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 
Nick Farr-Jones is another smart one:
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I’m not qualified to comment on Australian issues, but that quote strikes me as similar to Prods claiming that there isn’t (/ hasn’t been) a major issue in relation to discrimination against Catholics in NI.
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I have an ex-Army mate who ‘served’ in NI in the 70s, He tells me that the evil Cafflicks spat in his face, whereas the lovely Prods invited him in for tea and cakes.
I ask him how he’d view an invading army here in Warwickshire.
He says, but we went in to protect the Cafflicks.
He voted for Brexit because ‘soverinty’.
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There’s a good but black Tim McGarry joke about the, er, co-operation between the British forces and the, er, Very British irregular forces in the North of Ireland.
“We knew the Loyalists were getting help from the British because they started shooting straight.”
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Anyway, got my Foreign Births Register document through a couple of days back so am now Irish. And am probably moving to Ireland in the New Year, Covid permitting.
At times like this it’s important to know more about how the political process works in a country. Ireland, or Eire, is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The President is elected and is a largely ceremonial position. The Parliament or Oireachtas, consists of a lower house, Dáil Éireann, and an upper house, Seanad Éireann.
Let’s have a look at how the Dáil Éireann works:
twitter.com/rtenews/status/1313473154724098050
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Nicky Morgan just said on Question Time that the Tories voted down free school meals during the holidays purely because it was a Labour motion. She seemed to think this was a reasonable position to take.
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Oh and because Angela Rayner called one of them (who was making an entirely disingenuous speech) a nasty name.
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Thanks Slade, CMW et al, just one of those solid pros who does a great job without having that little extra to get the highest honors then?
I feel his pain. I was told that with a bit more variety, strength, pace, skill, awareness and passing ability, I’d be a shoo-in for promotion from the 6th XV. We only had 6 teams.
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I won the gobby shite 9 hands down though. World class.
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Thauma, I knew a bloke here in SA who was an ex-Parabat (or meat bomb, as he liked to call them) who served in Northern Ireland. Much the same attitude as your mate. And like so many Brits who settled in South Africa during the period from the 70s to early 90s, was very comfortable with apartheid privilege and keeping foreigners out of SA ( Africans from other countries and Pakistanis, mostly).
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On reflection, I don’t suppose many people who were revolted by apartheid would have moved here.
In other news, David Pocock has retired, aged 32 to focus on environmental issues. What a player!
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/oct/23/david-pocock-retires-wallabies-australia-rugby-player-retiring-japan-club-conservation
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Something I wish I could watch this evening:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/23/tv-tonight-the-real-count-basie-revealed-in-a-trove-of-family-videos-and-letters
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I had a colleague who had moved to South Africa in the eighties and moved back once apartheid finished. I think it’s safe to say we know where he stood on certain issues.
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“I’d be a shoo-in for promotion from the 6th XV. We only had 6 teams.”
I could have made such an impact for the 6th XV, but sadly we only had one team.
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The 6ths would have gone unbeaten every season with me playing.
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Teams were across two year groups, but even if everyone was forced to play at gunpoint there wouldn’t have been another school in the county that could have populated anything like six rugby teams in an age group. As it was the only school we used to beat was the one where pretty much every boy had to play for them to put a side out.
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Oh Chris, of all the ways to fuck up your Swan song!!!!!!
I thought he only made dumb decisions on the pitch but I was wrong.
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Playing unopposed would have been great. I’d finally have got to know how a particular Llandysul centre felt when he got to play a half with me opposite him.
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Tomp – I saw that quote from Nick Farr-Jones. Can’t quite believe the stupidity tbh.
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Bristol could play England if Chris Robshaw can’t.
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It’s a shame Exeter have a fixture as otherwise Ian Whitten could have turned out.
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CMW – 12 players though. They must’ve thought that they could get away with it or thought it was fine.
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@Craigs – Has to be the former really I’m afraid.
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England will probably call Exeter and ask them to leave out Horse and Phil Dollman to make them available for the Baa-baas so the game can have a bit of glamour.
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@TomP
Aah…. the Healy Raes…. where do I begin..?
Our local 5-seater constituency is represented by 2 Healy Raes (Michael – who is sharp and Danny – well if you can’t be nice ..say nothing). Their father was a Fianna Fail organiser and failed to get the nomination as a candidate when a sitting TD (Teachta Dála – MP to the uninitiated) retired/resigned so stood as an independent TD for many years (see Behan about Irish political parties and “the split”) – Michael HR has shrewdly built that into 2 seats.
Weakness of local government here means that stuff that ought to go though your local councillor ends up being handled by TDs – planning, hospital appts. It’s a bugbear of mine – too many local councils with SFA power.
The Healy Raes (the 2 lads plus various offspring) are very good – by all repute – at getting “stuff” done. They’re also very good at getting publicity and quite shrewdly follow the advice of another Irishman – Wilde – that ” the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about”.
They put themselves about – basically they’d attend the “opening of an envelope” – but go to funerals esp to be seen as “caring”.
There’s also in here some intra-FF bad blood – the Healy Raes were traditionally Fianna Fail – the party led by Micheál Martin and effectively have what FF would see as “their” seats in Kerry. You can add to that Cork (Martin) and Kerry (MHR) rivalry plus “City” – Martin is Cork city TD – vs “Country” and even a layer of business (Healy Raes are plant hire and drilling/drainage) vs professions (Martin was a teacher).
Generally, a downside of our STV PR system is that single-issue candidates are elected in quite large numbers (about 10% of the seats) – most of them make zero contribution on a national scale. Healy Raes are – probably – a cut above TBF.
