Now that all that distractive World Cup nonsense is out of the way, we can all concentrate on rugby that really matters*: the Big Cup and the Pish Cup.
*Until your team falls out of it, then it’s the league, obviously.
EnzoM has summarised each Big Cup team’s chances nicely, except for one small error, later corrected to read ‘Ulster by 50’.
On the telly this week
Friday 15th November
| Gloucester 20 – 25 Toulouse | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 16th November
| Bath 16 – 17 Ulster | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Glasgow 13 – 7 Sale | 13:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| England 17 – 15 France (women) | 13:10 | Sky Sports Action |
| Barbarians 31 – 33 Fiji | 14:30 | BBC1 |
| Leinster 33 – 19 Treviso | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| La Rochelle 12 – 31 Exeter | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Ospreys 13 – 32 Munster | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| ASM 53 – 21 Harlequins | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Scarlets 20 – 16 London Irish | 19:45 | S4C |
| Bordeaux 40 – 30 Wasps | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 17th November
| Northampton 25 – 14 Lyon | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Connacht 23 – 20 Montpellier | 13:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Scotland 3 – 17 Wales (women) | 15:10 | BBC Alba |
| Racing 30 – 10 Saracens | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Poor second half from Edinburgh, lots of small errors.
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Big Richie’s on for Toulouse!
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Watching a game with no scoreboard, clock or commentary is a bit odd. Cameraman keeps panning across to the wee stadium scoreboard to remind us.
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Hey, Joe – where ya goin’ with that ball in your hand?
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BP for Edinburgh, driving maul
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And that’s the game. Agen crowd not happy with the ref. Edinburgh made hard work of that
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Big Richie’s been busy since he came on.
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“Edinburgh made hard work of that”
We did, but after years and years of guff, I’ll take an away BP win in France
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Well done, Embra! Most of us can only dream of an away BP win in France.
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Ticht – do you think last year was a ‘holding’ year for Edinburgh?
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BB
Forgive me, I am stuck working for at least another hour and I’m getting a bit daft in the heid.
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“Ticht – do you think last year was a ‘holding’ year for Edinburgh?”
We had some major injuries across the team, from loosehead to fullback and Cockers didn’t trust the depth, hench by late Feb early March Big Bill Mata and Schoey and others were out on their feet.
I think the big difference so far this season is that with, say, Dean being injured and out till January, we have Matt Scott and George Taylor to take that shirt, same in the back row, Ally Miller and Nick Haining have been immense so far this season, Luke Crosbie is going to be another Ritchie. Cockers has said for a couple of years he wants to build a squad to compete both domestically and in Europe, we are only a couple of years into the project so far
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Fair point, Ticht. Not bad from a 2nd string team
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That’s OK Thaum. Not one of Blondie’s best, but miles better than TeePau. Hope the last hour of work passes without you getting too stir crazy.
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:-)
I’ve only been working since 7 am. And only 5 hours to do tomorrow (if we’re lucky and all goes well). Working in software is a joy.
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The original of The Tide is High is good:
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Oh bloody hell, Toulouse have gone ahead, and have scored a try. How did that happen?
Am watching a try replay that looks dubious – is that the try, or was there another?
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Aha, there was a previous one I missed. I did not expect this from the first half.
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Their try was earlier, Thaum. The Huget one was very close but he lost control just before he went into touch.
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Thaum, a song for being late at work on a Friday
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Cheers, Ticht, I’ll listen to that tomorrow as the mister is snoozing off and I don’t want to wake him.
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There is a great comment under that vid;
“I will be 42 years old tomorrow. And Kathleen’s understated strength and tenacity have totally made it okay for me to slam-dance down the hallway without losing one shred of dignity. “
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Oh dear, I think Gloz have now officially blown this (so to speak).
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Yep, they have. Gave away too many pens in the first half.
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Good win for Toulouse. Excellent second half performance. Big Richie comes on for the second half. Coincidence?
Also in tonight’s episode of Scotwatch, I thought Harris had a really good game for Gloucester. Not really seen in attacking mode, but did really well defensively.
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Didn’t do anything at all in the second half.
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btw, rock fans, that is the Kathleen that wrote “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on Kurt’s wall, leading to the name of that song
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This was her band at the time, I feckin love this band
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Woo hoo! Work is done for tonight. Off to bed.
