I was vaguely interested in rugby as a child; we used to play it in the playground, although we didn’t have a rugby ball (any kind of ball would do), none of us knew the rules, and it resembled a particularly vicious bout of British Bulldogs more than the game we know and love today.
Then, in my twenties, I found myself in Detroit working with a load of Brits and French, and there was a local Irish pub, Dick O’Dow’s, that put on all the Five Nations matches. Of course they started at an unreasonable time in the morning, and of course this did not deter us from assembling to watch them, and downing the Guinness in camaradic rivalry.
It starts like that: you think you’re just getting together with some colleagues for a little fun, then you start watching other Test matches, maybe a few European Cup matches, and before you know it, you’re obsessively watching obscure dead rubbers in the Pro-infinity and desperately starting a rugby blog because the one you’ve become addicted to has suddenly disappeared.
As a footnote, during the last World Cup but one, we went to a pub in Cardiff after one of the matches (possibly that horrible one where Ireland were knocked out by Argentina), and there was a bloke there who we overheard mentioning Detroit.
“Oh,” I said, “I used to live in Detroit. I went to watch all the matches at Dick O’Dow’s.”
Turned out the bloke was the one who’d brought the television rights to Detroit, so responsible for my addiction. Small world.
Right, on to the matches!
Italy v France
Teams
Italy: Jacopo Trulla, Luca Sperandio, Marco Zanon, Juan Ignacio Brex, Montanna Ioane, Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney, Cherif Traorè, Luca Bigi (c), Marco Riccioni, Marco Lazzaroni, David Sisi, Sebastian Negri, Johan Meyer, Michele Lamaro
Replacements: Gianmarco Lucchesi, Danilo Fischetti, Giosué Zilocchi, Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Maxime Mbandà, Guglielmo Palazzani, Carlo Canna
France: Brice Dulin, Teddy Thomas, Arthur Vincent, Gaël Fickou, Gabin Villière, Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Dupont, Cyril Baille, Julien Marchand, Mohamed Haouas, Bernard Le Roux, Paul Willemse, Dylan Cretin, Charles Ollivon (c), Grégory Alldritt
Replacements: Pierre Bourgarit, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Dorian Aldegheri, Romain Taofifenua, Anthony Jelonch, Baptiste Serin, Louis Carbonel, Damian Penaud
Blog ‘wisdom’
Anything but finishing first will be considered a failure in France. I doubt there’ll be a Grand Slam, given that France will travel to both England and Ireland, albeit in empty stadia. (Flair99)
France by 13 over Italy – the Italians will have their customary strong start to the 6N before injury and lack of depth give those following bonus point chances. (Deebee7)
That’s about all anyone had to say about this match.
England v Scotland
Teams
England: 15. Elliot Daly, 14. Anthony Watson, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Ollie Lawrence, 11. Jonny May, 10. Owen Farrell (C), 9. Ben Youngs, 1. Ellis Genge, 2. Jamie George, 3. Will Stuart, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Mark Wilson, 7. Tom Curry, 8. Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17. Beno Obano, 18. Harry Williams, 19. Courtney Lawes, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Dan Robson, 22. George Ford, 23. Max Malins.
Scotland: 15. Stuart Hogg (C), 14. Sean Maitland, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Cameron Redpath, 11. Duhan van der Merwe, 10. Finn Russell, 9. Ali Price, 1. Rory Sutherland, 2. George Turner, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Scott Cummings, 5. Jonny Gray, 6. Jamie Ritchie, 7. Hamish Watson, 8. Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: 16. David Cherry, 17. Oli Kebble, 18. WP Nel, 19. Richie Gray, 20. Gary Graham, 21. Scott Steele, 22. Jaco van der Walt, 23. Huw Jones.
BLOG ‘WISDOM’
There was a bit more interest in this match.
Full-strength Scotland at Twikkers confident of catching England cold, anticipating many England players off the pace.
As it turns out, Scotland, as usual, force the game and surrender numerous knock-ons in promising attacking positions.
Ford, Farrell, Slade, Daly kick, kick and kick. May secures two kick-chase TDs (Hogg missing his tackles) and Farrell doesn’t miss a kick – conversion or penalty. Slade intercepts a long, telegraphed Russell flat pass for England’s 3rd try. LC-D barrels over late in the game for the fourth.
