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 
Great to see ordinary members of the public get a chance to fly around the moon.
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That’s a very good signing. He’s a promising 13/wing.
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…another Baxter coup?
Cuthbert is finished and Woodward/Nowell/O’Flaherty need an understudy…………………
Good news
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Also signed Aaron Hinckley from Gloucester
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Chris Ashton leaving Sale immediately – no destination named
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And Camille Chat back in the fray with France. He may be with the matchday 23s.
Galthié also added 3 wingers to his 42 men squad, Retière, Tauzin and Cordin. Not sure Teddy Thomas will see Edinburgh.
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Chat played in Cardiff, flair. Won the last penalty. Bit annoying to see him come off the bench.
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Tomp, Chat was injured during that short stint in Cardiff. And before that he missed the first two games IIRC.
He’d be starting if fully fit.
Marchand, although very good – he was Toulouse captain at 22, before a serious injury- is not quite as dynamic as Chat.
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‘Not sure Teddy Thomas will see Edinburgh.’
He was by far the worst player france fielded in Cardiff
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42 squad for Scotland:
First row : Dorian Aldegheri , Demba Bamba, Camille Chat, Clément Castets, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Mohamed Haouas, Julien Marchand, Peato Mauvaka, Jefferson Poirot
Second row : Guillaume Ducat, Killian Geraci, Bernard Le Roux , Boris Palu , Romain Taofifenua, Paul Willemse
Third row: Grégory Alldritt, Dylan Cretin, François Cros, Baptiste Delaporte, Anthony Jelonch, Charles Ollivon, Selevasio Tolofua, Cameron Woki
SH: Baptiste Couilloud, Antoine Dupont, Baptiste Serin
FH : Louis Carbonel, Matthieu Jalibert, Romain Ntamack
Centres: Gaël Fickou, Yvan Reilhac, Virimi Vakatawa, Arthur Vincent
Wing : Gervais Cordin, Gabriel Ngandebe, Damian Penaud, Arthur Retière, Lucas Tauzin, Teddy Thomas
FB :Anthony Bouthier, Kylan Hamdaoui, Thomas Ramos
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Chimp,
Just like there is air guitar, there is air defence, by Teddy Thomas.
Unless he shows more, at least in intention, I don’t think he’ll see Scotland.
My money would be on Tauzin (from Toulouse).
Or Galthié could field Fickou on the wing again like in Cardiff and keep Vincent at 13.
I expect very little change.
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Looks weak. Scotland by 102.
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Flair – is that Penaud back I see? that would be a significant upgrade on Thomas
Fickou looked fine on the wing vs. Wales too.
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Penaud is there, yes, but has he fully recovered from his (muscle) injury?
T. Thomas is devastating in attack (although he missed a couple of rather simple opportunities in Wales) but Penaud is the complete package. If fit, he’ll start.
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Give Thomas the ball in space and he’ll shred the defence, but he seems to have too many down sides.
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I wish Finn would play, it’d be more hectic and a better test of France’s adaptability.
Plus, the game would probably be more entertaining.
What’s the weather forecast? Scottish ,plain Scottish or very Scottish ?
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TT is a coach’s nightmare – I think he may be finished. There is now lots of incentive to buy into the new plans and flakey players make life difficult for and undermine others
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That Hinckley that has joined Exeter looks very good: great pedigree at U18/U20 and very fast over 20 metres.
Has understudied Ben Morgan and also gained experience in the Championship.
Smart replacement for Kvesic and potential follow-on for Armand.Ewers in due course.
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‘What’s the weather forecast? Scottish ,plain Scottish or very Scottish ?’
Medium Scottish the current forecast.
Could turn anywhere from non-Scottish to extreme Scottish given likelihood of variability over the next week.
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extreme Scottish here, as well!
It’s amazing how flexible trees are – fortunately they have started pumping again (spring) so they are not so brittle
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Baxter is a class act:
“For every team, the big games are rolling in thick and fast. A point away from home today is pretty similar to what we got here last season – and we all know that last season was pretty good in a lot of ways. Right now, individual results don’t define you, it’s what you decide to do as people – and how you look to move forward is what will. Normally, we’re pretty good at dealing with things like that, so I’m expecting things to be fine come next week.”
I think perhaps they were also a bit tired after the hammering they gave Northampton last week and Quins were really up for it and physical.
Exeter can be bullied – eg Sale and Quins but, on the other hand, they do seem to have Saracens number.
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….plus, Scottish fans take note – Skinner still looks a bit ponderous and was definitely in a bad mood on Saturday
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Extreme Scottish in Paris as well. Last week a man was killed in his car, crushed by a tree in the middle of Paris. The wind was 117km/h!
Speaking of speed, am surprised to read that Leicester have recruited Nadolo. I wonder if they’ve seen play lately for Montpellier. Big unit, but well past his best years.
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Corey Baldwin’s a good signing for Exeter.
Leicester’s recruitment policy is strange, flair. They have 4/7ths of the England starting back line, hardly any decent forwards but still go for a big-named big guy winger. On the plus side, their youth teams are strong. Maybe some of them will come through.
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Twice during the hourlong chat, Musk urged the Air Force to make the Space Force emulate Starfleet, the iconic space organization made famous in “Star Trek.”
