Got distracted by being off this week on account of the happy occasion of getting a new dug.
But in case you missed it, you can read ClydeMillarWynant’s excellent Real Cricket Match Report here.
For Your Televisual Pleasure
Friday 28th August
| Brumbies v Western Force | 10:05 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Glasgow v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 29th August
| Waratahs v Rebels | 10:15 | Sky Sports Action |
| Sale v Bristol | 15:00 | Channel 5 / BT Sport 2 |
| Dragons v Scarlets | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Ulster v Leinster | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 30th August
| Harlequins v Northampton | 14:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Exeter v Worcester | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Munster v Connacht | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Gloucester v Leicester | 16:30 | BT Sport 1 |
| Cardiff v Ospreys | 17:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Zebre v Treviso | 19:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
Monday 31st August
| London Irish v Saracens | 13:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Bath v Wasps | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
“Wild, (go wild), go wild in the library, where borrowing books is absolutely free”
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BB, did you never record music of the radio? Bow wow wow wrote the song for you.
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* Except ypu’re a prog man and they didn’t sing C30 C60 C90 C270.
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Yes I did. And many prog albums fitted just nicely onto a C90, thank you. I’d also rather they hadn’t sang anything at all.
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c120……………
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They always got buggered up in my tape machine, no matter how often I cleaned it.
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Karl.
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C120s were notably prone to snapping – C90s were more reliable
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….agreed -but how else to get Electric Ladyland on one tape?
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Or Tales from Topgraphic Oceans….
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(or Topographic even)
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Champions cup:
‘The convoluted new arrangement will see 24 teams – eight each from the French Top 14, the English Premiership and the PRO14, including Edinburgh and Glasgow – divided into two pools of 12, with teams playing just four games each instead of the current six before proceeding to the quarter-finals.
Teams will be ranked according to their final placings in the 2019-20 season, including the knockout phases of their leagues, and then divided into four tiers before being split into the two pools. In each pool, each Tier One team will play home and away against two of the Tier Four teams, with the same process taking place for Tiers Two and Three. Clubs from the same league cannot meet in the pool stage.
After those four weekends of fixtures, the top four in each pool will qualify for the last eight. Clubs ranked five to eight in the pools will compete in the knockout stage of the Challenge Cup, which will begin with a single-pool format including the remaining 14 clubs from the three leagues – six from the French Top 14 and four each from the PRO14 and the English Premiership.’
Simples.
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An elegant solution there from the lads at Eurorugby.
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Under that format I’m going for Leinster to win.
(what is the format?)
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Here is a picture of me and Nasser Hussain
I’m the one in the pink shirt in the background talking to a bloke whose lad is in the process of putting grass clippings down his dad’s trousers.
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…..”Topgraphic” sounds modern!
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Whats the kid doing with the bat, OT? Is he just completing a reverse sweep ?
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@sbt
no idea. That’s Dylan who plays in my lad’s team but is a year younger so he’s an excellent player. I think they just caught it at an awkward time between shots or something.
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About 12 degrees, raining and windy in Joburg today. May as well join the Saffer Super exodus to Europe. Think I’ll play for Bath. Like the city. That said, Rugby Epernay or Stade de Reims Rugby would probably suit my lifestyle more, especially if I could get sponsorship from one of the estates.
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Excellent, OT.
There’s a lot of good pink shirt wearing going on at the moment. Here’s your style sibling Dominic Cummings in the same:
pbs.twimg.com/media/Eg5xLzPWoAASFTa?format=jpg
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@tomp
My missus bought than one for me, she likes a bit of colour on me as she says otherwise my pasty complexion makes me look all tired and washed out. You can see her elsewhere on that photograph.
And the bloke I wasy talking to was quite annoyed about being covered in grass clippings as “these jeans were clean on today!”.
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‘the bloke I wasy talking to was quite annoyed about being covered in grass clippings as “these jeans were clean on today!”.’
One of my favourite OB anecdotes.
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You could put the good bits of ‘Topographic Oceans’ on one side of a C60.
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OT – is your wife the red-haired, blue-dressed, yellow-stocking-ed person in the picture? If so, you definitely need to wear some colours to keep up with her!
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I don’t want to make this all about me, but I had a sugar-pink sweatshirt in my prime mid-twenties years, and I looked marvellous in it.
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Complexion rather than girth-wise, I should add.
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Typical Iks, making it all about him…
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‘You could put the good bits of ‘Topographic Oceans’ on one side of a C60.’
That yawning gap between bat and pad is tempting, but there are cucumber sandwiches for tea and that chap in pink has just caught my eye.
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@bb
That’s the one. You can see her a mile off.
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RIP David Capel, got his autograph once at the Oval, nice friendly guy, good cricketer.
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YOUR Steinlager North versus South teams for the Kiwi trials:
The North team
Forwards: 1. Karl Tu’inukuafe 2. Asafo Aumua, 3. Ofa Tuungafasi, 4. Patrick Tuipulotu (captain), 5. Tupou Vaa’i, 6. Akira Ioane, 7. Ardie Savea, 8. Hoskins Sotutu.
