What a first round that was: grit, determination, superb skills and complete brainfarts. Think the competition is wide open, and unsure where to make your Superbru picks? Don’t worry, our OvallyBalls experts on crack are here to progrocknIksate what will happen this weekend.
Deebee7 was quick off the mark with his predictions:
England, chastised and sobered by the realisation that they couldn’t simply kick ‘n bosh their way past feisty Scotland pick the biggest side in rugby history so they can KICK ‘N BOSH their way over, through and not around Italy, who, having realised that their first-up tackling was well below par and know what’s coming their way, pick 15 Saffas to BOSH BACK against England. Problem is, they’re playing for Italy because they can’t make it into better sides. England by 47 despite themselves.
Scotland, fresh from the Trashing of Twickers™ are primed, ready, purring and full of confidence for the visit of an abject Welsh side that had to rely on red mist and a brain fart to see off Ireland. The mercenary English Army and Tartan Boks who were apparently the only reason Edward’s Army tripped at Twickers have a solid tight five, fury in the loose forwards, flying outside backs and the Best 10 in the World™ ready to unleash hell on the journeymen from the Valleys. Thing is, it’s not their Game of the Season™ and with all their raison d’etre exhausted last week, Wales will give them the fright of their lives! But not enough to actually win it. Scotland by a couple in a low-scoring affair.
Ireland, stunned by stupidity and seething with intent, await the thoroughbreds of France, fresh from their opening training run against Italy. Expect a titanic struggle up front with neither pack giving an inch (easy on the Karl button, Iks). Ireland should be without Sexton which gives France a HUGE advantage behind the pie-munchers, and with the greyhounds and whippets willing to give it a lash, it could be a long afternoon at the Palindrome. But if the Irish are one thing, it’s bloody minded, determined and fucking difficult to boss around on their home patch (thank dog no World Cups hosted there yet). Too close to call!
Chimpie is more or less in agreement:
Scotland > Wales by 4
This goes against my deep-seated pessimism but got to back form at some point. General cohesion will keep Wales pinned back but usual inability to get points on the board will keep the boyos in it. Wales have some quality players in there and they’ll get over the line a couple of times.
England > Italy by 30
Hope Italy put up more of fight than last week. They’ve got a few bright sparks – like the look of Garbisi – but this is a very young and inexperienced team, too early for them to start pulling out results. England will grind and kick Italy down and run up a respectable score with the Best Fly-Half in the World playing. Eddie will then drop Ford for the next game.
Ireland > France by 2
Yes, I’m going out on a limb here for Ireland without human missile POM to put a shock one over on France. Would it be that much of a shock though? France ran up 35 points against Ireland last time out but there was only an 8 point difference at full time. Ireland at home hurting after last week’s effort vs. Wales, I’m going with a home victory here.
ClydeMillarWynant is ever the misfit:
Wales > Scotland by 1
Entire game takes place in Wales half giving Scotland an impressive 6-0 lead only for LRZ to go the length of the field at the death. Biggar converts from the touchline and bounces around on his space-hoppers to general disgust.
France > Ireland by 6
Ireland are just the sort of miserable bastards to spoil everything by grinding down France and stopping the beautiful game at source. But there’s been positive beaver news today.
England > Italy by 40
Italy are crap.
BorderBoy couldn’t resist bringing Prog into it:
Nazareth > Budgie (by 10)
Genesis > PFM (by 25)
U2 < Lazuli (by 12)
SladeIs#42 is sucking up to the mister:
Wales> Scotland by 4 – winners have enough ‘dog’ to resist Scots missing last week’s adrenalin rush
Ireland > France by 3 – game of the week-end – Ireland a team full of grit and experience
England > Italy by 25 – in reality, score could be anything dependant on tactics adopted: an inaccurate kicking game could make it closer, as could a good performance by Italy up to the 60 minute mark causing confusion in England’s headless ranks. If Italy collapse England could get 70. Whatever, it’s unlikely to be a credit to the Competition. As stated above, Ford will be back to the bench afterwards and George restored.
Craigsman is getting all political on our arses:
Sturgeon > Drakeford by 5LePen Macron > Adams by 10
Bojo > Berlusconi by 15
I was just going to include far right politicians / arseholes. I managed a few arseholes but couldn’t be bothered to Welsh political arseholery.
Sunbeamtim goes for the philosophical approach:
Looks like Big Faz realises that France are going to hammer Ireland whichever way, so has thrown in a 9 and 10 as sacrificial lambs to protect young payers. End of JGP and BB’s International careers ?
Very enthusiastic about all the talk of how disgraceful Italy are, and how they should be thrown out of the comp, and how its a non game for a proper side. I see Italy as being fitter and more coherent than they have ever been, and one step off defensively is all it takes to be hammered by a Tier one side. Setting someone up for a big fall somewhere this season.
