Round Three Redux? Round Five-and-three-quarters? In any case, Welsh fans will be biting their nails, or any other available substance, and wondering if France can win with a bonus point and 21 points to deprive them of the title.
Scotland will no doubt have plenty to say about this, as a win with a six-point points advantage will put them second on the table (giving them their best finish in the Six Nations), supposing France don’t score a LBP.
Sadly, both teams can finish above Ireland. Maybe we should just cancel this match.
And maybe we should support France to wind up the OH.
Onna telly this week
Friday 26th March
| Gloucester v Exeter | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| France v Scotland | 20:00 | BBC1 |
Saturday 27th March
| Glasgow v Treviso | 13:45 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bristol v Harlequins | 14:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| London Irish v Bath | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Worcester v Northampton | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v Sale | 16:30 | BT Sport1 |
| Leinster v Munster | 17:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 28th March
| Dragons v Edinburgh | 14:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leicester v Newcastle | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Deebee’ll be turning in his grave when he reads this.
Thanks. Didn’t realise I was dead! Can I knock off for the glorious perma-lunch in the sky now?
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So Chimpie got to you too, then? Join the club!
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trisk, my guy Jirka tells me the road infrastructure is still pretty – especially in terms of number of kilometres of motorways. There’s one highway that is in pieces so you drive for say 50 kms on a 3-lane carriageway and then for the next 30 kms you’re down to one-lane.
The politics is very complicated (by which I mean corrupt) and there’s been massive emigration. Strangely, the nasty far-right party succeeded greatly among the emigrant community in the recent election.
The geography of Romania I struggle with a little. I always need a map handy to sort out my Wallachias from my Banats, my Transylvanias from my Bukovinas.
Bit of trivia for you: Farul Constanta, who played in the first ever Heineken Cup game, is the only major European rugby team to be named after a lighthouse.
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Farul – I picked up a tiny bit of limba Romana – ul is the definite article (strangely for European language following the noun – and the “Far” bit obviously from French “phare” via Greek).
As to geography – occasionally saw graffiti “Basarab e Romana” – which I interpreted as looking for Moldova back… early on my team had a lot of northerners – and one of my other team members alleged to me that she thought they were speaking Moldovan amongst themselves (accent I guess)
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It’s more or less the same language I thought, bit of vocabulary is different and the accent. Definitely mutually comprehensible like Czech and Slovak or Croatian, Bosnian. Montenegrin and Serbian.
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I read this last week and there was a good chapter about Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, which is partly in Romania now. The chapter was on a group called the Hutsuls and how inter-war Poland (since it was then in that counrtry – now it’s in Ukraine) used them:
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Pro14 Dream Team
15 Michael Lowry (Ulster)
14 Alex Wootton (Connacht) 13 Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 12 Damian de Allende (Munster) 11 Dave Kearney (Leinster)
10 Jack Carty (Connacht) 9 John Cooney (Ulster)
8 Marcell Coetzee (Ulster) 7 Scott Penny (Leinster) 6 Josh Turnbull (Cardiff Blues)
5 Gavin Thornbury (Connacht) 4 Billy Holland (Munster)
3 Michael Bent (Leinster) 2 Kevin O’Byrne (Munster) 1 Eric O’Sullivan (Ulster)
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Surprised that A. It isn’t all Leinster players and B. that a Glasgow player actually makes it in there. Although by all accounts HJ has got his form back this year, even with playing at fullback at times.
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Going back to the countries thing for a bit, I like looking at some of these time lapse videos. It often surprises me how quickly some empires rise and fall (and I realise that some of them disappear very quickly due to the speed of the video). Except for the bloody Romans. They hung around for centuries. They must have done something right after all….
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I’ve got Peter Wilson’s 940-page monster on the Holy Roman Empire (subtitle A Thousand Years of Europe’s History) on my book shelf here. I had a gift voucher for a book shop in Prague and only just used it before the bookshops were closed down for a second time at the end of last year.
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Holy Roman Empire kills the blog…..
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B.Rok, Hewitt and and The Screech should be in that Dream Team.
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Also DVDM, JVDW, R2D2 and C3PO.
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R2D2 being the gobby scrum half, of course.
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🎵DeeBeeDeeBeeDeeBee…🎵
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Your thinking of the robot from Buck Rogers…
Bidi bidi bidi
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B.rok won the Tackle Machine Award, Iksy. 98% of tackles made.
(Yes, yes, BB, Jonny Gray never misses a tackle etc but he left the league.)
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Who the feck’s B.rok anyway?
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In today’s “Christ I Feel Old” department.
Daughter 1 is 30 today. 30!!!! Where the fuck did all THAT time go?!?!?
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One for Thauma
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So why the hell isn’t he in the Ireland team?
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Michael Bradley has been named Pro 14 Coach of the Season.
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Drags Lege and top prop Brok Harris, BB. Known affectionately to me since last Monday as B-Rok.
