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 
*Shakes head more in sorrow than anger*
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The nottablog’s so dissapointed in you it died, BB
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Willi Heinz for the Lionz
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Pfft, what we need is a wet weather box kicking expert. Bring back wiggo.
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We should do a “qualified on residency” Lions XV.
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Nel, Herring, Kebble for a front row for starters. Could’ve had the French 2nd row if the Lions weren’t so exclusionary. Stander in the backrow. Jaco van der Walt at 10 – must be a better option somewhere? Duhan on the wing. James Lowe on the other wing. That’s me off the top of my head. I kmow there’s a couple of McKiwis in the Scottish ranks too.
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The Fijian wing who is England qualified? Or has been there for yonks?
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The Vunipolas and Taulupe, of course. Haloholo and McNicholl also from Wales.
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Tuilagi, I suppose, if he weren’t always injured.
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B-Rok Harris.
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Talk of taking Tuilagi on the Lionz seems daft to me. At least JD2 played a bit, and played a bit better, as the 6N wore on.
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Billy V probably can’t be arsed to tour, and I can’t say I blame him this time around.
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Loads of way out there Christian types in SA. He’d feel at home.
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Surely the Vunipola’s don’t qualify as they grew up in the UK? Asking for a friend.
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Qualified by residency, Deebs. Herring qualifies through a grandparent as well so strike him off the list but add Kleyn and the lad from Affies that plays for Connacht.
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3-match ban for Throat-Smasher Russell. Means he’ll miss Racing’s game v Edinburgh at the weekend and then some French league games.
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Not such an easy task after all. What about Kiwis and Aussies?
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Armand and Ewers at Exeter…………….
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1. Kebble
2. Herring (grandparent but who cares)
3. Nel
4. Kleyn
5. Toolis (parent) / Kruis (obviously South African)
6. Strauss might still be playing somewhere
7. Billy Vunipola (perfect 7 to take on the Boks)
8. Stander
9. Gibson-Park
10. Van der Walt
11. Lowe
12. Aki
13. Halaholo
14. Van der Merwe
15. McNichol
We’ll find out if they’re any good in a warm-up against Italy.
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@cmw Started to try to construct a team last evening when OT first mentioned it – not that easy… I can see you’re scratching around in the pack (backs are plausible)
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@Trisk – I’ll have you know they’re a fantastic pack and will smash the Italians.
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Might see if Hadleigh Parkes can be encouraged back from Japan to improve matters at 10.
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Sam Johnson at 12 if Aki’s banned.
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Might just pick AWJ as the other second row as we can’t have a bloody foreigner captain the side.
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Cornell du Preez still playing? Don Armand in there as well. Richardt Strauss to come out of retirement for one last hurrah. Born on the same date as me, just 18 years later.
I was just over two weeks into my basic training in the army and had sent express instructions to my folks to NOT send a card. So they did. With a whole bloody box of goodies too. Of course my bombardier’s eyes lit up when saw this at postal parade (you had to line up and step out of the line to get your post). Having forced me to open the letter he was delighted that it was not only a birthday, but my 18th to boot! You’ll never forget this birthday he smirked, and my dog he was right. He gave me a broomstick and two of those red fire buckets beloved of army bases in the 80s and told me to go and fill them with stones from the other side of the parade ground (about hte size of ten or twelve football pitches) and come back. I did. Obviously he looked at them and said “not those ones, I don’t like them. Take them back and get more.” I did. Rinse and repeat for 14 hours solid for your friend and narrator, with the broomstick across my shoulders and a bucket balanced at either end, filled with rocks. I hope he remembers it too, the prick, because despite the pain as the day wore on, in stifling heat with only a water break every two hours, whenever I got into site of him, I broke out into a broad smile.
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Michael Bent to give added experience to the front row.
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Shame to have to leave Deebee out given his training, but I don’t think he’s ever lived here.
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Which is surprising really as you’d have thought he would have been enticed to come over back in the 80s when the government was looking bring in carriers of buckets of stones to fill all the vacancies.
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Cornell du Preez is still playing. Was in a Scotland squad for the championship I think.
As a bolter, Josh Macleod. His dad is Scottish and
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Deebee, was that in Pretoria?
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And if not, what pictures did the bombardiers have on his wall?
