumours of Embrose Papier to the Manchester Montpellier on loan.
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I asked UF. I was reading about Plovdiv a couple of weeks ago and it sounded nice. I went to one of the beach resorts back in the 80s and generally liked the place. Different and quite weird at times though.
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Drags beat the Scarlets in a warm-up match yesterday, at a “sun-drenched” Rodney Parade. Tis the end of days, I tells ye.
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Traveling with a local has really made the holiday so far a lot more enjoyable.
Plovdiv is the European city of culture, I’ve heard it’s nicer than Sofia
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Am getting big pre-World Cup tingles. Mostly about the possibility of typhoons causing havoc. Hope no one gets killed or injured, of course, but a couple of cancelled matches could ハトの間に猫を置きます as they say in Japan.
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Devin Townsend did a great gig in Plovdiv.
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Is Plovdiv where there’s a Roman amphitheatre? I think a few bands have performed there.
*Checks Wikipedia*
Yup, that’s the one. Looks stunning.
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Gregor’s more predictable brother?
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Not sure “predictable” is the word to describe Devin.
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Iks – it was indeed warm and sunny in South Wales yesterday. I got a slight sunburn.
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I bet you could sunburn in torchlight, Thauma.
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CMW, the one I saw had Con on 28, Lab on 27 and LD on 20. So quite a drop for the Tories, and a bit more for everyone else.
Basically, polling is a mess at the moment and FPTP can throw up some really weird results when the three ‘main’ parties are close together.
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@Chek – yes it seems to be that the next election will be the most open one in living memory. I guess winning the narrative about who’s expected to do well is becoming a bigger and bigger thing – understandable, but not helping the situation for those of us hoping to avoid Brexit.
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David Denton retires due to ongoing concussion problems. Aged 29. Very sad, and very worrying for the game.
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David Cameron not universally popular
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OT – quite a strange twitter account that. Lot’s of tweets about his commute.
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Also following and followers are the same number 😱
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That’s one of the biggest problems on twitter people like explodogmax nursing resentment and sniping at public figures. Cameron hasn’t sat around feeling sorry for himself. He’s leveraged his experience and now earns 100 grand a pop giving after dinner speeches and keynotes at conferences. I’m sure explodogmax would feel better about themselves if they at least tried to become a sought-after public speaker
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Just pondering on how bad those zillions of non-Euro trade deals are going to be for CO2 emissions.
It’s amazing seeing how the UK Ministers like Raab – who failed dismally as a negotiator – are wheeling out all the old anti-EU tropes so it looks like a no deal is all the EU’s fault.
They’ll get away with it too with the help of the Mail, Express, Telegraph and Sun.
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£100k – Pfft.
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Hillary gets more and she wasn’t even in charge.
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That’s a real shame about Denton, Chek, as you say, this is real worry at the moment.
I’m not sure the new tackle initiatives are the answer as it just exposes heads to knees
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Craigz, HRC’s the leader of a worldwide conspiracy of murderous liberal sex criminals I think. That must be why her insights are worth more than the Nation Breaker With a Caravan.
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No it’s not a caravan. It’s a shed. My apologies to the useless tosspot Cameron.
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Tomp – out of a pizza restaurant no less. Cameron is a tosspot. And a coward for running away when it counted.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of Cameron, but I’m not sure any remainer could attempt Brexit without the hardliners accusing them of sabotage.
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Could have said ‘thanks for your feedback, we’ll take that on board’….
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“I’m not sure the new tackle initiatives are the answer as it just exposes heads to knees”
Eggsackery. It has been my understanding the tackler, rather than the tackled player, has always been the one more likely to pick up a concussion. It seems the new directives do little to address this.
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Avs (and ticht), high tackles are dangerous for both tackler and tackled. That’s what they’re trying to do by “lowering the height” of the tackle. The higher the tackle, the more danger for both parties.
This guy is worth reading:
https://sportsscientists.com/2019/08/protecting-the-rugby-players-head-the-paradox-of-tackler-height-and-head-injury/
https://sportsscientists.com/2019/08/head-injury-risk-in-rugby-u20-world-champs-case-study/
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Tom, I’m not saying that high tackles are safer or not dangerous, I’m saying that how they are trying to change things is still dangerous for the tackler.
I read a report that stated that the men’s game is more likely to produce concussion than the women’s, but it’s not what one might think at first, the concussion rate was lower at the elite level than at the levels below
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25138311
I think that one of the reasons for a higher (my assumption, I don’t know for sure) rate of injury in the modern game is that more tackles are made head-on, rather than letting the opponent almost pass you and then tackling them side-on. This is, imo, at least in part down to league-style defensive lines spreading across the pitch
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Knew league was to blame
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There’s always a risk it’s true but it’s about making the game relatively safer.
That ball and all tackle was pretty rare when I was a kid but I understand why it’s coached and used. The great Allan Bateman was a beautiful side-on tackler.
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Faz is changing his tackle technique apparently. So that it’s a tackle and not gbh.
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All these deaths to the 1995 wc squad make me wonder if we’ll see the same for the 1999 and 2003 squads. Maybe scrum caps should be mandatory? I don’t know tbh.
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Sad about Denton, who never filled his promise probably because of the all out collision part of his game when he burst on the scene.
I see similarities with Hibbardy-Hib and Moriarty, players who higher-achieve by throwing themselves into contact with little thought of the consequences because it is how they can reach the top of the game.
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Is Faz also working on his red mist bash problem?
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Aye, I’m sure that most concussion related injuries are from the tackler’s head being hipped, kneed and boomsadaisied. Suppose focussing on the tackler as perp looks like you are doing something about foul-play. Worthy, but not the heart of the problem.
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Oh goody – another Graun list of 100 Best…
This TV shows. The number 1 is correct, but why the hell they have The Office in the Top 10, Dog only knows. Also, Deadwood should be higher.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/100-best-tv-shows-of-the-21st-century
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This is a fantastic story:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/sep/16/a-star-is-born-ansu-fati-announces-himself-and-changes-his-world-barcelona-la-liga
Meanwhile some people are cancelling direct debits to the RNLI because it sends some money and expertise abroad.
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@Tomp – seems to have backfired on the Fail somewhat, donations are actually surging: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/16/rnli-donations-surge-tory-criticism-work-overseas-lifeboat-charity
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Don’t forget the dreadful Sunday Times had a big report on it as well. And the ST is the home of Stephen Jones as well.
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as well as well as well.
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The Office deserves its place.
As it is fresh in my mind I was surprised True Detective wasn’t there.
Odds and sods I enjoyed but not in the list as I recall were Ripper Street. The Alienist, The Honorable Woman, the very first American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Bordertown, Wallander, River.
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If it’s any consolation Tomp, I do that sort of thing in my posts all the time.
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Rip Ric Okasek
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Hmmm difficult one for me as I only really watch Only Connect, University Challenge and sport on any sort of regular basis. I would stick Only Connect (and possibly Pointless which I loved for a while) on the list mind. Kick The Bridge off for turning out to be all about the copper’s personal life and making me want to stick my foot through the telly after it had been so good up till then.
Casanova with David Tennant in it was something I did make sure I saw the second and third episodes of having accidentally caught the first one. Think three episodes is about right for me.
I’d put the 2005 Ashes series on Channel 4 there just to make a point.
And of course number one would be the 2005 Grand Slam. What a year.
Sopranos can still be number 2, that was before the kids.
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In the Night Garden, Peppa Pig and Horrible Histories all notable omissions.
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Now that I remember there are other things I watch regularly…
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