As usual, the Celts took the up-front hit: Ireland v Wales was cancelled postponed, followed by Treviso v Ulster and Zebre v Ospreys. Then came the news that Mako Vunipola was self-isolating from the England camp, although apparently it’s okay to infect the Saracens camp. (They’re relegated anyway: who cares?) Today’s shocking news is that Italy v England is also sacrificed to Covid-19.
But fear not, rugby fans! There is one person on our side, one person who knows that it’s all a big hoax. A person whose intimate involvement with Scottish golf courses has led to a love of rugby, inspired by Gavin Hastings.
“I think the 3.4% [death rate] is really a false number.
“Now, this is just my hunch, based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this, and it’s very mild – they’ll get better very rapidly, they don’t even see a doctor, they don’t even call a doctor.
“You never hear about those people, so you can’t put them down in the category of the overall population, in terms of this corona flu, and/or virus. So you just can’t do that. So there is no reason for Six Nations matches to be deep-sixed. DBWR are just a bunch of wimps.”
This is of course very comforting, as everyone knows that Donald Trump’s hunches are enormously more accurate than the wild speculations of the World Health Organisation. While it’s true that a vast number of Americans won’t even call a doctor because they can’t afford to, deathly ill or not, the POTUS’s clarion call to laugh and snap our fingers at what the so-called experts are openly referring to as a pandemic will save our Six Nations and Pro-Woo.
The President is being undermined by snivelling lefties who are rejoicing at the thought of millions of people dying, economic Armageddon being unleashed, and – more importantly – rugby matches being cancelled, just to criticise The Donald. As the Guardian (itself a very dubious source) reports:
Peter Hegseth, a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekends, admonished Democrats’ criticism, saying: “They’re rooting for the coronavirus to spread. They’re rooting for it to grow. They’re rooting for the problem to get worse.”
“They’re probably jumping for joy,” Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt said about the Democrats’ reaction to Six Nations matches being cancelled.
OvallyBalls can also reveal that Donald Trump is behind Vunipola’s decision to train with the Saracens:
“If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better, and then when you do have a death, like you’ve had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York.”
While it turns out that no-one has yet died from coronavirus in New York (it’s only Trump’s home state, so why should he know?), the President’s message is clear: Get to work, you slackers, and you will be healed. Front up to the scrummage. Un-cancel the rugby matches. Work makes you free of coronavirus. Unless you’re dead.
Televisual rugby feasts not cancelled as yet:
Friday 6th March
| Sunwolves 14 – 47 Brumbies | 03:45 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Crusaders 24 – 20 Reds | 06:05 | Sky Sports Action |
| Waratahs 14 – 51 Chiefs | 08:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| Dragons 25 – 37 Treviso (really?) | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| England 22 – 23 Wales U20s | 19:45 | BT Sport Action |
| Worcester 10 – 16 Saints | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 7th March
| Hurricanes 15 – 24 Blues | 06:0t | Sky Sports Action |
| Rebels 37 – 17 Lions | 08:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| England 66 – 7 Wales (women) | 12:05 | S4C / Sky Sports Action |
| Sharks v Los Jaguares | 13:05 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Bulls v Highlanders | 15:15 | Sky Sports Arena |
| England v Wales | 16:45 | ITV / S4C |
| Scotland v France (women) | 19:45 | BBC Alba / website/ button |
Sunday 8th March
| Bristol v Harlequins | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Scotland v France | 15:00 | BBC One / website / button |
Ovally Balls 
Mohamed Haouas got three weeks
“Mr Haouas had received a red card in the match in the Guinness Six Nations Championship between Scotland and France on 8 March 2020 at BT Murrayfield. The red card was issued for an infringement of Law 9.12 (striking) when, in the 36th minute of the match, he struck the Scotland flanker, Jamie Ritchie.
Mr Haouas accepted that he had committed an act of foul play that warranted a red card.
“The Disciplinary Committee, which comprised Roger Morris (Wales), Leon Lloyd (England) and Lawrence Sephaka (South Africa), heard evidence and submissions from Mr Haouas and his legal counsel, Louis Weston (as well as from Six Nations’ legal representative). The Disciplinary Committee found that Mr Haouas had committed an act of foul play (an infringement of Law 9.12) and that it had warranted a red card.
“The Disciplinary Committee found that the act of foul play warranted a mid-range entry point (six weeks’ suspension) and reduced that by three weeks to take account of mitigating factors (including good conduct, guilty plea and relative inexperience at international level). Mr Haouas is therefore suspended for three weeks and, given his playing schedule, he is free to resume playing on Tuesday, 14 April 2020. He was reminded of his right of appeal.”
