In their infinite wisdom, World Rugby chose to schedule the World Cup in a country that is prone to typhoons at this time of year, and to make absolutely no contingency plans should a typhoon threaten.
In a development that appears to have taken the organisers completely by surprise, there is a typhoon headed in Japan’s direction, and two matches have been cancelled, with Japan v Scotland still in doubt.
France will miss out on the possibility of beating England to top their group, and Italy will miss out on a historic chance to beat the All-Blacks and progress to the quarter-finals for the first time.
All right, nobody thinks that Italy would have beaten New Zealand, but it’s a funny old game and a couple of red cards, or another sneaky peek at the rule-book, could have produced the upset of the century. Apparently we’ll never know.
As Parisse said:
“It is ridiculous that a decision of this nature has been made because it isn’t like the fans arrived yesterday. It is ridiculous that there was no plan B, because it isn’t news that typhoons hit Japan.
“Sure everyone might think that Italy versus New Zealand being cancelled counts for nothing because we’d have lost anyway, but we deserved to be respected as a team. We had the chance to play in a big stadium, against a great team.
“The alternative is plan B. When you organise a World Cup you should have one in place.”
Should the Japan v Scotland match be cancelled, all three teams in Pool A contention will have reason to feel aggrieved also: Scotland for obvious reasons, Japan because it is not the way you’d want to go through, and Ireland because they miss the chance to top the pool (that being in Scotland’s gift, rather than Ireland’s hands, of course).
Quite frankly, World Cup should be handed a red card for bringing the game into disrepute. Players and fans alike (and no doubt the sponsors too) are rightly furious.
These matches should be rescheduled in alternative locations.
Last weekend’s rugby
For a rundown on the state of play as of 07/10, please see Deebee’s excellent synopsis.
On the telly this week … or not
Friday 11th October
| Australia 27 – 8 Georgia | 11:15 | ITV4 |
| Cheetahs 40 – 16 Munster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Dragons 14 – 38 Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 / TG4 / S4C |
| Leinster 40 – 14 Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Gloucester 24 – 26 Bath | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 12th October
| New Zealand v Italy | 05:45 | CANCELLED |
| England v France | 09:15 | CANCELLED |
| Ireland 47 – 5 Samoa | 11:45 | ITV |
| Kings 17 – 42 Ulster | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Scarlets 54 – 10 Zebre | 15:00 | Freesports |
| Ospreys v Treviso | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Cardiff | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 13th October
| Namibia v Canada | 04:15 | ITV |
| USA v Tonga | 06:45 | ITV |
| Wales v Uruguay | 09:10 | ITV / S4C |
| Japan v Scotland | 11:45 | ITV |
Craigs. I do think its more about a starter than it being liquid in the first place. I make starters even with dried yeast. The only real advantage to liquid is variety I think.
My geekiest yeasty endeavour was to retrieve the yeast from the bottom of a bought, bottle conditioned ale (bengal lancer I think it was) and used step up starters to make a viable quantity for a brew. Worked great, though not sure it was worth the effort.
Unless I’m doing something really funky, I find US 05 and US 04 cover all the bases.
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Good grief is no back row number sacred? They’ll be getting rid of 8s before we know it.
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@tomp
Wales also playing 30th century rugby by not having a proper 8.
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Ticht. I think i worked it out brewing from grain at about 35p excluding the energy costs which I couldn’t be bothered to work out. Could be more or less depending on whether you spend money on fancy liquid yeasts and how many types and quantity of hops you include.
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Ticht,
I’m with Dova on this one. Skipping what you don’t like is usually the best solution.
Pro is not the only one to have used harsh langage, Cat was as guilty in his relentless dissing of France and Wales for instance. Who cares? It’s just someone’s opinion and their own definition of what’s funny and what’s acceptable.
The previous blog – and this one to a lesser extent- was great for the variety of posters and topics. Fewer posters will quickly mean a depleted conversation and ultimately the end of the blog.
I used to read the previous blog almost every day but I must admit it’s not the case anymore, as it tends to be less diverse. I miss the tangents about architecture, politics, art, food, etc…
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politics, art, food and BEER.
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Proper 6? beautiful stuff.
Milne???
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Chimpie, see Yos’s post. Also, Curry at 8 v Argentina.
Auto correct turned yos into God. Now I like him as much as anyone but my phone doesn’t respect my atheistic beliefs.
