Preamble
A pleasing sell-out crowd and a Big (Chief) Red Cloud-sponsored Nige reffing augured well for a festive atmosphere and a good local derby contest. Even the weather was fair at the start, favouring the Blues in the first half before turning Newport Docks evil in the second, when the unfortunate Dragons had to play into the bitter wind and driving rain.
The Encounter
After a start almost as bright as the Dragons’ peeled-satsuma away kit, things looked promising. Decent lineout ball and early indications of a strong mauling game, Ashton Hewitt vigorous with and without the ball, Moriarty making a couple of inroads and Taine Basham a whirlwind of energy. After 20 minutes I realized I hadn’t used the fast-forward button, which is normally a technological godsend when watching a recording of a Drags match.
There was even a half-break from The Most Handsome Man in Rugby™, finally getting some injury-free game time for the Dragons.
Perhaps inevitably, the tide slowly turned in the Blues direction. Cardiff’s ‘interesting’ but effective breakdown tactics and the Drags poor clear-out work / sluggish passing combined to slow us down. The Blues defensive line speed and some seasonal goodwill from Nige’s patrolling of the offside line saw us under pressure and getting pushed backwards.
Our attempts to cross the gain line emphasized the poor quality of the Drags front five as ball-carriers, and our 9’s sluggish service meant they often made a standing stand rather running on to the ball at speed.
In contrast to Cardiff, the Drags deployed a more passive gain line defence, spreading across the field like a tangerine daisy chain. Unfortunately, this suited Jarrod Evans’ excellent heads-up with time-to-spare game management. A lovely dummy sent Welsh Legend Wainwright into the wrong player as Evans glided through a gap to send winger Lewis-Hughes in for the opening try.
Cardiff were taking command, and some very poor box kicking from Rhodri Williams who seemed to misjudge the conditions and playing surface (we are not in Rodney anymore, Rhodri), meant the bright start petered out. But lo, against the run of play the Drags executed a good driving maul from a lineout, and that man Basham bustled over for the touchdown. 10-5 at the, ahem, oranges.
Cardiff started the better at the outset of the second half, unsurprisingly with all the elements in their favour. But some dolly-drop passing on the Drags 22 saw an intercept from Basham, who sprinted towards the Cardiff line chin-on-chest, like a ram looking for a gate. Evans caught up and made the tackle, but Basham kept the ball alive, and after a couple of surge-and-fumbles Screech scorched over at lightspeed..
That was as good as it got from a Drags perspective. The Blues forwards further dominated the collisions and started to push our boys backwards in the tackle. The Drags bench didn’t really make an impact, and after a poor clearing kick from Williams Josh Adams went on a typically surging run. Lane was unable to gather the resulting cross-kick, but Nige yellow-carded Hewitt for I think loitering in his own 22, and a tired Drags team started to leak penalties. The Blues eased to a 16-12 victory.
Pastries and Crumbs
Although the set-piece forward battle was well contested it underlined how both teams have underpowered packs, with neither side really getting the upper hand. The Blues defence was quicker and better organised, and the Drags suffered throughout from slow ball and a lack of forward power. Basham is a fierce competitor and earned his Player of the Match status, and he seems a good leader by example.
Cardiff’s ancient warriors Gill, Andrews and Turnbull seemed to be enjoying themselves, but their Welsh Legends had quiet games, as did our lads Dee, Wainwright and Hill. Amos and Adams seem good acquisitions for the Blues, and Tovey’s last quarter kicking game (the best one of the 3 fly-halves on show) complimented Jarrod’s earlier passing and running work to close out the game.On a positive note, I always thought the Dragons has a squad good enough to compete rather than capitulate as was the case under Blarney Jackman’s peculiar tenure, and so it seems to be. We need more front five oomph which would hopefully speed the half-backs up, but otherwise matches are now bearable to watch. Marvellous.
As reported by OvallyBalls operative MisterIks.
On the telly this week
Friday 27th December
| Ulster 35 – 3 Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Bristol 21 – 26 Wasps | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 28th December
| Treviso 36 – 25 Zebre | 13:00 | Freesports |
| Northampton 33 – 26 Gloucester | 14:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Edinburgh 29 – 19 Glasgow | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Harlequins 30 – 30 Leicester | 16:30 | Channel 5 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Munster 6 – 13 Leinster | 18:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 29th December
| Exeter 14 – 7 Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
@tomp
You may be being a bit disingenuous about Peterson Junior’s Lion Diet subscription. That $680 a year gets you a number of benefits including access to a “Private fasting group”.