Final score 40 – 10 as Ritchie gets the consolation and Genge gives up 3 points and a yellow card for lamping Watson.Dream on……………………………………………………. (SladeIs42)
My dark horse, as often, are Scotland, specially as they start with England. With a bit of wind in their sails, they could go pretty far. But then, that’s what we say every year. (Flair, ibid)
Dayboo for young Redpath, and probably Cherry off the bench
Hope Turner can keep the heid & his darts are a worry. Not convinced yet by Fagerson junior at 8 but hope he steps up a bit. Bigger Gray back is good, he’s been looking back in form.
England by 20. (Chimpie)
” Daly = Hogg in many ways.”
Good lord, Slade. What pills have you been taking ?
Was going to announce Ford to bench before the team came out, Eddie just couldn’t play Ford ahead of Faz after Squidge report. Could this be the day a total Owen meltdown costs England the game? Dunno about chipping in behind Farrell, I think running thru him is a better option, with a nifty little offload down low.
So, the scene is set for George to come on with 20 mins to go, and England 20 points behind, will he secure the comeback win ? Has Owen been practicing spiral bombs ??? Nope, cos Eddie rarely brings on subs until its too late for them to change the game.
Scotland by 10. (SunbeamTim)
England by 12 over Scotland – Scots passion, fury and flingaboutery will keep them close until the 65 minute mark when George Ford comes on to change gears and get the spluttering engine purring. (Deebee7, ibid)
Wales v Ireland
Teams
Wales: 15. Leigh Halfpenny, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. George North, 12. Johnny Williams, 11. Hallam Amos, 10. Dan Biggar, 9. Tomos Williams, 1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ken Owens, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Adam Beard, 5. Alun Wyn Jones (capt), 6. Dan Lydiate, 7. Justin Tipuric, 8. Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: 16. Elliot Dee, 17. Rhodri Jones, 18. Leon Brown, 19. Will Rowlands, 20. Josh Navidi, 21. Gareth Davies, 22. Callum Sheedy, 23. Nick Tompkins.
Ireland: 15. Hugo Keenan, 14. Keith Earls, 13. Garry Ringrose, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. James Lowe, 10. Jonathan Sexton (capt), 9. Conor Murray, 1. Cian Healy, 2. Rob Herring, 3. Andrew Porter, 4. Tadhg Beirne, 5. James Ryan, 6. Peter O’Mahony, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. CJ Stander.
Replacements: 16. Ronan Kelleher, 17. Dave Kilcoyne, 18. Tadhg Furlong, 19. Iain Henderson, 20. Will Connors, 21. Jamison Gibson Park, 22. Billy Burns, 23. Jordan Larmour.
BLOG ‘WISDOM’
The Irish have been shy on this one. Not surprised, because I honestly don’t have any idea either.
Wales by 2 over Ireland – early season burglary by Wales over a fancied Irish side. (Deebee7, ibid) (boo, hiss)
I had the grizzles with Pivac’s Autumn teams, but this feels a tick better. Amos back (as NostradamIks predicted) is alright, not too bothered one way or the other. I much prefer Beard to Seb Davies, especially for his Aardman features.
I’m glad those run-outs for Botham and the Other-backrower-who’s-name-I-can’t-remember-but-it-was-hyphenated, are over for now. Don’t know much about the next big thing at centre called Williams since the last big thing at centre called Owen Williams, who turned out to be overrated and over-hyped – except by me of course. I hope to see what the fuss is about on Sunday.
Lydiate coming back is an odd one. I should be horrified, but I’m not, for some reason. I’m more curious to see how it goes than anything.
Positives are mainly a good pair of 9s, the usual suspects in Faletau and Tips, and two Drags to liven things up off the bench.
What I’m expecting is a stodgy attacking display, an improved set-piece, a mix of iffy and whiffy defending, and a right-good rogering at the breakdown.
Ireland’s to lose. (MisterIks)
I think we’d take them in a packed-out stadium. In a empty echoing cavern it’s theirs all day long. (TomPirracas)
My flabber is gasted by the absence of Wainwright. I simply overlooked it. Says to me that Pivac’s pendulum has swung from adventure to stolid, and Lydiate is there to stop the opposition, rather than start a bit of Welsh rugby.
Pivac out! (Iks again)
Some more general thoughts on the tournament:
Both England and Ireland seem rather stale at the moment, with little threat in attack but they can defend. It will be tight.
Wales look mediocre, Italy pffft…
England will probably bully every team but France, so should finish 1st or 2nd.
Wooden spoon beckons for Italy while Ireland and Wales should fight within the soft belly of the tournament. (Flair99, ibid)
Wales’ matches will in all probability be tedious affairs with depressing results. Or depressing affairs with tedious results. With it being the last hurrah for the Six Nations on proper telly and the unlikely occurrence of Test cricket on Channel 4 I expect to spend February watching an inordinate amount of sport from which I will glean no satisfaction whatsoever.
