Pre-Ramble
And so it came to pass that the brave men of North London were vanquished by the dastardly Gallic hordes from Paris. Maidens wept as, with victory in sight, the dark sorcerer from beyond the Wall waved his spell and teleported the ball into the hands of a nefarious Argentinian who committed the most heinous of crimes and scored. All the brave fighting and sacrifice from these heroes undone in a second. All seemed lost. Sarries are doomed to smash lesser teams for many moons before being allowed back to play with the big boys. Who can stand up to the Scottish Wizard and his Parisian aristocrats?
Brave and mighty Rohan Exeter have answered that call despite the fact that they would prefer to dance on the graves of The Fallen whilst plundering their silverware. But that doesn’t fit my narrative so we’ll ignore it. They come seeking vengeance for their fallen kin!!!!
How do these teams compare? Who will win? Will it matter when the brave Londoners return from their exile to lay waste to all in their path? Let me make an uneducated guess … and copy some stuff from Wikipedia and other sites.
Racing 92
Quelle surprise innit, Teddy Thomas has been left out of the squad. Shirely this Try Scoring Machine is essential. I guess he must have Covid. In which case I wish him well but this is an unexpected gift to Exeter.
Elsewhere, Racing’s forwards (especially the tight five) are genuinely scary, as you would expect from a team in the European finals. They can compete in the scrum against anyone, and should lay a good foundation for the kids in the back seat.
We all know what Finn can do if given the opportunity and there is plenty of superstar strength, speed and guile (and cheating Irishmen*) outside him. Racing have a genuinely impressive team, and it is hard for this fan to find a chink in their armour. The only thing that I could think of is a highly cohesive team grinding them into the dirt….
Exeter
Mighty, mighty Exeter. Imagine them lining up on the hill, swords drawn, in full battle cry, riding down to trample the enemy…. Sorry, I got carried away there.
If anyone can stop Racing (apart from *sobs* Sarries) it’s them. They have brutal bastards up front and a game plan to crush teams into the dirt. They also have a high (the highest?) strike rate when in the opposition 22. If they can get into the ‘red zone’ enough times then they will win.
Their backs also have stardust with Henry Slade, Jack Nowell and Stuart Hogg CJ pleasing their way through opposition teams like Bruce Lee through a karate dojo or Joe Marler through some bollocks (or something).
The memory of love’s refrain
Prediction
Racing have the ability to strike in open play and I fancy them to get a couple of decent scores. I feel that they will have to play with a bit of structure to keep Exeter in their half, but that will be difficult against a team that typically like to keep hold of the ball. A lot rests on Finn Russell. If we see good Finn then it will be a close match and I fully expect him to pull out the jizz factor. Their Finishers also have buckets of jizz so I expect a late score or two.
Exeter’s key challenge is to maintain the fizzikality up front against the French team. Players like LCD, Jonny Gray and Dave Ewers need to pay out of their skin. Again, I expect them to do this. Later on I expect Hogg and/or Nowell to get onto the scoresheet with some well worked tries and the grown-ups start to get tired.
I hope it’s a belter, and these are two very good sides. I expect (want) Exeter to sneak it as they have the game plan for a final. It will be amazing if they do win given their journey. Similarly, Racing have been here before so I won’t begrudge them the win. If they do, it will be art over practicality, the rapier over the sledge hammer, Gallic joie de vivre over Anglo pragmatism. Probably won’t happen.
Final Score
Exeter 28 – 25 Racing 92
Teams
Exeter
Exeter: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ian Whitten, 11 Tom O’Flaherty, 10 Joe Simmonds (c), 9 Jack Maunder, 8 Sam Simmonds, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Harry Williams, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Alec Hepburn
Replacements: 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
Racing 92
Racing: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Louis Dupichot, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 12 Henry Chavancy (c), 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Teddy Iribaren, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Fabien Sanconnie, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Bernard Le Roux, 3 Georges Henri Colombe, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Eddy Ben Arous
Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Hassane Kolingar, 18 Ali Oz, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Boris Palu, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Olivier Klemenczak, 23 Kurtley Beale
* Hehehe just channelling ExPro.