Finally someone has come up with a way of making money from eating disorders. Such entrepreneurial spirit.
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Feel very tired this morning. I’m not sure this lion diet is working for me.
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She has some wonderful advice. Suggesting we don’t eat fruit is a novel one.
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I think it was the Familie Petersons dietary advice that finally pushed Sag over the edge.
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Isn’t the Lion Diet where the ladz just lie around waiting for the women to bring them food?
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Just dropping by to wish everyone Happy New Year – weather yesterday was glorious in these parts but couldn’t last and now it’s lashing down again
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Testing
One two, two
Is thing thing on?
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@LADOAB
Might work in a (imperial) stout/porter – with enough alcohol to carry them…. need to be a “malty” style.
Local brewery down this way (well, nearer Cork) came up with an IPA flavoured with spruce tips (no, not sure what they are…) – I’m sure a beer that tastes of ‘Kleen-o-pine’ has some aficionados – anyway I wasn’t one… two swigs and down the drain
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BB, there are all sorts of rumours flying about, including one that has Ritchie Gray replacing his brother at Glasgow.
Jonny will be a huge loss, he doesn’t make big flashy carries bit he is the ultimate “unseen work” guy, the Glasgow stats bloke has him currently on a urn of 209 tackles with no misses, he usually makes 20+ tackles per game
To quote Disco
“The sequence of 209 came in these games:
Ulster 19 made / 0 missed;
Leinster 43/0;
Ulster 20/0;
Leinster 25/0;
Leinster 22/0;
La Rochelle 19/0;
La Rochelle 20/0;
Edinburgh 23/0;
Edinburgh 18/0.
During 2019 Jonny didn’t miss a single tackle for Glasgow in the PRO14.
In the last 3 calendar years, Jonny has missed 3 tackles for Glasgow in the PRO14. From 452 attempted that gives a 99.3% completion rate.”
He does a lot of the hard yards, close in micro-carries as well as hitting rucks, doing his share of the lineout work and is part of a hugely improve Glasgow scrum and maul.
The point is he is currently protected by the SRU’s maximum of five games in a row before mandatory rest, plus rest protocols after internationals.
Guys with big work rates like his will get beasted playing outside of Scotland, it will be interesting to see how moving affects his performances
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Nigel Wray gooooone,
Sort of
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jan/02/time-for-a-fresh-start-nigel-wray-retires-as-saracens-chairman
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Wonder if Deebee is still on the Lions diet?
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That is a solid kill.
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Seems like Rory Hughes has joined Leicester on loan. I know we’re bad at the moment, but….
In better news, pictures of Big Leone in Glasgow have been posted on the Warriors fans FB page! Good to see the big guy back – we might need him beyond the end of the season.
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Happy New Year Trisky.
Lidl sell a range of ‘craft’ beers here, supplied by Eichbaum, an independent brewery in Mannheim. The marketing is steampunk themed so the cans look aesthetically pleasing.
The plus side is that a 50cl tin costs less than a Euro, the minus that the beers reflect the price and fall short of the promise. The porter is 7+ percent alcohol but still manages to taste thin and watery somehow. The red ale and IPA with the same strength are not bad, but the best for me is the standard IPA at 5-6% which is pleasantly drinkable.
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Does tackling Tom Francis count the same in the stats?
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As tackling a Tuilagi?
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That went well.
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None of them taste of Cleen-o-Pine though.
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Two strong sides:
Ulster: Addison; Baloucoune, Marshall, McCloskey, Stockdale; Burns, Cooney; McGrath, Herring, Moore; O’Connor, Henderson (capt); Rea, Reidy, Timoney.
Replacements: Andrew, McCall, O’Toole, D O’Connor, Jones, Shanahan, Johnston, Gilroy.
Munster: Daly; Conway, Arnold, R Scannell, Earls; Carbery, Murray; Loughman, N Scannell, Knox; Wycherley, O’Shea; O’Mahony (capt), O’Donoghue, Botha.
Replacements:Barron, Kilcoyne, Ryan, Coombes, O’Sullivan, Cronin, Goggin, Cloete.
Munster a bit greenish at prop. Knox is a Saffer-soon-to-be-Irish about whom there’s a fair bit of chat. Loughman’s a Leinster product. Looking forward to Wycherley in the second row up against Henderson.
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@yosoy
Completely predictable in retrospect – but I think you’d be running through any number of names before you thought of this guy
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Hi MrIks
Lidl here have their craft beers from a gang called Rye River – they’re pretty good I think – rebadged as “Crafty Beer” (probably took 10 seconds max to come up with that). There’s also the usual Perlenbacher stuff. Aldi’s offering isn’t as good.
