Only two games this weekend, with Ireland treating Italy like a Welsh prop’s face and England facing their sort of nemesis in Cardiff. France and Scotland have had their game postponed as a result of an outbreak of lurgies in the French camp which was due to Galthié being a messiah very naughty boy. Craigsman, of course, would never do this.
Italy vs Ireland – Rome
Gonna be a spanking. I was going to leave it there but to be honest I should explain why. Ireland will be hurting after a disappointing run against Wales and France and will be keen to get back on track by putting a lot of points on Italy (who last won against them in 2013). Ireland also have an almost full strength squad too. They are just missing Cooney who, for some reason isn’t included. No one apart from Big Faz knows why this is and it really needs to be a talking point on the notablog. Has anyone mentioned that? Someone should mention that.
Italy will score one or two tries but are always a few years behind the curve and they don’t have the players. I can see them holding out for the first quarter before the floodgates open and we can all talk about whether they should make way for Georgia.
13 – 45 to Ireland
Wales vs England – Cardiff
I’m not sure about this one. Have Wales been spawny this year or have they been tenacious when behind and fought back valiantly to win? I think it’s both. You have to be good enough to capitalise on your luck and some of the tries have been great. They have fielded a team with a mix of old and new heads and seem to be finally getting to grips with Pivac’s style of play. If they can get it right and build an early score, then it will be tough night for the Saes.
England seem to be wobbling a bit. With Eddie emphasizing defence and several players out of form they haven’t set the world on fire recently. That said, they should be tough to beat and I’m hoping that they will have a bit more confidence about them this week. Expect a lot of kicking and muscle which hopefully will see them home in a tight game. Some might complain about this, but not me.
30 – 22 to Wales or 20 – 15 to England
France vs Scotland – Paris(ish)
So this has been postponed. What a bunch of les muppets, eh (who I hope will fully recover)? I can’t even ask ‘which France will turn up’ just to sound like a knob. Ah well, let’s pretend that it’s going ahead and look into my crystal ball…
I reckon France at a canter. They are looking very good at the moment and will likely stuff the Scots up their holes. There will be some nice stuff from the visitors but ultimately France are becoming more and more evil every year. It started with some strange glasses, then came a blunt talking defence coach and a change of culture a few thought would be unpalatable and then selection of form players and a sensible game plan going forwards. Who’d have thunk it? Witchcraft, I tell you.
I could be wrong. No good ever comes from a postponed game. None at all.
35 – 15 to France
As foretold by Britney Spears
Onna telly this week
Friday 26th February
| Treviso v Connacht | 17:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Sale v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Cardiff v Munster | 20:00 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Ulster v Ospreys | 20:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 27th February
| Edinburgh v Scarlets | 12:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bristol v Leicester | 13:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Italy v Ireland | 14:15 | ITV |
| Newcastle v Harlequins | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Gloucester v Worcester | 15:15 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wales v England | 16:45 | BBC1 / S4C |
| Zebre v Dragons | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 28th February
| Northampton v Bath | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Leinster v Glasgow | 17:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Scottish songs as well once we started going that way for our holidays from when I was about six. I can remember snippets of loads of them, but can only really give The Road to the Isles and Loch Lomond a full airing though the first verse and chorus of Campbeltown Loch come in pretty regularly of course.
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Mrs CMW knows most of Donald Where’s Your Troosers, but I think that’s because it was rereleased when we were teenagers so I refuse to count it.
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I make her sing Mull of Kintyre as a penance and I join in to punish the children.
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We got the ‘Newhart’ series down here, with the “Hi, I’m Larry and this brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl” bit in it. Childhood memories were that it was quite funny. This was during the Equity boycott of South Africa, which meant that white South Africans shifted culturally from a British affiliation and outlook to an American one in the space of a generation. I was saved from the sewer by having parents who had a great collection from the Goons through to early Monty Python.
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Just to clarify, and at the risk of going down an awful rabbit hole, it was English-speaking white Saffers I was referring to, rather than the Afrikaans, Greek, Portuguese, Italian and other smaller groups.
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Unsurprisingly I can remember Stewpot and Children’s Hour, and can sing along to most of these songs too, including the Scottish ones (thanks, Kenneth McKellar).
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@Deebee, @MrIks,
I am naturally trying to gloss over the fact that when we first started listening to those programs, they were actually on the ‘The Light Programme’, which didn’t change to Radio 2 till 1967. (Frightening that we’re over twice as long away from from 1967 as it was to the end of WW2…)
And we listened to them on a
cat’s whiskerMusic Centre, which had a radio AND a record player, AND one speaker at each end of the sideboard sized cabinet, though that may have been later, because it sounds a bit modern for us. Anyway, it or its predecessor was very useful for playing “I saw a mouse. Where? There. On the stair. Where on the stair? THERE ON THE STAIR, RIGHT THERE. A LITTLE MOUSE WITH CLOGS ON!!!!!!! Well, I declare….”, not to mentionSparky’s Sodding Magic Piano, endlessly by a little brother and sister until there were seared into our consciousness.At least young people today can look forward to remembering Hey Duggee in 2070 — now *that’s* quality children’s entertainment.
