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 
The BBC 2 Wales/S4C/BBC Alba/BBC NI coverage of the ProMostly12 when taken as a whole has to have been a highlight for anyone. Alba deserving of a few entries really, what with the porridge making world championships and occasional shinty. Still upset with Mrs CMW for getting rid of our previous TV package as we don’t get it any more.
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Hey Sunbeam, what’s the connection between Ric Okasec and that Tedeschi Trucks Band clip that you posted? I couldn’t see anything about it in his wikipedia entry. I really like Midnight in Harlem…
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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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Japanese people offically brilliant:
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Not quite getting how James Small and Chester Williams not wearing scrum caps caused heart attacks 24 years later.
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Idiot that I am! Pasted Craig’s comment for reference and then hit post instead of highlighting it. Anyway, if you look at the ’95 Boks who’ve passed on, Joost had MND, for which there is no known cause as yet, James Small died of a heart attack in a strip club (and had form for living a very dangerous lifestyle), whilst Chester Williams also had a heart attack and had apparently had a few scares already. Ruben Kruger was diagnosed with a brain tumour whilst still playing (it cut short his career in 2000), went into remission and then returned about a decade later. So I don’t think any of those can be directly linked to head injuries or tackle techniques, which were certainly less ‘head on’ than today. Jonah Lomu had a rare kidney disease which led to his untimely death.
The one tragedy from the ’95 World Cup that is seldom mentioned, and is directly related to the physical side of the game, is the paralysis of Max Brito, the fullback (wing?) from Cote d’Ivoire who got trapped under a ruck against Tonga. Paralysed from the neck down and forgotten afterwards. I know that a couple of years ago, his story resurfaced, but I have no idea if he’s been decently looked after by the rugby fraternity since then.
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FFS! TomP of course gets in a more succinct argument before I finish my rambling.
On another note, TomP – a client of mine has a kid at KES and apparently about half of this year’s 1st XV are signed up to play overseas. Could this be the last World Cup where the Boks are at the top table? Imperial plunder continues to blight the developing world it seems, with our best assets ripped from our soil for the pleasure and amusement of those with power.
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Jacques Vermeulen signed for Exeter yesterday. Good player.
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CMW – I don’t mind peppa pig. Also, Jake and the Neverland Pirates deserves a mention for employing a few punks to sing the music at the end.
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Tomp/Deebs – you’re right. That was me thinking 2 thoughts and not explaining the lack of linkage.
I wonder if the later squads will be hit by similar instances of illness and death. I appreciate that there are other factors involved.
If people are worried about players being kneed in the heid then scrum caps are an option. Might be a slippery slope though.
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The death of democracy is one step nearer
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/bbc-scraps-public-vote-and-tv-show-to-choose-eurovision-song
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Deebee, Very few contracts being doled out to SA youth and they’ve done away with the Currie Cup Under 19 competition so it’s hardly surprising. Good news for you is the Lions signed up Henco van Wyk from Monnas. He looks like a superb player.
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Very pleased for Exeter/Vermeulen………
Smart player and Exeter will gym him up a bit as well………..
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CVC have reportedly bought a share in the 6N for ÂŁ300M.
Amazon Prime is being tipped as the preferred broadcaster for the tournament.
That would probably be time for me to leave as a supporter of a sport I’ve played, followed, loved for 43 years, at least at the “elite” level.
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That would probably be time for me to leave as a supporter of a sport I’ve played, followed, loved for 43 years, at least at the “elite” level.
Really? I’d obviously prefer the games to be onna beeb but we already have to watch club games on BT sports. And I’m fairly used to all the friendly England games being on Sky.
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That would be sub-optimal
it is getting a bit trying having to subscribe to n+1000 different platforms as the TV broadcast world becomes increasingly fragmented.
The next few years will tell what effect all this CVC money floating around the rugby world will have.
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Craigs, as things stand I pay for BT for which I get to watch Eng Prem and Heineken Cup, I also pay for Premier Sports where I can watch Pro 14. I get a really good deal on Sky Sports, £3/month, but that runs out in January and I won’t renew it, so that is the end of Super rugby for me.
My experience with Prime (my daughter got a student deal) was that you have to pay to subscribe but then also pay to watch what I wanted to on top of the subscription, I can’t imagine we’ll get 6N rugby included in the £70 per year price.
I intend to get involved with my hometown club when I get back there, maybe go to the odd international at Murrayfield, perhaps get an Edinburgh season ticket, but the tv stuff will all go.
I wrote this on the Glasgow forum a couple of months ago when the pay to view for the 6N was mooted
“This is a terrible decision, if indeed the outcome is for pay tv to take over.
I was lucky, as a schoolboy I went up to Edinburgh on the train to watch internationals, then later our club always had a fixture in the morning before the game, then I played for an Edinburgh club.
None of that was available to anyone from the vast majority of the land mass of Scotland, now with the rising costs of travel, accommodation and tickets (I used to pay a couple of quid as a school boy, and not for the wooden benches, for the main terrace opposite the old stand), rugby won’t even be available to watch on tv, not for normal folk.