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Macleod I suppose qualifies anyway as he’s of Scottish heritage but I like the job swap his dad did.
We really need someone whose main interest in rugby union is highlighting which SH-born players play for which NH international teams to help us. If only we knew someone like that.
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@tomp
It’s difficult to get a conversation going with him unfortunately as he now spends most of his time counting how many vaccines have been exported
from countries in the EUby the blessed EU.LikeLiked by 1 person
Am still teaching people in the Czech Republic – and one guy in Romania – over Skype. Yesterday one asked me about Irish Easter traditions and I admitted I didn’t know but would do some research and Whipping the Herring is magnificent:
https://crawfordartgallery.ie/work-of-the-week-6-april-2020/
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To be fair to Bent, he’s managed to hold down a contract as TH at Leinster for a long time now – reliable enough….even if he only fills in when Porter and Furlong aren’t around. Which was – given Furlong’s long absence due to injury – quite often (also meant that Leinster didn’t rush Furlong back)
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didn’t know we had any (until now…) …
Only equivalent I can think of is the “wran” over in Dingle on St Stephen’s Day (as you will now have to call it ) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wren_Day
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Doesn’t Holy Week itself class as an Irish Easter tradition?
Most depressing time of year from my childhood…..
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The kilted Kiwis were are heritage- qualified, Lineen, the Leslies, Metcalfe, Maitland, Hardie.
The best was Chainsaw Laney, he got selected for Scotland whilst he was on the plane on the way over.
We must have had a couple of Aussies, but I can’t remember.
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besides Toolis and Johnson, I mean
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Sbt- fly the flag and tell anyone who complains to fuck off.
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Do we know when Eddie finds out his fate?
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Part of me thinks that the RFU and PRL should do more to ensure Faz et Al get more game time. Maybe have loaned them during the play gaps.
The one thing I hate about the English setup is the relative lack of cooperation between club and union. Wouldn’t have had this problem in Ireland.
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I’m thinking of Santa Semana in Sevilla – huge processions by KKK-lookalikes…. maybe the purgatorial aspect of Holy week in Ireland/Britain is influenced by that Irish tradition of ascetism (think of Skellig Michael). You can’t die of martyrdom but all that kneeling will make it seem like an welcome release….
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After the world cup in 2023 ?
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SBT ‐ probably.
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@TomP – it was at Youngsfield in Cape Town, and I don’t know what pictures Bombadier Fuckface had on his walls. What I do know, is that our chefs (including for the riffraff like me) were regularly trained at the Cape Sun hotel, so we got amazing meals. Unlike at Defence HQ in Pretoria where you could smell the fish was off from about 50 yards from the mess. Only safe thing to eat was the ice-cream.
it is also where I met Carel and Michael du Plessis (he was my army dentist), Faffa Knoetze, Freddie Ferreira and the imperious Balie Swart, who ran the office I worked in and may have been the most mischievous man in uniform. Great character. The 1986 New Zealand Cavaliers also practiced at our fields a couple of times.
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“Faffa Knoetze, Freddie Ferreira and the imperious Balie Swart”
Great names. Haven’t a clue who any of them are, but great names.
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As I’m bored and can’t be arsed trying to decide what stock to buy next year (and I probably won’t know my budget until June at the earliest anyway) I thought I’d have a wee look to see just how many residency players we have at the moment. Looking at the current squad as shown on Wiki, plus another 12 or so who aren’t mentioned for whatever reason, but have played some part in either the 6N or in Autumn – we have 6 residency qualified players. 5 from SA – Kebble, Nel, du Preez, van der Walt, van der Merwe and Johnson from Australia. We have 8 players who qualify via parents, and 6 who qualify through grandparents. All the rest were born in Scotland. Sadly, some of those from Scotland are from Hawick, but we can’t have everything. (It says Hoggy was born in Melrose, but I’m just wondering if that means he was born at the BGH which is just outside Melrose).
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BB,
This is the handiest guide:
https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2021/02/03/foreign-born-produced-players-in-2021-six-nations/
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@TomP
That’s the same guide that used to list O’Gara as American and Heaslip as Israeli due to their PoB – it’s misleading with all those Welsh players flagged as English. Irish list is fair enough
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