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Ticht – anywhere from 1-2 quid.
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More details please, Slade.
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Chimpie – Not while there is breath in CJ’s body they won’t. remember his ATL on how special the role on an 8 is?
Proper 8 is definitely a thing. Flankers are just flankers.
Milne???????
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Oliver Magne was commentating on Jap vs Scot on France TV ch 10.
He sounded such a nice gentle guy – not a proper back rower at all……………………………
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Well the food tangents seem to have degenerated into dissing whatever I produce so there’s a point there.
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@sunbeamtim……………………….”more details please”
Elderberry wine or my shower???
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Dov – smacking the yeast pack is essentially a starter. I do it hours before brewing. Sanitation is guaranteed which is another reason to like it.
Those are quality yeasts. I sometimes brew a regular ale with those then bung some super strength wort on the yeast cake.
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I’ll settle for legend.
But God is also fine.
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Flair, UK politics is just really uneventful at the moment but I’m sure it’ll pick up again one day. What’s new in French politics?
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RE the nottablog diversity it has reduced a bit over time, however I do think there is a valid point that some people have been put off by relentless monomania from some quarters.
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Flair, I’m not calling for anyone to be banned or excluded, just to respect other posters – blog unto others as you would be blogged unto yourself, if you will.
It’s my impression that the diversity of posters here has shrunk due to the rantings of the subject under discussion. That is certainly what people have said when they’ve briefly stuck their heads around the door.
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one thing about tramadol is that it encourages confusion between Ossama bin Laden and Joe Biden – who seems to be threatening the US with his fighters?
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‘smacking the yeast pack’
Well if you feel you must.
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Yes Craigs. I like that technique too. To be honest, I think I’ve only ever once had a brew go bad due to sanitation and that was when a yeast failed to take off. I do think if a yeast gets going quick the ferocity of the fermentation pretty much means nothing else survives in there anyway. I can be lazy with this stuff pre-fermentation, it’s at the packaging stage I’m really careful.
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…….this is the only place where I can have a sensible conversation with a llama who thinks he’s a chimp.
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Chimpie – Its essential.
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@flair
Easily remedied
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You’re not allowed to smack anything in Scotland now.
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Cheers guys, I was considering brewing when we eventually sell this sodding house (which I love) and get our new place in Scotland, but there are only so many hours in a day and if I’m being honest I’ll probably end up taking a risk-averse attitude to beer, leave it in the hands of the professionals.
Like I’ve previously mentioned, I’m more of a wine drinker these days – has anyone tried a Scottish white rioja?
An East Lothian pinot noir, perhaps? A Berwickshire Sancerre?
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Could have given you a Lothian, err, red before the in laws polished it off.
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Ticht
I would favour only wines from the South East facing slopes of Lothian slag heaps – that aspect works against frost damage at floraison.
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white rioja? is this a thing?
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the shower involved one of those loofa glove thingys
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do go on.
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“white rioja? is this a thing?”
A new discovery for me, Dov, I really like it
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Springboks are the leading try scorers in this World Cup with 27, apparently – five more than the Kiwis and 10 more than England. Just give us the Cup, dammit. Now!
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You’re not allowed to smack anything in Scotland now.
Whit? nae even the sassenachs?
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I think we will go with Navidi 6, Tips 7 and Moriarty at 8. Drags legend Wainwright on the bench.
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No way Deebee. Too evil.
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No proper 6 Iks.?
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Think the nae smacking thing kicks in next year.
Not clear if this applies to yeast.
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@OT
As demolitions go that was a very tame.
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try this:
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I think Navidi is a proper 6, or should be. Gats prefers a bullish, ball-carrying Moriarty over the more allround game of Wainwright and where he is in his development.
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Navidi seems to be a proper 6 to 8 inclusive.
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I think we’ll rock up the same that started v Australia. I expect Beard to take Shingler’s bench place and, based on nothing more than a hunch, Carre instead of Smith.
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Navidi is a proper player. Legend.
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Yos. Not unless he has a proper number.
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Wilson surely a proper 6. Even when playing at 8.
Ben Morgan, now there is a proper 8.
Anyone else done this ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/49376266
Apparently I am an ideal lock. Did play there once, I recall, and I wasn’t very proper.
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Tim – I’m going to question the effectiveness of that test. I also came out as a lock which at 5 foot 9 and 11 stone is never going to happen.
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Prop.
Can’t complain about that.
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