Everything will be all right tonight. Everything will be all right tonight. Or so I keep telling myself, as Ulster prepare to turn and face the strain of Leinster at the RDS. Let’s hope that Ulster can put Big Brother under pressure. It’s simple, really: all we have to do is win. But hope, boys, is a cheap thing, cheap thing: we are the dead.
While Ulster have lost Stockdale to injury, one South Effrican is back for us.
But one of Them has apparently recovered from yet another head injury.
Give me steel, give me steel, give me pulsars unreal
In other news – newsman wept (with joy) as he told me – a familiar face is returning to Cardiff.
Someone’s back in town the chips are down
I just cut and blackout
I’m under Mulvihill’s influence and my honour’s at stake
Today is David Bowie’s birthday, in case anyone was wondering.
Onna telly this week
Friday 8th January
| Glasgow v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Leinster v Ulster | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Bath v Wasps | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
| Sale v Worcester | 20:00 | BT Sport Extra |
Saturday 9th January
| Zebre v Treviso | 13:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Newcastle v Gloucester | 14:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Griquas v Cheetahs | 14:30 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Exeter v Bristol | 16:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Western Province v Sharks | 17:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Dragons v Ospreys | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Cardiff v Scarlets | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Connacht v Munster | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 10th January
| Harlequins v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 16th January
| Glasgow v Edinburgh | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
SBT, maybe I’m being harsh on him, but to me that doesn’t show contrition, more pissed off that he was shown a red card for nutting an opponent in a clumsy attempt at a clearout that was never on in the first place.
I saw another story on head injuries today, it was Simon Shaw talking about memory loss.
I don’t think the sport is taking the issue seriously enough.
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I genuinely think Hoggy’s impact is at by his reputation than what he does – he’s an odd one.
Jonny Gray came on in the 2nd half and, like some of the others, looked weary (still combative ‘tho!).
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@SBT – no ban at all for LW if he pebble dashes his house and grows a ‘tache?
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I think Jonny just LOOKS weary, but he is a bit of a Duracell bunny – he just keeps going.
I think Hoggy has changed his game a bit. At Glasgow (and especially with Finn) he was part of a back line that would just attack from anywhere (and was encouraged to do so by Toonie) whereas Exeter don’t play that way. He’s more of a supporting full back – although if he sees a gap he’ll go for it.
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BB agreed on both players.
Hoggy’s defence still isn’t all that though – defensive angles don’t seem quite right yet
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re Liambility (well named by Yos), I saw the game and it was a deserved red because heads. He was an accident waiting to happen all game. Call me Captain Hindsight, but perhaps he should have started from the bench. I can only assume that the coaching team had no idea how wound-up he was. And the the parting comments won’t help him.
So unnecessary, I think he had an ongoing blood-feud with Josh Turnbull and tried to headbutt him in the buttocks.
Silly boy.
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1;17 in if anyone interested. Harsh red.
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I have a recommendation to offer. I watched the film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Saturday night. I knew nothing about it, thinking it was a bio pic, it really isn’t.
It looked as if it was made for the stage and lo and behold it is based on the play of the same name by August Wilson.
Ma is a big hit in the South, where black people live almost in a separate country from their white counterparts. When she is in the North it’s a different ball game, She has to negotiate with whites and she takes no prisoners. Viola Davis is brilliant in the title role, as is Chadwick Boseman in his last film, he is the ambitious trumpet player who wants to move on from the jug band sound.
This is a very good film with many themes. If they give Oscars for Netflix films then Davis and Boseman have to be in the running.
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Ahem, I came up with the name Liambility after Liam gave away a last minute penalty try with a no arms tackle on a Bok player during a Welsh tour down there.
Meanwhile in slow uptake news, that picture of Johnny Catface up there looks like his arms have been photoshopped in from a Popeye cartoon.
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I think Gougerie was perhaps my best work though, after this incident:
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Very annoyingly (because of the connection, not PJ) Donald Trump’s hanging about reminds me of this:
Dear Polly……………
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There are now hundreds if not thousands of secondary school pupils working from home. The platform we all use is Glow, which uses Microsoft Office. Microsoft Teams is the preferred means of video working between staff and pupils. Apparently there is a problem with Microsoft Teams and “is being investigated”. If only they’d had some sort of warning that pupils throughout the UK were going to be using that platform today.
