The good thing about breaking your foot is that the painkillers mean that you’re less bothered about your team getting annihilated by the Bad Guys.
Important Blog News
The plan for the 6N Super Saturday meet-up in Heidelberg, courtesy of MisterIks.
On the telly this week
Friday 20th December
| Leinster 54 – 42 Ulster | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Gloucester 36 – 3 Worcester | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 21st December
| Leicester 22 – 31 Exeter | 15:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Zebre 8 – 13 Treviso | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Connacht 14 – 19 Munster | 17:15 | TG4 / Freesports |
| Dragons 22 – 20 Scarlets | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow 20 – 16 Edinburgh | 17:45 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Ospreys 16 – 19 Cardiff | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 22nd December
| London Irish 10 – 38 Bath | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Thursday 26th December
| Cardiff v Dragons | 15:00 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Scarlets v Ospreys | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Had one small Christmas treat though.
Harking bark to when I was all edgy and punky in those early eighties years I was smitten by a band called Eyeless in Gaza which I’ve mentioned on here before – last time probably comparing notes with Larry about one of his favs Neutral Milk Hotel.
Anyway I still to this day get updates about news and new releases from Jerry, their one-man fan-club curator. When the last update arrived I wrote back asking if he knew of anywhere I might get a copy of their ‘Fabulous Library’ CD. I gave mine away when moving to Germany all those years ago, and still regretted it because it is deleted now, even though I thought it was too atypically easy-going for EiG back in those days.
Jerry simply past my request on to the band’s singer Martyn Bates, who got in touch saying he’d be glad to make me a CDR. And it’s duly arrived, signed with a sweet message and some nifty artwork. I got quite tearful when trying to explain to Mrs.Iks where the CD came from, because she knows that 2 or 3 of their songs are special to us even though their music in general gives her the wrong kind of shudders.
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Note to self- find out how to buy a Peat and Diesel CD thingy on t’internet.
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@Chimpie: “Not even any rugby till next weekend.”
Nonsense. Welsh derbies on Boxin Day. C’mon the Blues, fuck the (gloating Wulluf-supporting) Dregz etc.
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Though I have to say the Wolves supporters below the line on the Naarch-Wullufs report on the Graun were as nice as Iks used to be before he sprouted the horns and fangs.
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Imagine what a state Welsh rugby will be in if the O’s beat our best side just like the fecking useless Dragons did.
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https://www.peatanddiesel.band/
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Discuss…
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With 2 RWC wins it was always going to be Carter or McCaw (with due respect to Nonu, Smiths, Kaino, Read and so on..)
McCaw
cheated a lotexcelled in the dark stuff, whilst DC played sexyNo surprise
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For me it would be McCaw over Carter, just because McCaw’s form never really dipped. He is the most-capped test player with 148, plus he captained the best sports team of all time on 110 occasions.
Not that DC is any slouch of a player, mind.
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Also, I’ve just read this on his wiki page, “McCaw was the first All Black to reach 100 caps, and the first rugby union player to win 100 tests”
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For ‘explore high-performance partnership opportunities’ read ‘stealing the best Turk talent’. The All Blacks are shameful.
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Wasn’t DC in decline this past decade?
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Shame about Mooar, having just got started.
Yosoy, darts still good. Lewis’s bull-bull-D32 was something I hadn’t seen before.
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Rutchie all the way for me. Guy was a machine. Saw him live 2 or 3 times, a lot of unglamorous but highly effective work. And a proper 7 .
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CMW, a vengeful gloat awaits for you. The Wolves are playing City on Friday then Liverpool on Sunday.
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@Iks – thought beating the likes of City and Liverpool was supposed to be their shtick. Then again on that basis they should have lost to Naaarch.
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Still chortling over the thought of Iks being ‘edgy’ and ‘punk’.
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At soft play. Trying to get chimplet 2 properly tired. Probably futile as he’s like the flipping duracel bunny.
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@Iksy
Darts still very good. Lewis v Webster yesterday was proper heavy artillery stuff . That could have been a last 4 tie.
Let’s just get Christmas over and done so we can get back to the dartz.
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@Chimp – Hard play might be the way forward.
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McCaw is the GOAT. Almost 150 matches, rarely injured, consistently high level. No on comes close, for me.
Maybe Macauley Cook, but then he’s never been given a fair crack.
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No soft play for McCaw.
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@CMW
My idea of building a treadmill at home to top up electricity and give the kids exercise was shot down. Still think it would work with a proper reward structure in place.
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Just dangle some of your cheese on toast in front of them….