Scotland and Wales both hammered by injuries, too close to call, game of the weekend.
Flair99‘s been watching my nightmares:
England by 29
Scotland by 7
France by 11.
Don’t harrumph me, I was wrong twice last week.
Not sure the omission of Sexton and Murray is a good thing for France but it is certainly a good thing for them. Enough of these concussed players blaming the doctors. I hope they recover soon.
Onna telly this week
Friday 12th February
| Gloucester v Bristol | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Sale v Bath | 20:00 | BT Sport Extra |
Saturday 13th February
| England v Italy | 14:15 | ITV |
| Harlequins v Leicester | 16:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Exeter v London Irish | 16:15 | BT Sport Extra |
| Scotland v Wales | 16:45 | BBC1 / S4C |
Sunday 14th February
| Worcester v Wasps | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Ireland v France | 15:00 | ITV |
Ovally Balls 
Brookter – I agree on the subjugation of women. My point is more that the Christian apologists should *winces*Chek their privilege about stuff like that. If it was as amazing as they claim it was then that glaring omission wouldn’t be so apparent.
I’ll have to have a look at Holland as his argument seems more nuanced than the above.
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For a fun read about how silly atheists and especially atheist ‘movements’ can be have a Google on Atheism+ and it’s general demise.
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Never heard of it so am unsurprised to learn of its demise.
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What on earth is atheism+?
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atheism with a little symbol of Christianity afterwards. Hedging their bets somewhat.
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Just got blindsided by the chicken, fox and grain question. My brain couldn’t cope with that until realisation dawned that the journey could be both ways
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Or the tier on Sam Harris’s Patreon that allows you to get behind the scenes footage and bloopers.
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OK so atheism+ seems to be atheism plus a bit of feminism. This obviously caused a great quake in the manosphere and endless trolling of the person who came up with it. That’s what I gather from my extensive 5 minute bit of ‘research’.
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‘plus a bit of feminism’
And anti-racism
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Basically it was atheism but everyone also had to be a better person as well. So it excluded right wing atheists for example.
It imploded because disbelief coupled with feminism wasn’t enough to hold a group of people together and kind of disappeared up it’s own arse. See PZ Myers.
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Chimpie – it’s not quite as simple as the trolling from the manosphere which was pretty ugly tbh.
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Tomp – Sam Harris Never bloops.
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Craigs, Christian apologists are very good at ignoring inconvenient truths (and their own injunctions about motes and eyes…) — not that they’re alone in this of course. But the book is very far from being (or being intended) as a justification of Christianity. I wouldn’t have finished (or even started) it if were the standard “Yes but God doesn’t really want you to burn homosexuals any more, that was just an unfortunate misunderstanding…” nonsense.
My own issue with it isn’t so much the argument that humanists should acknowledge the Christian underpinnings of much of western thought: it’s that I don’t think he acknowledges enough that it’s possible to take those underpinnings and remove the unnecessary supernatural element, and not be illogical.
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I don’t know much about Rush Limbaugh. RIP, I suppose:
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Limbaugh celebrated the AIDS deaths of gay people on his radio show, that kinda sums him up.
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Brookter, I don’t see how you can separate Christianity and the Church(es): they invented it, and decided how people should observe it.
Sure, from the invention of the printing press, people have been able to read the bible on their own, but only those books that were selected … by the Church.
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I’ve now listened to that Bill Hicks piece. It’s disgusting. Fortunately, some people show more respect:
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Now I’m often happy to argue about books I haven’t read and films I haven’t seen etc, but in this case I think that if I want to argue about that book with Brookter then I’ll read it first. Even then I might only try do so if he actually wants to argue about it.
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Scottish types, who’s the interviewer here?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p062c2tz
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Have read the discussion on ethics and Christianity with interest, although it isn’t something I feel qualified to comment upon.
This, however, is an interesting article from the mother of the mothership about a great player, recently departed.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/18/rugby-union-england-captain-john-pullin-lions-the-breakdown
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CMW – good point :-)
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TomP – I think it might be Gary Robertson. There are only a couple of male presenters, one of whom is Gordon Brewer and I would recognise his voice.
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Cheers, BB. Am using the interview in a class next week and want to get his name right for the transcript.
Am a big fan of this section:
“Let me just ask you a simple question: You are a very posh lawyer in Edinburgh and I want to do something nefarious, or maybe not nefarious, but I come and buy a Scottish Limited Partnership from you, you set it up for me, perhaps with a bank account in another country, maybe Estonia, Latvia or somewhere like that. What does that enable me to do?”
