Week Two made Irish eyes very sad. But Welsh eyes leeked with joy, when the Wallabies didn’t quite manage to hop into the lead in the second half. Uruguay failed to repeat their magic from Week One. Otherwise, the results were more or less as expected.
Week Three’s biggest clash is looking like England v Argentina, although no doubt there will be some surprises in the other fixtures.
We’ve also got some Pro14 and that English Premiership Cup thingy to look forward to.
Exciting (?) rugby on the telly this week
Friday 4th October
| S Africa 49 – 3 Italy | 10:45 | ITV4 |
| Glasgow 21 – 25 Scarlets | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leinster 53 – 5 Ospreys | 19:35 | Premiers Sports 2 / TG4 |
| Worcester 19 – 34 Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 5th October
| Australia 45 – 10 Uruguay | 06:15 | ITV |
| England 39 – 10 Argentina | 09:05 | ITV |
| Japan 38 – 19 Samoa | 11:30 | ITV |
| Kings 20 – 31 Munster | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Zebre 28 – 52 Dragons | 17:00 | Freesports |
| Cheetahs 63 – 26 Ulster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Cardiff 11 – 19 Edinburgh | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 / S4C |
| Connacht 41 – 5 Treviso | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 / TG4 |
Sunday 6th October
| New Zealand 71 – 9 Namibia | 05:45 | ITV |
| France 23 – 21 Tonga | 08:45 | ITV |
| Northampton 28 – 54 Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Tuesday 8th October
| South Africa 66 – 7 Canada | 11:15 | ITV4 |
Wednesday 9th October
| Argentina 47 – 17 USA | 05:45 | ITV4 |
| Scotland 61 – 0 Russia | 08:15 | ITV |
| Wales v Fiji | 10:45 | ITV/S4C |
Ovally Balls 
My missus’s surname translates from the Czech to Goldfinch. She’s read the Donna Tartt book of the same name. I haven’t.
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I remember Ally Fogg, Thaum, he was a good writer, iirc
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Thaum – roasted beetroot with melted brie or other soft cheese with some wine is amazing. Especially when you’ve grown it yourself.
Did I tell you about the time I made beetroot beer?
Melon is poison. There is nothing at all good about it. Unnatural, deviant texture. Fetid flesh. Repugnant taste. Smelling like vomit. I really hate it.
Livers, heart, kidney and tripe on the other hand, makes you strong.
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I’m no fan of melon
nor of cucumber
nor artichokes because they remind me of the worst hangover of my life, I’ve only ever called Huey in the big white telephone the day after drinking once, and that was the last day (and first as it happens) I ever ate artichokes.
I even still eat mussels despite really bad food poisoning once, ie losing a quarter of my bodyweight type food poisoning, but never artichokes.
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I’m trying to move towards a fully plant-based diet, Craigs, but talking of innards, I do love haggis
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Ha! Someone has just posted a pic of a piper on a train on the way back to Tokyo after today’s game.
I’ve known the piper for a little over 45 years
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pic of a piper picked a pic of pickled piper
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Good job you didn’t try to type that after drinking artichokes.
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Ticht – I don’t mind cucumbers though. Plus, unless you don’t mind taking supplements you’ll probably need to have eggs occasionally.
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Craigs, much vegan food is fortified with the vitamins and amino acids these days
Macsweens is the best haggis widely available, I must try their vegan version, just to see if it’s possible.
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and with that, I must away
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World Rugby caught clueless, look like headless chooks as typhoon approaches. Difficult to believe they had no prepared contingency plans. Cancelling games in the BS alternative.
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is the BS alternative, even.
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“Friday, 11 October
Pool D match between Australia and Georgia in Shizuoka at 19:15 JST to be played as scheduled
Saturday, 12 October
Pool A match between Ireland and Samoa in Fukuoka at 19:45 JST to be played as scheduled
Pool B match between New Zealand and Italy to be cancelled
Pool C match between England and France to be cancelled
The decision to cancel matches has not been taken lightly and has been made in the best interests of public, team, tournament personnel and volunteer safety, based on expert advice and detailed weather information. While we have extensively explored all options, public and team safety was our utmost priority as well as ensuring a consistent, fair and equitable outcome for all teams. All fans with tickets for a cancelled match will receive a full refund for the face value of their match tickets.
Sunday, 13 October
Every effort is being made to ensure Sunday’s matches will be played as scheduled. A thorough assessment of venues will take place after the typhoon has passed before a final decision is made on Sunday morning.”