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Ironic cheers for our lineout going to our player. Then we knock it on. Woo Hoo. Just wondering if any of the other fatties could have a practice this week at throwing.
Commentators applauding 36 kicking to the corner, why not try a tap and go, at least we might have kept possession.
Well done Toulouse. Experienced and calm and professional second half from them highlighted our shortcomings well.
The kiss of death from thaum too. The way that can be made up for is with Enzos prediction of an Ulster rinsing of Barf tomorrow.
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Ticht – there’s a BBC4 documentary on Blue Note records on just now. Don’t know if you’ve seen it?
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good butter is hard to beat
Just leave it out the fridge and when it gets to room temperature, it’s pretty easy. And the perverts in the back row can stop their bloody Karling right now.
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Cheers BB, I see it’s half way through, I’ll catch up for the start over the weekend. I don’t think I’ve seen it yet
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Having last fag before bed….
Sorry, Beadle! After the first half, I thought you’d do it easily.
As an Irish person, butter is close to my heart (probably literally). I may be biased, but Irish butter is the best. English butter isn’t too bad. French butter is a serious step down, but nevertheless they manage to make delicious dishes with it. USian butter is probably not butter at all, and tastes awful.
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Everyone’s got DNA. This is where Deebee went wrong yesterday.
This is where Deebee was quite right: Welsh guru who Neil ‘not bitter at all’ Francis would accuse of having trained a roid-raged Bok side said South African rugby players have incredible genetics for rugby – in other words the right DNA for rugby. Neil Francis on the other hand, believes that because Aphiwe Dyantyi got bust, the whole squad is tainted. I’m pretty certain they would all have been tested before, during and after the event.
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Death by DNA and drug testing. A wee day of sightseeing today! Can’t wait!
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GB Vs PNG RL. Coming to the end of the first half GB are 10-0 up but PNG looking at bit dangerous. Commentator says portentously:
“they’re gathering in terms of momentum”
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@OT
Now 18-10 to PNG.
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That momentum’s some good stuff.
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PNG are brilliant. GB are terrified of them. Keep dropping the ball.
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Newtons 2nd law is inexorable
PNG now winning 28-10
Great stuff from PNG. With Tonga beating the Aussies last week, and now this, RL is looking a lot better internationally.
GB are awful though.
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Absolutely dreadful. Not passing or catching properly, kicking badly, not chasing kicks. Got a half back on the wing who keeps dropping it. I just don’t get how bad they have been on this tour.
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@OT – was it at all expected or are GB supposed to have a decent team at the moment?
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@cmw
It’s basically the same team that got England to the world cup final 2 years ago. They were able to do the basics then. They can’t now.
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Solid win for Toulouse. Even during the first half, they were dominant in spite of the wonderfully taken tries by Simpson (where was he during the RWC?).
One rarely sees such a dysfunctional line out at this level. Either Gloucester were very sloppy or some Toulouse coach did his homework to perfection.
Who’s the impressive #6 flanker for G.?
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Flair, it’s Ruan Ackermann, the coach’s son. Might qualify for England soon. Was at Garsfontein High in Pretoria with Embrose Papier, who’s at Sale at the moment. Then the Lions and now Gliucester. He’s strong, a very solid player.
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I like Simpson. He’s a good broken field runner, really good, but his bread and butter isn’t test level enough. It’s a weird position for England is scrum half. Some decent players but all have significant weaknesses.
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Thanks Tomp.
Thought Simpson had a good round game, good pass, good eye. I think he’s better than Care, or obviously bad Youngs.
You’re right, England produce wonderful flankers, locks and props, decent FHs, but very few international 9s. I wonder why. France on the other hand lack good locks ( autocorrect wanted me to write good looks) and FHs, but consistently have had good centres and 9s.
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Weren’t we always told how much better the rugby league basic skills were? Seems like it may have been overstated.
Have found myself a lovely little place near Duomo Cathedral, having just visited the Da Vinci Museum. His work is both awe inspiring and explains the horrific complexity of my old Alpha Spider engine. Magnificent car in full flight, dreadful plonker otherwise.
Having Ossobucco con Gremolata with saffron risotto for lunch. Because I’m worth it.
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And red wine at eye-watering prices. Wow! But I’m worth it. And my boss thinks so too.*
* he says crossing fingers and saying a few Hail Mary’s.
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