With Six Nations on the horizon, OvallyBalls operatives have been sharpening their pencils (and their rapier-like wits).
Enzo’s Ireland squad
I’ll make tough choices and keep it to a lean-ish 36/37. However, I will do honourable mentions. The players will be in order from best to rest, where applicable. I’ll explain otherwise.
LHP: Healy, Kilcoyne, McGrath – JMcG has found a bit of form although the first two are miles ahead. Nods to Buckley and Eric O’Sullivan.
HK: Kelleher, Herring, Scannell – fuck it, chuck the kid in, he looks fantastic. Failing that it has to be Herring over Scannell.
THP: Furlong, Porter, O’Toole – first two miles ahead, pick themselves. O’Toole is not the third best THP in Ireland, John Ryan and Marty Moore are both better and, if it comes to starting a big game, they should leapfrog TO’T. But he has huge potential and should be in the group.
SR: Ryan, Henderson, Beirne, Kleyn – first two a good bit ahead. Beirne’s form has dipped a bit. Big Dev and Dillane and Roux are all fine but none have form that’s compelling enough to get rid of Kleyn, who has been good and put in one awesome performance against Sarries, which is hard to ignore. Still shouldn’t necessarily play, however.
BR: van der Flier, Doris, Stander, Ruddock, Connors, Deegan, O’Donoghue – no POM, he’s been shit for a year, everyone talks about his leadership so it’s time to have a word with himself and find some form. No room for sentiment. He’s not even next man in, Sean Reidy is the unluckiest guy to not make Enzo’s definitive group. First three would be my starters. Doris has to play.
SH: Cooney, Murray, Blade – self explanatory.
OH: Sexton, Ross Byrne, Burns – JS is still our best ten by miles, until Harry Byrne takes the shirt off him. Carbery would be ahead of Burns (definitely) and Byrne (probably? maybe? maybe not, actually) if fit. I’m as surprised as anyone to be pencilling in Billy Burns and, if Carty wasn’t playing like shit and Hanrahan was a bit more fit, I’d probably not have him.
CT: Ringrose, McCloskey, Henshaw, Aki – Chris Farrell and Luke Marshall are the unluckiest, maybe Tom Farrell too (injuries took away any chance he had). Ringrose is our best centre and my issue with him is that someone needs to tell him the expectation is that he’ll be the best in the world, or thereabouts, for the next few years so time to start playing like it. Given his form since the WC, maybe that conversation took place. McCloskey has been awesome for Ulster and, given we lack a massive carrier in the pick, I think should take the shirt. Henshaw however has been playing well. Aki is Aki, nearly always fit (an underrated quality) and solid.
B3: Stockdale, Larmour, Conway, Lowe, Addison – no Earls is the big news but he’s 32 and even if he wasn’t I’d not have him ahead of these guys. They all play wing and at least four play full back but, IMO, it’s Larmour at 15 with Addison behind him, while Stockdale and Conway are on the wings, although Lowe has to get some time there too.
Chimpie’s Scotland squad
LH: Dell? Bhatti? Sutherland? Our options here are un-good, none of whom are really first picks anywhere. would include Reid but he’s languishing in super-6 land. Need Kebble to qualify pronto.
Hooker: Brown, McInally, Turner. In that order currently although Rambo & Brown are pretty much interchangeable.
TH: Z-Fags, Nel, Bergs. zander has been on good form of late. Wullie can still scrum but otherwise looks a little off the pace.
Lock: Gray (smaller), Cummins, Gilchrist & Toolis. Skinner may be back up to speed soon in which case I’d have him in, no real idea what larger Gray is up to. if on form I’d include him.
Back row: Bradbury, Ritchie, Watson, M-Fags, Thomson. I’m sure Toonie will add Wilson. I’d have Crosbie in there too.
SH: Price, Horne, errr….. Pyrgos? Not much else in the cupboard really. SHC is odd-jobbing in France. Shiel looks good but hasn’t had may pro starts. Glasgow appear to have unearthed a fetus of potentially great talent but bit early to tell.
FH: Finn, Hastings. Behind that the cupboard is somewhat bare. I’d give Weir a chance, but others seem to think Horne is a 10. Yes he can do a brief job there but he’s not an international 10.
Centre. Jones, Scott, Hutchinson, Taylor, Johnson, Bennett, Harris all in the mix, could be a contentious area. They’re all regular starters, difficult to know who to leave out. would personally cut to Jones, Scott, Hutch & Taylor but who knows. Horne will probably make it.
