Week One has provided some excellent rugby, dodgy refereeing and unfortunate injuries.
I think we can all unite around Uruguay as WC champions.
Other competitions are also starting up, so cancel all engagements and be prepared to spend your entire weekend and parts of the midweek glued to the screen. Hopefully not literally.
For those of you who lack rugby preparation skills, let me remind you to order in adequate supplies of booze, fags and possibly food.
Exciting rugby on the telly this week
Friday 27th September
| Cheetahs 48 – 14 Glasgow | 18:05 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ulster 38 – 14 Ospreys | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leicester 27 – 7 Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 28th September
| Argentina 28 – 12 Tonga | 05:45 | ITV |
| Japan 19 – 12 Ireland | 08:15 | ITV |
| South Africa 57 – 3 Namibia | 10:45 | ITV |
| Northampton 32 – 36 Wasps | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Munster 39 – 3 Drags | 15:00 | Freesports / TG4 |
| Southern Kings 27 – 31 Cardiff Blues | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Scarlets 18 – 10 Connacht | 17:15 | PS2 / S4C / TG4 |
| Treviso 27 – 32 Leinster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Edinburgh 50 – 15 Zebre | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 29th September
| Georgia 33 – 7 Uruguay | 06:15 | ITV |
| Australia 25 – 29 Wales | 08:45 | ITV / S4C |
Monday 30th September
| Scotland 34 – 0 Samoa | 11:15 | ITV |
Wednesday 2nd October
| France 33 – 9 USA | 08:45 | ITV4 |
| New Zealand 63 – 0 Canada | 11:15 | ITV4 |
Thursday 3rd October
| Georgia 10 – 45 Fiji | 06:15 | ITV4 |
| Ireland 35 – 0 Russia | 11:15 | ITV |
Ovally Balls 
CMW – good luck mate. Hope you find something new that you enjoy.
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TomP – done a lot of train travel in and around Cape Town, including out to Stellenbosch etc. That’s very different to what we have here in Jozi! There are lovely steam train journeys to Magaliesberg and Irene from Joburg, but only on specific weekends.
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I can echo Deebee’s BBC appreciation of the London to Leamington Spa train route. I occasionally travel up to Solihull for work and get off the train at Dorridge. It’s like summat out of a Miss Marple episode.
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Deebee, Our drive to work in Pretoria took us past Loftus station and if we timed it right we’d see scores of people running down the embankment from the train track to dodge the fare on the metro train.
The Gautrain track that goes past the cricket ground in Centurion was a big favourite.
The railways were an important part if the NP economic project in the apartheid era, no? Giving jobs etc.
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FRANCE
1 Cyril Baille, 2 Camille Chat, 3 Emerick Setiano, 4 Bernard le Roux, 5 Paul Gabrillagues, 6 Arthur Iturria, 7 Yacouba Camara, 8 Louis Picamoles (capt.), 9 Maxime Machenaud, 10 Camille Lopez, 11 Yoann Huget, 12 Gael Fickou, 13 Sofiane Guitoune, 14 Alivereti Raka, 15 Thomas Ramos
Replacements: 16. Guilhem Guirado, 17 Jefferson Poirot, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Sebastién Vaha’amahina, 20 Gregory Alldritt, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Romain Ntamack, 23 Maxime Médard
USA
1 Eric Fry, 2 Joe Taufetee, 3 Titi Lamositele, 4 Nate Brakeley, 5 Nick Civetta, 6 Tony Lamborn, 7 Hanco Germishuys, 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Shaun Davies, 10 AJ MacGinty, 11 Martin Iosefo, 12 Bryce Campbell, 13 Marcel Brache, 14 Blaine Scully (capt.), 15 Mike Teo
Replacements: 16 Dylan Fawsitt, 17 Olive Kilifi, 18 Paul Mullen, 19 Greg Peterson, 20 Ben Pinkelman, 21 Ruben de Haas, 22 Will Magie, 23 Big Thretton Palamo
Hopefully Bad France show up.
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Ouch!
