With two rounds down in the Six Nations, the shocking truth is that OvallyBalls underdoggers have been proven right – or perhaps have so disheartened their national sides that the players lost the will to play.
Here is the state of the nations:
| Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | For | Against | Pts Diff | Bonus | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Les Bleus du mal | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 59 | 39 | 20 | 1 | 9 |
| Smiling Green Machine | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 26 | 17 | 1 | 9 |
| Leeks | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 56 | 24 | 32 | 1 | 5 |
| Saracens | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Kiltie-wearers | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 32 | -14 | 2 | 2 |
| Pasta-scoffers | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 77 | -55 | 0 | 0 |
From this, we can observe several things. One is that the rankings should be based secondarily on the fewest points conceded, as it indicates a better defence. Any fool can score tries against a weaker defence. In the case of England, we can see that their attack and defence are equally great / rubbish [delete as appropriate]. And Scotland are the only side to have achieved two bonus points, although perhaps for the wrong reasons.
However, it’s still wide open for at least four teams. The remaining fixtures are as follows:
| 22/02 | Italy v Scotland | 14:15 |
| Wales v France | 16:45 | |
| 23/02 | England v Ireland | 15:00 |
| 07/03 | Ireland v Italy | 14:15 |
| England v Wales | 16:45 | |
| 08/03 | Scotland v France | 15:00 |
| 14/03 | Wales v Scotland | 14:15 |
| Italy v England | 16:45 | |
| France v Ireland | 20:00 |
The Super Saturday fixtures are, of course, being played in Heidelberg, so all true rugby fans should get their arses there.
My prediction is a narrow win for each of the home sides next weekend, which will bolster the excitement of the following rounds, except for Scottish fans, who will be gurning into their whiskey and cursing SuperSergio, homer refs and the professional era in general.
Meanwhile, this weekend we have Pro14 / English Premiership matches, if Dennis doesn’t menace all of them; Dragons v Treviso has already been cancelled.
Further Reading
TomPirracas has a better idea of how the Italy v Scotland match will go.
Chimpie is looking forward to this weekend’s ProWoo.
On the telly this week
Friday 14th February
| Blues 8 – 25 Crusaders | 06:05 | Sky Sports Action |
| Rebels 24 – 10 Waratahs | 08:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| Glasgow 56 – 24 Zebre | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Munster 68 – 3 Kings | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Gloucester 15 – 26 Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 15th February
| Sunwolves 17 – 43 Chiefs | 03:45 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Hurricanes 38 – 22 Sharks | 06:05 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Brumbies 22 – 23 Highlanders | 08:15 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Lions 30 – 33 Stormers | 13:05 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Leinster 35 – 12 Cheetahs | 14:30 | Free Sports |
| Leicester 18 – 9 Wasps | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Scarlets 9 – 14 Edinburgh | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ospreys 26 – 24 Ulster | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Connacht 29 – 0 Cardiff | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Los Jaguares 43 – 27 Reds | 23:00 | Sky Sports Action |
Sunday 16th February
| Northampton v Bristol | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Lazzer will be along in a moment with his ‘numbers on backs’ thing.
Utna – Loving the analysis there. your list of 12 in the prem and those that qualify does rather prove my point though. well past it, not qualified or not up to it.
I do wish hutchinson was english qualified but hey ho.
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further to what Utna said………………..Ford or Farrell at 10 (Farrell for me)
Tuilagi and Slade with Devoto understudy to either
May, Daly and a Full back
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Stability on the French selection and a strong bench…………………………
However, I think Wales will win a thriller
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I remember watching that try live on TV. Even as I kid I got so wound up watching england, i think because my dad took it so seriously, but after that I remember him and then me just laughing. It was ridiculous. Such class.
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‘I do wish hutchinson was english qualified but hey ho.’
I’ve been attempting to keep an eye on him given all the raving reviews. Last game he got a yellow card for trying decapitate a prop and had a terrible fumblefingers in defence leading to a try. He looks good going forward but is his defence all that?
He’s got a hell of a highlights reel but I’d be interested to hear how he does day in day out.