Backs: 9. TJ Perenara, 10. Beauden Barrett, 11. Caleb Clarke, 12. Anton Lienert-Brown, 13. Rieko Ioane, 14. Sevu Reece, 15. Damian McKenzie.
Replacements: 16. Ash Dixon, 17. Ayden Johnstone, 18. Angus Ta’avao, 19. Scott Scrafton, 20. Dalton Papalii, 21. Aaron Smith, 22. Peter Umaga-Jensen, 23. Mitchell Hunt.
The South team
Forwards: 1. Joe Moody, 2. Codie Taylor, 3. Nepo Laulala, 4. Samuel Whitelock (captain), 5. Mitchell Dunshea, 6. Shannon Frizell, 7. Tom Christie, 8. Tom Sanders.
Backs: 9. Brad Weber, 10. Richie Mo’unga, 11. George Bridge, 12. Jack Goodhue, 13. Brayden Ennor, 14. Will Jordan, 15. Jordie Barrett
Replacements: 16. Liam Coltman, 17. George Bower, 18. Tyrel Lomax, 19. Manaaki Selby-Rickit, 20. Dillon Hunt, 21. Finlay Christie, 22. Josh Ioane, 23. Leicester Faingaanuku.
In the absence of any Kiwi posters to analyse the sides, I’ll do it for you. Look weak. But I’ll leave it to John Plumtree, the North coach to offer an understated, balanced view of his side “”It’s an exciting squad that we’ve picked for this special match. There’s a huge amount of lot of talent in the side.”
South coach Brad Mooar may not actually be talking rugby when he opines “We have a fantastic group of men who have all made the most of this week, building relationships and having fun with each other as well as learning new things.”
I’ll be watching anyway.
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It’s not Friday yet, but this is too cute to not post:
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Deebee, Janet Jackson and dance sensation collapse the blog.
In better news, we had lovely rain last night and it’s sunny and warm today. I’m eating chocolate coated jelly eggs at the moment and have wangled an expensive lunch out of a client for when we’re next in Milan.
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“It’s not Friday yet, but this is too cute to not post:”
I still really miss Sag, especially at times like this.
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Terrible news that David Graeber has dies at the early age of 59. This was an instant classic:
https://www.strike.coop/bullshit-jobs/?fbclid=IwAR1F1kRI1OWFVZuvzdHGdR7__cRbClEDLWzgcAWCnUy33hDzIxF_dPsQwwA
And this one of my favourites:
thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit
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ProWoo semi news
Leinster: Larmour; Keenan, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe; Sexton (c), McGrath; Healy, R Kelleher, Porter, Toner, Fardy; Doris, Connors, Conan.
Replacements: Cronin, E Byrne, Bent, Baird, Van der Flier, Gibson-Park, R Byrne, O’Loughlin.
Munster: Daly; Conway, Farrell, de Allende, Earls; Hanrahan, Murray; Loughman, N Scannell, Archer; Beirne, Holland; O’Mahony (c), O’Donoghue, Stander.
Replacements: O’Byrne, Cronin, Ryan, Wycherley, Cloete, Casey, R Scannell, Haley.
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Looks weak etc. etc.
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Could be a good game but Leinster to probably win. Again.
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Does it get boring for Leinster fans just keeping on winning?
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Would make a comment about Embra piddling on their parade, but small matter of Ulster up first.
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I would love it (love it! Keegan-style) if Leinster made two finals and lost them both.
Can’t see it happening though.
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(Saracens are knocking them out. Put your money on it)
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A sad story, told too often:
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Er, didn’t one of our other happy posters post that O & M clip? Worth a second look though.
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I think I’ve posted a couple but not that one.
There is a new one out. Redemption for Mabel!
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Great stuff Thaum, I must have related my favourite Andrew Cotter moment, he was still relatively new to rugby commentary and there was a break in a game, this was when Jiffy was being peak arsehole and guffawing at mistakes the Italians were making. Anyway, Jiffy said something, there was a pause and he said, “Don’t you raise your eyebrows at me, Cotter”
To which Cotter said, “I was just trying to feign interest”
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It’s semi time! Embra:
15. Blair Kinghorn (89)
14. Darcy Graham (31)
13. Mark Bennett (37)
12. Chris Dean (90)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (59)
10. Jaco van der Walt (56)
9. Nic Groom (12)
1. Rory Sutherland (83)
2. Stuart McInally (144) CAPTAIN
3. WP Nel (141)
4. Ben Toolis (119)
5. Grant Gilchrist (149)
6. Magnus Bradbury (76)
7. Hamish Watson (109)
8. Viliame Mata (73)
Replacements: 16. Mike Willemse (20) 17. Pierre Schoeman (42) 18. Simon Berghan (80) 19. Andrew Davidson (1) 20. Jamie Ritchie (68) 21. Charlie Shiel (18) 22. Nathan Chamberlain (2) 23. George Taylor (21)
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I think that is close to full strength, Chimpie, though Ritchie would start if fully fit, and ideally Toolis would have had some minutes game time before this match
Cockers obviously wants to bring the bosh with that backrow, though I’d prefer Ritchie to spoil Cooney’s evening
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