Wasps v Bristol and Exeter v Bath in play-off drama, The Blackness v the Wobblies, and round two of the new Pro-14 season.
And John Cooney inexplicably left out of the Ireland squad.
Here be the weekend fixtures.
On the telly
Friday 9th October
| Sharks v Lions | 5:55 | YouTube / Sky Sports |
| Dragons v Zebre | 20:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
Saturday 10th October
| Wasps v Bristol | 13:30 | BT Sport 1 |
| Cheetahs v Pumas | 15:25 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Exeter v Bath | 16:30 | BT Sport 1 |
| Ospreys v Ulster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Treviso v Leinster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bulls v Griquas | 17:55 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Cardiff v Connacht | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Munster v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 11th October
| New Zealand v Australia | 04:00 | Sky Sports Main Event |
| Glasgow v Scarlets | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Thanks for that links, Thaum. I am glad I am currently residing in the Land of the Free, where I am an honoured guest, so can be fairly impartial about politics. It is, to all intents and purposes, still the Wild West, so you can look to Deadwood for a summation of politics and business ethics, and I accept that.
Somehow, I naively expect a little more from the UK. I have always thought that several hundred years ago, I would have been an enthusiastic supporter of Oliver against Charlie 1, and then would have happily fled to America with the last few Regicides when Charlie 2 came back. I wonder if I will side with Charlie 3 if he dissolves parliament and chases the corrupt fuckers around the planet, throwing them out of windows and poisoning them.
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@Thaum – I think SBT’s put that better than I can. Thanks for the link.
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@SBT – Thanks for the Arlott thing, some really good bits and pieces on there. He was very much a hero of my father’s or at least that’s what I’m told. I’m too young to remember Arlott’s commentary which is a nice thing to think of on a day when I’ve got older. I think there’s still a copy of John Arlott’s 100 Greatest Batsmen knocking around somewhere – I guess that was published about 1985 so could probably do with an update though I suspect that the modern eye would probably boot out the wrong people and not leave today’s young cricket fanatic with the wonders of 19th and early 20th century cricket to marvel at.
Must get round to looking out those TV things he did with Brearley again some time though I’ll have to be in the right mood as one of them really gets to me.
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Ned Hannigan starting for Aussie at the weekend. They like doing things the hard way.
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SBT, I’m hearing from sources that Charles Windsor* is likely to outsource the harrying to Serco so it’s just possible the corrupt fuckers’ll get away with it.
* If only FD could see me now.
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So the Boks officially out of the Rugby Championship, gifting it to New Zealand on a platter. Expect Argentina to get hammered, having played no competitive rugby this year (since March anyway). It’s a great pity, but I can also understand not wanting to send players who aren’t match hardened down for it, with just a couple of weeks of rugby under the belt. Next Bok Test is the 1st Lions Test at the Calabash in Soweto next July.
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I’m “Hon Sec” for my club…. in a fit of enthusiasm I managed to restart our moribund county committee – and got myself landed with the job of “Hon Sec” on that too plus a nomination to the Junior* Committee – that runs adult club rugby underneath AIL. Now in my second year on that committee – I’ve inherited the post of “Branch” delegate (ie I would get to sit on the main committee representing Munster rugby – if we had meetings) as my fellow county delegates on the JC were an ex-President – who was told he couldn’t go back to being a branch delegate – and a new delegate. So, I’ve “seniority”.
All the politics and wrangling isn’t my thing – but I attend meetings (read “Zoom”) and report back to the local clubs. Probably more politics than I expected…
(* taken a while to get used to that naming convention we have here – Senior is top level then Junior is the level below rather than referring to U18 rugby – in Irish terminology ‘Junior All Blacks’ or ‘Junior Springboks’ would be a XV picked from lower tiers of rugby not a team of U20 – or whatever)
Anyway, as part of the CEO’s presentation at the AGM – the plan for world domination is to try to make Munster a “worldwide” brand – tapping the ‘diaspora’ and trying to develop an online presence via streaming. Basically, as matchday receipts make up about 60% of revenue – Munster (although not alone in this) need other revenue streams to reduce that figure to 20%
So, if in a few years time you hear that Munster has a worldwide fanbase of 50 million – most of who live in India and China and who watch games on TurnipTV – you’ll know it worked….