Back 3: Hogg, Graham, Maitland, Kinghorn, McGuigan
Yosoy’s Wales squad
LH: Wyn Jones, Carré, Evans – Smith sucks so doesn’t make the cut, Carré can’t get a game, Evans is miles off last year’s form and Wyn Jones is serviceable. Overall rating: weak
Hooker: Ken, Dee, Elias – fine. Overall rating: tidy
TH: Dillz, Brown, WillGriff John – Guess work here as WG John is getting talked up and I only remember him as a powder puff scrummager that was Scott Andrews-lite. Dillz has played once since the RWC, Fatty Francis is too fat to play (injured, truthfully) and Brown is an awful technician in the tight. Overall rating: piss weak
Locks: President Jones, Beard, Ball, BAILLCH (British and Irish Lions Legend Cory Hill) – fine, same bunch as last year. Overall rating: half-tidy
Back row: Taulupe, Wainwright, Tipuric, Navidi, Shingler, Moriarty, Griffiths – Pivac is picking Shingler whether Iksy likes it or not. The starters should be Taulupe, Wainwright + 1. If they’re going to pick an 8th ‘rower, then pick Basham who’s a proper hard twonk. Griffiths makes Warburton look durable but Pivac was talking him up so…. overall rating: better than 10 Superbowls. Better than 19 Superbowls if Ellis comes back okay next season
SH: Tomos, Davies, G & whoever. Don’t care. Pick Tomos and sit back. overall rating: tidy
The Tenz: Everyone loves Dan Biggar, Jarrod, Sam Davies – not great. Can’t really play Turkball with Biggar, can’t trust Jarrod. overall rating: worrying
Centrez: Parkesy and whoever else is standing. Probably Scott Williams, Watkin will make some of the 6N. Too early for Benny T. Tyler Morgan looks done, wouldn’t surprise me to see Adams play 13 v Italy. overall rating: let’s not talk about it
Wingz: Adams, North, Lane Train, McTurkle, Amos Exprezz – overall rating: choo choo
FB: Halfpenny, Liam might be fit? – overall rating: good to tidy
MisterIks begs to differ in some respects.
Further reading
Chimpie’s synopsis of the Pro-Woo standings
Yosoy on Alun Wyn Jones and the woeful state of the Ospreys
Tichtheid on the Scottish looseheid predicament
On the telly this week
Friday 10th January
| Bath 19 – 25 Harlequins | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
| La Rochelle 30 – 23 Sale | 19:45 | BT Sport 3 |
Saturday 11th January
| Bordeaux 32 – 17 Edinburgh | 12:45 | epcrugby.com |
| Ospreys 15 – 22 Saracens | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Clermont 29 – 13 Ulster | 13:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Calvisano 19 – 47 Pau | 13:30 | epcrugby.com |
| Castres 42 – 14 Dragons | 14:00 | epcrugby.com |
| Agen 24 – 52 Wasps | 14:00 | epcrugby.com |
| Stade Français-24 – 29 Zebre | 14:00 | epcrugby.com |
| Worcester 66 – 10 Enisei-STM | 15:00 | epcrugby.com |
| Bristol 52 – 3 Brive | 15:00 | epcrugby.com |
| Glasgow 31 – 31 Exeter | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Connacht 7 – 21 Toulouse | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Bayonne 27 – 10 London Irish | 16:00 | epcrugby.com |
| Gloucester 29 – 6 Montpellier | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Scarlets 15 – 27 Toulon | 20:00 | S4C / BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 12th January
| Northampton 33 – 20 Treviso | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Leinster 42 – 14 Lyon | 13:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Racing 92 39 – 22 Munster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Leicester 30 – 20 Cardiff | 15:15 | epcrugby.com |
Ovally Balls 
Monsieur Flair (Don Pour?) – To be clear, it wasn’t me who was calling for the bonus point. I just found it odd that the commentator thought that Toulouse should be trying to put more points on the board whilst two players down.
A SF you say. I will keep that in mind when I’m trying make my SuperBru picks.
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Thaum, I apologize as I knew Nige spoke Welsh and I was too lazy to write it as a caveat. But I’ve seen and heard Nige make cosy jokes with English speaking players in the full knowledge Johny Foreigner would not get it.
At least French and Italian refs make the effort to speak English even if it’s often hilariously difficult for native English speakers to understand them.
This is 2020. An international ref should be required to speak the basics of at least two languages ( not including Gaelic or Welsh). Or he should stick to his local games.
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Don Pour? You lost me.
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Thaum, my only day off will be Wednesday. I’d need a couple of hours to write an ATL. Not sure I can do it on time.
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Wordreference gives ‘don pour’ as a translation for ‘flair’. (Pertaining to skill rather than style.)
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Flair – while I don’t disagree, and would hope that up-and-coming refs are multilingual, Nige is near retirement. I also quite often hear French officials speaking to each other in French when more than one of them is a native French speaker – that’s quite often, as you’ll usually get French line refs and TMO when the main ref is French.
This doesn’t bother me as it’s obviously easier for them to be clear in their native language (and I can understand them anyway), but I believe English is technically the official language of refereeing at the international level.
I notice you’ve ducked the question of the ATL. ;-)
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Oh, I spoke too soon, sorry!
We have three weeks; could you write for the following week, or the one after?
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In Brexit land it will be English or nothing, I’m sure…………….
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“An international ref should be required to speak the basics of at least two languages ( not including Gaelic or Welsh).”
Or Afrikaans. I think Jaco Peyper’s mother tongue is Afrikaans.
If Garces, for instance, reffed, say, Italy v Argentina, what language would he speak to the players in?
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TomP – for all we know, Nige might be fluent in Tagalog. ;-)
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Thaum, if one were to write an ATL, where should it be sent?