As foretold by Craigsman
On the telly
Friday 16th October
| Cheetahs v Bulls | 17:55 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Toulon v Bristol | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 17th October
| Griquas v Pumas | 15:25 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Exeter v Racing 92 | 16:45 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Stormers v Lions | 17:55 | Sky Sports Mix |
Sunday 18th October
| New Zealand v Australia | 03:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
Ovally Balls 
Deebs – nah. Exeter will flatten them.
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Just been across the moor with the Little One. There’s still some poo around, but the Killer Coos themselves have been taken off for the winter so nobody got eaten.
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Craigs
Not so sure……….Wasps have just the game to beat Exeter
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First run out for Big Duhan.
I have no idea on the form of James Lang or Chris Harris, but if they do their defensive job and make a bit of space for the back three, we should do well.
6/2 split on the pine probably tells a story as to where Toonie is expecting to see a bit of a tussle.
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There’s the beef-only diet of course so perhaps he would eat them all. Though that’s clearly not how he dealt with the horses.
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He may be on his way to Miami to right a wrong done to his hero:
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Ach, it’s just a misunderstanding.
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Slade – maybe. But they’ve had massive disruption to their training. I just think that the wind is with Exeter.
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CMW – it’s beef and water actually. Speaking of which, guess who’s back and about to do a YouTube series on Proverbs?
I can almost feel the blog excitement.
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We’re back in Level 5 lockdown here – all matches (except national level comps) have been cancelled since we went into Level 3 on 5th Oct. Now all matches (except “elite” level) have been cancelled. So, originally AIL continued – now only pro game goes on plus inter-county football and hurling (as GAA is “amateur” – elite was coined as they’d be excluded by a “professional” category)
Training is individual only for adults – no collective club training but an exception was made for schoolchildren – they can still go to collective training – so we’re continuing.
I think that had to be done – I’m not sure what the balance is between the risk of Covid now and the long-term effect on the health service and economy having a national of lard-arses – but at least it was recognised.
Normally, when we start training in late August, the kids have had a spring/summer training ands playing GAA -so we do very little real fitness work – and equally when we pass them back March(-ish) they’re health enough, so that their GAA clubs don’t need to flog them…. it was really obvious when we started back how unfit some of them were…. GAA had only started again in mid-July and there had been been no group activity since mid-March – levels of unfitness were obvious all round. There’s a limit to the amount of hikes /walks you can drag the kids on and solo training is something post-16s tend to have the clarity and organizational skills to do – so it’s good it was recognised.
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Interesting bit of insight into fitness of kids there, Trisk. Sad situation.
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I think I’m in love…
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Wales for Saturday:
Wales: Leigh Halfpenny; George North, Jonathan Davies, Nick Tompkins, Josh Adams; Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb; Rhys Carre, Ryan Elias, Samson Lee, Cory Hill, Alun Wyn Jones (capt), Aaron Wainwright, Taulupe Faletau, Justin Tipuric.
Replacements: Sam Parry, Nicky Smith, Dillon Lewis, Seb Davies, James Davies, Gareth Davies, Rhys Patchell, Louis Rees-Zammit.
Solid enough. Plus LRZ
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The opposition:
France: Anthony Bouthier; Teddy Thomas, Virimi Vakatawa, Gael Fickou, Vincent Rattez; Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont; Cyril Baille, Julien Marchand, Mohamed Haouas, Bernard Le Roux, Paul Willemse, Francois Cros, Charles Ollivon (capt), Gregory Alldritt
Replacements: Camille Chat, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Demba Bamba, Romain Taofifenua, Dylan Cretin, Baptiste Serin, Arthur Vincent, Thomas Ramos.
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Am teaching my first lesson with a new student. He’s into music – Yes and Genesis were the first two names he mentioned.
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Got to admit that Baxter is a likeable chap. Wasps going to be a bit hard pressed to compete.
Wales and France both look fairly strong sides, I would say on paper a fair bit stronger than England at the moment.
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@craigs
Rob Baxter party animal.
I bet the song with silly lyrics he sang with his missus was Star Trekkin’.
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He’s just finished his appreciation of the first side of one of those Yes albums.
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OT – as if 2020 couldn’t get any worse you made me Google that song.
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A friend of mine’s partner is the ex-wife of Doctor (or one of the Medics, can’t remember)
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Who didn’t record that song. They did “Spirit in the Sky”. Apologies to all.