They’ll probably score the odd nice try either before hopelessly capitulating or more likely after the game is done as a contest. (ClydeMillarWynant)
Don’t think we’ve got a hope in hell, really. Haven’t played a Test since lifting the Webb Ellis trophy, half of our players are being denuded of their skills and enthusiasm by playing in England, we’ve got a long injury list and our domestic competitions have been pretty poor fare. (Deebee7, who frankly seems to be confused about which tournament we’re on about.)
Let the games begin! We all have the HOPEFEAR.
Onna telly this week
Friday 5th February
| Dragons v Connact | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Bristol v Sale | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 6th February
| Wasps v Northampton | 13:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Italy v France | 14:15 | ITV |
| Bath v Harlequins | 14:15 | BT Sport Extra |
| Leicester v Worcester | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| London Irish v Gloucester | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| England v Scotland | 16:45 | ITV |
Sunday 7th February
| Newcastle v Exeter | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Wales v Ireland | 15:00 | BBC1 / S4C |
Ovally Balls 
This is what the grandkids get up to when I’m covid bound and not free to travel over and look after them….
My son tweeted the videos this morning (they were taken on Sunday) and Radio Derby asked if they could use them…
Theon, the youngest, is going to be a Number 8, no question, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to tempt the other two away from football – they’re both attached to the junior feeder system for Derby County Academy and they’re besotted with the game.
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DCI – who need football when you have snowboarding?
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@Craigs — well quite….
You can see their character even in those short clips. Theon just barrels down the hill, Josh tries to look nonchalant and Xander just does the most complicated thing he can think of and doesn’t care if he falls over.
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I do miss seeing them… I’ve just ordered a Nintendo Switch and the main reason was because they want to beat me at Super Mariokart Something online.
Which they will.
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Fantastic, can’t beat a bit of messing around in the snow
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We had 4 fully function sledges a month ago, all now in various stages of brokennes.
Eldest chimplet decided to build a new one out of various bits of wood we’ve got lying around & some spare guttering.
I did a bit of cutting wood to size & he did the design & build. It’s not exactly a design classic & weighs about a tonne but it works pretty well. You certainly don’t want to crash and have it land on top of you.
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My lot and their friends have been sledging down the hill, and then also taking their learning from Horrible Histories to protect themselves like Roman Soldiers during a snowball fight.
Then one pulled down the front of the sledge and fired a snowball point-blank into the face. Good times.
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DCI – this is the most accurate depiction of that game I’ve seen online.
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Also found an old bit of Damp Proof Membrane sheet. Makes for excellent improvised sledge
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I’ve been sledging down a mound (Karl) into a fence in Kent. It’s been amazing.
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I grew up next to the hill at the top of this photo. Best sledging in the world.
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Did the fence swap keys with you?
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@craigs
The prospect fills me with joy….
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Brookter – actually, it’s a huge amount of fun.
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My favourite sledging as a kid was the Roman amphitheatre in Cirencester, and down Greenbooth reservoir dam in Morden, just outside Rochdale.
The dam was just a solid earth bank dam. I wasn’t trying to recreate Goldeneye.
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I won’t be very good at it. I prefer puzzle games which give you a bit more time to react… Portal1, 2, Talos Principle, The Witness, that sort of thing.
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Somehow it’s not a surprise that you were good at sledging, Slider 😀
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@slider
Norden, dear boy. The posh folk from north Rochdale would probably write a strongly worded letter to the MP if you spelled it with an ‘M’.
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Brookter – the best thing about the game is that it helps the slower players by giving them all the power ups so it is never a walk over.
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Craigs, I shall make full use of any anti-humiliation features if provides….
As for the other games, I’m going for Breath of the Wild. I enjoyed the others in the series and it’s reviewed as one of the best games out there.
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Fifty nine is awfully young.
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OT – bloody autocorrect!
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@slider
Exactly. Your phone probably thinks you’re still using the Northern Line…..
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Fortunately, in all my years of living and working in London, I only had to use the Northern Line about a couple of dozen times.
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“…you’ll have some lovely beach action come the summer.”
Sounds almost like a threat, coming from a potentially lazy-lobbed llama.
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I haven’t had any lovely beach action since 1999, and that was in another country anyway.
Besides, it’s too bloody cold for that up here, even in summer.
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Lovely readback. I think it was Flair(?) who pointed out that Expro showed no awareness for the difference between a site like AOD where people had invested a lot of time, effort (and cash in Sag’s case) to provide a place where we could gather after the Graun’s nesting debacle, and any other anonymous online group he liked to post on.
