That’s what I get for venturing a rugby opinion on a rugby Notablog: roped into writing about some rugby stuff rather than wittering nonsense. Well, it may still be nonsense, but there we go. Teams haven’t been announced as of this writing, but without further ado some ‘ predictions’:
Leinster vs Saracens
What I said previously: “I can see Sarries giving the Blue Evil a run for their money at the weekend, possibly even sneaking it”.
I’ll stand by this. It’s suitably vague for me to claim a win whichever way it goes. And whichever way it goes, evil wins. Salary cap busters and relegation fodder Sarries, with their strong squad – albeit minus a finally-sanctioned Faz – vs the giant-squad-sized Pro-14 champs-for-life Blue Meanies. Who would bet against Leinster at home? However home advantage may not count for much in a crowdless stadium, and impending relegation doesn’t seem to have dented the Londoners’ squad or resolve significantly so far.
Ones to watch
Leinster: Sexton was relegated to the bench for last week’s ProWoo final in favour of Byrne which seemed to do Leinster no harm whatsoever.
Saracens: Fez is serving his ban but watch him anyway. Very carefully.
ASM Clermont Auvergne vs. Racing 92
What I said previously: “No idea about Racing vs Clermont”.
Still no clue really: not been following the Top 14 at all of late. Finn plays for Racing, though, and he keeps doing funky stuff which hits YouTube highlights when not taking a strop with Scotland management. They’re probably pretty good overall, as *taps in search quickly* they are top of the T14 at the moment! Okay, only two games into the season, but still top – and won both of them.
ASM are third, having won one less game, but are at home (got beaten by Bayonne last time out, however), and they don’t lose at home that often. And they play in yellow. Are crowds allowed in for this one? I don’t even know that.
Ones to watch
Racing 92: Finn! Watch him dance; see him spin!
ASM: err *hastily types in search* Oooh, Damian Penaud! He’s pretty handy.
Toulouse vs. Ulster
What I said previously: “Step too far for Ulster, vs Toulouse”.
Facing Toulouse at their home ground is a hell of a challenge, and while Ulster have made big strides in recent years under Dan McFarland, this may be one a bit too large. Still, should be able to make a fight of it, coming from behind to squeak past Wmbra in the ProWoo QF (boo!) before being pipped by Leinster in the final.
Toulouse are one of the big names in Europe with actual cup wins and stuff, and a squad stuffed with talent, both home-grown (current France half-backs) and foreign (including Cheslin Kolbe). There have been no cup wins since 2010 and I’m sure they’ll be wanting their name on the cup once again.
Ones to watch
Ulster: Marcell Coetzee. Not flashy but very solid.
Toulouse: Romain Ntamack. The silky hair and dreamy eyes.
Exeter Chiefs vs. Northampton Saints
What I said previously: “Exeter will biff Northampton”.
Probably true. The cultural appropriators have been winning a lot even when putting out B teams (yes, I know they got done by Sarries last weekend), whereas Northampton’s form has gone off a cliff a bit. Exeter are a well-known quantity now, but teams still don’t know how to stop them when they get into the oppo 22. They combine a beastly pack with some incisive backs and are a contender for the whole log this year, one suspects. Northampton were riding high in 2019 and early 2020 but their freewheeling style seems to have hit a bumpy patch, and they lost to basement-dwellers Tiggers last outing. Can only see one winner here.
Ones to watch
Exeter: There’s no I in team.
Northampton: The ref needs to heed Big Dan Biggar’s advice.
As predicted by Chimpie
On the telly
Friday 18th September
| Bristol v Dragons | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 19th September
| Reds v Brumbies | 09:45 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Bordeaux v Edinburgh | 12:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| Leinster v Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Clermont v Racing 92 | 17:45 | BT Sport 3 |
| Toulon v Scarlets | 20:15 | S4C / BT Sport 3 |
Sunday 20th September
| Toulouse v Ulster | 12:30 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 3 |
| Leicester v Castres | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Exeter v Northampton | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
Monday 21st September
| Sale v Harlequins | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Kolbe – beautiful.
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Adjusting your shorts whilst waiting for the support runner is a new one
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Ahki has been good today, in fact Toulouse as a whole have been good
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You’d never see a Llama behaving like this, eh no, Chimpie?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-54224681
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Danie Roussouw, one of my favourite players, has also won the World Cup and the Heineken. As did Bakkies Botha and Juan Smith, another favourite..
This is turning into a massacre.
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Juan Smith was terrific
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@tomp
Keep going. You’ll get to Matt Dawson eventually.
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Dreadful performance. Not helped by the injuries, of course.
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I won’t.
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Hello everybody,
Damn! I was so busy I forgot there was serious rugby this weekend. I thought there was just another round of T14. Only saw Toulouse demolish poor Ulster. Too one sided to enjoy. Still, the likes of Kolbe and Dupont are a joy to watch.
Seems the game to see was Leinster/Sarries. I’ll try to catch it later. I never cared much for Saracens’ style, but you’ve got to admire their stubborness. I think Racing had ( have now?) what it takes to go all the way. Hopefully there won’t be any case of covid among their players or they could end up like Castres.
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Saints better team for 15 minutes. By 25 minutes, Chiefs have scored 2 tries.
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Good reply from Saints. Not sure they’ll be able to keep this up for the second half.
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Saints forget to tackle Nowell as he slaloms through for the third try. Suspect they might have had a rollicking at half time.
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Saints hanging on in there with another try.
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Saints played well, better than they have done for a while. Chiefs haven’t played particularly well, but still won by over 20 points.