CANADA
1 Djustice Sears-Duru, 2 Eric Howard, 3 Cole Keith, 4 Evan Olmstead, 5 Conor Keys, 6 Lucas Rumball, 7 Matt Heaton, 8 Tyler Ardron (capt.), 9 Gordon McRorie, 10 Peter Nelson, 11 DTH Van Der Merwe, 12 Ciaran Hearn, 13 Conor Trainor, 14 Jeff Hassler, 15 Patrick Parfrey
Replacements: 16 Andrew Quattrin, 17 Hubert Buydens, 18 Jake Ilnicki, 19 Mike Sheppard, 20 Josh Larsen, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Taylor Paris, 23 Andrew Coe
NEW ZEALAND
1 Atu Moli, 2 Liam Coltman, 3 Angus Ta’avao, 4 Patrick Tu’ipulotu, 5 Scott Barrett, 6 Shannon Frizell, 7 Matt Todd, 8 Kieran Read (capt.), 9 TJ Perenara, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 11 Rieko Ioane, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 13 Jack Goodhue, 14 Jordie Barrett, 15 Beauden Barrett
Replacements: 16 Codie Taylor, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Sam Whitelock, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 Brad Weber, 22 Ryan Crotty, 23 Ben Smith
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Funny that a French player in the team to play the US has the name ‘Emerick’.
Emerick Setaiano is not the only front row forward in this tournament with a christian name that is the same as a surname of a legendary threequarter.
Who can tell me the other one?
Bonus question:
What links both winning try scorers in Japan’s famous upsets vs SA in 2015 and Ireland in 2019?
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@expro – easy
Scott Barrett
&
Matt Scott – Kingsholm and Edinburgh legend
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Also regarding the Canada New Zealand match – thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers
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@yosoy – sounds like Chieka’s press conference is a must see event. Is it on the ITV Player thingy?
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@Beadle
Bit more legendary – Best XV of all time kind of level.
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The railways were an important part if the NP economic project in the apartheid era, no? Giving jobs etc.
Very much so – the legendary ‘wheel tappers’ absorbed a large portion of the otherwise almost unemployable workforce. It went further than that though, with rail towns in rural areas serving the mining and farming communities. Railway workers were given government housing, usually close to the station and generous travel allowances. The railways were an integral part of the mining and farming economy of the time, but much has been wrecked in the last decade or so. Some ‘railway towns’ in the Eastern Cape don’t exist anymore for all intents and purposes and are simply hollowed out shells, with everything dilapidated. Very sad.
In the army, we were given free rail travel every 4 months or so to go home for four days. Of course it took 24 hours to get there, so you only had two days of leave. We used to cash ours in at Wetton Station in Cape Town and go on standby for flights to Joburg. I once flew from Cape Town to PE to Bloemfontein to Joburg to make the money fit the flights.
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Pro – Campese Ma’afu?
No idea about the link in the 2nd question.
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If we are talking about cool railway journeys then Delhi to Haridwar is up there. The ‘hot chai’ refreshment turns to ‘iced chai’ over the course of the journey.
As was the train from Bangkok to Surat Thani and back (from Nakhon Si Thamerat). The only time I’ve beaten Mrs Craig’s decisively at cards was on that journey and as forfit she had to drink some nasty Thai hooch we’d picked up after every loss.
See also, taking the train from Euston to Chester to meet the DCI (and maybe do some work).
None of these journeys were commutes though.
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Embra to Glasgow via Bathgate, Coatbridge, Easterhouse etc. is quite the ride
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@Deebee
“No idea about the link in the 2nd question”
Both wore the Number 23 jersey.
If you’re a Tier One team struggling to get ahead of Japan in the final minutes watch out for the number 23.
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As well as fear for Canada I’m concerned that Scott Barrett needs to up his tryscoring dive technique which was laughably bad against the Saffers last week.
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Can we insert images into comments here?
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*Kimchee Klaxon Alert*
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https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/fray-bentos-vegan-pie-peta-vegan-food-awards-638858
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@Beadle
The press conference – in its entirety – is on World Rugby’s youtube channel
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Finally.
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Looking at that Canada team and there are only 4 players who are really good enough to play international rugby.
Tyler Ardron
DTHvdM
Jeff Hassler
Taylor Paris
The rest are MLR / Championship / ProD2 level
I asked a Canadian friend if he would watch it and he wondered if NZ citizens would watch their ice hockey team take on Canada and expect to get much out of it.
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Incredibly the leaked UK plans for the Irish ‘border’ that Boris said were ‘out of date’ actually ARE the plans being submitted by the UK government to Brussels – the ones that have already been rejected and ridiculed by the EU.
In a further mad twist, the UK government suggestions for managing the Irish border are identical to the Irish government’s plan to manage the border in the event of no deal.
