quite possibly weeks or longer.
Having left Matadi and a newly enriched Customs Officer, we drove back on the Kinshasa road to Lufu, or any of the other names that towns in this part of Africa get called, depending on your language and which side of the border you nominally originate from. Lufu gets its name from the Lufu River, which runs from northern Angola to the Congo River (presumably) traversing the sliver of land that King Leopold managed to get to ensure that his colony had access to the sea. It’s less a town on the Congolese side and more of a crazy, uncontrolled (to the unfamiliar eye) trading post, where commodities ranging from cement and rebar to beer, plastic products, clothes and bulk food items, are traded across borders depending on exchange rates, availability, who you’re paying off and whether you’ve fuel in your truck (or motorbike for the micro-traders) to make it to Kinshasa.
Mo spent a good deal of the journey speaking to his boss and explaining the loss of US$800 and whether it was worth approaching their friend, the head of police in Kinshasa, to try to get it back. It was decided that route would be more costly in the longer run. “You sleep in shitty hotel tonight!” roared Mo laughing away, because we had to overnight in the nearby town of Kimpese in order to finish our investigation after the delays.
Kimpese is more hamlet than town, more shithole (thanks Dumb Donald!) than hamlet, with a handful of streets of formal houses and potholed dirt roads hidden behind the chaos and colour of the roadside informal trade. It’s also the epicentre of the cement industry in this part of the DRC, with all of the plants within a few kilometres of each other, located on huge limestone reserves.
because they have no education of use to a modern industrial plant.
The grandly-named Hotel Espace Nzilco was our place for the evening, and it looked as inviting as Mo had described it as. We checked in, Mo slipping the receptionist a little something extra with a none too subtle wink and grin, and went to unpack. Basically, the rooms are bungalows and resembled old military quarters from Belgian days, which a number of places I’ve stayed in in the DRC were. No Wi-Fi, so the bar and dinner it would be. Mo was already in full flight buying beer and whisky and chatting to whoever was in the bar. “My expensive friend!” he shouted as I walked in, telling the story in French to those listening and laughing. “Come! Drink shit whisky from you British and good beer from us Congolese!” Right on both counts. I chatted to a couple of Pakistani guys I’d worked with a couple of years before on a project not too far away. They drank like fish in the solid knowledge that what the imam couldn’t see, he couldn’t tell Allah (their words, more or less, not mine). Mo’s roving eye after a very good dinner of peri-peri chicken, freshwater fish and vegetables was my cue to grab a couple of bottles of beer and head to bed.
The next morning, we drove back to Lufu to inspect the border and try to understand the volumes of product crossing it, but we couldn’t get too close to the police or customs officials on account of my dodgy passport. We did some sums in the drizzle, and spoke to traders bemoaning the broken bridge, which would only take small vehicles as some of the supports had collapsed, meaning the cement and steel trucks had to offload onto small trucks and cars, get the goods over and then load up on trucks again on the other side. The Angolans, supplying most of the goods, wanted to fix it but the Congolese, trying to protect their dire, expensive and corrupt local industries were happy enough to leave it be to increase the costs of getting stuff to their side.
After a while watching, and trying to take pictures without getting seen (“No fuckin’ click-click – these cops’ fuckin crazy!”), we headed back out with a rough idea of what was going on. On the muddy, slippery road you have to drive slowly, but not everyone does. We saw a small truck lose control and careen down a small embankment, spilling all the fresh produce and breaking most of the beer it was transporting. The owner of the stock, a young lady, was sobbing. As much as the fright she got, that was her income gone for a few weeks, maybe more. Life on the margins is tough. It’s shit. Mo accelerated past the gathering crowd, all of whom were offering opinions as to whose fault the accident was.
doesn’t really give a sense of how slippery and potholed the road is – and unstable
on the sides, with bits caving in if large trucks get too close to the edges).
We got to the second town of Kongo Central Province, Mbanza Ngungu, and got stuck in the ubiquitous funeral procession, apparently for a well-known local musician. Mo wasn’t in the mood for dishing out cash, and kept his window closed. Apparently his wife was waiting for him. We got back to Kin without any further delays, and I’ve never been so happy to see a proper bed, hot running water, a restaurant and, most of all, familiarity.
A last day in Kin and I had an excellent meeting with a young guy from the investment promotion agency. Chatting through what I needed in terms of project information and our trip to Lufu, he smiled and said, “but we collect that trade data – even the informal trade, so we can know if our traders are being honest with volumes and prices”, and proceeded to e-mail the spreadsheets on the spot. What a win!