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Reminds me … I was a uni with a girl called Clio Pyner – no prizes for guessing the nickname.
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Yeah, much is expected of Knox…. and Loughman is – apparently – a former centre…..
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Good v evil. Respect v hubris. Charity doers v brazen pilferers. We welcome all with open arms v we slam doors in your face. Legends v Turks
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Interesting analysis from RWC2019
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Evil sounds kind of cool
Interesting, at least.
And souls are overrated.
Turks struggling away from home, probably too close to call.
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Spruce tips, if you already hadn’t found the answer Trisk, are the new shouts off of spruce trees. (They need to be fresh, and picked off rather young trees.)
Are there spruce that grow in Ireland?
I’ve not tasted a beer that tasted of a cleaner of any type, and the ones that I have tried made with spruce tasted quite good.
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Hamster not being constrained by convention
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Scott Morrison seems like a massive twat. A walking example of why the trend is for politicians to only do the media under rigorous controls.
A massive emergency compels him to walk in the public eye, and then the complacent ignorance and smirky self-awareness just shines through.
Sadly it just underlines why they are better off doing a Johnson, keeping out of sight as often as possible.
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Lion diet day 2:
Breakfast a particularly tough task this morning as last night’s meal had still not fully digested and lion meat is not really a 6:30am snack. Salt didn’t do wonders for the overall taste.
Note to self: try Saxo instead of sea salt.
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What is a Lion diet, Yos? If I’m on it, it includes a shit load of red wine, rum and beer. The odd cornflake inna beer for respectability.
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You’re eating actual lion meat? I’ve never done that. There’s an unwritten rule that you don’t eat other carnivores.
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@deebee https://mikhailapeterson.com/
I’ve only skim read it and not subscribed as I had to spend the subscription costs on meat.
Wonder if I’m allowed a lion lager?
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@deebee
for the measly sum of $680 a year you too can just eat beef and salt. And starve yourself periodically as well, supported by your fellow cult followers
https://mikhailapeterson.com/#memberships
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Yeah – quite a lot of coniferous softwood grown commercially – native forest would be deciduous ….beech, oak, elm, lime plus birch. It’s a much criticised point here that most of what is hailed as an increase in forest cover tends to be of a coniferous monoculture that isn’t native.
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Perhaps lions can be introduced to these ‘forests’.
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Some shameless March blog meet advertising.
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Any big cats in Heidelberg?
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At least one cool cat.
What a beautiful looking city, MrIks
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Aka the BIG DOG.
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Richard Cockerill not taking any chances for the game against Kings tomorrow – Embra
15. Blair Kinghorn (85), 14. Eroni Sau (6), 13. James Johnstone (46), 12. Matt Scott (90), 11. Duhan van der Merwe (51), 10. Jaco van der Walt (49), 9. Henry Pyrgos (32) CAPTAIN
1. Jamie Bhatti (9), 2. Mike Willemse (12), 3. WP Nel (136), 4. Lewis Carmichael (40), 5. Grant Gilchrist (144), 6. Magnus Bradbury (73), 7. John Barclay (8), 8. Nick Haining (6)
Replacements: 16. Dave Cherry (18) 17. Pierre Schoeman (34) 18. Simon Berghan (74) 19. Ben Toolis (117) 20. Luke Crosbie (33) 21. Charlie Shiel (12) 22. Simon Hickey (29) 23. Mark Bennett (31)
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I hear he’s been going well down in France (often injured and not in great nick).
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Trump must be scared of losing the election.
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Pfft! Meat and salt diet? Not even a dedicated carnivore like me is stupid enough to fall for that.
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Is the |Heidleberg meet on the 14th ?
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You read the small print and found out you had to buy your own meat and salt, didn’t you?
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Bonne année 2020 à tous les amateurs de ballon ovale!
Yosoy, Rhis Webb had little game time in Toulon, mostly played from the bench when available (Serin had the job) and not convincingly. Surprising given his qualities. Made the wrong choice too early.
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Serin’s had 3 starts so far in his Top 14 career with Toulon, flair. Rhys 5 this season. (Serin has played all the NotAmlin games, while Rhys is yet to feature).
Rhys played 16 and started 15 last season in the Top 14.
After the mayhem of last year at Toulon and the problems his wife and family had settling it may be a decision he regrets. But he’s still got a much healthier bank balance than he would have.
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Yes Tim, last day of the 6N 2020.
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Gray Jr to Exeter confirmed, 2 year deal
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