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@tomp
I think you should use Handforth Parish Council planning committee as the basis for a future lesson. There’s a number of phrases that could prove useful:
– “you have no authority Jackie Weaver, no authority at all”
– “read the standing orders. Read them and understand them”
– “we’re trying to have a Teams meeting you fool”
– “Coming from you from Birkenhead that sounds good.”
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Or just use, “I am not a cat”
Good news Embra fans, WP Nell signs on for another two years, taking him over the decade in The Athens of the North.
His long term plans are to get into coaching, so he’ll be picking Pieter de Villiers’ brain at the Scotland camps.
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Nel, even
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I’ve sent a link to that to a few students. It’s a pretty good way how not to do things.
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I agree on the subjugation of women
No surprises there.
Thauma, is this what you mean about who selected what for the Big Book?
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@tomp
There have been more Handforth videos put online (I believe there was one last night attended by people from all over the world on Zoom). Another one was from January where that Aled’s iPad claimed he had taken legal advice and had a report which declared the infamous December meeting illegal. When people asked to see a copy of that report he refused and said anyone who emailed him asking for it would be served with a non-molestation order.
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I agree on the subjugation of Deebee7.
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I AM A FREE MAN!!!
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Priestland to join Cardiff Blues:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/56103853
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@Deebs
It’s worked on you, then……………….
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I hope he doesn’t get injured at Glos., tomorrow night………………………
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You bust me Slade. Deebee is an anagram for Winston Smith. One day. One day..
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Thaum,
I agree Christianity and Churches are inextricably linked, but I’m not sure you can say they’re identical. Otherwise you’d be able to point a specific Church which is acknowledged by all Christians as the Voice of God — obviously, they all do that for their own church and disagree about the others. There are still core beliefs all the Churches share, even when they want to burn each other over the way they implement them.
Obviously, to someone like me who’s resistant to the idea of the supernatural, all the core beliefs are made up by humans anyway, so the organisations and power politics are how it’s all played out, but I think you can still point to a concept called “Christianity” as opposed to the individual churches, just as you can say that Communism isn’t just the Communist Party.
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Brookter – certainly very true today, but if we’re going back to the Enlightenment, there were far fewer options.
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People took it a lot more seriously then, when (you believed) your immortal soul depended on what you believed, and some evil bastard was ready to kill you if you got it ‘wrong’.
Holland’s book is good at is taking you back through the centuries to show the vast disagreements between ‘wings’ of Christianity, even within the Catholic Church, and even before that existed. As you’d expect for an Ancient Historian, he knows his stuff on the Early Years and he’s got a good eye for an anecdote, which makes the book fun as well as interesting.
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Tomp – that video on Rush Limbaugh is ironic given that Bill Hicks eventually became Alex Jones.
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Found out my neighbours are against the vaccine. Makes sense.
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Brookter – I have a strong suspicion that most people didn’t pay an enormous amount of attention to religion, except where they had to be seen to do so. Folk superstitions seemed to hold a lot more sway. Folk superstitions and Christianity got blended together a fair amount too, of course.
However, most people were not literate, so their stories did not get written down. The literate classes would of course have taken care to spout the correct orthodoxy; nobody really cared much what the peasants did, except the particularly zealous. I’ve not heard of anyone zealous enough to give their servants Sundays off, although the servants were often subjected to tedious lectures and services, while still having to look after the livestock, make the fires, cook the food, clean the house, serve the food, etc.
Have you read any of Umberto Eco’s novels? I think you would enjoy them.
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The Colloquy of Marburg is a big fave of mine.
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TomP – for a minute, I thought that was an Eco novel I hadn’t previously heard of.
I like this, from Wiki:
Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
I’m going to eat some wo-o-orms
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And it’s (the Colloquy, not the worms) exactly the sort of thing Eco enjoyed writing about.
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thaum, have you read the late Eco? The Prague Cemetery one and the fake newspaper. Enjoyable but fairly weak compared to the glory days. Still, a very interesting writer and thinker.
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thaum, the argument about whether “is” means “is” calls to mind Bill Clinton.
Also, have you read Laurent Binet’s The 7th Function of Language? Eco features in it as a character.
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TomP – I have not read the last two, but I should. Foucault’s Pendulum is my favourite. And cheers for the tip on Binet’s book; not heard of it before.
Eco also wrote some amusing short pieces, like How to travel with a salmon. The title piece, and the second piece on replacing your lost Italian driving licence are very funny.
In a vaguely similar vein to Eco’s novels, I think Jorge Luís Borges’ The Aleph is the second-best short story ever written.
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I have a copy of that Salmon book somewhere. It is good.
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This gave me a chuckle
‘A 32-year-old man with no underlying health conditions was offered a Covid vaccine early because of a blunder at his GP surgery which recorded him as being 6.2cm tall, giving him an astonishing body mass index (BMI) of 28,000’
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