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Just when you think he can’t stoop any lower, even if it’s merely a distraction and an “oh look, an eagle” type thing
“Turkish troops advance into Syria as Trump washes his hands of the Kurds
Civilians flee as airstrikes and artillery hit border region
Trump on Kurds: ‘They didn’t help us in Normandy”
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Ahem,
A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
An Onomatopoeia screeches into a bar, sizzles, growls, and roars.
A question mark walks into a bar?
A non-sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Get out — we don’t serve your type.”
A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
A synonym strolls into a tavern.
At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
A dyslexic walks into a bra.
A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.
A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar, and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony
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Despicable comment from the idiot.
First rule of the Middle East, according to one journalist I read the other day: The Kurds always get sold out.
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Fuxxsakes. Typhoon? Who the hell schedules a rugby world cup during typhoon season in a place where typhoons do their thing.
@AVS – I remember South Africa being shafted for this World Cup in favour of ‘growing the global game’ just a few years before the Sunwolves were shafted out of Super Rugby. For the record, our weather has been absolutely sublime for the last month and will be for the next month too. A great fucking congratulations to DBWR for fucking up some crucial matches.
Now I know they couldn’t have predicted the actual typhoons, but it seems like they used the old fingers crossed behind our backs approach to dealing with the very real possibility of typhoons. In which case, surely they should have insisted on all stadia being closed and typhoon proof? Would the Ashes be scheduled over December/January in the UK? I don’t think so. Would the FIFA World Cup be scheduled in 50 degree heat? Well, yes, but they moved it to more bearable temperatures later in the year. Just a pity if you’re a construction worker dying in the interim.
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Well that’s a bit sucky but at least pools b and c aren’t really affected in terms of who qualifies and where
If Sunday’s games start getting cancelled however….
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The orange baboon is a scumbag? Who’d’a thunk
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Morning!
Ticht – A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
There is very little that makes me laugh at this time of the day, but that did it. Thanks!
I’m annoyed about Pool B. It coulda been a three-way tie. The ABs are getting a free pass here.
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A piece of pink tarmac walks into the bar. The barman leans over to another customer and says ‘don’t talk to him, he’s a complete cyclepath’.
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A man walks into a bar. He’s joined by 2 friends. Then his work mates. Then all the men in the village. Then all the men in the county. Then all the men in the country. Then the world. First man looks over his shoulder and says ‘i’ll get the first round in’.
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What’s the definition of a Freudian Slip?
When you say one thing but mean her mother.
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Two adjectives walk into a bar and the Catholic landlord refuses to serve them.
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@ticht… well, that’s probably the easiest method of teaching grammar I’ve yet to see
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Yes, Murray, we know. He is very slow.
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An English man, an Irish man and a Pakistani walk into a bar. What a fine example of a multicultural society.
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@refitman
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What a shame.
Doesn;t look good for Scotland either. If it’s as powerful as reported and given the damage the last (less powerful one) caused you’d think the day after the authorities may well have a lot more serious things to deal with than putting on a rugby match.
Here’s hoping though.
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Maybe they could move theatch to Murrayfield.
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*the match
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They can’t move it now. precedent set by simply cancelling the other games rather than changin venues or rescheduling. Its either on as planned or off altogether.
has this really been a good world cup? I can think of 3 cracking matches, maybe 4 and a load of mismatches. Now this. Loads of games have been strewn with handling errors.
I guess you forget a bit between the world cups (the last one being 8 years ago doesn’t help.. not sure what happened in 2015) . Maybe it’s just normal and it only ever really kicks off in the knockouts.
Bet its been brilliant to be there but the time zone and the issues above have made it a bit meh for TV viewing.
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The Japan Scotland game should be played, even behind closed doors if crowd safety is an issue, it’s not at all the same situation as Italy v New Zealand, as RWC claim, where Italy’s qualification requires them to beat the ABs and deny them a bp
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@Ticht
They can’t play one game behind closed doors and cancel the others.
Each game is just as important to the sets of players and fans involved.
There needs to be consistency. Either all affected games are moved, played behind closed doors or cancelled.
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I think they need to be seen to be treating teams equally though rather than taking a judgement on what was likely to happen.
France had a chance to top their group as well and get to play a group runner up rather than a winner.
The stakes are clearly higher in the Scotland – Japan match obviously. They’re giving it the best the chance they can by delaying the decision as long as possible. If they have damage to infrastructure and a stretched emergency services situation they’ll probably call it off.
It’s just a case of crossing fingers I think.
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What seems ridiculous to me is world rugby’s contingency planning amounts to crossed fingers. There is no way Japan will want to qualify like this and it is being suggested in some quarters that they will offer to stand down rather go through as a result of the game being called off.