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That’s a pretty light sentence, especially under the circs.
Hope Wales v Scotland doesn’t get called off, but of course if there is risk, it should be.
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Test
https://ibb.co/7gFCTgp
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Hrmm, didn’t work
I can’t remember the name of the site for posting images
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It did. The piano reflection in Ahmad Jamal’s sun glasses?
Light suspension for Haouas. Again, they saw something I didn’t or vice-versa.
As most games are postponed, how does the 3 weeks suspension work? T14 games won’t restart before mid April at best.
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I can’t see the picture, Flair, only the link to the site I uploaded it to.
The other site I’d used previously automatically uploaded the pic to word press forums, but as I say I can’t remember what site it was.
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Bit disappointed today. Last night I played my first game of ultimate frisbee and clocked a lad with the best punch I’ve ever thrown. The ref gave me a red. I let myself down and my team-mates and everyone I’ve ever met.
One thing about the ultimate frisbee community here in the Czech Republic is the disciplinary committees sit very quickly. Low-entry point for punching someone is 4 weeks.
However, I used the Haouas defence of inexperience and got off scot-free.
The disciplinary committee even said I could keep my biscuits and gave me a packet of theirs to take home. Result.
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flair, I think it’s just 3 weeks from today.
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Edinburgh sign another Fijian, Lee-Roy Atalifo, who’s a tight-head. That 4 makes it 4. It’s incredible. At this rate there’ll be more Fijians than South Africans at the club.
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This is magnificent:
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Not sure about the length of the suspension either way – dont know enough about the protocols
That “inexperience” thing is weird though. He is playing for his country at what is the highest level in the game.
Ok, he only has a few caps, but surely he knows punching someone is against the rules?
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Tomp – you want to be careful. George Monbiot plays ultimate frisbee.
In Islington.
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So basically with the coronavirus epidemic that even a citing commissioner must be aware of, Haouas won’t be penalized personnally. Something’s wrong with the process.
Consistency seems hard to reach and since you ask, no, I don’t have the answer.
Contact with the eye area by Haining gets nothing.
Haouas’punch in broad daylight gets a deserved RC but only
a 3 weeks ban that won’t affect him.
Brace yourself for the outrage Marler’s punishment, whatever it is, will trigger.
So, rugby:
Hope Wales/Scotland is a belter. If the atmosphere is half of what it was outside the empty Parc des Princes for PSG game, it should be stupendous.
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Flair, there was an incident immediately after half time, it starts around 41:35 on the match clock. Fickou cleared Ritchie out of a ruck and has him in a croc roll position, both on their feet.
The short version of what happens next is that you can’t see where Fickou’s hands are but afterwards Ritchie clearly has an injury to his left eye.
Nothing came of that either.
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Hope no-one was planning to go to the US from the EU for the forseeable.
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Citings, as ever, do seem to be a bit all over the place.
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@chimpie
Stupid Schengen.
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*parochial politics alert*
Ever wonder what happened to the perennially incompetent Chris Grayling? head of the Intelligence committee.
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Ticht, I did not see the incident you mention with Fickou. I hope he did not do what you seem to imply he did. In any case we don’t have images of Fickou’s fingers in Ritchie’s eyes, do we? But we do have them for Haining. That’s a false equivalence.
Again, I was only questionning the citing consistency. I was certainly not implying France were virtuous and others dirty. For what it’s worth I thought Francois Cros ( or rather Willemse) could/ should have seen red on the 4th minute.
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One of my favourite students is on holiday in California at the moment. Hope she can get back safely.
Trump’s just playing politics.
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@OT
A bit odd that the UK is exempt, especially as we have more cases than a lot of the Schengen countries.
@TomP
‘Trump’s just playing politics.’
Well quite. He can’t do anything but.
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@tomp
He really isn’t. On this occasion he has got it bang on. Until now he has got it egregiously wrong. The main reason the ban excludes the UK and Ireland is because we are outside Schengen and so have good data on who crosses the borders.
Italy is within Schengen so the ban has to extend to all of its members.
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Anyway, don’t bother answering me. I’m grumpy today as I have to complete my pension file for the umpteenth time. I have been employed by hundreds of companies and I need to make sure the pension system does not forget any of them or else my pension will be smaller when I retire. Wading through 40 years old red tape is not my ideal day. Be nice to me.
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O.T, Trump not playing politics?
There isn’t such a thing as a “foreign” virus.
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@flair
Not on this occasion with this decision. EU members outside Schengen can still fly to the US.
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OT, Trump not playing politics?
