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 
OT – okay.
How’s that going to work with hundreds of thousands of farms plus abbatoirs, processing plants, etc?
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A company pays the MHRA to be certified to GMP so it can market medicinal products in the UK. Additionally there is a global auditing industry certifying companies to all kinds of standards – food industry is already one of the biggest. Bureau Veritas, SGS, BSI, LRQA, and TUV SUD are just 5 companies who already do this.
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A quick search on those companies shows them to be non-specialised – they certify anyone for anything, by the look of things. And presumably they’d be certifying the exporting company rather than the supply chain? Possibly this might include some spot checks on the supply chain, but it can’t be anything extensive.
As you said earlier, there is not really a good comparison between the US and UK markets. If we do a trade deal with them for food, it would come down to trusting the USDA, whose standards are clearly much lower than ours.
If the EU doesn’t think the project is feasible, how could the UK succeed?
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Then there’s the tricky aspect of the EU not accepting any British food if US imports are allowed in.
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helloooooo………….
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Morning, Slade!
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we’re expectng winds of 120kph plus this pm
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Oof, nasty.
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So that’s all the Welsh matches except against Italy, plus Le Crunch.
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Fragmented 6N TV landscape. Boak
Can’t help feeling that this is an error which will long term reduce the exposure of and interest in the game. but what do I know, I’m just a choob on the interwebs. Sure it’ll be great payouts for the blazers.
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And how will the money be divvied up with the differences in the rights packages? Will all the unions benefit equally or be allocated in line with the cash from the rights packages.
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So many questions so few answers.
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Offering viewers choice, Chimpster. 40 years of this guiding philosophy has smashed it in other fields of life so no doubt the good times are about to roll.
“And now over to our commentary team, Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes”
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I think it’s a really sad turn of events, another chip away at “the common good”, basically if you’re on a low income or on the dole, you can fuck off, rugby doesn’t want you.
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I suppose the counter argument could be that more money for the unions (who own the 6N) means more to re-invest in the game at all levels [1]. However this may not be sustainable long term as interest and consequently revenue decreases.
[1] and line blazer’s pockets
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Chimoie
It’s the accumulating sense of loss of trust that is screwing everything
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mmmmm……..”Chimoie”…………….classy
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I’m not sure whether I want to be a Chimoie or not
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Disco, the Glasgow stats guy, has posted part one of his Scotland v France preview
https://www.scottishrugbyblog.co.uk/2020/03/scotland-v-france-six-nations-2020-match-preview-pt-i/
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i can polish the car with you…..
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Definitely not then
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…….damn autospell – should be ‘cir’ not ‘car’
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Some good stats in there.
so France roost the pill a lot, leak penalties at the scrum, start very quickly, run out of steam towards the end, loiter offside a lot, (sorry, have good line speed) and slow the ball down lots.
Score tries too obvs.
if we can keep them under wraps in the first half I’d have some hope.
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If we do a trade deal with them for food, it would come down to trusting the USDA, whose standards are clearly much lower than ours.
Some years ago Taco Bell hit the headlines when it was revealed that their “beef” actually contained only 35% of actual beef. The rest was comprised of additives and fillers, including sand. Cue general public outrage at the temerity of Taco Bell to deceive us, when the actual USDA guidelines stated that “beef” must actually contain 40% of actual beef to be classed as beef. No one seemed to be outraged at the USDA, strangely.
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Ah, ‘beef’
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‘England’s Mako Vunipola self-isolating and unavailable for Wales game’
Precautionary apparently. Travelled through Hong Kong on the way back from Tonga
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Taco Bell opened their first joint here yesterday. I’m looking forward to the reviews.
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Taco Boak
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My shadow has not darkened the doorway of Taco Bell since.
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Tried TB once. ’twas enough
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Love a bit of Taco Bell. It’s the gritty taste of TexMex.
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Mexas Pete was a spin-off that never took off.
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Since it’s quiet. Some predictions for t’weekend
England > Wales by 15
Scotland > France by 2
So there
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GT will probably go for an unchanged team.
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Davy Crockett, the lad with the hat, died at the Siege of El Alamo on March 6 1836. Would that brave hero have whined or griped about a bit of additives in his whatever Taco Bell serve? No, Sir. He’d’ve said no Mexican, no Communist, no darned Mexican Communist was gonna insist on more meat than non-meat in his delicious food.