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Goon show. That was some weird shit.
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Oh dog, my Dad used to do that spring is sprung rhyme. Still no idea where it came from.
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I thought it was Ogden Nash, Chimpie. It’s the sort of thing he did, but apparently Google says it predates him and noone knows who wrote it, apart from (Trad).
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Day 3 of quarantine in Dublin. We think we saw the sun on Monday.
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@tomp
We’ve already seen photos of you in your 17th March costume
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When I were a wee nipper we used to go on family holidays to our beach house up the coast from Wellington. Well, I say “House” but it was just an overgrown section down a dead end gravel road with the world’s oldest caravan parked up on blocks. And us kids weren’t allowed in the caravan for fear we’d fall through the floor. And the beach was a bit of a trek away and there was no power on site.
But we’d spend idyllic weekends with dad shooting rabbits in the sand dunes and surf casting, mum scaling fish and gutting rabbits, while us kids went scavenging in the local rubbish dump. What treasures! That’s where we found a collection of 45s, including “Hullo mudddah, hullo fuddah”.
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We also had an album called Stewpots Choice, which was weird since as far as I know Stewpot never appeared on TV or radio in NZ. Can’t remember now if that one came from the Otaki Beach dump, but it seems likely.
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Sounds great, BK.
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The great part came after dark on the way home, when dad would sing The Irish Ballad to shut us all up.
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The Tom Lehrer Irish Ballad? The best sort of children’s song…
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It might not have been later, Brookter. We had one of those contraptions too, known as the radiogram (or stereo-radiogram(?)) in our house.
Weird to think that the records that were played most on it were by Big Ben’s Hawaiian Band, so I have tunes like Sweet Leilani, Red Sails in the Sunset, Green Leaves of Summer etc. planted forever in my psyche. I can even sing along correctly to the Hawaiian War Chant.
My father had a 45rpm of Paul Robeson singing Shenandoah / Passing By. I liked to play it with the volume up and bass on full plus, because the vibration made my toy squirrel turn around in slow circles on the radiogram cabinet.
Now that’s entertainment.
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@MrIks,
You’re right — it was The Radiogram before it was The Music Centre! I thought it sounded a bit wrong because the Music Centre was a thing even in the 80s and 90s, which is far too modern.
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Yep, Ed Stewpot Stewart, also the harry Lauder Album, and plenty of George.
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Lovely quote here about George Formby’s trip to South Africa just before apartheid. ( from wiki )
Later that year the Formbys toured South Africa shortly before formal racial apartheid was introduced. While there they refused to play racially-segregated venues. When Formby was cheered by a black audience after embracing a small black girl who had presented his wife with a box of chocolates, National Party leader Daniel François Malan (who later introduced apartheid) telephoned to complain; Beryl replied “Why don’t you piss off, you horrible little man?”
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memories?:
Grundig radiogramme with programmable ‘piano key’ radio station selectors – My uncle Harry’s pride and Joy
Much Binding then Round the Horn
Billy Cotton followed by Chris Barber (died yesterday)
Petula Clarke
Goon Show
……………………which all led to Hitchikers Guide, for some reason, at which point I really started to question my parents opinions and politics
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SBT – DF Malan was an odious bastard. As were they all. It shouldn’t be forgotten though that a whole heap of the worst apartheid acts happened during and shortly after the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when still very much a British colony. For the pedants out there, the Union was a self-governing dominion of the Empire, with full sovereignty conferred on South Africa by the Balfour Act only in 1926. The 1913 Land Act is still having an impact today, with transformation of the agricultural sector one of the most bitter areas of division in South Africa. It, along with other apartheid legislation has led to huge numbers of swivel-eyed trench-dwellers in our beautiful land.
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Ribbans replaces Lawes in England squad.
He’s a good player and ‘on form’
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from Chris Jones, BBC Rugby Correspondent:
“”This team is finished now. There will be a new team made.”
The words of England boss Eddie Jones on 3 November 2019, as he picked through the wreckage of the World Cup final defeat by South Africa.
Jones repeated that mantra a few months later after signing a new contract to take the team through to the World Cup in France in 2023.
“I don’t think this group can have another World Cup in them,” he told the BBC after putting pen to paper in April 2020.
So, 16 months on from the World Cup, how much has actually changed?
New players have come through, of course, with Jones capping a whopping 11 rookies since the tournament in Japan.
But the starting XV that lost to Wales last weekend included 12 of the 15 that started the World Cup final; if Sam Underhill, Courtney Lawes and Manu Tuilagi had been fit, Jones could have picked the exact same side.”
So, EJ condemned by his own words.
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Mike Brown loses his bet with Scott Baldwin and has to train in a Wales shirt.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/stony-faced-england-rugby-star-19955652
soz for the wol link, the headline is enough. Mike Brown makes it funny, anyone else and it would be tragic.
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Talking about lions lege Scott Baldwin. I read a recent piece when he was commenting on the Welsh lineout woes after the Ireland match.
