What does this beauty spot have in common with the England 23 selected to play Ireland on Sunday?
The only other exciting news to report is that Ticht found an old version of AoD still extant.
On the telly this week
Friday 21st February
| Crusaders 33 – 13 Highlanders | 06:05 | Sky Sports Action |
| Wales U20 14 – 11 France U20 | 19:35 | BBC Two Wales / BBC Sport website/ BBC red button |
| Zebre 0 – 28 Munster | 19:35 | FreeSports |
| Edinburgh 41 – 14 Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ospreys 13 – 21 Leinster | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| England U20 21 – 39 Ireland U20 | 19:45 | RTÉ Two / YouTube / Sky Sports Mix |
| Sale 36 – 3 Leicester | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 22nd February
| Rebels 34 – 26 Sharks | 03:45 | Sky Sports Action |
| Chiefs 14 – 26 Brumbies | 06:05 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Reds 64 – 5 Sunwolves | 08:15 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Stormers v Los Jaguares | 13:05 | Sky Sports Action |
| Italy v Scotland | 14:15 | ITV |
| Bulls v Blues | 15:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| Wales v France | 16:45 | BBC One / S4C |
| Glasgow v Dragons | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Ulster v Cheetahs | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 23rd February
| Wales v France (women) | 12:00 | BBC Two Wales / S4C |
| England v Ireland (women) | 12:45 | RTÉ Two / BBC Sport website / Sky Sports Action |
| Exeter v Northampton | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| England v Ireland | 15:00 | ITV |
| Italy v Scotland (women) | 16:10 | BBC Alba / website / red button |
| Cardiff v Treviso | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Scarlets v Southern Kings | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Lovely try by Treviso’s (!) Keatley. Didn’t realise he was playing for them.
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I’m at the Blues game with my 6 year old on a Beavers freebie. Every two minutes he asks me if someone scored a goal. Going to be a long game…
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Dab – heh! Treviso are playing with ambition.
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I thought we fell off a bit in the last quarter. Otherwise we were pretty good. Some great counter rucking and pushing the Irish off their own ball at the scrum were highlights.
Daly was 2 mistakes off a decent game too.
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Did the Wales just score a goal??
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So much Karl today.
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Dab – when your team scores a try you should shout ‘gooooooooaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll’!!!!!!! at the top of your lungs.
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Anyone watch the boxing last night? He may be a synt but Tyson Fury is a pretty good boxer.
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Well that was a strange game…..England squeezed the life out of Ireland in the first half and effectively shut the door in the second.
I hope Farrell Snr has a big drawing board
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Expro would be loving this one
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“I’m at the Blues game with my 6 year old on a Beavers freebie.”
CMW will be spitting blood.
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One of the best/worst results for English rugby was Exeter’s crushing of second place Saints.
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@OT – that’s the one I was talking about in the 1st half. Probably quicker to count the legal things there.
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Anyway, the mighty Wolves gave those Canaries a tonking. Like a sip of water in the most arid of deserts this weekend.
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plus,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Slade’s ‘tache must go!
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OT fair play to Toner and Ryan – its difficult for such tall
guys to come in so low – at least that aspect of technique was top, top.
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Craig’s I watched the boxing. Fury was England and Wilder was Ireland. Not sure either is a great boxer, but Fury battered Wilder from almost the opening bell. Kudos to Wilder’s corner for throwing in the towel.
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Slade’s ‘tache is fuckinorrible, it must be said. Please have a word.
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I shouted “heeeeeaaaavvvve” at a maul and 6 year old looked at me with disdainful sympathy.
Good game though!
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Just crushed a 5-year-old at Snakes and Ladders.
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Good win.
Gifted it a bit when our first 2 tries came about once we’d ran out of ideas and ireland fluffed fielding the speculative kicks.
Lawes went really well and ford made the telling contributions. Genge was what youd want off the bench otherwise average.
The championship has probably gone for us now without a BP. Cant see anyone beating france and letting us in unless they have a live chance themselves.
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Which doesn’t make sense. For some reason thought ireland were on 8.
It’s a 3 way battle. But all in french hands.
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I’m a fan of Slades tache.
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Deebee – Fury seems like he would be really annoying to box against. Constantly twitching and touching his face and largely dodging punches. For a big, fat guy, he’s pretty good at that.
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These Cybermen on Doctor Who surely all play for the Saracens?
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It’s funny, after our conversation about Quillette the other day I found out that Andrew Yang wrote an article for them.
https://quillette.com/2018/12/14/video-games-and-the-male-meaning-of-life/
Does that make him race-realist adjacent?
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51602655
Flat Earth guy dies. Sympathetic tweet from the Science Channel, who were there to chronicle his (final) journey.
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2nd watch.
Might be more objective this time …..
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We were pretty good for the first 10. Locks trying grubber kicks aside.
Lawes has learnt to carry. Was never a strong point as he’s spindly kind of lock.
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Both teams want to have a word with themselves regarding their boots.
So much orange.
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JJ still has a great step.
I think Murray and Sexton are close to being done.
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Maro seemed very keen to stop the subs coming on and celebrating the 2nd try.
Wonder why?
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Could it be that Itoje is a keen reader of the ‘pro’s work? Would explain why Big Maro hasn’t posted on here recently.
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We really did butcher a lot of chances in the first 30.
Daley was really good. Fair play , hecseems to be improving where he was weak at 15.
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He seems the thoughtful sort whenever I’ve heard him speak.
Wouldn’t surprise me if he’d read something he took to heart.