This really is a shite turn of events”
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Chimpie, as far as I understand it, the F1 crowd were sub-optimally whelmed by CVC’s involvement in their sport
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The other feckin annoying thing about this house move taking so long is that my Virgin tv/broadband price has almost doubled since the contract ran out and I can’t renegotiate until I know where I’m going to be for at least a year.
Grrrr.
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Oh joy, I’ve just read that the deal covers the November tests, too.
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Ticht – I agree. I have prime too and you do have to pay extra for some things. If it is extortionate then I won’t pay.
From what you say now and from what you have said previously you probably watch more rugby than I do. So it’s a shame that it has come to this for you.
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Well that’s a big pile of likely suckage.
Was going to happen some day, sadly.
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If there’s an England game I want to watch I’ll cough up ÂŁ7 for a day sports pass on NOW TV.
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The BBC (and latterly ITV) coverage is a major part of the success of the tournament. The rugby’s often shit – and so’s the coverage too – but the narrative of tradition around it is what these CVC people want. Tradition = eye balls = money.
Unrelated but exiled here in Central Europe this won’t affect me much as the rugby is mostly just filler on one of the Sports networks here. The good news for me is that they’re showing all the World Cup games live on Czech telly. Not going to get to watch many of the Monday-Friday games live but now have to decide whether to avoid the scores and watch them in the evening, which should be easy enough as I’m very unlikely to overhear the result from any Czechs.
One Sunday in September 2007 I was on a bus from Prague to my then new missus’s hometown. My phone kept pinging and I had about 30 messages from friends who support teams not beginning with W to commiserate with me in on Wales’s performance and defeat against Fiji.
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Craigs, the thing about that is you won’t get to watch England in the 6N, and Prime will certainly want England fixtures in November as it’s the biggest market, so you won’y be able to buy a one off pass under those circumstances
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The November tests for all the teams? Can’t the RFU, WRU, SRU and whatever the other lot is sell the rights individually any longer?
I’m not really that keen on the November games anyway. Quite enjoy watching France v the Boks or v the Blacks.
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Ticht – yeah I know. Which is crap. I’ll probably only end up watching games I think will be close/good. Or if it’s a tournament decider. If they make me buy the whole thing for more than…. ÂŁ15 I’ll just watch the highlights.
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Yes that’s a point, I thought the AIs were outside the remit of the 6N therefore up to Unions individually.
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Tomp – I enjoy the November tests*. Especially Aus (that predates Eddie). It’s a good yardstick against the rest of the world.
*Apart from circa 2006-2008.
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just read about Denters retiring. A big shame, his best years robbed by injury.
I saw him get the concussion last year, looked pretty innocuous at the time but that was him out for the season. More than a bit worrying.
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Tom, the first game I went to at Murrayfield was us v Graham Mourie’s All Blacks in the old tour era, before they became the AIs/November Tests.
These games have remained special to me, I love them.
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Looking forward to the coming weeks. Apart from Scotland games which I’ll watch through a slightly nauseated fog of fear [1]
[1] Apart from the Russia game which I’m fairly confident about.
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The story I read (in the Scotsman) claims the 6N countries have negotiated together as one entity, hence the end of year games being included.
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Chimpie, yeah it was a scrum half’s hip to the temple, not a huge hit.
Dents is the type of player we really lack, Bradbury is the closest we”ve got
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Got you. Those olden days tours when you didn’t see teams for years and years were preferable. I went to see the Barbarians v the All Blacks in 1988. It was a properly exciting event for teenage. Now I probably wou;dn’t be that fussed about watching it on telly.
Today again and again it’s the same fixtures. And Wales normally getting beat again and again by the fucking Australians. Last year was a pleasing change, mind.
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Craigz, those 2009 tests went Ayoola Erinle got picked for England restored the magic for you?
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This is fucking amazing!!!
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2019/sep/16/japans-veteran-maulers-happy-to-die-in-their-boots-in-pictures
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Tomp – haha. OK add 2009 too.
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Tomp – bear in mind that you also get classics like Scotland drubbing the aussies too. And then there was Giteaus miss from a few year back…
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Obviously I still watch them but it’s tough to get really excited about them. Scotland cuffing the Aussies was a great performance but I was rather jealous of them. And proceeded to lose a lot of money betting on what I thought was the Tartan try-scoring machine in the next 6 Nations. Also, trying to jump on the bandwagon meant I lumbered myself with a daft name on AoD for a while.
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Some highlights :
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I couldn’t find anything for France.
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Kurtley Beale, last minute try v Australia.
I watched that at around 11 o’clock in the morning in a room in a hotel in the gorgeous town of Taganga on the Colombian Caribbean coast. Devastating.
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France v Fiji in 2017 or 2018. Top effort by the Fijians.
Or the France v Japan game a couple of years back.
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For the Embra and Os fans – highlights of Saturday’s preseason chuckabout.
From a home perspective, Matt Scott put on about a stone in the gym during rehab last year, he has since shed it and looks much more like the player he was a couple of seasons ago, much more pace. Mark Bennett also looked sharp, though he still loses the ball at inopportune moments – him losing possession after beating several defenders and Groom knocking on whilst trying to ground the ball cost us the result, but there is a bit of promise along the backline. Our world cup pack is better at defending the maul than what we see here, but if these guys want to stake their claims they should be doing the same.
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