Behold! I bring you tidings of great joy, for this writer hath just finished bloody work for the year, after a massively stressful month. If she had her way, certain developers and project ‘managers’ would be strung up by the bollocks (in festively fetching tinsel, of course) and hung from the top of the big pine tree on the village green.
Now able to turn her attention to much more important matters, she finds that there is another round of the European Cups this weekend.
Since nearly all the home sides lost last weekend, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen this week, but let us hope that trend continues for matches featuring teams whose names end in ‘ster’.
Onna telly this week
Friday 18th December
| Pumas v Cheetahs | 17:00 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Castres v Newcastle | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Scarlets v Toulon | 19:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Wasps v Montpellier | 20:00 | BT Sport ? |
Saturday 19th December
| Leinster v Northampton | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Gloucester v Ulster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Clermont v Munster | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Sale v Edinburgh | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bordeaux v Dragons | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Worcester v Ospreys | 20:00 | S4C |
Sunday 20th December
| Harlequins v Racing 92 | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Connacht v Bristol | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Cardiff 28 Р0 Stade Fran̤ais |
Ovally Balls 
I think that’s tough on Dean.
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jaunes, natch.
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Red shirley? Shoulder direct to head?
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That’s a red, surely?
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And du Preez’s very lucky.
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Poite is losing it after a decent game, squint throw in from Sale ignored, but pings us for everything
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I’ll take that
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Sale’s 2nd half performance was astonishingly bad. Edinburgh were ok but had the game handed to them.
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Edinburgh’s first half performance was astonishingly bad. Sale were ok but had the game handed to them up to the 40 minute minute mark, but it’s decided over 80.
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Not even close, ticht. No way were Edinburgh astonishingly bad in the first half. Poor, yes, but Sale were dumb, dumb, dumb.
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There was a clueless attempt from Faff to run out of defence, but other than that I felt we made our own fortune throughout the game, for good or ill, both sides did.
Saying Edinburgh didn’t win that, Sale lost it is, well, a bit shit really.
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Had Sale fielded a Curry I think we would have struggled to Munster out that last four minutes
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Something Christmassy
https://metro.co.uk/video/this-dutch-christmas-advert-just-2020s-best-2313810/?ito=vjs-link
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du Preez’s head shot on Watson to give away the winning penalty when they probably would have got the ball back is the other big one. But lots of other stuff was off from them as well. They’re play outside was across the park the whole time. They had Sam Hill and RJvR in midfield. Just blast throught them . They should possibly have been further ahead at half time and, although there seemed to be a strong wind, that 12 points came under mighty pressure all too easily and then they gifted Edinburgh those last 2 penalties.
Of course, Edinburgh won it but they weren’t so good. The defence got tighter and they ran it a bit straighter. Groom was passable and an improvement on Shiel.
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Their play, sigh.
Anyway, big game tomorrow is Connacht v Bristol. Winner of that has a slim shot. Loser is definitely out.
All bets may be off come January anyway.
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Yeah and Edinburgh coughed up an easy try when Bennett stepped up out of the line, the one before was a result of Edinburgh being asleep at the wheel, but it did come after the ball had been out of play for a long time before the “quick” throw in was taken and the try was scored from a definite forward pass which was glossed over by a TMO who spent the rest of the game trying to make up for it.
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I’d missed the fact that Juan Schoeman had signed with Bath over the summer, his and Pierre’s mum just posted on the Embra FB page :-)
Duhan and his brother were good value at the end of today’s game, maybe we’ll get Bath at some point in the future
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Damn, missed second half zooming my mum. Was trying to avoid making comments about how good Edinburgh could be, but how shit they actually were. Also, the only guy I like in the Sale team is Marland, and he is a dick half the time.
Anyway, trying to drag Beadle out, this ones for Danny. He left them in the lurch, but I suspect it may have been a positive exit, and he may have left with a few words of encouragement to Lloyd. Looks that way. Jonny needs to take Zammo and Kyle in hand, and Ruan needs to be bench back up for Big Fat Ben. Lewis is Mark Wilson 5 years or so back.
Champions.