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Murray really was not good.
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Scotland women v Italy women called of cos Corona virus
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‘Surfer fights off great white shark by punching it and telling it to ‘f**k off’’
Would have made Jaws a less interesting film
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Must be a good punch.
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Or the shark’s got a glass nose.
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Maybe it abhors bad language.
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Thoughts on the weekend:
Scotland v Italy:
Some Old Wanktonians 4th XV level play at times but nilling someone away from home can never be knocked. If Scotland can find a way to have a good defence and a good attack at the same time, we’re in trouble. Italy seem to have heard about going wide being a good thing without realising you need to draw the defence first and appear to have taken the non-competing at rucks tactic and applied it to their own attack.
Wales v France: Wales will be kicking themselves at not winning this. France continue to look dangerous for 60 minutes and then all go for a collective fag. It’ll bite them eventually but reckon it won’t be this 6N, Le Slam Grande is on now. Wales seem a little bit stuck between 2 ways of playing in both attack and defence (understandable!), really hope they don’t get that fixed in the next 2 weeks!
England v Ireland: I’ve always said Eddie is a tactical genius and innovator *shifty-eyes*. Credit where it’s due, Joseph on the wing worked a treat, best game Daly has had at fullback for us I think, Manu really likes smashing the Irish doesn’t he? The defence – woof! Just need to replicate that against Wales and hopefully some of final passes stick. Special mention to Itoje who is now well and truly in the camp of you love him if he’s yours and hate him if he isn’t. Farrell a twat for grabbing the leg and deserved the slaps.
Ireland – really hope you can pick yourself up for the Paris game. Cooney should be your 9, the Sexton issue more problematic, is there anyone ready to step in? Feels like watching a repeat of ROGs demise. James Ryan needs to watch those clear outs, he was lucky that shoulder to the face of Curry in the first England wasn’t reviewed, could easily have been red (definite yellow).
I hate Peyper reffing, bad for both sides and I get genuinely nervous about a serious injury occurring with the way he let’s the ruck become a free for all. His performance was encapsulated by the bit where May stole the ball from the side, knocked it on and then got shoulder charged late by Henshaw and he didn’t blow up for a single offence in any of that!
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Italy v Scotland: VERY bad level of rugby. Scotland can be happy with a much needed win (and a few tries). Some really good individual showings, particularly the flankers and Sutherland again.
Italy honk. I don’t think I ever want to hear the ‘Italy are improving’ trope ever again. I watched this with my nephew who was openly laughing at how bad Italy’s ball protection was.
Wales v France: France well worth the win. If Wales have to chase two scores with <10 on the clock, then it's not my idea of a close contest.
The most impressive thing about France is that it is a very inexperienced team but they're playing like they all have 50 caps. Except Teddy who looked like it was his first game and he was shy of the ball and any contact. Le Roux superb again, half backs ridiculously good for their age and Bouthier is the international find of the season.
Wales were pure shite. You concede 27 points at home and you don't win matches very often. So many bad decisions from very experienced players – that 5 minutes wasted overtime was thick as shit. I don't want to go back to 'that wouldn't have happened under Gatland' more than once ever, but if there is one lesson learned it better be to take the points and look forward to being 5 down and 10 minutes against 14 men.
I don't think selection is an enormous problem for the most part, but loosehead is an enormous problem as Wyn Jones is club level, Rob Evans has pole vaulted the largest shark and Carre isn't really ready. The biggest selection problem is a little out of Pivac's hands as he's trying to replicate the jackal heavy ways of his peak Turks, only problem is that this is as jackal-lite a team as Wales have fielded in over a decade. Ellis, Navidi, Cubby all missing (and Thomas Young not fancied) doesn't help but you'd think he might have known that he didn't have exactly the same players available.
Defence is laughable. Nothing else to say about it. Attack has no structure, it's all individual magic. It has more than a whiff of 2007.
England v Ireland: Saes very good, completely bossed it. Ireland bad, Farrell will last about as long as Pivac.
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Legends also beat Treviso, again, so I definitely don’t want to hear ‘hey Italian rugby is getting better’.
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Barely noticed the Italian Back row on Saturday, apart from occasional flashes from Polledri. managed to keep them very quiet.
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Game was a total mess though, really not easy on the eye at all. Still biggest away 6N win in simply aaages so not going to get too sniffy plus we nilled them. half backs did not have a good day but then clean, quick ball did not really happen all day with the breakdown free for all. Ritchie, The Mish and Sutherland all immense. Harris had a decent game (if we’re going to play in this style might as well stick with him as Jones would be wasted) as did Hogg. Worried about facing France next, the new Tandy defence will have to step up a level.
France really can play some good stuff; even then they can’t play the full 80 yet, thought Wales were in with a shout at the end.
Yesterday was an odd game. England utterly on top in the first half but the two scores were slightly fortuitous. Lots of niggle. Farrell ridiculous with his leg hugging. my kids find it funny to do that to me.
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I thought JJ had a good game. Not traditional wing play but he did his thing. Plus, Mrs Craig’s says he is her favourite. So he must be doing something else which I didn’t notice. Mrs Craig’s rugby knowledge and especially wing play is far superior to mine.
Also, Courtney gets Maro of the match at 6. Maybe Eddie is a genius after all.
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*looks back over last week’s comments after England’s team announcement*
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Look chimpie how were we supposed to know how wrong we are?
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Check out number one here, yos:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/24/six-nations-talking-points-from-a-thrilling-third-round
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