Oh, wait……
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55616153
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BB – I don’t know how teachers remain calm and actually like the kids during normal school. Both things are proving difficult on day 1 of week 2.
And they are my bloody kids.
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Who says they like the kids????
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Ahem, I came up with the name Liambility after Liam gave away a last minute penalty try with a no arms tackle on a Bok player during a Welsh tour down there.
It was a beautiful moment. Not in the ROG league, granted, but lovely nonetheless. Preserved our unbeaten home record against Wales without lifting a finger, so to speak.
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If that match had been played today, ROG would not have been on the pitch, as he was clearly suffering from concussion. Don’t think he knew where he was.
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Who says they’re your kids?
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Iks seems to be playing with his tractors again.
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It’s his reward for having done all his work on Google Classroom.
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Who says teachers remain calm?
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The LW penalty try in South Africa was largely George North’s fault for missing the tackle on the winger in the first place. That it mattered was at least partly Steve Walsh’s fault for his grandstanding nonsense near the end of the first half though obviously we normally like to leave moaning about him to the English.
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Who said there was such a place as a normal school?
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@Craigs – Look on the bright side, this week is a day longer than last week!
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Oh the joys of home school. Amplified by a Teams fail across the whole of Scotland as far as i can tell.
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It’s been working here all day, unfortunately.
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Like, grudgingly tolerate, moderately dislike, hate.
It’s all the same at the Skool ov Krage’s.
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Tomp – Jeremy Kyle confirmed it.
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CMW – dry 1st quarter is being severely tested.
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I’m struggling to see the downside to a complete IT failure of the home schooling system. Sounds like a massive result to me as not getting all the work done is a given with the only variable being whether or not you have to feel bad about it.
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Thauma, if that match was being played today there’d be no Coronavirus. I would happily take a draw and loss in the 3rd Test (and hence drawn series) to not have to go through this shit.
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That said the only flashpoint today was over the necessity of using a fronted adverbial or a relative clause so that we could all have lunch.
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Gats took over properly after that tour and has been happy to leave out better past-it Irish players than ROG so it’s a non-issue anyway.
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BTW – evidence that the teachers remain calm and like the kids is from the Teams chats.
They could be shameless liars.
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It’s a professional front. i have one of these for work to sound like I know what I’m talking about.
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We enjoyed the afternoon session. Me and the Eldest learned the principles of writing a newspaper article that will look nothing like any newspaper article ever written while the Middle One drew two derisory pictures of characters from Harry Potter that appeared to have no connection to the list of characteristics she’d made from reading a chapter earlier on.
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It was then decided that the Lego characters upstairs needed to have a disco more than we needed to do ‘geography’.
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Quite right too. Always time for a Lego disco.
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What colour trews do you get in a Lego disco?
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A variety of bold colours are available. You can change them as often as you like as long as you don’t mind changing your legs at the same time.
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“Don’t think he knew where he was.”
Difficult to judge the difference with ROG though…
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I’ve spent nigh on 50+ plus years hiding my light under a bushel CMW, BUT NOT ANYMORE!
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Champions & Challenge Cups suspended!!!
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Iks – I don’t agree at all. Normally very cool-headed. Whether or not he was past it at the time is another issue.
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Up an at em, Iksy. Anything else you mght like to take credit for while you are on a roll and have our attention ?
Stick with it, Craigs.
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Thaum – does that mean Exeter retain the thing? Champions by default. If only sarries had won.
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I did this in 2012. Get ready people!
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Meanwhile over here drinking alcohol outdoors is now verboten!
So my daily routine of solitude (not lurking) at the river, feeding a few ducks (and one junior swan) while sipping a can of beer is risky business, especially as I’m already in police records as a local duck food trafficker.
It’s like being Paul Muni in ‘I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang’, emerging from then disappearing into the (riverbank) shadows, with a hounded look on my face.
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Just joshing about ROG, Thauma. Top player, and one not prone to twatfarts.
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Think I emptied the barrel in one fair swoop, Tim.
Might put that on my list of possible mixed-metaphor gravestone epitaphs.
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