Anyway, for Danny:-
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Christmas is coming. It isn’t cancelled. And Santa better get me what I asked for:
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Jeez, stunning first few minutes from Racing, then half an hour of rubbish from both sides. Best bit of entertainment is Mike Brown and Chris Ashton having a bit of a disagreement over whether Brownie should have passed to him.
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Do you have a link, SBT?
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Sorry Tomp, wasn’t on vip, am sitting in on someones BT account.
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Game over at the Stoop.
Ashton thick as usual cancels a wonderful consolation try the Quins finally got.
Final score: R92 win 49/7.
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Ouch. That’s a solid beating.
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SBT, No worries. vip had the wrong time for the game and it wasn’t available. The scoreline looks very one-sided. Will catch the highlights somewhere.
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Bristol Connacht a bit crap so far. 15 minutes of knock ons, stupid penalties, lost line outs and bad kicks.
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5-3 to Bristol at half time. One nice break by Marmion, and a couple of nice Bristol rolling mauls. Not much of an improvement on the first 15 minutes.
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This is good:
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Connacht v Bristol is livening up.
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Embra won. That’s nice
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Failed in today’s task of turning a semi erect melbury into a fully erect one. Disappointing.
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Tell me about it…
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Craigs, that is excellent from Corbs.
I’m going to spread that around
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Ticht – it’s nice because, for once, someone is actually explaining what is happening rather than treating it as a black box where ‘dark arts’ happen or implying that it’s all just cheating.
Watching the game initially I did notice the Leinster 8 holding on in that way which struck me as odd.
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That “catapult” or “slingshot” bind from the 8s has been around for a couple of years, Craigs.
What I like about the Sarries scrum in those tweets is the height and symmetry of the backs of the players – they are all straight, low and absolutely parallel to the playing surface, perfect set up.
Who is their scrum coach?
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and yeah, I agree, I get so bored with the “dark arts” rubbish, it’s a cop out from the pundits who are actually payed to talk about the game.
Flats is good most of the time, I like Brian Moore too. Hartley should be good as he is only just retired, but I haven’t really heard him on co-coms, just punditry before, at half time and after matches.
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payed?
wow
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I hear Finn ruled the roost today, according to several online sites anyway.
I forgot to record it, so I’ll have to see if I can get a full replay on youtube
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ticht, Ian Peel was (is?) the forwards coach. He was a prop in his day.
And …
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Ticht – agreed. It looks far more simple and they are pushing right from the start of the engagement which you can see when they get about 15cm of movement straight away. Immediate they are in a better position.
Props to Leinster for changing their process too.
I’m trying to remember if we did anything fancy when I played (at school) but I think it was largely building up the scrum in stages for safety reasons….
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Anyone else waiting to see if Chimpie gets his melbury erect today?
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Chimpie – quick chimpie, get out, there’s someone staring in through your window.
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Dab – I hope you and family are well if you are lurking.
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From what I saw of Clermont vs Munster – looked like Munster were following suit. Beirne and Holland on knees, and Stander abandoned his habitual “slingshot”.
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psI thought Beirne was great vs. Clermont…………
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I don’t have BT, so watched a Youtube feed of Munster/Clermont this morning (game also clashed with end of season Gaelic football ch’ship final – so didn’t have the opportunity to search the interwebs for a dodgy feed)
I think the impressive stuff was the decision making – take 3, cut the lead, make them jumpy. Instead of the default of go to the corner, followed by 101 pick-and-gos. Also kudos to Hanrahan for kicking the said 3s…. he’s not always been that reliable with pressure on. Personal highlight – Coombes at blindside shouting out to his loosehead for all to hear …”You have him, Josh!”
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Watched the Quins vs Racing game above. Finn was fairly quiet in the first half, some of the kicks not coming off. Far better in the second half, although he came off with about 10 minutes to go. Quins weren’t great though.
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Melbury is slightly more erect today. Mrs chimpie helped for a bit, and some her mates wandered by and offered. But still a way to go till full erection achieved
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Been harder work than I thought it would be. Must be getting old
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‘bin trying to hang heavy-ish radiator to plaster-board wall today………………..effing heck!
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