With a spring in my step, I went into my final meeting, with the national power company, looking for an outline of current and upcoming projects. The cantankerous bastard wouldn’t have been out of place in a recreation of Heart of Darkness and openly asked for money. Two faces of the Congo in one day, one old, one new; one condemning 80 million to poverty, the other swimming upstream to create a better life. All with the memory of the broken woman fresh in my mind.
It’s the Congo. It’s tough. It hurts you in ways you don’t expect; it thrills you in ways you can’t explain. It hardens you and teaches you humility and kindness all in one. It leaves you exhausted and angry; it creates a kaleidoscope of memories, vivid, jarring and spectacular. It never disappoints.
As told by serial luncher Deebee7.
Super Saturday, only 7 months late!
Ireland, England and France all still have a chance of winning the Six Nations.
In the unlikely event that Ireland beat France with a bonus point, they will win regardless of the other results. If they beat France, but without a bonus point, they still win if England fail to get a bonus point against Italy. If England win with a bonus point – as you’d expect them to – then it will come down to points difference, with Ireland currently being 23 points ahead.
If Ireland lose or draw, and England win, then England get the title, unless France win and have a better result than England’s victory in terms of championship points or, if on the same points, the points difference in scores. If they end up with the same points and points difference, then it comes down to tries scored, where France are currently ahead by 13-9.
Clear? Let’s play!
Onna telly this week
Friday 30th October
| Lions v Griquas | 16:55 | Sky Sports Mix |
Saturday 31st October
| Australia v New Zealand | 08:45 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Wales v Scotland | 14:15 | BBC1 / S4C |
| Pumas v Sharks | 14:25 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Italy v England | 16:45 | ITV / STV |
| Bulls v Stormers | 16:55 | Sky Sports Arena |
| France v Ireland | 20:05 | BBC1 / BBC2 |
Sunday 1st November
| Dragons v Munster | 14:00 | S4C / TG4 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Connacht v Treviso | 16:30 | TG4 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Italy v England (women) | 17:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Scarlets v Edinburgh | 18:45 | Premier Sports 1 |
Monday 2nd November
| Cardiff v Ulster | 18:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Zebre v Ospreys | 19:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Glasgow v Leinster | 20:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
A tip o’ the hat to our English larrikins. And to France for bringing some really good and entertaining rugby into this elongated tournament. Languid at 9 and Dreamboat at 10 are lovely to watch.
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Craig, both England and Ireland need new half backs, but they’d
be of little use if the game plan remains kick kick kick.
England have a great pack, a wonderful third row ( bar an overrated Billy V.), fast and elusive runners in the back 3, and yet they’re hampered by the impossible-not-to-select Farrell, just because he’s a great kicker. He may have vision, who knows? but he never gets the best out of your backs because he’s a faithful servant of Eddie’s whims. How many times did he kick the ball away today, when a certain try awaited had he simply passed the ball to his centres or wings?
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flair, didn’t watch the England game but I think Ford would’ve played at outside half today but pulled out in the week, no? The only other option at outside half was an uncapped kiddie.
Youngs is sometimes an ok international scrum half, very occasionally very good but generally not all that. Doesn’t matter too much – England have won just under 80% of the 6 Nations games he’s played in – but with a Smith or a (at his best) Murray England would’ve been amazingly good. Imagine if they’d had the Second, Third and Fourth Coming who’s known as St. Antoine Dupont!
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Flair – I’m hoping England were aiming for ‘just enough’ today. They were missing a few players as well.
Faz may not be really flashy but he’s usually great at game management and rarely has an off day. Would have loved him to be at 12 and for Joe Simmons to have played. I think Eddie resists hyped players but there we go.
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Simple game to beat England – match them up front. France (impressively), SA (even more impressively) and Wales (twice) have all done it in the last 18 months. Scotland didn’t really but still got a draw out of them.
Good kicking game and you beat them by 10 points.
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TomP,
Even Dupont, the best thing after sliced baguette, with England would have to pass to Farrell who then would have to kick.
May had to kick, Furlang had to kick, Watson had to kick, Youngs had to kick. Do they fear to get dropped if they scored a try instead of kicking?
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Tomp – simple way to win 90% of rugby games that.
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It doesn’t really matter against Italy. You’re still going to score loads of tries at some point and they’re not going to score as many from a long way out. England managed 5 today, which is the same as France did against Italy.
