We laughed at his five locks, his centre on the wing, and May at full-back. We laughed long and loud, and now are laughing out the other side of our faces, as our grannies told us we would.
Then we cried as we watched Ireland.
Sexton and Murray played with the all élite international skills and passion of reluctant replacements in a U14s game on a wet and cold Sunday afternoon at the end of a losing match in a losing season in Moneyrea when not even their dads could be arsed to turn up.
Meanwhile, Jones’s locks, particularly Itoje the Octopus and One-Brain-Cell (MotM), were rampantly joyful, or perhaps joyfully rampant – never been too up on these heraldic terms. Joseph was fine on the wing, and May didn’t even drop any balls (or so we’ve heard).
The one tiny crumb of comfort is that Ireland improved dramatically when John Cooney replaced Murray, and even managed a consolation try.
The warm-up matches to the Great Event were, of course, Italy v Scotland and Wales v France. The former had a few flashes of brilliance – Bellini, Hogg – but was otherwise a tedious affair.
Wales v France was one of those bonkers matches that looks more like pinball than rugby. Disappointingly (to Welsh fans), France forgot to throw the match away in the last quarter.
The rest of the Six Nations is up in the air due to Coronavirus; Ireland v Italy has been ‘postponed’, and we are certainly hoping for a rematch date and not the dreaded two-pointer.
Similarly, the Pro14 Ulster and Ospreys matches in Italy scheduled for this weekend have been put off, with the threat of a 0-0 draw being recorded for Treviso v Ulster if an alternative date cannot be found.
Further Reading
FalteringFullback’s thoughts on last weekend
On the telly this week
Friday 28th February
| Highlanders 22 – 28 Rebels | 06:05 | Sky Sports Action |
| Waratahs 29 – 17 Lions | 08:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| Edinburgh 14 – 6 Cardiff | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leinster 55 – 19 Glasgow | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Gloucester 17 – 23 Sale | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 29th February
| Hurricanes v Sunwolves | 03:45 | Sky Sports Action |
| Reds v Sharks | 08:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| Stormers v Blues | 13:05 | Sky Sports Action |
| Harlequins v Exeter | 15:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bulls v Los Jaguares | 15:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| Munster v Scarlets | 17:00 | TG4 / Free Sports |
| Dragons v Cheetahs | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 1st March
| Bath v Bristol | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Hickey misses the post, luckily he misses both of them and it goes through the middle
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30 minutes into the game and 125 metres in total of running between Gloucester and Sale.
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8-6 to Embra half time, Cardiff have been better than us
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Blue Evil get their bonus point before half time. 24-7
Keep it under 50?
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That’s a spunky effort, especially considering 5 of those backs are semi pro level.
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Ridiculous try in Gloucester. Robert du Preez tries a grubber but it’s blocked by a Gloucester foot and flies up in the air. A Gloucester running back tries to catch it and drops it, a second lets it slip through his hands. McGuigan hacks on the 22 and Sam James lands on the ball over the line.
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Bernie Sanders + Public Enemy on the same bill is good.
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It’s so frustrating when your team’s default is passive wallflower
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That was a hard watch. Gloucester 0 – Sale 10. Defences on top.
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Glasgow get another try against the Blue Evil. 24-12.
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Sale get a second try but on first look at the replay it looked as though it was grounded short of the line. Sale deserve to be in the lead though. Gloucester don’t look great, Sale playing the conditions better.
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I’m going to start smacking the back of my had with a ball pein hammer, it will be less painful than this
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Dan, “Billy the” Fish has ruled this game
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It’s like Barry John is back and in the body of a ginger kid from Splott.
All hail the Fish.
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Gloucester score a try. Replacements all over the scorer even before Wayne Barnes gives the green light.
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Christ, 41 points to Leinster, 7 tries, 15 minutes left.
Under 60?
Probably not.
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Meanwhile Cippers shovels the ball on to Yarde and he runs over the line! Shame he doesn’t play for the same team….
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Schoeman has made a big difference.
