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 
Sample quote:
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In terms of actually competing for the title isn’t it only really Castres who have kept that going for the smaller places along with La Rochelle more recently?
Of course being at the bottom of the Top 14 and the existence of Pro D2 puts all these clubs in a better place than Neath, Pontypridd, Pontypool, Bridgend, Aberavon, Ebbw Vale, Maesteg etc.
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Castres does have big money behind it in the form of Pierre Fabre Laboratoires.
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Ah Blondin! Together with Cormier, Lalanne or Lacouture, he was one of the great rugby writers of the times. L’Equipe or Le Monde were glad to publish their articles as they were writers on their own, specially Blondin.
They were phenomenal drinkers too. During the first WC, they launched a drinking marathon around St Germain. 42 bars, at least one drink in each of them.
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Thanks Tomp, will look for the book.
Castres does have money, through the mid size pharma company Pierre Fabre. They’ve got labs in almost every small town in the area at the foot of the Pyrenees, Albi, Foix etc…
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I had to smile at this. .
I recall my mom went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in the early 80s… she was expecting a tranquil, solemn, and prayerful retreat-type atmosphere and was – well – pretty much horrified by the tacky souvenir stalls. I think she was always a bit more critical of ‘the’ (as she would have termed it) church thereafter.
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flair, if you don’t mind very dark-greyish download sites, one called z lib’ll help you out.
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Brittany always seems to be a bit of a soccer heartland – 4 clubs currently in Ligue 1 (we’ll stretch things and call Nantes Breton for this argument) – so good to see Vannes in top 2 of the D2 ahead of more feted rugby towns like Biarritz.
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Now the flip side is that it’s always sad to see famous names decline.
I recall looking at French teams from the 70s (when I first started watching rugby) and seeing players from clubs like Pau, Dax, Brive, Tarbes and thinking where the hell are these places?
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“good to see Vannes in top 2 of the D2”
Especially as they’ve got Farraj Fartass on the books.
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“I recall looking at French teams from the 70s (when I first started watching rugby) and seeing players from clubs like Pau, Dax, Brive, Tarbes and thinking where the hell are these places?”
That’s how I felt about every team on Rugby Special Wales apart from Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and (just about) Llanelli. Still might struggle with a few of them.
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Trisk, the debate is still raging on whether Nantes is in Brittany.
It was a political decision not to include Nantes in Brittany, so as to weaken any idea of separatism. Brittanny have had three different capitals (if it’s not an anachronism) Vannes, Rennes and Nantes. But the dukes of Brittany mostly ruled from Nantes before the region was incorporated to France in the 15thC.
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I may have mentioned this before, but Dominic Behan wrote a book called The Public World of Parable Jones, it’s basically a pub crawl around Dublin the footsteps of Joyce and Yeats, etc. It contains many laugh out loud moments and also one of my favourite descriptions in literature;
“He had the face of a disappointed cripple returning from Lourdes”
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Faraj Fartass sounds like a character in a Brexit-inspired farce for the theatre.
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@Ticht – I think he’d appear in an Ubu Roi for 21st century Britain.
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CMW, sounds as if you had to do a fair bit of driving along the M4 as a lad. Bridgend must have got the odd sign. My early years and later visits to Nan and uncles and aunts plus my father’s determination to show us every pitch he played on in South Wales meant I’ve got everything from Maesteg to the east covered.
Am the same as you with Scottish football. Know lots of names, have little idea of the locations. Only discovered where Forfar is the other day.
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@Tomp – “sounds as if you had to do a fair bit of driving along the M4 as a lad”
Only the bit from Pont Abraham to Swansea really. Now the A44, A470, A483 etc would be another matter.
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For that matter I have a feeling the bit from Pont Abraham to Swansea might not actually have been the M4 at that time.
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Tomp, I followed your advice and got that book.
Just finished reading the excellent introduction. If the rest is only half as good, it’s a great recommendation. Many thanks.
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Looking for bridies?
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@BB – Not in Llangurig, no.
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Thought TomP was looking for someone to export Forfar bridies to him in Dublin.
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CMW, I think the only times I’ve been to Aberyswyth (twice, maybe three times) we’ve driven from the South so had no great idea what I was talking about.
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@Tomp – Next time try coming across from Shrewsbury, the road’s great and it’ll take you next to no time at all.
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I did eventually end up driving the length of the (Welsh) M4 quite a bit, but that wasn’t until my mum moved to Haverfordwest when I was in my twenties. Most boring long distance journey I’ve ever had to do regularly (apart from perhaps York-Crewe for work though I was rarely the driver and it isn’t that far by my family’s standards). Pretty much all motorway, you can’t say that about Aberystwyth-Norwich or York-Campbeltown, that’s for sure.
