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 
That song by the Trems was one of my musical stepping-stones as a nipper, when you start to feel the words as well as hear the tune. Like ‘Ramona’ by the Bachelors when I was smitten by (yes you’ve guessed it) a Ramona during a caravan holiday in Lavernock in 1964 even though she was almost twice my age, or Downtown by Pet Clark which I’m sure planted an ache in me about escaping from home and running away to the bright lights big city.
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I’d certainly be happy to see Chek back as I enjoyed plenty of his posts even if I made it fairly clear fairly often that I disagreed with some of them. Can’t help but note that he didn’t respond when I outed him as Jonathan Freedland though. Perhaps he’s just been busy writing another one of his thrillers.
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If I remember correctly it was several days, it might have been a week/weeks, after his labelling me as an anti-Semite before I referenced his inexperience.
I’m a little put out that some may “remember” this as part of the exchange at the time.
I very much doubt he will be back.
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I think it’s unlikely that I’ll read any of Freedland’s books, but seeing as I’ve read Salang by Sandy Gall I have to accept that anything’s possible.
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Nice linking Ticht. Although as I thought he didn’t label you as a person to be anti semitic and ‘disgusting’.
Still, I see why the exchange was prickly. Shame Chek didn’t stick around to sort it out.
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Anyway, this came about because Craigs mentioned HSBC.
I hope the job goes well, if we meet in person sometime I have a tale about my wife’s professional experience with HSBC, all good, but not for a forum.
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What do you think he labels me as then, MrIks?
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Both the older girls had finished their books the other night and wanted read to. I have a load of my old children’s books from when my mum insisted I remove them from ‘home’ so offered them Hound in the Highlands. “What even is Hound in the Highlands” came the response from the bottom bunk. “It’s one of daddy’s antiques” spat the elder one from up top. Turned out it went down a storm, but who wouldn’t enjoy the anthropomorphic adventures of Sherlock Hound and Dr Winston?
Currently reading another one from the same series on my own. Not for myself of course, I just need to check whether or not it might give the bottom bunk dweller the creeps. Ahem.
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I take it you’ve done the Katie Morag stories, CMW?
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I read it that he took umbrage at your words / argument, not who you are as a person. He didn’t say you were an anti-semite or a disgusting person.
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@Iks – can’t really go the full ‘Shame on You’ without wanting to be seen as making a personal attack which it clearly was. Think the whole thing was a shame and hoped/expected it to blow over, but there we are.
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@Ticht – they have indeed suffered my best Scottish accent.
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There we are indeed.
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MrIks, I questioned the political motivation of the Chief Rabbi making a scathing criticism of the Labour party just before an election, as it was unprecedented. Chek said that was a disgusting thing to do, saying I was denying Jewish people the right to define racism against them and denying their testimony. He then cried “Shame on you”.
At the time it read like hysteria so I didn’t really bother with it.
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I liked the Granny Island and Granny Mainland thing in those stories
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Main take away from Hound and the Witching Affair so far was that in 1980 you could still publish a children’s book in which Sherlock Hound (a bloodhound) and Dr Winston (an old english sheepdog) relive the horrors of Hound’s Aunt Ethel coming to visit and taking away their pipe and cigarettes. Might have to skirt over that bit when reading it out loud to them as I don’t want my habit discussed.
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One of my lot’s grannies is Granny Wales. She’s from Norwich.
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Winnie The Witch was a big favourite here, and there was one about a dog that ran away to become a magician, but I can’t remember the name.
Mrs Pepperpot was the all time favourite, but there was another one that I couldn’t read because it made me laugh so much, like abdominal agony laughing, again I can’t remember the name but it had something to do with underpants
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“Might have to skirt over that bit when reading it out loud to them as I don’t want my habit discussed.”
Shame on me.
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And with that time for bed (and Hound).
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We had an Uncle Tom, a family friend. He was Welsh, known in the town as Roberts the Boat as he was skipper on a tug boat
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Oh dear, I didn’t mean to bring this all back up. I’ve seen Chek since the argument and he’s ok. Tbh, without rehashing it there does seem to be something to the accusations (to Labour and Corbyn) but I’d rather wait for the report to come out.
As an anecdotal story, my dad’s best mate’s from university are Jewish and left wing. When asked about it they sort of shrugged their shoulders and wondered why anyone was surprised.
Labour is also tearing itself apart at the moment so it may not be an issue in 6 months.
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Ah balls, that divide and conquer thing comes up again. I have previous with Chek over this, but I still stick with Ticht Look what happened ? Anti Zionist socialist is an asshole, so Boris and his “Blacks are thick ” eugenics boys get in power for the next few.
Anyway, just got a 10 CD set of Cash Complete Sun Recordings delivered tonite, so………
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Miss Chek and his posts, by the way
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Also, from earlier, I saw Gareth play his last game at Twickenham, but Terry Holmes was great, and Robert Jones was majestic.
Jonesy here being a spikey prick about half way thru.
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Pre priming for the weekend, English band about an Irishman.
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Oirish band about an Englishman in Finland
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Chico Hopkins was my favourite player on the ’71 Lions tour. I was five; he was a dead ringer for me and not much older.
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CMW, I was a naive and excited 16-year-old. But, yeah, it’s pretty clear.