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Thorley’s a bit dodgy under the ball. He catches one just outside his 22 and makes a yard or two before passing to Cipiriani, who dawdles a little before getting hit. The ball pops out and Marlan Yarde picks up to race in from 20 out. Sale back in control.
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Well that was fun. Ball hits Banners on the shoulder then head, goes forward, goes into the dead ball area and 36 jumps in to touch down. Somehow Gloucester are only 3 points down!
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Best bit about that try was Austin Healey getting it wrong
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OT – although one of the angles (from behind) did seem to show the ball hitting Banners shoulder before his head.
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Jeez this has been a hard watch
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That was one ugly match, Cardiff deserved more than nothing from it
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I hope Taylor is ok
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Great effort. After watching the muck served up in Galway and the first half last week it was welcome. Zero quality, mind.
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@bb
I think heard Barnes say shoulder was ok. Which I assume means it has to hit the arm.
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Yosoy, your lads gave a very good account of themselves, they deserved more than fuck all. Cardiff were the better side in the first half, it was probably just about in our favour in the second, but if we had lost I couldn’t really have complained.
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Press is generically used in Ireland for cupboard and the “hot press” is the airing cupboard….
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Well, we did keep it under 60 after all. 55-19. Doubt anybody’s gonna beat the Blue Evil this season (domestically).
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Ah…see Thauma got there before me … sorry was watching Leinster/Glasgow and can’t post and watch at the same time ….
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@ticht
Never really threatened, though. No complaints about the result because we couldn’t fashion anything.
That win has as good as put Edinburgh in the Big Cup next year.
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@ticht
Welsh, Breton, and Cornish are P-Celtic. eg four is pedwar, pevar, peswar. Irish, Gaelic, and Manx are Q-Celtic. Four is ceathair, ceithir, kiare (Manx is effectively Irish written phonetically in English typology). Same for five….
In Irish all the interrogatives – who, what, where etc start with a hard C – cé, cád, cathain, etc same as Latin and the Romance languages (quo, quis, que, questo , cuando, como)
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Yos, aye, fair point, Legends never really looked like scoring
I probably won’t watch my recording.
Looking at the Glasgow score and thinking about the players Leinster are missing, I thought of that great quote from Wales after defeat to Western Samoa
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Excellent, thanks, Trisk.
I’m becoming addicted to this Scottish Gaelic learning, it’s really great fun. When my wife finally steps of the train for the last time in four weeks from tonight, I’ll be able to devote more time to it. I bought a really good grammar book, and between that, the Duolingo and the BBC Alba tv series “Speaking Our Language” I should make a bit of progress.
I was testing my French the other day and it surprised me how much I can still remember, it’s been almost 30 years since I lived there
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Leinster were very good – frightening the depth of talent. Weather didn’t look too bad in Dublin.
Meanwhile a few miles west in Limerick…
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“Press is generically used in Ireland for cupboard and the “hot press” is the airing cupboard….”
As it is in one very specific bit of York.
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“Q-Celtic”
Couldn’t even name it after a letter they use.
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Of course it would be interesting to know who did the naming. Circumstantial evidence points to ‘Some English Bastard’, but even if that turns out to be the case you have to point the finger at the Scots and Irish for letting them get away with it.
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Not sure what I would have favoured for Welsh. Ll-Celtic perhaps though Ngh-Eltic would be better for getting up noses.
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I’m convinced that more than 38 people must have been talking about that weather in Limerick though perhaps talking only counts if you can make yourself heard over the weather.
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That made it go up to 39 even though they must all have gone home by now. It’ll be hundreds by morning if it’s keeping folks awake.
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40 now, they’re too wet and cold to realise I was the same person as the last one.
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On the Ball City, never mind the danger.
Have a little scrimmage the lot of you.
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CMW with blood on his hands again.
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That tends to happen when Norwich win.
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BOSCH
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He stroked those two penalties miles earlier.
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Sharks stretching away against the Reds. Great tour for them, 3 wins out of 4. Some strong performances by their young players – esp. Dylan Richardson at flank (was a hooker at school) and the OX.
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This game’s not ending – endless penalties have seen the Reds go from under their posts to the Sharks 22.
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