There is not such a thing as a ” foreign” virus.
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Damned foreign viruses, coming over here and taking jobs from our honest hard working home grown viruses.
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That sounds like fun, flair. Commiserations
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flair, that Cros/Willemse tackle was a tricky one. Cros let the Scottish player roll over his back and put Willemse into a difficult position. Willemse then put the Scottish player in a very difficult position. Not really sure what I’d’ve given but could make a case for lots of alternatives.
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My answering virus multiplies quickly.
2 posts in 2 minutes.
Beware the man from Shengen (sounds Chinese spellt like this, doesn’t it?)
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When we did our little road trip to the Netherlands from Prague a couple of years ago, I was properly excited to see road signs to Schengen as we passed into Luxembourg from the South(East).
Socailly isolating myself will present little problem.
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Ach I think the Cros / Willemse decision was right, but maybe not the right player being carded. Was clumsy / careless / unfortunate that Gilchrist landed on his heid rather than intentional filth. Could argue reckless but can’t legislate for everything.
Was surprised that a lineout where the French 2nd row (can’t remember who?) came crashing down on his head. There was a bad lift / return to ground bu Cummings, I think it was did make contact in the air. I remember looking at that and thinking penalty or yellow.
In retrospect there were a lot of potential penalties etc. which could have been picked up on for both sides. Not really sure why I’m continuing to pick over this, either.
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Will yos & Iks favourite Shingler be in the welsh team? The tension is building
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crispy beef in Shengen sauce is a favourite of mine.
I see the logic in what OT is saying to a certain extent I suppose. We might have better data on whose crossing our borders due to not being in shengen but I cant see what difference it makes when we’re not really doing anything with that data are we? People can still fly here from Northern Italy completely unhindered. (they were still doing so as of a couple of days back anyway).
Anyway, even if that is that logic, I suspect it’s unintentional on his part or at least convenient.
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CJ, A Peaky Blinder, Another Peaky Blinder, A Third Peaky Blinder and A Lad Up Before the Magistrates on a Charge :
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESwhzhxXYAE6jw4?format=jpg&name=small
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@dova
From the expectation that governments always react too late to these kinds of issues, I fully expect a wider travel ban (including UK and Ireland) in due course. Much like they should have shut the London Underground 2 weeks ago, and probably will at some point.
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Plus I would certainly ban travel from any country that shares an unmanned land border with Northern Italy whose President comes up with this trash
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Chimpie, don’t bother picking over stuff. This is not where rugby joy comes from.
I think the refs make a tremendous job under intense pressure, even the TMOs have to reach a quick decision. They are bound to make mistakes and they make far fewer than us from our couches.
What I questionned was the inconsistencies of citing commissions who have all the time of the world and so many images at their disposition.
In French schools, there are lessons about how to understand an image, whether a photo or a video, how to decipher what is a message we take for granted because our eyes are our main source of information.
It seems to me a lot of these commissionners did not reach that sort of basic level of studies.
Now back to my bloody pension file. Procrastinating is my first name.
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Assuming he’s talking about the coronavirus of course. I could be wrong….
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@flair
Good to hear, a very healthy position. Just to distract you further can you take a look at Macron’s speech above and confirm or deny if he’s talking about the coronavirus?
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Yes, OT, you are.
It’s a speech in hommage to the terrorism victims. Charlie Hebdo etc..
Hence a list of the things the French would not renounce to do.
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Scotland:
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@flair
thanks for that. I will have to point my righteous indignation at something else…..
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‘I will have to point my righteous indignation at something else…..’
May I point sir in the direction of Chris Grayling being in a position of responsibility again?
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@chimpie – you could lose the last 6 words…. his just “being” is sufficient for indignation, I’d aver…
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I’m bringing this out of its semi-retirement. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another “Rugby players whose names sound like radical left-wing Hungarian journalists who become short-lived rulers of their country during what was essentially a Civil War in the post-World War I tumult”:
Today – Robert Baloucoune of Ulster and Bela Kun.
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A good point well made Trisk.
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‘Danny Care has come to the defence of Joe Marler by suggesting he would not be facing a season-ending suspension on Thursday had Alun Wyn Jones ended up on the winning side last weekend – hinting that the Wales captain was being a sore loser by urging the authorities to act.’
This’ll calm the whole debate down I’m sure
‘Care also insisted “I’ve lost count of the number of people who have touched my genitals in a game of rugby”, as he sought to play down the incident.’
Really? Can’t think of a single time someone deliberately handled my tackle when I played (occasional unintentional instances aside). Has the game gone all touchy-feely in recent years?
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