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They just can’t help themselves:
Am sure the fall-out from the latest leak about corrupt financial institutions will have some fall-out.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54225572
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As did Bakkies Botha
Bakkies won a number of Super Rugby trophies, Currie Cups, Top 14, Tri-Nations and a B&I Lions series in addition to the World Cup and Heinie trophies. Doubt there are too many who could claim that suite (even if you take the Currie Cup and Top 14 wins out as purely domestic trophies). And a gentleman to boot.
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Rossouw didn’t play in as many Heineken winning teams as Bakkies but did win the Japanese league title. Am trusting you on Bakkies’ gentlemanly qualities .
The context was the commentator in the Toulouse-Ulster game was talking about Cheslin Kolbe and South African players that’d won the RWC and Heineken cups. He mentioned Schalk Burger, Schalk Brits and BryanHabana and then just stopped as if they were the only 3 to have done the trick.
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Ah! Wasn’t aware of the context. Danie Rossouw is one of those guys who never really gets the recognition he deserves. His name seldom comes up in conversation here when people talk about excellent back rows. He was formidable. Juan Smith was magnificent.
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Good lock as well. The Bulls must have had him, Spies and Wannenburg around at the same time, which’d be pretty good choices at 8. Put one of them at 7 and have Stegmann causing havoc on the open side and that’s a very tasty back row.
What was the name of that blond lad that played a few times for the Boks on the blind-side? Also from the Bulls. He played in England for a bit I think.
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Dewald Potgeiter is his name.
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Ok, this is a different albeit distantly-related sport but horrific lack of understanding of the rules – receiving team can play the ball immediately it’s kicked – kicking team have to wait till it goes 10 yards
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Tomp – I’ve just read through an internal memo on the fincen story. The only thing I’d say is that it is based on leaked suspicious activity reports which is a way of self reporting to the regulators. The aren’t evidence that the banks did anything wrong given that they can be deceived.
I’m not holding my breath though….
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TomP, in 2009 and 2010 poor old Danie Rossouw couldn’t crack the Bulls starting XV at times, being behind Botha and Matfield in the lock berths and Stegman, Spies and Potgieter in the back row. The Bulls also had Flip van der Merwe on their books as a lock and Pedrie Wannenberg in the loosies. Was a scary pack! With Fourie du Preez and Morne Steyn at 9 and 10 behind them. Steyn actually played some pretty good rugby behind that pack and distributed the ball well – a more canny operator than many give him credit for. Yours truly especially.
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I liked Stegmann. He was a normal(ish) sized bloke as well. Once saw him in the Clicks in the shopping centre near where we lived. He was in his training kit and buying an electric razor.
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Deebee, I see that Pollard’s out for the year. Elton for a glorious swansong?
Disappointed that the mighty Fassi’s knackered himself as well.
Like the look of those squads picked for the game at Newlands in a couple of weeks. The Scottish selectors’ll have a field day.
Good idea getting the very young lads like Wolhuter in.
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Thinking back to those Bulls and Bok sides of 2007-2011, you can understand why the NZ rugby union put so much pressure on Bryce Lawrence to ignore the laws in the quarter final.
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Back in the 1980s Michael Le Vell (Kevin from Coronation St) lived near my Grandparents corner shop. He once went in and bought a tootbrush.
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Only once?
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@craigs
To my knowledge. He probably went in other times and bought booze. He was quite well known to us in any case because before he was in Corrie he would always be in the panto at the Oldham Colisseum.
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The Czech Minister of Health, Adam Vojtech, has resigned as the number of Coronavirus cases has rocketed in the last month. He was formerly the lawyer for the Prime Minister’s media group.
More importantly, he was a participant in one of the first series of the Czech version of Pop Idol. Got to the semi-final.
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@tomp
Former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Esther McVey cannot claim to be more highbrow than that bloke:
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“…my Grandparents corner shop. He once went in and bought a tootbrush.”
Discretely packed in a brown paper bag, I presume?
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I’m keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that Johnson in his hubris has done an Italian Dominic Cummings and secretly flown to Italy to get his nipper baptised. It can’t be true, can it? Can it?
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Perugia. Beautiful city. The football club once signed this bloke:
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Adam Leggett remains my go-to guy for a Johnson quote:
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Iksy, don’t want you to worry any more than you need to be but:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/sep/21/britons-eu-uk-bank-accounts-closed-lloyds-barclays-brexit
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Aah, now that was/is a band. Psychedelic Furs, makers of glorious noise (listen to Dumb Waiters on their second album) and occasional pop classics. Like most of the comments, I prefer the original. Saw them in ’81, only my second ever gig.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/21/pretty-in-pink-psychedelic-furs-pop-classic
And their new album is pretty darn good too.
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C’mon Iks’ Wolves! Bite a few Citizens!
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Nicely jinxed, Deebs.
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Apologies MrIks, should have sung City’s praises. They’ve been pretty good so far. Need to sleep, so hopefully that’ll wake Wolves up!
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Thanks BB, a particular specialty of mine.
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My Wolves aren’t playing tonight.
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“You’d never see a Llama behaving like this, eh no, Chimpie?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-54224681”
Ticht, that’s just Chimpie after checking his ATL predictions.
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The glorious noise that is the Psychedelic Furs…
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Occasionally they even made some more commercial stuff too….
How 80s do you want your videos?
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And finally (you’ll be glad to hear) they come bang up to date…
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Ah BB, good work. The new song sounds ancient and modern all at once. Reminds me a lot of the Chameleons ‘Script of the Bridge’ sound.
I had a library of 3 hour long VHS music-mix tapes recorded from the telly back then. Love My Way from the Furs was on it – a favourite of mine for a long while until the xylophoney ‘dat dat da, dat dat da’ started to get on my nerves after a while.
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Gav Watch.
Henson has switched codes and signed with West Wales Raiders
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Lucky bastards!
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