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Cardiff Legend Josh Navidi returns to the Cardiff Legends lineup as they [the Cardiff Legends] name the team to kick the shit out of the Dragons:
Cardiff Legends: Hallam Amos; Owen Lane, Rey Lee-Lo, Ben Thomas, Josh Adams; Jarrod Evans, Tomos Williams; Brad Thyer, Liam Belcher, Keiron Assiratti, James Ratti, Josh Turnbull, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Olly Robinson, Josh Navidi (capt.)
Replacements: Ethan Lewis, Rhys Gill, Scott Andrews, Seb Davies, Will Boyde, Lloyd Williams, Jason Tovey, Matthew Morgan
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@chimpie
Results, not excuses.
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I mainly meant my pursuit of of music no-one else had heard off, let alone listened too, BB. I was a rabbit caught in the Big City headlights at the time.
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Bloody Legends. Just look at that heavyweight bench too!
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They’re good are Eyeless in Gaza. Got to know them thanks to a brilliant Cherry Red compilation.
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Meanwhile ruff n threadbare Dragons send out the best available on our scant resources…
15 Will Talbot-Davies, 14 Jared Rosser, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Ashton Hewitt, 10 Sam Davies, 9 Rhodri Williams (capt), 1 Brok Harris, 2 Richard Hibbard, 3 Aaron Jarvis, 4 Matthew Screech, 5 Cory Hill, 6 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Taine Basham, 8 Ross Moriarty.
Replacements: Elliot Dee, Josh Reynolds, Leon Brown, Joe Davies, Harrison Keddie, Luke Baldwin, Jacob Botica, Adam Warren.
Nice back row though. Surprised we are sticking with Rhodri as capt, as he’s a bit whiny-whingy and I suspect it doesn’t go down well with the refs.
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*Hugs TomP*.
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Joyeux Noël et bonne année 2020 à vous tous.
Same to McCaw, my best player of the decade, by some margin – although I still begrudge him for kneeing Morgan Parra’s both eyes in that RWC final and getting away with it, but I guess that’s also what makes him great. Truly the best player I’ve ever seen.
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Decades are artificial things anyway but Kieran Read might be a better bet for player of the decade since he played all through the 10 years.
People voted for Carter and many many public votes in the 2010s have proved the wisdom of crowds.
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Tovey, Scott Andrews, Ethan Lewis… It’s like a Bath 2014 reprise.
Also, Ellis out until at least March. You have to doubt whether he can come back the same after an injury that bad.
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This is fantastic:
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Merry Christmas one and all! Off to the brother in law for dinner this evening as per Mrs Deebee’s family tradition, then lie around like a stuffed sock tomorrow wondering why we do it. Have fun folks!
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Etzebeth with the intercept. Think he only took six strides from the 10m line:
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Ah stuff it. Wrong link.
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Merry Christmas everyone, one and all! May the Yuletide Log fill your hearths with the warmth of love and kindness.
Player of the Decade? Any All Black will do.
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Teycagain.
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Teycagain? I’ll give you Teycagain.
Etze just nicked it from Ian Evans repertoire.
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Merry Christmas Flair. Merry Christmas Avs.
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I suppose you might call it the lot of the jackler. Warbs had some bad leg injuries, and Ollie seems prone.
I’m glad to see Navidi back reasonably soon after the World Cup, but he’s another turnover specialist. It’s not just the clearout hits, but also the weight and force bearing down on leg joints and tendons.
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@Iks – my evaluation is that he has a very long stride.
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Need to have a Christmas sized glass of port before I can link Horse’s greatest gallops.
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I’m still easing my way into this Heiligabend. These past years MrsIks would be down in Very Bad Saulgau with her and her brother’s families and I’d be granted a free pass to stay at home and prepare the dinner for Christmas Day when she returns on the afternoon of the 25th. It’s been that way for about 7 years or more.
These preparations would involve some last minute shopping, some rufty-tufty pub lunchtime action, clumsy present-wrapping accompanied by sad carols, then an evening of sentimental Christmas films and a good skin-full of booze, meaning that anything practical to prepare is postponed until the morning.
This year MrsIks is home because we will visit her Heimat on the 30 December for her mother’s 85 birthday. So I’m on my best (sober) behaviour pottering around the place as if it is a normal day, while looking forward to this evening’s Heiligabend vegan feast.
It will be very nice, but it doesn’t feel Christmassy at all.
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Rob Howley would never approve but I’ve gone for a Drags / Os double on the ‘bru. Mad.
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@iksy
I am in Tenerife. Temperature about 26 degrees, trying to avoid the sun together with my equally freckle-challenged 8 year old while his little brother spends all his time in the pool. The wife has a sore rib after getting smacked by a wave yesterday.
Least Christmassy Christmas ever.
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Just had a chat with the grandparents of Scottish rugby players Reiss & Mason Cullen. They’re from Atherton and very talkative.
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