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Mexican food is one of the very few things I miss about living in the US.
Note: Taco Bell is not proper Mexican food.
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Other things I miss:
– Jewish Sunday brunch featuring fresh bagels, still warm from the local bakery, smoked sablefish and/or lox, cream cheese, onion, tomato and capers.
– Coney Island hot dogs (yep, I’m sure I don’t want to know what’s in ’em).
– Some friends.
– er, that’s it.
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According to the French Sport minister, the game in Murrayfield should go ahead but due to the coronavirus, the 10 000 French fans may not be allowed to travel to Scotland. It was unclear who would order them not to, whether the Scottish or the French authorities.
I don’t have a ticket ( on my bucket list) but I’d be devastated if I had one and could not go.
Played golf today. It rained so much lately the course looked like a rice paddy. Was fun, though.
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Avlet the Younger’s school trip to London, due to depart this Friday, has been cancelled by her school. The week before spring break, there were different groups heading to all parts of the globe, and the school felt there was too much responsibility / liability involved in potentially having students quarantined in different countries, so canned the lot. Not sure if insurance is going to reimburse us the cost. Needless to say, daughter is pretty disappointed.
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Slovak elections over the weekend. The hegemonic party of the last decade got a kicking – quite rightly. Some quite rightlies benefitted. 3rd place went to Sme Rodina (We Are Family). Good song that the party doesn’t deserve to share. Anti-immigration, pro-family and the free market, standard nasty right-wing populists,
We Are Family’s leader is a geezer called Boris Kollar. This is from a piece about Slovakia in The Guardian last year:
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flair, it’s disappointing but there’ll be another game in 2 years.
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Sensible policies for a better Slovakia.
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It has taken Chris Bryant 19 years as an MP to realise he needs to wash his hands after going to the bog.
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What is it with Borises?
On another note, there is shop just up the hill, opposite the very good bakery that will be the death of me or my wallet. The shop is run by a few Syrian guys, I go in there to buy beer a couple of times a week. Tonight I said to the bloke that served me, “You’ll have to set up a delivery service, what with all this flu about”
He looked totally blank, he didn’t understand a word I said, so I said it again in a painfully slow way, I was getting embarrassed now. This time he had that half smile, avoided eye contact and uttered a little laugh – not a single word was understood.
Thing is he says, “Aw roit Geez?” when you go in there, and “Laters Geez” when you leave. I was laughing about that on my way home.
*Geez being “geezer” – the commonplace greeting around here.
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TomP – I see that Czech Republic (or Czechia?) have drawn Slovakia in their Nations Cup group. Are they likely to be fractious or is the rivalry a bit more chilled than nthat?
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Probably OK. Czechs regard Slovaks as their cousins (or little brothers). There was more of an animus the other way way back when. But the languages are mutually intelligible, the local version of that Simon Cowell talent show is called Czech-Slovakia’s Got Talent, there are loads of Slovaks in the CR and lots of people with “mixed heritage”.
Friendly rivalry is how I’d put it. It’s the Russians they really hate.
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@tomp
Sounds like the British and the Irish. Although I’m not sure who our equivalent of Russia is.
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OT, that’s sort of true.
Very big generlisations but Czechs also have a fairly low opinion of some other countries, Poland gets it a lot for being overly religious and selling the Czechs dodgy food. Slovaks have some bad blood with Hungary – historically it was part of the Hungarian Crownlands and there’s still a substantial Hungarian-speaking minority in the country. Neither of them like Roma much either.
Even within the CR there’s a Bohemia/Moravia split and a Prague/Rest of the Country split. Praguers are pretty damning of Brno – a Moravian or Slovak village, for instance. Or Bohemians say that Moravians just drink Slivovice, dance and play music. Prague people don’t speak proper Czech etc, etc.
Stanislav Holubec’s “Post-Socialist Society and its Enemies: Perception of Russians, Slovaks and Germans in the Czech Weeklies” has some background on it but it mostly focuses on the 1990s. Basic rule of thumb is the West is best, the East the least.
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Holubec’s piece is available here: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/popular-culture-and-subcultures-of-czech-post-socialism
Also contains “Naked Democracy: Eroticism and Nudity in Czech Public Space after 1989” by Adéla Gjuričová, which is good.
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