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 
It’s a sweet thing, sweet thing, Enzo.
(The next line being, of course, ’cause hope, boys, is a cheap thing, cheap thing.)
LikeLike
Zebre down to 14 (player off with a red due to contact with neck/chin), but Munster only 7-0 up into second half.
LikeLike
Fucking Nick Groom gets charged down again, that’s 200 times this season, scrum five to Connacht
LikeLike
And we lose a try in the fall out.
‘Played Nick.
No other Edinburgh scrum half has been charged down this season as far as I recall, Groom gets it most games
LikeLike
Saints legend that fella……
LikeLike
It’s been instructive reading back on the auld blog. In February of 2013, we were discussing ‘colostomy Ron’ (ie ROG), and embiggening either Madigan or Paddy Fucking (allegedly) Jackson as Ireland’s next star fly-half. Conor Murray was dismissed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also, Expro was posting some disturbing pornographic and misogynistic fantasies. Nah, don’t miss that.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I missed this:
https://www.therugbypaper.co.uk/domestic-club-rugby-union/34880/player-head-coach-joe-ford-leaves-yorkshire-carnegie/
Joe Ford (brother of George) was appointed player coach of Leeds in controversial circumstances last year. Now Phil Davies is there he has left to “concentrate on business activities outside rugby”. Must be one hell of a business empire forged by Mike Ford to allow Joe to leave the game completely….
LikeLike
Jac Morgan has been outstanding for the 20s again.
14-11, about 13 minutes left.
LikeLike
England bubs on top second half. 21-34.
LikeLike
I’m surprised how Phil Davies can concentrate on rugby coaching with all his business activities.
#pintofwindhoek
#coolunderpressure
#failtoidentifyfuturewelshinternationalsandsignplayersfromthewelshprem
LikeLiked by 1 person
I certainly was not dismissing Murray. I definitely was embiggening Madigan (turns out that magic year was his peak) and Jackson (correctly, superb player, wider circumstances unforeseeable).
LikeLike
Enzo – that’s depressing. I still maintain that Italy should’ve tried their masterstroke (‘what’s a ruck?’) in the second half, to prevent the half-time talkies.
LikeLike
Enzo @21:16 – can’t remember (and didn’t see the evidence of) what I thought of Murray. Blog wisdom was that he box-kicked too much, which was probably quite right, except he subsequently got a whole lot better at it.
Certainly thought PJ was an up-and-comer, although his kicking at goal was absolutely horrible at first, and Pienaar was of course taking all the kicks at Ulster. Think I probably also rated Madigan at the time – what the hell has happened to him since?
LikeLike
Hat trick for Yarde. 3 well worked tries for him, Leicester well beaten.
LikeLike
Finishes 14-11 up in Colwyn Bay. Honking conditions. Good wet weather match.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yarde. Yarde? Isn’t that a name from years ago? Is it a relative?
LikeLike
Thaum – those fantasies from Expro reminded me of The Inbetweeners so I generally laughed or tried to creep him out as much as possible.
But then I’m a bloke. Looking back I don’t wtf he was thinking.
We lost Rachel and Strictly who are sorely missed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
*don’t know
LikeLike
I’ve had a shitty fever all afternoon. Been asleep. Maybe it’s coronavirus.
Fecked. FECKED!!!!
LikeLike
BTW, mahoosive respect to Danny Cipriani.
LikeLike
In those days faz was literally useless and 3rd, 4th choice 10s from Ireland were lions material.
Still. Turns out we were right that ROG should have been dropped earlier for the best NH 10 for the following 5 years or so.
Madigan always played in great team and did a fancy aesthetic thing with his passing but never registered on the jibometer (as patented by sag and yet to be bettered as an objective measure).
LikeLike
Thaum – Marland Yarde. Think he’s been out for a while, just came back this season.
Article on his knee injury here….
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/dec/07/sale-marland-yarde-defies-medical-opinion-rapid-return
LikeLike
Madigan’s been riding the bench the last couple of weeks for Bristol. His hair’s not good nowadays.
LikeLike
Cheers, BB, it’s good to hear of a player coming back from something like that.
On the other topic, we lost a fair few people over Expro, and Chek was one who said he didn’t want to post when he was around, so it might not all have been to do with his spat with Ticht. Certainly wasn’t all Irish and/or women that Expro put off, but his posts on those subjects didn’t help.
Colossal ego and probable tiny prick is my judgement.
[Edited for clarity]
LikeLiked by 1 person
Think Murray was more universally rated after the Lions tour that followed that Six Nations. I guess we were on that version for that entire tournament so I can skip through a few blogs to get to the last weekend….
LikeLike
tbh Thaum, I didn’t and don’t see that as a “spat” between me and Chek, he laid some huge accusations at me and stormed off without right to reply.
I think a spat has to be a two way thing over a certain period of time, however short.
I got the feeling his hatred of Jeremy Corbyn was the overriding factor in all of that, it was certainly unrelenting and over a long period.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Embra are awesome
I’m drunk
There may be no correlation
LikeLike
Corbyn eats babies
Just sayin’
LikeLike
I think Murray was good because he was in the situation where all half backs look good, he had a pretty awesome pack and particularly back row in front of him – Thor, Heaslip and Ferris for starters
That doesn’t take anything away from him, I think he is a terrific scrum half and a decent guy off the park by all accounts
LikeLike
He was controversially surrounded by Welshmen when he started looking properly good.
LikeLike
‘Thor, Heaslip and Ferris’
Bunch of pansies
LikeLike
Also, POC is one of my favourite players from that era, you could actually see the point at which he took charge of a game an bent it to his will.
