Heartbroken by Ireland’s tragic crash-out last week, I forgot about putting up a new post yesterday. So this is a rushed affair.
Further reading
Don’t miss Deebee’s analysis of the quarter-finals, or Utnapistm’s predictions for this weekend.
On the telly this week
Friday 25th October
| Ulster v Cardiff | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Munster v Ospreys | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Bath v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 26th October
| England v New Zealand | 09:00 | ITV |
| Dragons v Glasgow | 14:45 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Gloucester v Wasps | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Treviso v Kings | 15:00 | FreeSports |
| Connacht v Cheetahs | 17:15 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Zebre v Leinster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Edinburgh v Scarlets | 19:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 27th October
| Wales v S Africa | 09:00 | ITV |
| Leicester v Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u16c/2018/player/Mason-Grady
Yes, he’s a centre. Or sometimes a wing. Legend.
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Ouch. Get well soon, dov. Probably best if England don’t try anything to excite you or tempt into a celebratory skinful next weekend.
Pat Ella invented the chip kick off the knee that larry mentioned last week.
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I like rugby playerz who know their way around the basketball court. Good awareness, innit, and passing skilz.
Two of the toughest classification games you could have there – San Marino followed by Andorra.
Had a scoot around the website for the other levels of that tournament. Seems GB also had a Team GB team in the B division.
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Dov – sounds painful and I hope you get better. Still funny though.
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“Rugby related drunken stupidity kicks in at about 40 for the dova males it would seem.”
I was a prodigy, I was probably around 17 and on leaving the rugby club after a game, or after the jugs of beer, I decided it was a good idea to hurdle the concrete-filled oil drums at the edge of the carpark which stopped vehicles encroaching on the clubhouse.
I was wearing cowboy boots at the time.
The result was a heavily bleeding face with gravel stuck in my forehead and cheek.
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Ticht – the really worrying thing in that story is that you were wearing cowboy boots.
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@thaum
That’s the best part!
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You forget my wholly rational and overwhelming fear and loathing of country music. And southern USians.
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*Thinks about putting some Good Ol’ Boys music on*
*Remembers Thaum has Banhammer*
*Decides to put some High Quality Cheesy 70s Pop on instead – just for Iks*
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Braver man than I, OT!
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Cracking song though. 4 guys you definitely would NOT want to cross! And all brilliant in their own way.
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Ah but Thaum, despite the fact that I love country music and have done all my life (I was a Johhny Cash fan at 11, the fist gig I ever went to was Glen Campbell – I was taken to it by my mum), the reason I was wearing cowboy boots at age 17 was because I was also a Motorhead fan, and black jeans, black shirt, black cowboy boots was what one wore
I never went as far as the bullet belt, even as a youth I thought they were tacky
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Ticht – jeebus christ, now that *is* a mis-spent youth.
BB – don’t worry, I do have the ability to scroll.
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Up your hooter, BB!
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Charming!
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Everyone should love country music, Hank loves Kenny Rogers
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You started it!
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Meanwhile may Thauma’s wrath be unforgiving in its obliteration of the prophets of Kid Rock.
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You’re the one who muttered something about 3 Minute Pop Song Purgatory. If I have to suffer, then so do you…..
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Just had another look at that drop and am still convinced it wasn’t a bad percentage play.
I was unlucky. Or just older and more brittle than I was willing to accept.
I forgot there was the black wheely bin to the side of the path. I suspect I clipped it on the way down throwing my otherwise graceful and safe trajectory off course.
It was dark.
It gets better / more embarrassing, actually. It seems I sent a text to the fella I’d been to the pub with whilst laying on the path telling not to worry as I hadn’t hit my head and wouldn’t need to have an HIA.
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Laughter is definitely plentiful in contrast to sympathy, as mentioned.
At least I’ve given joy and recieved codeine.
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“I was wearing cowboy boots at the time.”
I remember you telling us that bus driver who wrote that book about the Scottish fencers got it all wrong. Well now I know he got one bit right.
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“I remember you telling us that bus driver who wrote that book about the Scottish fencers got it all wrong. Well now I know he got one bit right.”
I don’t remmeber what I said about it, but hiding a body at the bottom of a post hole would be difficult.
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I think I forgot to congratulate DeeBee on the South African win.
Good luck in the final DB.
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I apologise to all the Wales fans. It’s possibly my fault as I chose Wales in the SuperBru.
So terribly sorry for that.
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@Utna, Yos, MrIks, etc.
Thank you taking the time to write your thoughts about some problems that Wales may have to address before the next RWC.
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@LADOAB – I feel they’ve all been a bit hasty. I’m going to spread my four years worth of problems over four years of thoughts.
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Anyway 2019 was supposed to be the year that sport made up for all that other shit. Sadly things peaked with England’s cricket World Cup win that followed on from the Grand Slam and Naaarch winning the Championship. A few bright moments since then – Stokes’ innings at Headingley, 3-2 win for Norwich against Man City, Wales’ magnificent quarter-final display against France, MillarWynant’s glorious fifty at Pocklington etc but it really has mainly been downhill since July and now here we are with Wales oot, England in, the Ashes still in Australia, Norwich 19th and the real cricket season over with just the five wins from twenty games. At least it must mean that by Christmas we’ll have a Labour government, Brexit knocked on the head, Trump deposed and the climate catastrophe averted. Probably all for the best really.