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So nice to have such a surfeit of centres we can fire Jones, Bennett, Scott, Taylor, Dunbar etc. into the sun.
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I think he’s still in the ‘massive potential’ bracket chimpie.
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Sounds like the title of a French Eurovision entry from yesteryear (cf “Un banc, un arbre et une rue”)
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I really rate that guy.
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It’s a weird commentary from Nige S-S, like he missed entirely what Camberabero did while trying to find words to praise Serge.
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Horse must have the greatest highlights reel of any Welsh player.
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This might be one for Ticht…..
(Musicians who’ve found ‘their’ instrument).
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/20/it-feels-like-an-extra-limb-musicians-on-the-bond-with-their-instruments
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I’m having a Harpo Marx moment.
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Odd thing – I went back to that old AoD link and read a few pages… (I was kind of curious to see what I’d said and if it had made any sense in retrospect) – there was a huge ongoing argument about Cuthbert in those pages…..
As Flair says though – lots of names lost…. though a good few still show up BTL at the Graun
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Horse was very flawed, with more weaknesses than strengths and his peak was over by the time he was about 23. That groin injury did for his top end pace and he was done as an international player.
Very explosive in his early days, mind, and he picked some nice lines off 9 and 10.
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Horse highlights (you’re welcome):
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So, 10 days after accepting a job at HSBC I was really starting to shit myself with the job cuts they helpfully announced and the lack of contract for me to sign.
Luckily it came today but fucking hell. It would be entirely possible for them to say that they were trolling* with the job offer last week.
* OK, not trolling but that it had been withdrawn.
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You might bump into Chek.
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Having said that the situation in China is going to cause trouble for any company doing business there. The industrial collapse caused by the Corona virus means the power stations are burning half as much coal as this time last year
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I plan to check in on Chek. Will pass on the love.
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I refuse to look at the graph.
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needs a pie chart
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Chek labelled me an anti Semite and “disgusting” before storming off, slamming the door behind him without waiting for a reply, all because I questioned the political motivations behind a criticism of Corbyn from the Chief Rabbi.
Many similar questions to mine were forthcoming all across the media from people of the Jewish faith.
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yos, were his last good performances on the South Africa tour in 2014? Scored a super try that showed off all his qualities in the first test and then was barely stoppable in the first half in Nelspruit.
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In fact I haven’t told the whole thing there, the Chief Rabbi all but endorsed one party by way of a scathing criticism of the other in the run up to a General Election, which is pretty much unprecedented from a leader of one of the major faiths.
That was the reason for my questioning of his motivation.
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this Gaelic thing, grian dhearg means red sun.
Fine, but how do you think it is pronounced?
Who thinks gedian yerak?
Take a bow if you did.
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In Gaelic, nothing’s what it seems…….
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Yeah, he got injured in the first autumn game after that tour. I seem to remember him honking in defence in the first test before scoring a daft try. Outstanding in the second and, sadly, never reached those heights again.
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Interesting sign off from former Ulster lock Dan Tuohy
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Scots Gaelic has a word for “sun”? I suppose travellers to Scotland must have mentioned it in passing to the locals.
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Irish would be gre-an j/yah-rug – the eclipsed or lenited D gives a kind of J or Y sound depending … bit like the way that sometimes you hear Playa (beach) in Spanish as Ply-juh…. and yeah….. there’s a vowel squeezed between the R and G in dearg……. same way as we get the final U in film :)
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That’s a good read. As much as all I ever really wanted to do was play rugby (well, and travel through space), I reckon I would hate being a professional. 98% of it would be toss and then you’d play and have a beer after – those would be the only parts I’d enjoy.
Frankly, I’m glad I stuck to the pie charts.
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A bit sad to read about the mud slinging between Wales and France. “Your scrum cheats”.
“Well, your FH is concussed and you let him play.”
I blame Eddie Jones.
English are always handy., aren’t they?
And yes, I know he’s australian.
Now, there was a good article by Rees, yes, Rees, about French rugby in the Graun.
So, who is going to post a link BTL there, to remind some of these kindred spirits that we are here ?
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And before I sound too consensual, down with banjo, mandolins and country music.
A bas les trémolos!
Thaum, I’ve got your back.