He pointed out that the Welsh lineout formation was very bunched-up and constricted, making it harder for Owens to find a particular jumper. He said Wales should stretch out and use the full 15 meters so that it would be easier for the hooker to throw to the front, middle or back depending on the call.
It was a good point I think, because the Welsh pack did actually stretch out the lineout formation a bit more against England, and did much better.
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Squidge is, as ever, very insightful:
– Itoje didn’t just give away loads of penalties, he didn’t join the defensive line properly on a number of occasions
– England score nearly all their tries from lineouts, so Wales hardly ever kicked for touch
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OT, haven’t watched the video yet but Wales rarely kick to touch. We did all right on the English throw as well I think.
I mentioned this the other week but England’s pack is too slow and the game is getting faster. If you get them running a lot they’re going to be less effective but you need secure ball, which is pretty much what we had on Saturday. However, Enfland can turn it on for some strong sequences of play – the Youngs’ try was top class – but am not sure they can do it too often in a game.
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Wonder what Exeter’s logo might be if they joined in with World Without Cultural Appropriation Day;
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BRB – I think that if Mike brown had a very slightly different face then he would be quite likeable actually.
Not his fault.
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So. We were supposed to move back but our surveyor said it would contravene elf an safety innit. I guess he is right but it would have been helpful to know last week so plans could have been made and IKEA avoided.
As it stands we have a new place to go for 2 weeks before we move back. It was a bummer. Quite a big bummer but gin has helped.
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My surveyor kept saying ‘what about the kids and the power tools’? And I said ‘what about the kids and the power tools’?
This guy clearly didn’t grow up in the 1990s like any reasonable human being.
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What a colossal pain in the arse, Craigs.
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England need a good, mature innings from Stokes here, with patient support from Pope et al. They can definitely posts a competitive total, with good application.
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@Craigs,
Ouch. My sympathies — must be very frustrating.
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Sounds irritating Craigs – hope this is the last false dawn.
Stokes gone, England in a pickle at 121/5.
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My lad (year 5) was just on a Google classrooms call with his teacher. The teacher shared his screen to show them something and up popped the cricket on channel 4 by accident. Somehow I approve.
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Jack Nowell injured again (in training) and probably out to end of season.
Seems like he’s got a bit of the Tuilagis – too much muscle for his frame to cope with?
Anyway – drat!
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Damn it! I rewatched the whole game yesterday and made some notes about the match. Was going to mention England looked more like they were having a drinks break and a tactical huddle – like teams do during a penalty kick or conversion – and Watson and Joseph must have been completely in their kick and restart mindset.
Watching Squidge highlight Ford’s role in calling the huddle while Faz was still listening to Gauzier really put a whole new complexion on the incident, to the point where the ref had no need to apologize for a ‘mistake’.
The knock on should have been given according to norms, but I could see why the TMO was ambiguous. The ball went forward from LRZ’s right hand into his left hand, then straight down from his left hand onto his legs and then backward rather than forward. Perhaps a wider matter is how too much TMO slo-mo damages the flow and spirit of the game, if it goes into too much fine detail.
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England’s pickle is getting more tangy: 176/7. No idea what par is on this pitch. A couple of peaches that have taken wickets, a couple of dumb shots and a couple of tentative prods down the wrong line. Getting to 200 from here is the first objective, although bowling India out for 0 to enforce the follow on may be tricky.
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@iksy
That doesn’t change anything as Faz still needed to talk to everyone. It was a great spot by Squidge but doesn’t have the impact he claims it does. Squidge’s analysis is the best (what a fantastic thing to notice Sinckler shouting “Sheedy!” for that up and under) but his conclusions don’t always stack up. For example noticing that George Ford plays in a different way to other international fly halves (which is true) does not mean he is the best fly half in the world (which obviously isn’t true).
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If Ford did call the huddle, then there’s even less reason for the ref to apologise. Just watched the replays on Squidge and I’d say that the ‘knock-on’ was technically correct by the smallest of margins and could have been ruled as forward just as easily. The crossfield kick is difficult in that England were huddling, but not under the captain’s orders – Ford to blame.
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England pass 200 for the 1st time since the 1st Test! 203/9. England not entirely out of the match yet!
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Promising start! Jimmy gets Gill, hook, line and sinker for 0! Still need 6 to avoid the follow on!
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Said it before, will say it again. England are to blame for the first try, not Gauzere. Just like the third. Rule #1: always face the opponent. As for the second try, it may not have been a knock on due to he strange wording of the law, but I’d have called knock on as would ‘ve 99,99% of people.
Nigel Owens disagrees with me and that wouldn’t be the first time. Mind you, he hasn’t always been right.
The refgate is the perfect diversion for England and Jones. Wales weren’t exactly setting the world on fire before that game and yet England couldn’t find a way to prevail. Lots of dead wood, poor skills, poor leadership are the real issues, not the ref.
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Yet they’re on target for a JamSlam. That was the best thing to come out of the Squidge video, world class.
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