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@Ticht – “I don’t remmeber what I said about it, but hiding a body at the bottom of a post hole would be difficult.”
I believed you the first time, but now the cowboy boots thing has turned out to be true I’ve started wondering whether you might just be trying to cover your tracks.
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We’ll have to get Brookter on it. Pretty sure he’s got plenty of time on his hands to check a few post holes…
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@CMW
I feel they’ve all been a bit hasty. I’m going to spread my four years worth of problems over four years of thoughts.
Going against tradition here, CMW?
Immediate dissection of a team’s failure on the BIG stage is a staple, isn’t it?*
*This does not take away from the insightful posts that Wales fans have shared, even you CMW.
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We’ll have to get Brookter on it. Pretty sure he’s got plenty of time on his hands to check a few post holes…
Brookter has retired as editor, he no longer is responsible for looking for holes in my posts…
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What is this game of “rugby” you people speak of?
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What is this game of “rugby” you people speak of?
Well, according to some, thirty people run around on a piece of ground near your hometown, waiting for someone to show them the way.
Normally someone is designated as a ‘ref’.
And this is where it’s like buying lottery tickets, if the group of players that are from your town or club are successful, that is to say the group of players has ‘won’, then you celebrate.
I hope that’s helpful.
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You’re the one who muttered something about 3 Minute Pop Song Purgatory. If I have to suffer, then so do you…..
‘Cept that Joy Division are magnificent. Don’t be trolling the drug addled soundtrack to (parts of) my yoof.
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Or possibly the soundtrack to my drug addled yoof. Not as alarming as it sounds, not Trainspotting levels or anything, largely marijuana and acid, with some tinkering around Vitamin-K, which in those days we used as a cheap form of acid, not a date-rape drug. Anything from coke and stronger was too expensive!
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And speaking of mind-bending moments, I’ve just read that Garces has got the gig. England by however many he wants them to win by. SA have won only 5 of 15 Tests that Garces has been in charge of. But before we (royal we, I’m assuming) get too carried away, perhaps a little more analysis of the matches he’s refffed would be apt:
We won 3 of the first 4 Garces was in charge of (against Aus in Cape Town and Scotland away in 2013 – both by large margins), before losing to the Kiwis in 2014 (narrowly), followed by another comfortable win away to Italy.
From 2015 to 2017 we won nothing with Jerome in charge, which included 4 defeats to the All Blacks, Japan in Brighton and losses to Argentina, England and Wales. 8 on the bounce, before a win against the Wobblies in 2018 in SA. Another loss to the ABs and a win against Wales rounds things off.
So what do you make of it? For me, the bulk of the losses coincide with the Comedy-Bok era under Allister Coetzee (the Beasting in Brighton apart). Outside of that disastrous era, we have won 5 from 8 with Garces in charge, so any howls of outrage from Bok supporters over his appointment is pure bullshit.
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Of course I reserve the right to make use of the overall record if things don’t go to plan on Saturday.
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Lovely grammar above. “are pure bullshit.” Boere-English from a suiwer rooinek!
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Et voila! C’est Jerome.
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Cheslin Kolbe fit for the Final! Great news for the Boks, both defensively and from an attacking perspective! He’s much more solid under the high ball than most of our back 3 players and tackles well above his supposed weight. Not too shabby with ball in hand either.
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@Dog – “Immediate dissection of a team’s failure on the BIG stage is a staple, isn’t it?”
Now I know it may not have looked like it, but that was relative success you were seeing there. It’s the next four years of anticipated failure that I’m planning on taking as a drip feed. Going to start with watching the Welsh teams flail around hopelessly in the Pro-14 without the backdrop of a World Cup campaign to keep me cheerful. With a side-helping of a rogering from the Angry Blacks in the it’s-not-even-over-when-it’s-over game.
“This does not take away from the insightful posts that Wales fans have shared, even you CMW.”
I’ve enjoyed them too, even Iks’ ones.
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Garces got the gig- Cue unpoliced breakdown, Saffas flopping three players off their feet over the ball at every ruck, and another two coming in from the side. Boks by 20.
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SBT, I sincerely hope that you’re right.
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@Dog – “Brookter has retired as editor”
It seemed a bit more dramatic than retirement so I fear for the pension fund. I doubt if there was even any PILON.
Now given that to have been doing so much work he must have needed the money I can only think that going back to working on cold cases might be the best way forward for him. And where better to start than a string of killings for which the main suspects are itinerant Scottish fencers in cowboy boots who have ended up living in the South of England and can’t get back to Scotland even though they want to….
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@Deebee – unfair advantage to get the same ref as you’ve just had.
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Garces as ref and Kolbe fit?
South Africa by 10
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@FF – interception try on the last play presumably. They won’t be trying to win by more than three.
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