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Apologies to all
Finally
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What’s the deal with Ian Whitten? He seems to have been an absolute rock for Exeter, but I’ve never seen him mentioned anywhere near the Ireland squad? I know he has a cap (or maybe 2?) and is now 32 or 33, but thought he’d have had more of a look in than he has.
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Deebs
He’s not particularly fast but is strong and knows the Exeter systems inside out.
A fine example of a disappointed’ perhaps underachieving, player finding a new home; a home that recognised that, with help, he could play consistently to his max. and be happy. It’s the Exeter way……………………………..
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Deebs:
https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/players/ian-whitten
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I guess Ulster had a lot of good backs at the time he left. Less said about some of them the better of course.
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Week 1: Fools and their money are easily parted.
Week 2: Fools and their money are easily parted.
Week 3: Fools and their money are easily parted.
Week 4: Foolish Lobsters and their money are easily parted.
Week 5: Fools and their money are easily parted.
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CMW, Cave, Marshall and Spence were around then. All good players, plus some of the youth coming on looked promising.
Whitten’s all right and saw off Sam Hill, who was rated highly by some on AoD.
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I did see the video where Jordan Peterson announced his return to public life. It felt a bit like that scene in the latest Star Wars film when the Emporer returns in a dishevelled state . I think his recent problems have caused problems with his top teeth as he now appears to have dentures and he does that lispy whistling thing when he talks.
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OT,
Nice allusion to Eric Kauffman, another fraud.
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@TomP – Cave was unlucky with injuries I think, maybe Marshall as well. I think Spence was highly rated though I don’t remember much about him as a player and of course what happened to him was horrendous. Payne was possibly already there and Olding would have been coming through at that time and looked very talented, was also unlucky with injuries and then, well…
I suspect Paddy Wallace might still have been starting fairly regularly too.
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A cow a day keeps the doctor away.
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@TomP – For the likes of CJ and Craigs it’s more “As a Dog returns to his vomit…”
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I don’t actually remember Whitten. Probably because the other players mentioned were given the starting places.
D’you think Larry will grace us with his presence this weekend?
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I’m surprised Wales didn’t call up Dour Dai Stodgy to cover those backs.
Meanwhile Deeply Hurt will be delighted to hear that cousin Lispy Whistling is back in town.
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I’m sure Larry could give us a quick and entertaining review of the careers of all those mentioned.
The Ulster back at that time who I thought should have gone elsewhere to get a better chance was the scrum half Paul Marshall who was always going to be kept out by Pienaar (except when they played Pienaar at ten). I remember asking Larry about that more than once, but he never answered the question. My guess is Marshall had other reasons for staying at home than rugby though he also probably didn’t turn out to be as good as he looked like he might be to start with.
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I never rated Marshall very highly. He’s the sort of scrum-half who likes to have a go himself, and occasionally that would result in a score, but more often it would result in a turnover. Bit of a judgement deficit. He also never had the kicking ability of either Pienaar or Cooney (although not many do!).
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And, sure, maybe Marshall could have improved if he’d moved elsewhere and got to start more often.
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And who would want to leave the paradise that is Northern Ireland, especially if you have a steady job?
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@Thaum – I can’t imagine anyone ever leaving at all.
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I’m only half-joking there, btw: I did not leave voluntarily (being 12 at the time), and would much have preferred to stay. It is very beautiful, and people are generally very kind and supportive, believe it or not.
However, I also think that leaving for some time is mentally healthy, to get some perspective.
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@Thaum – I never really saw leaving Wales as permanent, but it’s turned out that it was.
It wasn’t my mother-in-law’s choice to leave Northern Ireland and I’m sure she’d love to be there now. I’ve never been, but Mrs CMW is fond of the place from her visits though she left when she was too young to really remember it. I do think my father-in-law moving there by choice in 1969 was pushing the boat out a bit though.
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@cmw
He got there just in time for the fun bit.
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Pah. I was born there in 1969. I got all the best bits.
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MPs (that’d be Military Police) on the street; tanks rumbling around; turnstiles, metal detectors and gropey physical searches to get into downtown Belfast; border (and other random road-) checks – all very character-building.
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Smart lads:
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I told you the Saracens were evil.
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Dirty dozen.
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