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Edinburgh Rugby team to play Racing 92 at the Paris La Defense Arena, Heineken Champions Cup
Sunday 4 April (kick-off 12.30pm BST) – live on BT Sport
15. Damien Hoyland (81) 14. Darcy Graham (38) 13. James Johnstone (61) 12. George Taylor (32) 13. James Johnstone (61) 11. Duhan van der Merwe (64) 10. Blair Kinghorn (97) 9. Henry Pyrgos VICE CAPTAIN (48)
1. Pierre Schoeman (59) 2. David Cherry (33) 3. WP Nel (151) 4. Magnus Bradbury (94) 5. Grant Gilchrist CAPTAIN (157) 6. Jamie Ritchie (73) 7. Hamish Watson (118) 8. Viliame Mata (85)
Substitutes:
16. Mike Willemse (35) 17. Boan Venter (3) 18.Simon Berghan (89) 19. Mesu Kunavula (7) 20. Luke Crosbie (53)
21. Charlie Shiel (31) 22. Jaco van de Walt (70) 23. Mark Bennett (52)
Unavailable due to injury [12]: Lewis Carmichael, Nathan Chamberlain, Andrew Davidson, Chris Dean, Dan Gamble, Sam Grahamslaw, Nick Haining, Stuart McInally, Fraser McKenzie, Dan Nutton, Rory Sutherland, Ben Toolis
The Crocked Lock Crisis continues, but that is almost a decent side. If we’d started Charlie Shiel with his pace, both of foot and of service, I’d have been happier.
I don’t understand Mark Bennett sitting on the pine, he has played very well this season and in recent weeks.
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B-Rok is c-rocked for the Saints game.
Dragons (v Northampton Saints): Jordan Williams, Jonah Holmes, Aneurin Owen, Jamie Roberts, Ashton Hewitt, Sam Davies, Rhodri Williams (c), Greg Bateman, Elliot Dee, Lloyd Fairbrother, Joe Davies, Matthew Screech, Aaron Wainwright, Harrison Keddie, Ross Moriarty
Replacements: Taylor Davies, Josh Reynolds, Leon Brown, Ben Carter, Dan Baker, Gonzalo Bertranou, Evan Lloyd, Nick Tompkins
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Looks weak
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Let’s try that again
Looks weak
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Fuksakes
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‘your’ Exeter team to face Lyon:
15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Olly Woodburn, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ollie Devoto, 11 Tom O’Flaherty
10 Joe Simmonds (capt), 9 Jack Maunder
1 Alec Hepburn, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 Harry Williams
4 Jonny Gray, 5 Jonny Hill
6 Dave Ewers, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 8 Sam Simmonds
16 Jack Yeandle, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Jannes Kirsten, 21 Stu Townsend,
22 Harvey Skinner, 23 Ian Whitten
“all or nothing” says Baxter.
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ps: Hogg definitely not captain………………
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Leinster already through as the match v Toulon tonight has been called off as the French lads have a Covid case. Was looking forward to the game, too.
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Toulon v Leinster off because of covid in the French camp. Daft buggers.
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TomPed again!
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Jerry Flannery mouths off about the weakness of the Pro14.
Then, Harlequins name this team to play Ulster:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ex9tuGWWYAE6ygi?format=jpg
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Leinster/Toulon called off – a Toulon player has reported positive……………
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Leinster’s quarter final opponents will be a bit pissed…………………….
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Lyon’ll be on a high after winning through, Slade.
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Yes! Well done The ‘Mish!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/56616605
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Called to Wales for a bit of a family emergency, so I’m afraid there’ll be no new post this weekend (and NO RUGBY available to watch!).
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Gloucester Rugby vs La Rochelle
15. Santiago Carreras
14. Louis Rees-Zammit *
13. Chris Harris
12. Mark Atkinson
11. Jonny May *
10. George Barton *
9. Willi Heinz
1. Val Rapava-Ruskin
2. Henry Walker *
3. Fraser Balmain
4. Ed Slater
5. Matias Alemanno
6. Jordy Reid
7. Lewis Ludlow (c) *
8. Ruan Ackermann
16. Santiago Socino
17. Alex Seville *
18. Jamal Ford-Robinson
19. Alex Craig *
20. Freddie Clarke *
21. Jack Clement *
22. Charlie Chapman *
23. Billy Twelvetrees
*Denotes Academy player or graduate from the Gloucester Rugby Academy
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I hope everything is okay Thaum
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SBT, I was quiet impressed with Alex Craig in the 6N. I must have seen him play U20s but I don’t remember him. He looks a good young prospect
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BB, I’m very chuffed for him, it’s well deserved.
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3/4 of a Lions 3/4 line there for Gloucester.
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Ticht – thanks; not the worst, but a bit of care required.
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The end of Not Nots v Cardiff is quite something
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LI beat Blues 41-35. LI played with 14 for most of the second half, and with 13 for 10 minutes of it. Cardiff take a drop goal with a couple of minutes left, when they were on a penalty advantage. They get possession from the kick-off, kick it long and LI eventually score the winning try.
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LRZ out of the Glos game with dodgy hammy.
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Mon ra Weedge! Not actually watched them much this season, due to not having ‘Premier’ sports. Expecting a close game, but I suspect Montpellier will win.
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Good try by Dillyn Leyds.
The man who once did this:
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