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Craigs, yep. Not brain science, is it?
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Anyway, my ‘Pro Memorial Post is:
Italy are useless. Get the Boks in asap.
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I guess Eddie Jones is just playing a percentage game to win, whichever way possible, most of the time. I still don’t see the Farrell that Craigs sees, he looks like a play it by the numbers 10, who doesn’t have the ability to change tactics unless he is told what to do. He also pisses refs off. Like Flair said, Furbank, May and Watson all kicking repeatedly, think Ollie Thorley did once too, and that is purely a waste of talent. Been going on for a couple of years now, the Faz kick instead of pass when there is a huge overlap. Lordy, its at best 50-50 to regain it. Ball thru the hands, well done and you will score, or keep possession.
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You rarely see Exeter kick like that……………….forwards or backs – they keep the ball in hand until the opposition splits or collapses
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Not sure, but I think this just might be in America. Sbt – please confirm.
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Can’t say for sure, Craigs, but I think it would be a fair guess.
Damn Faz, I still have donut under my full stop key.
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Think it is American. A guy does it to raise money for a charity in California (see below video). Think the Chop Suey one from 2019 was better..
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Aha, west coast, that makes sense, they are all a bit odd over there.
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A couple of days ago there was an announcement that Adam Sandler is going to star in an adaptation of Jaromir Kaifar’s ok novel Spaceman of Bohemia. Got me thinking about how wedding singers/DJs etc were coping with the Coivd effects.
Imagine my delight when the BBC ran this story this morning:
Ah, this’ll be interesting I thought to myself.
Fuck’s sake.
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Grief in the northwest over the death of Bobby Ball is palpable. Granada Reports devoted the first 7 minutes of their bulletin to his memory
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Not much puff or magic in these dragons, I’m afraid. 26 minutes in and they’re 3-18 down and have missed as many tackles as Munster have had to make.
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Well they’ve got an attacking scrum a few metres out, but their scrum has been battered so far. Some of the scrappiest phases this weekend and the Dragons are claiming a try from a crossfield kick. And they have it!
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I’d have to agree but 10 is a problem….below Sexton we’ve Carty Billy Burns, Ross Byrne and Frawley at Leinster. Any of them would be fine vs Italy but you’d wonder how they’d get on with better opposition…. then again maybe we should see?
Then we’ve a load of promising 10s from the recent U20s (Healy, Byrne and Crowley) plus options like Lowry in Ulster…. maybe we just have to throw them in somewhere.
And then there’s Carbery – if he’s ever fit again….
Scrum half – Craig Casey is the guy to keep an eye on… but maybe another 12 months…. needs to be Munster’s starting 9. I like Blade over at Connacht… but he seems to be forgotten.
We really need to use the Nations League (?) to see what some of these lads can do.
We also need a 2nd 5/8 – Aki/Henshaw is a bit too samey and bringing in Farrell was more of the same…. pity about Ringrose …if not a classic 2nd five he does offer some playmaking options.
We need a nasty tighthead lock – Ryan/Beirne/Dillane are all a bit alike.
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Brock Harris looking like he was hauled out of an Oldham chippy for this match. Drags defend manually to keep the evil red horde out. Celebrate like they’ve won when the halftime whistle goes.
*Manfully, but manually isn’t far off the mark either.
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As to last night…. well, I suppose starting the match knowing a win by 6 with a single try would take the ch’ship was bizarre given the let off vs Scotland and the mauling from England…so that was good….
Probably should have been ahead at half time…. for the first try there was a sense that when Fickou had to stop and control with his foot the defense relaxed… got to ask what the tighthead was doing out there…. and no back around. 2nd try- well its the kind of thing we drill with U14s…..drop on it…. Stockdale doesn’t look comfortable at 15 …. took his try well.
Going to the corner before half time …. really just needed to take 3…peg France back to a single point. France’s 3rd and 4th tries were excellent as was Henshaw’s … but the fact it was a solo effort spoke volumes about our team play. Biggest disappointment was blowing 2 (or was it 3) attacking lineouts….I’m not knowledgeable enough to know if it was the calling or the throwing or the lifting that went wrong.
Flair said we’d regressed….I’d offer that we’ve not progressed as fast as England, France and – probably- Scotland. What worked well in 2018 (tactics and personnel) isn’t enough today.
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Is Larmour injured, trisk?