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Why does someone need a local councillor or a Healy Rae to get a hospital appointment?
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Thinking about Nick Farr-Jones’ comments, and at the risk of sounding like a total wanker (plus ca change), when I was on my gap yah the most culturally shocking thing I saw was how marginalised aboriginal people in Australia were treated.
I guess my mind could process poverty in places I expected it to be (because I am a total wanker) but I was surprised to see the contrast so starkly in Australia.
I had a fantastic time in Australia by the way and it’s an amazing place but that comment seems absolutely brain dead.
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Less to get the appt – more to try to “advance” up the waiting list
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Is that something that’s politically popular? Surely if someone moves up then a load of other people move down?
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@CMW, my school was a medium-sized, English language boys only school, so each year had around 100 kids, the majority of whom played rugby. The age groups went from Under-13 to Under-15 and then ‘Open’ so the last two years played together, allowing us to get 6 ‘proper’ teams out. Some schools in SA can put out twice as many and we played against lads in some 5th teams (when I got elevated above my station) who would push our 2nd and possibly 1st team guys. It could be quite scary, but there was a sense of duty that prevailed and why I find the Pink Floyd lyrics “hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” comforting in a Stockholm Syndrome kind of way.
Straight from there aged 17 I went to the army for two years and played touch rugby with several Springboks (when they were around) and a bunch of Western Province players (Stormers) and got battered far worse playing ‘touch’ than anything at school.
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Craigs, there are thousands of South Africans who have chosen to live in Australia because of the ‘cultural similarities’ between us. Basically, they think of it as South Africa without a large black population. Australia is welcome to them.
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Lot of the time – appointments are so far out (18 months and more for “elective” stuff) that people will look to get something earlier. While you’re correct that effectively means some people theoretically get ‘bumped down’ – a good proportion may elect for private.
We have a fairly biggish private sector – I’d guess probably a higher %ge of people here have some kind of private health insurance than in the UK
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So how does the ‘knowing a corrupt local politician who can get you up the list without having to go private’ thing play with the public? And what is the general view of the idea that local politicians can have this influence, do people think this is right or just not care?
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It sounds like the sort of shit that I’ve always thought is an argument (though not a defining one) against Scottish (or Welsh, far distant prospect that that is) independence.
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Obviously the current UK goverment’s inclination towards blatant local government style corruption on a massive scale does quite a lot to lessen the force of said argument.
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Generally, everyone is against it until it’s them looking for a favour/help. and in general people don’t like TDs doing this – but expect their TDs to do it for them.
Hypocrisy all round…..
The original clip TomP put up was a row between current Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Michael Healy Rae over a buses running to Belfast (I think) to take people for caracact ops.
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I got the impression from reading the thread that Healy Rae taking credit for something that wasn’t really anything to do with him might be as much of an issue as whatever it was that was actually going on.
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Martin’s initial accusation seemed to be that Healy Rae was actively seeking people to help (or appear to help) in this way rather than waiting for them to seek his help. Whilst I can see how this would be a good reason to ridicule HR, from an outside perspective Martin looks on dodgy ground if he’s supposed to be running the country and a lot of people need this ‘help’ to the extent that it’s in HR’s interest to act in this way. Of course I only say this from the point of view of someone who doesn’t understand how the system in Ireland works and what is deemed to be acceptable within it.
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@cmw
Government corruption is a old as the hills. Off the top of my head:
– Blair and Ecclestone
– Mark Thatcher and the Middle East
– the Lavender List
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@OT – of course it is, but there seems to be an ever greater openness about it and willingness to accept it as normal on the media’s part (and probably on the part of the population as well).
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OT – Mark Thatcher and everything he’s ever touched, from what I can see.
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The Scots have got more Tiers than the rest of us! Not fair!
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Trisk, I have unfond memories of that bus. Last time I was in Ireland we flew to Dublin, stayed for a few days and then went North to stay with the relatives. We went up by train, very pleasant it was too.
On the way back the bus stopped just after we’d crossed the invisible border and a guard got on and checked the IDs. Since the bus was virtually empty he could have a chat. My missus flashed her Czech passport and he made an approving comment. Then he saw my UK passport and asked her why she was with a Brit and a not particularly good-looking one at that.
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If there were no corruption in the UK (itself formed after some probably corrupt dealings), there’d have been no Beggars Opera by John Gay. Which means there’d be no Threepenny Opera by Brecht and Weill. Which means there’d be no Mack the Knife.
What I’m basically saying is I support corruption.
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Believe it or not someone actually poses this question BTL on the Guardian’s Live thread:
“On this day in 1707 the first parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain, which included England, Scotland and Wales, met at Westminster.
Did they knowingly vote to let children of the poorest families go hungry in those times as well?”
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Over to you, Dean Swift.
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There’s a story about what’s going on here at the moment with a stand-off between the (horribly corrupt bastard) Prime Minister and his (also horribly corrupt bastard) Health Minister that I’ll link to after this lesson I’m about to teach with a Polish guy who works for a parastatal Polish. His predecessor, who I also taught, was arrested on trumped-up corruption charges a few years ago in Poland.
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From a friend, football trivia:
First Premier League goalscorer: Brian Deane
First Premier League hat-trick: Eric Cantona
First Premier League player to get injured: Virgil van Dijk
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Baa-baas done been naughty boys: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/oct/23/england-match-with-barbarians-called-off-following-covid-19-breach-rugby-union
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