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@yosoy – thanks I’ll look forward to it.
Just wondering for the non English posters whether it’s funnier to see Aussies being sore losers or the English?
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Beadle – come on now it’s England every time. It’s always better to punch up than down.
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I don’t have a favourite loser. They’re all losers to me.
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Very good ‘Pro, didn’t think about the number on their backs!
Train journeys to blow your mind will also include Shanghai-Beijing Bullet train. 2,200km in around 5 1/2 hours, including three stops. Beautiful trains, exceptional journey, but the most mind boggling thing is that I don’t recall seeing a single bit of unused land on the entire route: it was either tower blocks, factories or rice paddies. On both sides of the train.
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A Pro-Brexit protester has tried to set himself on fire outside parliament.
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Was he foiled by the Backstop?
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@CMW, really sorry to hear about your work closing down, I hope something good turns up for you soon
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“I have learnt to become neutral in these things as you only see things emotionally with your natural bias. You have got to live with what you get and what you don’t get. That is the way it works”.
-Michael Cheika following Australia’s victory against Scotland in the 2015 RWC quarter final.
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Interview with former Scotland No8 Derek White
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-union/scotland/interview-grand-slam-hero-derek-white-on-jim-telfer-these-days-you-d-call-it-bullying-1-5013286?fbclid=IwAR385LKlkJt3Uj_2ClB5pE7a7VedluOQfzgq3TpdebWZ03NTpW3AHb6Ynic
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@beadle
Only English football fans are bad losers. After we were robbed of a world cup in 86, 90 and 98 as well as Euro 96.
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@craigs – you’ll need to upload it to an image site (like imgur.com), then link to that. It will embed.
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Refit – cheers
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“Euro 96”
There is a long straight street that runs from Brighton station down to the sea front. About 3/4 of the way down was an Oddbins offie. After England beat Spain in the quarters – Stuart Pearce’s penalty, Football’s Coming Home and all that, I went up to that offie and the whole street was filled in celebration, cars at a standstill honking horns, people leaning out of windows above, cheering and whistling. It was a great atmosphere.
The offie was rammed, booze was flying off the shelves and out the fridges. I got what I was after and when up to the counter. The guy says to me, “Why aren’t you jumping about?” I could barely hear him for all the noise. I said, “I’m Scottish, mate”
He said, “Oh I’m so sorry”
That really made me laugh, I don’t know if he meant the results had gone against us the previous week or for the misfortune of being Scottish, but it sounded like the latter and it was very funny.
One of the best sporting atmospheres I’ve witnessed.
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@ticht
that reminds me of this
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Just asked Ceej how his RWC was going. He had this to say:
Good. We’ve been to Kobe, Osaka and then down to Okinawa. Now in Fukuoka for France v USA.
Food mix between incredibly brilliant and fairly awful. I’ve eaten some really random stuff – pig intestine, raw heart, sea urchin uterus and a surprising amount of eel. Along with a load of more well known Japanese cuisine -Kobe beef, loads of sushi and skewers. Amazingly not had ramen or gyoza yet
But intend to remedy that tonight. I’m all in.
Just had my first onsen in our all Male capsule hotel and well being centre in Fukuoka.
100% nude. 4 giant tubs of gradually increasing (or decreasing depending on your route) temperatures of water between 4 degrees and 40 degrees. Sauna. Cryotherapy chamber at -25 degrees. Lounge area. And tiny individual seated showers and washing areas with tiny wooden stools.
Absolute nightmare with luggage as can only take hand luggage into hotel, so had to unpack for today and tomorrow and transfer it all across in reception like complete idiots.
Currently sat around in the lounge in lime green PJs trying to cool down before heading for dinner. Very civil and relaxing
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‘Just had my first onsen in our all Male capsule hotel’
Karl.
Each to their own.
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Expro – it probably says something about me that 8 found the lime green pyjamas the weirdest part of that message.
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lime green PJs?
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there are worse things in the world than lime green PJs
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Could do with going to a wellbeing centre.
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Talking of which, that’s sucky news CMW. Hope it all works out in the end.
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Chimpie – yes. Shall I tell you what no1 on the list is?
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Sea Urchin uterus?
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Lime green CJ
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Rugby ladz. On tour. Top Japanese bantz.
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I actually didn’t think sea urchins have uteruses (uterai).
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