A few years after that I played a season of indoor and then we netted a bit and by the first match of the season the level of anticipation was sky high.. The first Sunday of the outdoor season dawned cold and overcast. We opted to field after the toss. I was covering midwicket/cover, a shortish boundary so was able to have a conversation with all 3 of the spectators watching the game. After 5 overs the ball hadn’t come to me, nothing was happening, so I turned to them and sighed, “Christ, cricket is really fucking boring.”
I used to like fielding in the slips because at least you could have a chat.
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They’re having a leadership election. Seems like you’ll fit in at HSBC, though.
Am sure the fair and fearless British press will make sure it is.
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Should have put your name on that craigs. Looks rude otherwise. Apologies.
By the way, can you try to get the tenner that my missus has trapped in her closed account at HSBC. It’s very strange. She doesn’t actually want the money and is happy to give it to charity or whatever but HSBC ain’t able to do that. Very disappointing.
I’ve been a Midland/HSBC account holder man and boy but it left me wondering whether I should move banks. Fortuntely, my good friends in the Sinaloa cartel have only good things to say about how HSBC handled their cash so I decided to stay.
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Crusaders 12-8 up against the Highlanders after 24 minutes.
Good morning all!
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@sunbeamtim
Worst drag act ever.
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26-8 Crusaders at the break. Francois Louw is speculating that with Kolbe already comfortable at wing and fullback and now playing 10, with some thinking he’d be a great 9 as well, that the Boks should go for a 7-1 split on the bench.
Makes sense: from the breakdown Kolbe would send out a lightning fast pass to himself standing flat at 10, a sidestep of the onrushing first defender allows him to chip over the top for himself to gather from the wing, dart infield and offload to himself coming up on the inside from fullback to score under the posts. He would convert it, naturally. Can’t see how the Boks will ever lose again with him in that kind of form.
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Bit of a dampener but I always worry for a player who reaches a sublime level of performance as, often as not, they seem to get injured.
Henry Slade suffered his really bad ankle injury a couple of years ago whilst he was making the game look easy. Still hasn’t got his speed back.
fingers crossed for Kolbe
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Hello BoomKing!
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@OT – nice post.
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Perhaps the Boks could go for a 9-6 or even 10-5 split in the starting lineup?
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33-13 to the Crusaders with about 5 minutes left. Another routine victory for them on the cards. Can anyone other than the Chiefs stop them this year? If ever the Stormers were equipped, it’s this year. Except even a depleted, raw, Lions side can put 30 points past them.
How’s the conference call going, Gecko?
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CMW, you might be onto something there. As Gecko said a couple of weeks ago, when Allister Coetzee was coach, Schalk Burger played 10 on attack most matches anyway.
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At least that short trip down mis-memory lane showed me that my question to Chek was perfectly reasonable, so no more worrying about it.
Any rugby on this weekend?
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Lol the Tories literally hired a eugenicist and yet people are still saying that a few pro-Palestine events Corbin went to is the big problem. It beggar’s belief.
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Any rugby on this weekend?
No, the Lions have a bye.
Probably a couple of friendlies up north, but not much to look at. In Super Rugby, the Rebels- Sharks match tomorrow should be good. The Sharks will want to bounce back from their ‘2nd week syndrome’ defeat and pick up points to keep in touch with the Stormers and Jaguares in our conference, whilst the Rebels need to pick up another win after two defeats in their conference (Sunwolves and Brumbies), followed by a win against the woeful Waratahs.
Chiefs-Brumbies will test the Brumbies credentials. They’re top of the Aussie log with 2 wins from 3, but those were against the Reds and Rebels, whilst losing at home to the Highlanders. Could be a gloomy weekend to be Australian (which weekend isn’t?)
Reds-Sunwolves is irrelevant outside of rubbernecking at accident scene morbid curiosity to see if the Wolves can claim another Aussie scalp in their swansong season.
Stormers-Jaguares should be a helluva match – Stormers win (and I think they will) and they could go 7 or 8 clear at the top of our log; Jags win, they go top and if the Sharks win they move level with the Stormers (bonus point permutations deciding that).
Bulls-Blues is similar to the Reds-Sunwolves, just without the intrigue.
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Whenever I hear of antisemitism, I think of this (1:10 in the video)
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@FBC – if you look at the Tory ‘leadership’ hiring a eugenicist is less surprising than pro-Palestinian remarks from a lefty Labour leader.
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Wrong video (still 1:10 in this correct one)
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Superb.
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Having posted that, I do miss Chek, I dont know why Ticht’s posts riled him so much, seemed a fairly standard difference of opinion to me, but wish he’d come back.
Also ‘Pro, MVML, that Kiwi ‘Bro guy, Daff, Claw, FD, Dermott, DCI, Sag, DCC, McQuiff, Tov, the guy who worked for the Graun (name escapes me, but think he was Welsh), nd no doubt others
What a team we had
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This week a friend of mine said my wife looks like Priti Patel and now that’s a thing.
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Too harsh on Coetzee, deebee. Hayneke picked Schalk. AC was sensible at first and chose Lambie but he got smashed out after 5 minutes. AC then went all in 9n Lions halfback pairings. So, in summary, not harsh enough on Coetzee
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