Asking for a friend, naturally.
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Or Venda. Rasta Raivhenge’s mother tongue that one. He’s managed to ref in France (Pro D2) and Fiji (7z tournaments).
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Wahey! I’ll email you at the address you’ve signed in with.
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TomP,
To answer your rethorical question, English is the de facto international rugby language and I’m fine with it. So players should understand the basics of it and most pro players atually do. But international ref is a full time job and a pretty good one. To ask that they speak another useful language does not seem excessive.
Most Italian/ Argentinian players having played in France would probably understand French, so I assume Garcès would mix English and French. But I think Garcès also speaks Spanish, which could be useful.
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Gimme an L, gimme an R and gimme a Z
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Ye can have a Land and a Rover, but yer not havin’ me Zimmer frame.
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Good score from Gloucester.
Chip collected smartly from the defense and moved out to Gloucester’s #14, who draws the Montpellier defense and offloads in the tackle to Willie Heinz, who canters in for the easy try.
7-3
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Speaking of Gloz, who was it who came up with the nickname ’36’? Genius.
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@thaum
I always thought it was Geordan Murphy when they were at Leicester together.
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Oh, that’s disappointing, I thought it was someone on the blog!
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Still very funny though.
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What a run from Folley! (sp?)
85 metres from the opening kick.
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Gloucester take the points.
10-3
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LRZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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LRZ finishes a nice tap on in the corner.
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It was a good series of passes with Woodward tapping it on instead of catching the ball before passing.
15-3
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Benny Morgan bustles over from a pick up. Montpellier look broken.
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36 appears to have an incantation before he takes his kick. D’you think it’s the t’ree times table?
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Gloucester score another.
22-6
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One t’ree is t’ree seems very zen….
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Frank Murphy steps on a Montpellier defender to award Gloucester’s 4th try. Doesn’t even apologise.
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Sounds like a convincing win for Glaws with Owen Williams at ten. With Williams and Dan Evans coming back into contention these are exciting times for Wales indeed.
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Not a good game from Montpellier. They should be apologizing.
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The halves were given consideration, but the young potential star was awarded the MotM.
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Just need Steff Evans to have a good game for the Turks.
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@cmw
Williams should come back to Wales. Either Ospreys or Cardiff would be good for him.
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I missed all the rugby today because I was driving to Bristol and back, if I’d thought to plan it I would have gone to their game, but hey ho, next time.
I had a fifteen quid burger in a pub. It was good but fifteen quid for a burger?
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@Yosoy – and probably also good for them though not really an answer for Wales without an injury crisis.
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Sounds like Edinburgh were outplayed by the Top 14 leaders and Glasgow were profligate against the GP leaders
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@Ticht – Bristol might not have a home game on the wekend of next year’s Brighton-Bristol rally.
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Ticht – £12 – £15 where I am. Or £3.69 if I’m drinking in McDonald’s again.
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OK, cooled down, calmed down and dried out now, so thoughts…..
Bloody unlucky not to win that – left a couple of tries out there (Hoggy’s taken all the good bounces with him).
Lucky not to lose that – I reckon of Hoggy had made that kick, he might not have got out of Scotstoun!
Poite – would rather have had Clancy! Yes, really!
Exeter fans – sounds as though there was some chat between the fans (that bloody Tomahawk chop or whatever its called was added to the Glasgow song book for the day).
Best game I’ve seen at Scotstoun since we trounced Ulster in the semi final last year.
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Tam, the Brighton to Bristol Rally is a movable feast, I’m going to plan it to coincide with a game next time
Craigs, I don’t eat out very often, as far as I’m concerned a burger should be around the £2.50 mark
– kidding, it’s a tenner in my local – about 100m from my front door, and it’s good. My daughter had wild mushroom risotto with truffle, which I admit isn’t available here. But this isn’t pub food, it should be steak pie or scampi and chips, bangers and mash
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BB – yep, you had a couple of unlucky bounces that furthermore weren’t handled particularly well.
Agree that Poîte was dreadful. Back to his form of several years ago.
It was certainly interesting to ponder what Scottish fans might have thought of Hoggy making that kick.
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@Ticht – twice we had breaks but the bounce of the ball didnae go our way, scored a try near the end, but called back (correctly) for a forward pass.
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Sorry, CMW, not Tam, it’s the b&w avatars
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On a plate? Or slate? Or a piece of wood?
And how were the chips offered?
I did a Brighton to Bristol run in the mid 90s. Was supposed to be for my graduation ceremony after the PGCE but we didn’t go to the ceremony just to the 2-day piss up afterwards. Ended up winning 60 quid of my beloved friend Andy and his dumb brother who bet me 30 quid each on how many points you got for a win in a pre-World Cup football tournament. The journey was on a Friday afternoon and took forever to get to the M25 and then to the M4. We should have gone Portsmouth, Southampton, Salisbury.
It was the tournament Roberto Carlos did this. Which meant he took every free kick ever after for Brazil.
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Great start from Scarlets
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Ha! About to watch Scarlets /Toulon. Not one of the photos of the Toulon players is right!
And Scarlets score on the first minute!
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Gareth Davies in after a minute.
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