Pro-14 semi-final playoffs: can anyone stop the Blue Meanies? Can our heroes defeat plucky underdugs Edinburgh?
Then there’s North Island v South Island where, as Iks says, How does one pick ‘my’ team in that N – S clash? Darkness or more Darkness? Sauron vs King Ghidorah? Who are the underdogs?
And some English Premiership matches with some rather gruelling-looking midweek fixtures as well as the weekend ones.
And …
Happy 60th to TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA!
On the telly
Friday 4th September
| Worcester v Bristol | 18:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Leinster v Munster | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Northampton v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 5th September
| North Island v South Island | 05:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Rebels v Western Force | 06:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Reds v Brumbies | 10:15 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Saracens v Wasps | 12:30 | BT Sport Extra |
| Harlequins v Bath | 14:00 | Channel 5 / BT Sport 1 |
| Leicester v Sale | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Gloucester v London Irish | 16:30 | BT Sport 1 |
| Edinburgh v Ulster | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Tuesday 8th September
| Bristol v Northampton | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Wednesday 9th September
| Exeter v Gloucester | 17:30 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v Leicester | 17:30 | BT Sport 1 |
| Sale v Saracens | 18:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| London Irish v Harlequins | 19:45 | BT Sport Extra |
| Bath v Worcester | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
My favourite Jethro Tull songs have minimal or no flute, regardless of how good a flautist he is.
The flute in pop music runs that bloody sax close regarding my ‘please stop it now’ threshold.
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‘Ref whisperer’ :-D
Saw the Tull live once; Anderson’s voice was shot, but his fluting was superb.
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Oh, and I love saxophones! Particularly Bowie’s so-called ‘asthmatic saxophone’.
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Nice little charge from Ewan Ashman, I hope Toonie caps him in November
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In my humble opinion, Warbs stands shoulder to shoulder with McCaw, apart from durability against injury. But McCaw always had a better players around him, so perhaps was better protected or was less battered?
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*Sends a nightmare of Country music Thauma’s way*
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This question from Warbs during that climactic moment is genius:
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Well I might look up Bowie’s ‘asthmatic saxophone’, to hear it for myself.
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I think the ‘asthmatic saxophone’ was specifically in reference to this choon (or suite of choons), but there are plenty of other examples, especially on the Berlin albums.
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I think we all love our own backrow players but one mark of quality is when supporters of other teams recognise how good they are – Rives, Slattery, McCaw, Jones.
Warbs isn’t out of place in that company
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Ref says, “leave it seven”, by which time Warbs had done the damage to your quick ball
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Unfortunately the track cuts out at one of the sax highlights in every bloody version I’ve ever found on YT. Must be the compression.
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Ticht – I think Hamish McFuckface is at that level.
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AAAARGH! Make that TWO of the sax highlights!
I think Iks has been interfering with YouTube.
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Aha! Found a remastered version that doesn’t cut it out:
You can hear why it earned the epithet in this one!
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True Tichto. As you know David Leslie is a particular hero of mine, and I can gladly add Calder, White, Jeffrey, Barclay, and others to my list, including that bloody Watson from current times.
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I wish, Thauma!
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Pocock as well. Brussouw for about a year and a half was absolute dynamite.
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But I promise to listen to that Bowie track when I’m home, come what may
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it’s my favouritest ever track.
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Red all day. Not even a maybe.
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At least a ref actually carded him this time
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So many Farrell-haterz.
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Warning to all Embra fans: I am wearing my lucky Ulster shirt.
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I comment out of love. He hasn’t had his boundaries set properly, all growing maturity from here.
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Dipping maybe, still would have been high, proper old fashioned clothesline. You would even get sent off for that in the NRL.
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Fulfilling my promise. Enjoying things so far. A little Lou Reed here, some Mott the Hoople there. Got the grimaces when the the first guitar solo kicked in though.
No cringing when the sax turns up. Goosebump potential when our Dave sings it out there when the sax fades out. I like the bass guitar fade out.
Guitar more distracting than the sax on first impressions.
So what do I know. Nothing, probably. I get it Thauma, even though it is about half of cup of tea.*
*First listen clause evoked before you kill me!
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Red every day of the week. The ball carrier had hardly ducked/ slipped to any degree before being clotheslined by Farrell. If that was Butch James, there’d be no debate. Farrell is no better than James when it comes to illegal tackles. He’s got history, with the only difference being his pathetic arm waving to protest his innocence. He’s a thug.
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The unbiased view from saffaland
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Chimpie, I never defended Butch James: he deserved his reputation as a thug. Why anyone thinks Farrell deserves anything better is beyond me.
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‘Shocking’ and ‘Horrific’ are the terms being used in headlines in the UK press to describe Farrell’s hit today. Google it. I just don’t understand why Farrell gets so much defence over his red mist moments.
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Anyway, not really looking for a debate about it. Looking forward to the Edinburgh match coming up. Can’t see either them or Ulster living with Leinster in the Final, they’re scary!
Watched the Kiwi match this morning and my first thought was that it wasn’t great, lots of speculative stuff, wild passes and missed opportunities until you remember that the squads have only had a couple of weeks together. Support play and offloading in New Zealand is still the benchmark.
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If anything, it was a bit like a Barbarians match, just with less charity!
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Getting nervous now.
We have to keep Coetzee and Cooney quiet and get ball to our back three.
I hope our line out isn’t the utter catastrophe it can be, Toolis coming back in is vital, but if Rambo is in his missing a cow’s arse with a banjo mood it could be a long night for us
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Pah. Ulster are better at fucking up line-outs.
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Apparently Cooney could have been a Scot! Although as the conversation was with Scott Johnson, I suspect the possibility of him appearing in dark blue was minimal…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/54020436
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Drink every time there is a shite lineout throw, from both sides?
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Saw that earlier, BB! Gave me the cold shivers.
Ticht – we’ll be rat-arsed before the first quarter is over!
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‘Mon Embra!
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Here we go then, Emra never win these games, but we’ll see
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“We’ve seen more positive rugby in three minutes from Ulster than we’ve seen in the last 180 over the last two minutes.”
If anyone knows what Tony McWhirter means here, please let me know….
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Hmph.
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Gah. Ulster looking like a try was inevitable, and fucked up.
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Here comes a scrum, de de do dee.
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Ticht, I’m already half torn from a braai this afternoon, so wouldn’t be a good idea to introduce new drinking games. How about a drink for every reset scrum as well?
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Fucking McFuckface again.
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Some strong defence from both sides. A bit hesitant on attack, but it’s hard rugby!
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Well, that was a good half of rugby.
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Dean butchered that, I was hoping his distribution was getting better, but he didn’t even know Bennett was outside him waiting to stroll in
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