Connors is ok but I’d still fancy van der Flier ahead of him. You’ve got Leavy coming back soon, hope he’d be all right.
One final thing, I know they’re pro players and all that but it must be very strange travelling to play in, say, Paris in the present circumstances.
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Yes, Larmour dislocated his shoulder about 3 weeks ago so he is going to be out till Feb
Back row is an area where Ireland are fairly well stocked. As well as VDF and Leavy at Leinster there’s also Penny and Conan.
Full back is odd – looking around the provinces…Haley hasn’t really driven on, Addison is also a long term injury, Tiernan O’Halloran seems to be permanently out of favour and Zebo is out of the country. Shane Daly from Munster was added to the training squad. We might see Conway at FB and Lowe on the wing.
Our issues (if it can be said to be an issue) are probably too many players of a good / very good but not great (yet) level… its hard to distinguish at times…. Leinster fielded 50+ players last season…. only lost to Saracens….they could nearly field 2 teams of a similar standard in the Pro14 ….
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What about Cooney from Ulster? The best Irish 9 I’ve seen lately. Is he injured?
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Actually I did not say Ireland had regressed. Wales, yes but Ireland? I’d say they stagnated while others progressed, most notably Scotland and France.
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Cooney is fine, but was overlooked for the Ireland squad.
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Faced with the choice of rewatching the turgid Wales / Scotland match decided to watch the Red Roses v Italy which is enjoyable especially the English back three that have oodles of space and a 10 / centre partnership willing to pas the ball. Hope Eddie is watching!
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good words, Mr Codfish!
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@Flair ….. skim reading on my phone….I must have misread your comment…my bad!
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Yeah – Cooney is out of favour just now. From what I saw when Pro 14 resumed he didn’t play that well vs Leinster or Munster….. haven’t seen Ulster since though….
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Thanks, trisk. Not really keeping up with the injuries/players out list. Indeed, I didn’t even look at the team-sheets before yesterday’s games.
Craigs said Ireland (and Wales) had regressed,.
Ireland’re an ok side but seem to a little less efficient than they were in the halcyon days of 2018.
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Cooney’s good but was a little over-hyped. Still better than either of the Leinster half-backs that get picked for Ireland.
Murray wasn’t that bad yesterday from memory.
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Here’s some analysis of that final attack of the first half. Naturally, there’s hands on the ground not supporting the body involved:
https://www.the42.ie/ireland-championship-minutes-france-5251400-Nov2020/
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@TomP
Yeah – maybe unlucky not to get a pen… but we had a pen and didn’t take it (and I recall in 2018 GS that we scored significant tries on the stroke of half time in games vs Wales, Scotland, and England).
Watched 2nd half of Scarlets vs Edinburgh. Red 4 sent off after 60 by making contact head-to-head when tackling Edinburgh winger. Not deliberate but never got low enough – first contact was to head….
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Funny / strange incident in Drags / Munster game….
Drags don’t engage Munster “maul” – Munster keep ball in catcher’s hands….. 2 packs just look at each other….
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This Day in History, courtesy of World Rugby:
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I can’t believe it’s been a year already and even sadder that this group of guys hasn’t been able to play another Test since that Glorious day.
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So it turns out Prince William caught covid in April but didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to worry us.
What a man.
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This cheered me up:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/02/all-cetaceans-go-whale-sculpture-stops-dutch-train-crashing-into-water
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Whale sculptures to be mandatory outside all train stations from now on.
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How cool is that, sculpture called “Saved by the Whales Tail ” .
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Sounds like a whale of a tale to me.
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My club won “Youth Section of the Year”…..
https://www.munsterrugby.ie/2020/11/02/munster-rugby-awards-2020/
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@trisk
You should frame that and hang it on the wall
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Tony Collins tweeted this link to a Forbes piece on the potential for investment in RL
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Thanks for that Trisk. I was really irritated by this:
The author obviously doesn’t realise that RU supporters and players can be just as salt of the earth as RL. Why didn’t Welsh clubs break off with the Northern Union? Because the problem wasn’t the sport itself but the bloody RFU.
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Ummm…yes. Me too.
It didn’t really come over as an “elevator pitch” to CVC (or equivalent) as much as a bit of self-justification – “we’re just as good (aren’t we?) where’s our money?” (not that RU isn’t prone to this vis á vis soccer)
I also thought comparing ball in play time between RU and RL was a bit pointless if your target market is the USA – American football is hardly big on “ball in play” time and it’s worth billions (prob trillions)
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