“We’ve got to make Starfleet happen,” he said as the audience applauded. “We want real big space ships that can go far places. And this will probably get me into the most trouble of all: I think there should be a new uniform.
“When the public thinks about Space Force, that’s what they think,” he added. “We want the sci-fi futures, the good sci-fi futures, to be real. And, ideally, to become real while we’re still alive.”
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Teddy Thomas brings to mind the line about – I think – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, “Terrific goal scorer but a terrible footballer”.
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Read it and FEAR: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/02/chlorinated-chicken-foods-us-trade-deal-uk-eu
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@Thaum
I’ve read it – tried to discount it a bit – but it is still awful……………….
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Ashton to Quins, apparently………………………
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Thaum, sent you a mail.
Thanks.
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Flair – email received and acted on. :-)
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I could barely get past the picture of piglets in a ‘normal’ farm, Thauma.
There is a very firm line between how animals are treated in mass food production and how low income humans at the bottom of the food chain are treated with a similar cold, calculated contempt.
I find it disgusting, and very Soylent Green.
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Iks – good observation.
At the risk of sounding very Guardianista, I always try to buy organic food, or at least free-range (if meat). Luckily I can afford it. Even US ‘organic’ food isn’t up to scratch, as its standards fall far short of Soil Association standards.
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“42 squad for Scotland…”
That’s just gloating Flair. If Wales declared 42 players then Yos would be there even though he is busy in his basement building a rocket to Mars.
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@thaum
I can’t see how it could possibly happen. I explained this to a civil servant a couple of years ago who rang me to ask me my opinion about using US standards in a UK market. What I told him was this: the standards used in a particular market reflect the way that market operates. The domestic food, steel, construction etc sectors in the US operate very differently to the domestic UK markets. Therefore the standards must be very different and you cannot transpose one onto the other. That article is just part of that age old Guardian prejudice that anything American is inferior and ghastly unlike us urbane and sophisticated Europeans.
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Thanks Thaum.
I had read that article and was still shivering at the thought of the several months I spent over the years in the US. I was careful, even picky about the food I ate, but there is only so much you can do when not always shopping and cooking yourself. What’s called organic over there would not even make it in my local supermarket.
Plus, I’ve always put on weight there, even when only staying a couple of weeks. Sugar everywhere.
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Ah Thauma, I hurt and ache about this, and my beloved cats remind me every day of the lie that animals are just raw materials in a food supply chain.
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OT, I wish I could share your optimism but how do you stop highly processed food to enter your country if you can’t impose good standards?
American food can be quite good as long as you spend a mini fortune on it. It won’t be the case if the UK let them sell you the mass produced calories most people take for food.
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OT and Flair – I lived in the US for a long time, and I don’t disagree with the Guardian prejudice. ;-)
What the Yanks can and will insist on is scrapping labelling laws, and allowing a certain percentage of maggots, fly eggs, rat hairs, etc in the food.
I shopped at smaller markets, bought ‘organic’ food, cooked most of my own food, etc., but yet when I moved (back) to the UK I lost a stone or so without trying at all.
I went back for a visit about 18 months ago, and was shocked by the price of food: it has shot up. So those who think US food will be cheaper might be wrong. More likely, it will initially be cheaper until our domestic farmers have all gone out of business.
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Iks – have you read Eileanmor’s comments on the Graun? She’s a Welsh organic hill farmer who absolutely gives a shit about her animals’ welfare.
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One of the things covered by “nothing ruled out, everything is on the table for discussion” is that the US will demand that no “country of origin” labelling will be on food imported here, so we don’t even get the choice.
That is when I really do take the plunge and go full vegan.
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Ticht – surely cheese will be safe. Yosoy will be able to spot American cheese from Mars.
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@thaum
exhibit number 1:
That’s a great example of the point I was making. No US-UK trade deal can make the Soil Association change its standards. It has nothing to do with government.
Exhibit number 2 – the Red Tractor: https://www.redtractor.org.uk/
Again, governments can not change this. The food industry in the UK is the one with more quality marks and assurance schemes than any other sector I know. Red Lion, Fair Trade, etc.
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OT – organic and Red Tractor (which I understand isn’t all it’s cracked up to be) are additional, non-mandatory labels. It’s a fairly safe bet that the only label most people read is the price tag, but with the stories in the press, people might take a gander at the country of origin label – which won’t exist. GM food also wouldn’t be labelled as such.
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Running off into the hills now but I’m very sceptical about the reliability of standards between one market and another.
I think what we are seeing now is that the trust you could previously place in how standards are set is being eroded by people in power for a fast buck with a racist undertow.
The American footprint on how things are done is monstrous, and I don’t trust them anymore under their present regime to act wisely or ethically.
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@Thauma, not till now. I hardly ever go btl on the Graun these days. I’ll do a search and have a look.
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Iks – well, precisely. If we are going to do a wonderful trade deal with the US, is wee Britain (NI being in SM/CU for all practical purposes) going to send inspectors to US farms to make sure their food complies with ethical standards?
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@thaum
We already send inspectors to certify pharmaceuticals production.
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‘We’, or the EU? Plus, pharmaceutical production is a whole lot more localised than farming.
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@thaum
We do. MHRA sends inspectors to US.
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