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@flair
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I played in the same Scottish Students side as David Millar, he broke his back playing in New Zealand.
Apologies for the Scotsman site, the best I can say is that it doesn’t have as many pop ups and really slow loading ads as Wales Online
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/david-millar-returns-to-where-he-suffered-rugby-injury-in-bold-bid-to-advance-science-1-798159
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Sorry, that seems like a non sequitur – it’s a response to players who are forced to retire after a good long career due to injury.
I know they aren’t complaining, but they have been living the dream.
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Last night I went and watched Sam Mendes’s “1917”.
Excellent photography and art direction, a bit disappointing in terms of story.
Anyway, there is a very moving song, Wayfaring Stranger by Jos Slovick (?). I heard a cover by Johny Cash later. He’s handsome with a lovely gravel voice. And yet, for me the tremolos he indulges with, destroy the very soul of the song. More is less.
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Cricket’s worse I reckon.
When I was 16 I got a call from our youth team cricket coach to make up the numbers for the 1st XI in a league match. There were 3 first-class cricketers in the team. One had played for Somerset with Botham and Garner and Richards, another was a Cambridge Blue and the third was then in and out (more out) of the Hampshire team at the time. I was very nervous at the time as I thought it was big league cricket and this could be my break. I knew the Somerset guy and the Cambridge player but not the current county player.
There were a couple of old lags in the team that were funny and I said to the current county player that it must be great to play cricket and have a laugh all the time. He said it wasn’t. “Matches are really boring, especially if you get out early and don’t bowl. And the travelling. And the shit hotels.”
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That’s a very old song, Flair, it’s one whose origins are lost in time. Some say the tune comes from Scotland originally, where the diaspora moved to the Kentucky mountains. The melting pot of Scots/Irish emigrants with African slaves (where the banjo originated) in the Southern States brought about some magical music.
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Ticht, I knew the song. I was just trying to find a better cover than the one I heard during the film. Basically couldn’t .
I do hear Scottish/Irish roots in it. First time I heard it, a long time ago, I thought it was a “lied” from Haendel.
Ever heard a guy called Andreas Scholl? He sounds like the castrati from the 18th C. That’s what the song in 1917 reminded me of.
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“Frankly, I’m glad I stuck to the pie charts.”
And you’ve retained your love of them which is heartening.
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It is a good read. A Corona though.
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“Matches are really boring, especially if you get out early and don’t bowl.”
Don’t really need to become a professional to work that out.
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Not that I find any of our matches boring as for the last seven or eight years I’ve always been captain. Soul-destroying on occasion, but rarely boring. And of course something silly normally happens at some point. Captaining a county cricket side must be an awful job though especially in a mid-table team or a second division team down the bottom with nothing to play for and so much pointless cricket to play.
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It’s a strange feeling to stick up for someone who’s not here anymore, but as well as I remember how vehemently Chek laid into Corbyn and the anti-semitism problem in the Labour Party, I don’t think it was his way to label a person as ‘disgusting’ or ‘anti-semite’. Also Ticht, I recall you laid it on a bit thick about his callow youth and inexperience during those exchanges.
I’m not being holier-than-thou because I had a bad feeling at the time after asking Chek where his well-articulated rage about Corbyn came from, because it didn’t feel like heat of the moment thing – e.g. if he’d researched it for his job, or whether it was very personal to him. He didn’t reply and left the blog, and I still feel a bit queasy about my questions and their timing.
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“Also Ticht, I recall you laid it on a bit thick about his callow youth and inexperience during those exchanges.”
After his accusations and mudslinging, MrIks, not before.
I’ll go to the wire on this.
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It was during this iteration of AOD/ovallyballs so it’s open to being looked up.
I did nothing to provoke those accusations of antisemitism but ask where the Chief Rabbi’s political motivation was.
If that make me an anti-Semite then we are lost.
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Hardly as if Chek was driven off by what was a pretty mild reaction from Ticht to what he said. Don’t see that he couldn’t have been back on whenever he liked if he chose to.
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https://ovallyballs.sport.blog/2019/11/21/mothers-match-commentary/comment-page-10/#comment-15438
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