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 
This isn’t going to be close, is it?
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Chimpie, sweepstake?
I’m going for 80
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Impressive scrum by NZ. Read almost made a horlicks of it.
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I’ll go slightly lower at 70
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Points difference, that is.
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What’s FDs book called?
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Wasn’t the most sympathetic pass, from SBW to Perenara.
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@Craig – Regressing to the Mean?
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Poite is reffing one side.
Shame it’s a difficult enough job facing these Dogs onna bone as it is
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Good spot by Mo’unga, that DTH had come in-field. Cross kick to Jordie B, for the 2nd try.
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At current rate of scoring we’re looking at 112
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That is a hideous mullet
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Goodhue’s is bad. The Canadian one isn’t much better.
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Ooh, that was close by TJ.
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Essbeedubya’s been a flat track bully in this first quarter
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This is hideous… Not much else to say.
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A relentless barrage of biffery
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SBW too strong for the Canadian hooker and manages to stretch out an arm to score.
21-0
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Scoring rate dropped. Now looking at just 84 onna straight line extrapolation
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C’mon Canada.
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DTH had a lot of space there but the chance to get the pill to him was ignored
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Dropsie-tastic.
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Scoring rate way down. Barely going to break 50.
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No score for the last 10 minutes. The tide is turning!
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Dropped over the line shirley
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wot a silly sausage
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That wasn’t a scrum, that was a murder.
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Beauden gets the lucky Irish bounce, after SBW pokes a ball through, under the posts.
28-0
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Hassler is really putting in a shift on D.
Canada have good wingers and a good Nr 8.
The rest are poor.
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Note the time and date. A ref has just called side-entry.
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Missed the 2nd half of the US game as was teaching.
At 12-9 I was daring to dream.
I’m curious exactly how many final warnings France are allowed to receive before the yellow card? Had the US repeatedly infringed defending their own line I’m fairly sure the ref would not have been so lenient.
How did Big Daddy Thretts get on when he came on?
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Boris:
“one in five of the electric cars sold in Europe is now made in the UK”
So frictionless, tariff free trade with Europe might be important, right?
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How did Big Daddy Thretts get on when he came on?
All Thretts, no action. Actually I don’t know, I was trying (unsuccessfully) to watch on my computer at work with the sound down. But the USA couldn’t cope in the last 15 or so when France actually caught a few and strung together a few passes from what I could see.
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NZ score within the first minute of the 2nd half. SBW glides through the Canadian line, then give the ball to Ioane to score in the corner.
35-0
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I posted this Graunside, if anyone is interested:
The Kerevi / Cheika controversy is basically a result of the fact that ball carriers often lead with their forearm, even though it is technically against the laws.
You only need to look at photos of players immediately prior to contact to see how they use one or both forearms to make things harder for the defender.
Ellis Genge’s monstrous run v USA involved him leading with his non-ball carrying forearm into two defenders who were trying to tackle him very low. Anyone with the name Tuilagi does this constantly.
You will risk a penalty if your arm comes away from your body prior to impact, but ball carriers are trying to make sure the first part of their body that connects with the tackler is their arm. After the impact they are trying to use that leading arm to bump the tackler off.
It’s arguable that if ‘leading with the forearm’ is illegal, a significant number of collisions should be penalised.
Instead, a distinction appears to be made based on how close the ball carriers arm is to his body / the ball at the moment of impact. This distinction is then reffed inconsistently. Hence the arguing.
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@expro
You might find this interesting – SMMT put together the latest export data for the car industry a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/brexit/key-exports-data/
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Scott B does get his try. Mo’unga steps to the line and off-loads to Read. He passes to Barrett, who juggles for a second before crossing the line.
42-0
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NZ have a lineout in the Canadian half. They maul for a bit, before the ball goes to Ioane, who has cut in field. He passes to Frizell, who has an unopposed run-in.
49-0 48mins played.
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56-0
30 mins to play.
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NZ pass it round the back field for a bit, before Beauden accelerates into the line. He has support from the replacement 9, Weber, who gets the try.
56-0
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Jeff Hassler starting to give up chasing them all the way to the line.
63-0
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Weber gets his second, Mo’unga to the line again and then giving it to the 9.
63-0
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Poor old Canada are going to need more than one team in MLR if they’re to have any hope of arresting the slide of their national team.
Why hasn’t Vancouver/BC got a team? You’d think that’s the first place they’d have one.
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@Yos – because Canadian rugby is a basket case:
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@Yosoy
Canada has very few adult male players capable or interested in playing professional rugby.
Vancouver would be logical, but a handful of Canadians are already playing for Seattle.
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To think Canada once went down 13-29 to NZ in a RWC quarter final.
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Poite not calling some obvious infringements by NZ here, not that it would make a difference…
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Ardie Savea on, wearing protective goggles.
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The goggles didn’t last long.
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Kiwis haven’t scored in 14 minutes. Overrated.
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