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Am not a driver so don’t mind long journeys too much. Except when my father’s driving and the horrible fear of crashing at any second is overpowering.
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What about the train from Norwich to Aberyswyth, CMW?
I have a lot of free time and a good credit rating so it might be possible.
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@Flair
I’d clocked the 44 = BZH graffiti around the place on our couple of trips to Bretagne…. so I’d picked up the controversy of putting Nantes in Loire-Atlantique department.
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It is possible to get a train from Aberystwyth to Norwich. We never did though, I guess we were always taking too much stuff, needing to see other relatives on the way, it may have been prohibitively expensive etc.
National Rail Enquiries reckons about seven and a half hours. I’d give yourself two days to be on the safe side.
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7 1/2 hours isn’t too bad. I don’t believe it for a minute.
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Thinking about it I reckon you would probably get from Aberystwyth to Norwich the same day. The return journey would come with a high risk of spending a night at Shrewsbury station though.
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Reading back,
“There’s a really good part on the two town sides of Carmaux. And Quillan, whose backer was a milliner.”
If you head south west from Quillan the road is basically a very steep climb into the mountains, zig-zagging back and forth up the hill.
You eventually get to Espezel, the home of the mighty Union Sportive du Plateau de Sault – the club I played for.
Foix is quite close, you go down the other way to get there, I think they had a union and a league side iirc.
Perpignan isn’t too far, Toulouse is relatively close.
I went to watch Carcassonne play once, then had dinner in the lovely walled city afterwards
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Quillan won their French championship in 1929 – beaten finalists a couple of years around then as well – and in the final they beat a team representing another place you’ll know, ticht, called Lézignan.
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“I’d clocked the 44 = BZH graffiti around the place on our couple of trips to Bretagne….”
On the road mentioned my previous post there was a large retaining concrete wall on one side and big fall off the other side.
The wall was constantly graffitied with Occitan separatist slogans. I don’t know how strong a movement it was/is, certainly nothing like the Basque and less than the Breton nationalist stuff.
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Quillan nicked most of their players from Perpignan. Or, rather, offered them employment in the hat factory with favourable terms and conditions. So bad was the blood between the teams and so violent were the matches that a Quillan player died on the field in the 1927 meeting.
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I think there are a couple of Lézignans, Tom, there’s one over by Lourdes and another, Lézignan-Corbières which isn’t too far from where I was
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The level I played at in France wasn’t very high at all, but the violence on the field was wayyyy over the top.
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It’s the second one, ticht. They’re a league club nowadays.
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I’ve just found that book, too.
I looks terrific, thanks for that, Tom.
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test
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Late to the party, but…….don’t forget Auch and Tarbes; both beautiful little grounds in their own way.
Both heading downwards at the moment, I think.
Our nearest village,Marciac (pop. 1800) has it’s own fiercely competitive club, as do all the surrounding villages and small towns.
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Is that Marciac where they have the famed jazz festival?
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oh yes!*
but not last year and probably not this either…….grrrr
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Flair
The main ‘chapiteau’ accommodates >7000 and is built from scratch each year on the rugby ground.
The pitch gets re-laid every year immediately the building is removed.
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Visited Lourdes for a quick looky see and to watch a game during the 2007 world cup. Lit a candle and didn’t get struck by a bolt of lightning, and bought a multi colored glowing Madre Maria. Coffee and armangnac during game was pricey tho, even in the cheapest cafe I could find. Thought I would pop in to Spain while I was there, but got hit by a snow storm halfway up a goat track, so headed back north to where I was staying. Caught second half of another game in a cafe in Tarbes full of cops, and also had another snifter in Aire sur L’ Adour on the way back too, cos there were drunk looking rugby fans hanging around outside a bar. Very nice day out.
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TomP
Am not a driver so don’t mind long journeys too much. Except when my father’s driving and the horrible fear of crashing at any second is overpowering.
I’d like to die peacefully in my sleep like my old man. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.
(An oldie, but a goodie.)
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Slade, friends of mine go to Marciac every year during the festival. One of them, a good drummer, attends master classes there during the week. Wynton Marsalis has done a wonderful job there, together with the local schools. I understand they have great music classes in college.
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@Flair
all true – children of our French neighbours have developed careers in music thanks to Wynton and the original music teacher (can’t remember his name).
Under normal conditions the music calendar now has concerts/recitals/ gigs all year round -people travel a long way to hear favorites.
Here’s hoping that things resume successfully in due time………
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Shame the embra / racing game was cancelled at the weekend. Ah well.
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