The SRU should do likewise and see if we can’t get an alternative sorted today, three days before the event, rather than waiting until Sunday
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@refit
“An English man, an Irish man and a Pakistani walk into a bar. What a fine example of a multicultural society”
Talking tangentially of which – anyone with any experience in trying to spread the rugby gospel beyond the usual groups?
We’re always competing with both football (gaelic) and soccer – but we’re building a decent minis (U12) and age grade structure (U13-U18) plus added back a 2nd XV after a few years. We’ve also created a U14 girls team and have a few U16s in an amalgamation with neighbouring clubs, and have the basis of an adult women’s’ team – need to find them appropriate competitions for their level.
So far…so good.
We’re not doing a great job (or we think we could be doing better) in getting recognised by folks from countries where rugby isn’t much played – eg Poland, Eastern europe in general, South Asia, Africa There’s an apochryphal (maybe) story of a club near Cork that reached to “newcomers” and a Polish lad working locally turned up – turned out he’d played wing at international level for Poland – and was a cut above any of the local players.
We’ve a neighbouring club – Rugbaí Chorca Dhuibhne – based around Dingle . They do lineout calls “as Gaeilge” to confuse the Anglophones….
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“They can’t play one game behind closed doors and cancel the others.”
Why not, exactly?
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“We’ve a neighbouring club – Rugbaí Chorca Dhuibhne – based around Dingle . They do lineout calls “as Gaeilge” to confuse the Anglophones….”
A bit like playing in Langholm
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Because it isn’t fair.
There is more at stake here than a shot at a QF for one team.
Italian players lose chance to play the best team in the world in a WC
NZ players lose the chance to impress the selectors ahead of the knockout stages
Japan and France lose the chance to win their group.
All of these are just as important to the players and teams involved as Scotland getting a shot at a QF. (except to Scotland fans).
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Well. Fairness? And the rules.
No efforts have been made to reorganise the other games.
I’d very much like it if they did manage to get it on somehow as I’d like to see the game. It’ll be a cracker I think.
I can totally see an argument why that would not be entirely in order with respect to the way they’ve treated the other matches as if they’re foregone conclusions and don’t matter so they stick to the rules if they then bend the rules for the big one.
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Actually, unless I am wrong, a cancellation of SCO – JAP guarantees that Japan wins the group.
Assuming Ireland get the BP vs Samoa, they end on 16 points.
Japan are currently on 14. Add 2 for the “draw” (cancellation) and they too have 16. Japan then win the group on the basis that they won the head-to-head against Ireland
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Pro, the tournament rules state that if a game cannot be played on the day scheduled then it is cancelled, deemed a nil nil draw and two points are awarded to the teams involved, no bonus points.
The games called off on Saturday came about because it will be dangerous to go out doors on Saturday in those areas.
By Sunday that danger will have passed, but there is the chance that a clear up operation will be needed. This does not hinder the prospect of the game being played, it only really raises transport issues for tens of thousands of people
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I think England having their game cancelled reduces their chances in the knock out stages for instance. If there were such a thing as undercooked it will surely apply to a team having played tonga and the US and then a game against 14 men.
Its crap for everyone missing out. I hope it’s not crap for Japan and Scotland.
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I’m sure if there aren’t mass power outages and casualties and its safe for the players and official to travel they’ll put it on. I’m sure Japan want to play as much as Scotland.
If it were my team I’d rather play and risk getting knocked out than hear about this forever more.
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Dova, I’m not buying the undercooked story, these teams have been preparing for this for years, the last few months have been all about honing for the knock out stages, if anything it takes a few miles off the clock, gives more time for the likes of Vunipola to regain peak fitness etc
The Welsh or Aussie players England or France line up against won’t be involved this weekend in any significant way
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I’ve enjoyed this world Cup. So there.
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“I’m sure Japan want to play as much as Scotland.”
Of that I am certain, a guy who lived in Japan for many years has posted that it will bring an overwhelming sense of shame to Japan to go through under those circumstances, my beef is not with Japan, if they do go through either by beating us or by default I’ll support them to the hilt in the KOs
My complaints lie firmly at the door of World Rugby and Rugby World Cup
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Sure I said it on the old site, but this was always a risk having a sole host in East Asia in Sept/Oct.
Surprised there aren’t plans to cope (other than cancelling some games). I read a good suggestion somewhere about playing, say, NZ-Italy in place of a dead rubber (e.g. Canada-Nambia). Then, play Canada-Namibia (or whoever) as a double header with one of the QF games. Sure – problems with tickets and transport etc.. but still better than no game at all?
Or, just build a rest week in between last round of pool games and QF, with the option to play cancelled games in this rest week. Ok, would maybe extend the comp a bit, but not hugely so
Or, don’t hold it in Japan in October…….
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