Awesome.
LikeLike
Ticht – I was fully with you on the disagreement (and regretted the word ‘spat’ after I’d posted it).
From what I know, incidents of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party actually went down after Corbyn became leader, and y’know the previous leader was Miliband, who’s er Jewish. And over 50% of the complaints of anti-Semitism in Labour were made by a single person.
The idea that Labour – Labour! – is an institutionally anti-Semitic organisation is ridiculous at best. That’s not to say that there aren’t a small handful of anti-Semites in the party who should be dealt with, but compared to the general population (much less the Tory party), it’s a minuscule number.
LikeLiked by 1 person
thaum, am not really Irish (though the application for the passport should be going in soon) and am not a woman but on those two topics I took the ‘pro’s work with a pinch of salt. He sometimes had interesting things to say and I enjoyed following his music career – though the music isn’t to my taste – and his rugby league adventures. Also was very happy for him and his missus when the kid was born. He was always forthright in his arguments and was occasionally right but frequently offered some value.
There have been a few people on here who’ve irritated me or given it too much for my liking, just as I’m sure I’ve irritated plenty or given it far too much for other people’s liking, but I’ve never found that a reason not to read/post.
LikeLiked by 3 people
CMW, all players at their peak, a back five of the scrum consisting of POC, AWJ, Thor, Warbs, Faletua is quite something.
Ferris was an absolute beast, but I don’t think even he gets into that back row at their peak
LikeLike
I agree Thaum, I’ve been in and around the Labour Party for forty years, everyone I know is bemused by all this, it is the antithesis of everything we all believe in.
I can’t help but feel the pro Palestine stance is being misinterpreted by some.
LikeLike
I’m entirely with TomP on the above – bit beyond me why people wouldn’t just take no notice if he was on one about Ireland or whatever.
LikeLike
Murray only became good in the eyes of some after his cameo in the 3rd test. Back row of Faletau, Thor and Lydiate that day – Tipuric on for Thor a few minutes after Murray came on. 2nd row was AWJ and Parling – that tap tackle!
Faletau didn’t even get in the squad for the first two tests – not sure if he was injured.
All top players, of course. POC was a big favourite of mine too. And the Irish back row performance v Aussie in 2011 – still and forever brilliant.
LikeLike
I don’t know, CMW, if you had been the subject of one of his campaigns you might feel differently. No one ask him to stop posting, only one person flat out called him a “cunt”, though many did remonstrate with him because it went on for years and years, quite a few left because of it.
He was only ever asked to tone it down a notch.
LikeLike
TomP – I personally found Expro ridiculous and repulsive and wrong about practically everything, and occasionally seriously offensive. But I am for free speech.
He is not banned, but put under the pre-mod-hammer. He’s chosen to post only once since then, and I highlighted the post to make sure everyone would see it – and I caught it pretty quickly after he’d made it (more by luck, tbh).
What concerned me was that he was putting off a lot of other people from participating. If anyone has a magic formula for determining whether {posters lost to someone being a completely offensive arsehole} or {posters lost because someone’s been put in pre-mod} is a greater number, and also gauging the relative merits of posters found and lost, then I’d love to see it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Ticht – yep, apparently being for Palestinian rights is now anti-Semitic. I know a fair few Jewish people who would disagree with that. (Including Miliband, I’m pretty sure.)
LikeLike
This is my feeling too. Corbyn’s anti-war stance wasn’t his cup of tea at all nor the economics of McDonbell. Plus, Chek has a small “c” conservative regard for the BBC and the Union that sometime goes against the opinions of others on the blog..
LikeLike
“Embra are awesome
I’m drunk”
Chimpie’s got the beerz in
I have to watch it again as I was distracted by domestic stuff in the second half, but it was a really good BP win against a strong team
LikeLike
Must admit I missed Expro’s transition from ‘women are to be top-level shagged and not taken seriously as persons; I don’t want a relationship’ to ‘I’m settling down and becoming a dad [to a girl!!!]’.
Wonder if his daughter will ever find his old posts.
LikeLike
Anyway, goodnight.
LikeLike
@Thaum – I’m not questioning that it’s the case that people stopped posting because of it and can therefore understand your decision, just find that odd in itself. Same as years ago when I used to lurk on the Guardian I was baffled by so many people rising to that Welsh idiot. See also a lot of the stuff along the lines of ‘I can’t vote Labour any more because some halfwit on social media called me a Red Tory’ or whatever that has been quite common for a while.
LikeLike
Chek’s hatred of Corbyn was comical in its vehemence. ‘When centrists get over excited’ or something. Obviously he’s entitled to his views, just can’t expect them not to be questioned or taken the piss out of, same as anyone else. Someone self defining as moderate and then ending up as the one getting most carried away was good value.
LikeLiked by 1 person
CMW, it’s a cause of genuine sorrow to me that cif has become what it is. I used to love the cut and thrust with people who had diametrically opposite views to mine, and I learned a lot.
The Scottish singer/songwriter/socialist/campaigner/Communist/ advocate Dick Gaughan ran a forum and I was part of it for ten years or more. The only rule was no flaming, you could go after someone’s political stance as hard as you liked, as long as it never got personal.
I loved that, but things have changed, cif was that when I first joined, now it’s just noise, as is Twitter. The kidz are all about the “Gram”, or were a few months ago, so it has probably changed now.
But the thing that makes me sad and angry, sangry, is that the government of the UK is now by-passing the printed and broadcast media, not sending minsters to be held to account. instead they are issuing diktats over social media.
This is beyond what Pravda could have hoped for
LikeLike
It’s shit isn’t it.
LikeLike