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Deebs – why don’t they just give the Boks the trophy and the second rate tes can play for second place?
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I like Russ in Cheshire. And that level of incompetence and corruption is rife all over this government. E.g. The UK is the world’s biggest medical weed exporter and the MD of British Sugar is married to Victoria Atkins. Yet the restrictions in the UK medicinally or not are ridiculous.
My only quibble is that there hasn’t been an effective opposition to this shit for fucking years.
The Tories convincingly won the last election so unless Labour or someone else starts winning this shit will continue.
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Deebs – why don’t they just give the Boks the trophy and the second rate tes can play for second place?
Sensible suggestion. I’ll get onto the suits at SANZAAAAAAAAR over lunch this afternoon.
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Deebs – give them some free acid before asking.
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‘We should acknowledge, though, that the government is good at tracking and tracing sometimes. If they want to outsource a service, they seem able to find a relative of a Conservative with astonishing speed.’
Oh how true
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In Selkirk…..
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It’s time to face up:
‘your’ Exeter team of destiny:
15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ian Whitten, 11 Tom O’Flaherty
10 Joe Simmonds (capt), 9 Jack Maunder
1 Alec Hepburn, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 Harry Williams, 4 Jonny Gray, 5 Jonny Hill, 6 Dave Ewers, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 8 Sam Simmonds
16 Jack Yeandle, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Jannes Kirsten, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Ollie Devoto
Strongest available, so ………………………
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https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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Help! mods!
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Strong looking pair of teams. Can’t really call it.
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41 years and running I think now. There was fairly effective opposition to some things after the 2017 election thanks to the great success Labour had in turning its electoral performance around with its best percentage of the popular vote since 2001 and the first time it had increased its percentage share of the popular vote since 1997 but you saw what happened to that. It got nuked.
Having seen Starmer’s shambolic abstentionist approach to last night’s bill I wouldn’t hold your breath.
There’s a good book by Solomon Hughes called “War on Terror, Inc”. It’s from 2007. New Labour loved outsourcing and hand-picking friends to run things.
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Anyway, here we are:
Boris Johnson says it’s time to “get ready” for the prospect of no free trade deal with the EU on 1 January.
The prime minister claimed Brussels had “abandoned” the ambition but insisted “we always knew there would be changes” next year once the transition period ends “whatever type of relationship we had”.
Speaking from Downing Street after an EU summit both sides said was the deadline for hammering out a trade deal, Mr Johnson said it looked like the country was heading for what he called “the Australian solution”.
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I’ve just received an email invitation to join the “Virtual European Conference on Controversies in Diabetic Foot Management”.
I think I’ve found myself on the wrong list.
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Maybe it’s the right list but you didn’t know until now.
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Thaum – you have summat in your inbox.
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‘Alas, we have seen nor heard nothing for a month from test-and-trace mastermind Dido Harding, who is assumed to be living under this administration’s vast Shitness Protection Programme.’
In these times of shitness some columnists can at least provide a chuckle.
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Marina Hyde? She’s part of the problem.
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Plus she used the “Shitness Protection Programme” “joke” about a month ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/18/matt-hancock-test-and-trace-dido-harding
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Well aren’t you mister happy today.
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I hope what Chimpie quoted was from a Marina Hyde piece.
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Whatevs
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Not sure about this notion that there might only be one problem to be part of.
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I got told by a stranger that I was part of the problem once. No further details were forthcoming.
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That would be the Australia problem.
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Solution?
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Sink Australia?
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Being round a couple of my old haunts today, Selkirk and Peebles, got me to thinking how different they are in atmosphere. OK, it was a wet Friday in October during a pandemic, so neither town will be at peak business, but there was still a bit of a buzz around Peebles that was missing in Selkirk.
Really, the photo/link below shows how busy Selkirk can be….
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/retro/nostalgia-eagle-eyed-readers-put-date-our-photo-255763
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Publishing news:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EkWltTQXsAETHlU?format=jpg
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New post shortly – thanks, Craigs!
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