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ticht, yes, Labour in Scotland do seem in rather a bad way. Poor old Leonard getting sent to the glue factory last month probably didn’t help. Seems it’s as factional as it is across the UK and one of those factions are useless malicious bastards who really hate their internal opposition.
More than that, if it comes down to a flag-waving competition, they’re in a bind. The Nats trounce them on one side and the Tories are the lads and lasses if you really really love the Union Jack. And that’s sort of where we’re at at the moment.
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Socks. Ideally, waterproof socks.
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Sledging is like the perfect dad-trap. I remember with my two on one of our first Christmases in Germany, setting off with them (with proper sledges cos deep snow was quite normal where my in-laws live) into the fields and slopes for some ‘fun’.
I had to perform. So off I went like some kind of Rooster Cogburn on a sledge, hurtling ever onward without control down the hill, through the gnarly thicket, and then plunging to earth on the other side with the sledge embedding itself in my coccyx.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so proud and happy.
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Iks, mine was in mid December when we got a minor flurry. Went up to a park that had a gentle slope, so the kids needed a push. Or, since the sledges were those plastic trays with a rope on the front, a pull.
So I’m pulling one, and my MiL is pulling the other, with the intention to get up to a run and then slingshot the sledges past. MiL sets off a bit before me, but instead breaks right instead of left, straight into my path.
Result, I do an early slingshot of the sledge and then rugby tackle my mother-in-law like I was Josh Lewsey and she was Matt Rogers, since it was either that or basically run her over. I have to say that given I’ve never played the game, my technique wasn’t too bad.
I got quite a glare off her though.
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Was it an angry or hungry for more glare, Slider?
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Karl
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A couple of friends of mine (neither of whom are in the photo below) are into this malarkey:
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At least they didn’t try to jump into an icy pond.
Which gives me an excuse to bring out this old blog favourite again…..
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Iks, you wrongun.
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Play for your French lesson:
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Re sledging, on a family trip to Sweden my brother and I were sledging and built a small snow ramp halfway down the run to sledge over. It was all quite fun until my dad found us and wanted a go. He managed to get about 60cm height off the thing and then landed like a sack of potatoes and snapping the plastic sled in half.
My brother and I found it hilarious. He laughed but was obviously in some pain so we did the right thing and mocked him some more.
When he got back he had an x-ray and we found out that he had broken a rib.
It’s still funny.
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*snow update*
still snowing.
*snow update*
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3 Match ban for POM
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Notablog’s deader than I am.
Well done Chimpie.
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Morning…
Some good news: we got home from walking the dog to find a message to ring the GP and it turns out I’m due to get my viro-stabbing on Saturday.
That’s a few weeks earlier than expected (I’m in the over 50s with underlying conditions cohort), so whatever other criticism I want to level at the government over their handling of covid, the vaccine program has been very impressive — immense gratitude to everybody concerned at all stages.
Speaking of medical heroes, has anyone heard from Strictly recently?
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“the vaccine program has been very impressive”
Is that perhaps because they’ve had very little to do with the actual rollout and stabby bits? I thought that was being run by the NHS, not Diddy Harding or another chum.
Anyway, congrats!
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3 matches was pretty much what everyone predicted….
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@BB. As I understand it, the organisation of the purchasing / working with the companies was done on the old Give It To Your Mates principle, but the difference with Dido Harding and the testing is that the Mate in question, Kate Bingham, has worked in the health industry for decades and is very highly thought of there (and is not taking a salary, to boot). The actual rollout is being done by the NHS, unlike with the test and trace, where the Mates pile Serco on top of Dio Harding. Getting Serco involved in anything is what Yes Minister would call a “brave decision”.
I may be wrong on the details, but that’s the impression I got anyway.
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@brookter
I announced similar disbelief on here recently. Basically someone (no idea who) advising the government understands biopharmaceutical manufacturing scale up and told them getting up to speed early was important, so that’s what they did, as well as hedging bets by massively over ordering from different suppliers
Whoever advised the EU didn’t get this so they arsed about trying to get the lowest price, which took longer.
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That must have been quite a shock to Boris – having someone competent in his government. Suspect she won’t get any higher up the chain.
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My dad got his stabbing at the weekend. We all thought my mum would get it first but for some reason he got it.
As I said recently, I’m sanguine about the vaccine roll out so far.
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I don’t think Strictly has posted on anything AOD for many years. Can’t remember exactly but she may have become a mum?
Or perhaps she decided to go off into the rugby wilderness to keep Jonno company?
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Might have been Friday.
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