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 
The cop out that Farrell was trying to use his arms was probably the most pathetic I’ve seen in Test rugby for this kind of tackle. His left arm flies round from the impact, not from any effort as using his arms.
However as I said at the time, the Boks should have been out of sight by that time, not desperately trying to get a penalty in the hope of scraping a win. It was a brainless performance.
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Quill hit was bad. Three weeks for everyone is stupid.
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Now do Brexit in two short sentences.
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@Yosoy
The disciplinary panel found it reckless, not deliberate.
My assessment is that Quill has ‘marked’ Farrell for a tackle, Farrell knocks on and fumbles the ball as he runs towards Quill, the latter pulls out of the tackle, makes no effort to get out of the way and sticks his shoulder in high as the players collide. It’s a deserved red.
I don’t think he planned to do that as soon as he saw Farrell infront of him. But regarding ‘deliberate’ – I don’t think you can smash your shoulder into someone’s chops by accident. I reckon a split second before Farrell collides with him he’s thought to himself ‘have that’ and leaned in with the shoulder.
Incidentally whether it’s a three week ban or a 10 week ban it all means the same thing – Quill’s tournament is over.
The MLR doesn’t start until February, so for him to miss any other games than the USA’s remaining pool games he’d need a ban of 21 weeks.
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Now do Brexit in two short sentences.
Fuck wits decided to leave. Now we’re fucking off.
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or as a Haiku:
Britain voted out
In a fog of ignorance.
Now, who’s fault was that?
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I smash my shoulder into people’s chops all the time. Furra laff.
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Europe weaker. UK fucked,
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When it comes to Brexit there are plenty of people whose chops I would like to introduce to my shoulder,
Although I abhor violence against our elected representatives.
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Milkshakes OOT!!!!
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Two short sentences? Pfft. It deserves a limerick
There once was a twit called Dave
Who to the nation a referendum gave
3 years later
Is anything better?
No it’s all shit
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How about a ballad?
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King’s amongst men: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Owen Farrell (c), 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Tom Curry, 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Jamie George, 1 Joe Marler
Heroes: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Courtney Lawes, 20 Lewis Ludlam, 21 Willi Heinz, 22 Henry Slade, 23 Jack Nowell
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Oooh Mako’s back!!
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And shithair
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Going to have to be more specific with the ‘shithair’ label in this world cup.
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I wonder if they’ll revert to Faz at 10 for France..
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There’s only one shithair.
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OK. Jack Nowell is shithair.
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This stuff about Creevy saying England are ‘boring’ is really annoying and exactly what irritates me about sports journalists trying to create and nourish a false narrative.
What he said:
“I think sometimes [their structure] is boring but it’s good for England, and it works. I spent a lot of time there and it was great. I improved a lot in the way I see rugby, and I understand a lot about how the England boys see rugby. They are really structured.”
This is demonstrably not the same as calling them ‘boring’. He says the structure is sometimes boring, but it works and it is good. We also don’t know if he was first asked ‘are England boring’ in any way. But one can imagine the scribes writing ‘BORING’ in their notes and thinking ‘clickbait!’
Now we get all this ‘England players respond to boring jibe’ etc
I have met Creevy – parents are friends with former owner of Worcester and we were invited into the important people’s box to watch the game. Creevy (injured) was the MC in the prematch entertainment and he was really rather amusing, poking fun at various club officials.
I have a lot of respect for him staying at Worcester after their relegation and only leaving once they were promoted.
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Kitson:
“No Rugby World Cup would be complete without an opponent taking a potshot at England’s “boring” style at some stage. Like the first cuckoo of spring it is simply a matter of who and when and the Argentinian hooker Agustín Creevy’s pre-match comments about the “dull” English must have amused, among others, the former Wallaby winger David Campese.”
He never used the word ‘dull’, Robert. And saying that ‘sometimes’ the ‘structure’ is ‘boring’ is not the same as saying ‘their style is boring’.
One of the things that makes Squidge so awesome is that he speaks knowledgeably of tactics and onfield events in an amusing and witty manner. I think most fans would welcome more of this sort of thing rather than dishonest tedious narratives from the likes of Kitson, creating a false narrative based on extracts of longer quotes then feeding and distorting it.
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@’pro
It’s all about the clicks. ‘Creevy rates opponents highly’ isn’t as clickable as ‘Creevy Slams Eddie’s Boys: “You’re boring and Las Malvinas belongs to us”‘.
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Also, the reason Squidge is bigger than the Beatles is because he’s clearly passionate about the sport and watches a LOT of it – he’s a much better fit for younger audiences. The likes of Kitson and Stephen Jones don’t have much of an understanding of the game as it is.
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He definitely mentioned war. “Creevy aiming to kill boring little englanders” was pretty much how I saw it.
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The likes of Kitson and Stephen Jones talk pish
Fixed for you yos
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Dov – when it comes to wars we have a 100% win rate vs the argues so I’m not worried.
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*argies
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I’m worried. They’re clearly pumped up and gunning for us. Don’t rate us at all.
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good grief Dova you’ll stuff them. Up their holes.
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This Salazar thing is predictable.
UK Athletics needs to be looked into.
His most famous British protege has been getting away with it for a good long while.
Coach and training partner convicted, missing tests, improved dramatically after working with coach just convicted of doping athletes…..it’s all there bar the positive tests (that are easy to avoid, as documented by Salazar in his own words)
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Yes, Pro. Looks that way.
Chimpie – we’re just happy to be involved really.
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Dov – probably don’t have enough fear for this but I think we’ll win tbh.
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Are Ireland going to beat the 63 points the ABs got yesterday? Will Keith Earls smile? Or will they get ‘done by the ref’ again and struggle? *
Big questions of the day.
*Uncle Joe and Hero Best’s blatant ref blaming really was a bit off at the end of that match. “wrong side of the penalty count” pffft.
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Imagine calling teams boring for the way they play?
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I think Russia have one big game in them…
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Gardner fucked us again, Dova. We got the official sorry both times which, of course, is of no use. We were push in both games too, but who cares about that? Refs, that’s what we care about.
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Who is covering scrum half for Ireland?
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“Imagine calling teams boring for the way they play?”
Yeah it’s daft. I mean, if you use ‘boring’ for England you’re running short of words to describe Ireland.
I reckon Keith will score a hat trick today – confirm his world class status.
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Hopefully this is the dullest game of the tournament so far.
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Talking of hole stuffings…
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Well maybe this isn’t the big game Russia have in them
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Peak, where the fuck have all these tries come from?
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Ron runs rapidly
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The Pumas have an terrible recent record but from what I saw of them in the RC they were consistently competitive against some of the best teams in the world. I think Eddies selection shows we’re not taking them lightly so that’s encouraging. If we win the pressure is off against France and I think we’ll top the group. Lose and we’ll likely crumble and crash out. Again.
Just trying to help Craigs realise the correct levels of fear.
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At a conference so not watching (or droning on with an entirely inaccurate stream of consciousness commentary you’ll be mightly relieved to know). Has the evil horde scored yet? And Ireland?
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That was a bit too easy
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@Enzo
Nothing public from DBWR, just:
“According to Schmidt himself, Ireland have received confirmation from World Rugby that Garnder got three of his key penalty decision wrong during the tie in Fukuroi.”
It’s all pretty vague.
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ooh. Has the massacre started?
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It isn’t that vague and I imagine he isn’t lying because that would do us zero favours.
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And actually Schmidt mentioned more than three – he was a bit vague overall – but specifically (and non vaguely) said WR said three of the four times we were pinged for offside were deemed incorrect in whatever reviews they do.
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