Three years ago, we were in Bilbao for the Challenge Cup final. What a difference a pandemic makes. Also, the sun was shining, at least in Spain.
Regarding the Little Cup, Flair99 says: “To find Montpellier there is quite stunning, they’re fighting to avoid relegation, and they’re certainly not pleasant to watch. How about Leicester?”
Same, Flair, same.
La Rochelle v Toulouse will undoubtedly be a more interesting match. I’m calling it for La Rochelle, because I would like them to win.
Onna telly this week
Friday 21st May
| Leicester v Montpellier | 20:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 22nd May
| Sharks v Stormers | 12:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Lions v Bulls | 14:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
| La Rochelle v Toulouse | 16:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 23rd May
| Nada |
Ovally Balls 
Ticht, I completely agree regarding the luxury of lotteries to get people jabbed. Not mention the hoarding of three, four or five times the number of vaccines needed ‘just in case’. But the bottom line is that if we were given, free of charge, 100 million doses tomorrow, this regime would somehow fuck it up. With insiders making a mint.
The private sector here, from the mines with their own clinics and hospitals to the medical aid schemes and pharmacy groups, have repeatedly offered to roll out vaccinations to their members plus those who aren’t members, but the state is opposed to this for purely ideological reasons with a healthy dose, if you’ll pardon the bitter irony, of corruption thrown in.
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Covid ootbreak at embra. Some players isolating. Game vs the norngibbons still supposedly going ahead next weekend.
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Be shame if it did get cancelled, as I do enjoy watching embra under-performing to a morale sapping loss via a duff game plan.
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‘enjoy’
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Not sure too many did, Chimpmeister!
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The Quins / Sarries women’s final was a good game. Hell of a post match interview with Shaunagh Brown, player of the match
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Am I the only one not working today? Well, I am working, but desperately looking for a reason not to.
#LionzRBokFood
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Pfft
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Of some rugby interest, Scotland squad for the summer:
Scotland Squad for 2021 summer series
Forwards
Ewan Ashman (Sale Sharks) – Uncapped
Nick Auterac (Northampton Saints) – Uncapped
Josh Bayliss (Bath Rugby) – Uncapped
Simon Berghan (Edinburgh Rugby) – 31 caps
Jamie Bhatti (Bath Rugby) – 18 caps
Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh Rugby) – 14 caps
David Cherry (Edinburgh Rugby) – 5 caps
Alex Craig (Gloucester Rugby) – 2 caps
Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby) – Uncapped
Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) – 20 caps
Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors) – Uncapped
Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors – 13 caps
Cameron Henderson (Leicester Tigers) – Uncapped
Robin Hislop (Doncaster Knights) – Uncapped
Jamie Hodgson (Edinburgh Rugby) – Uncapped
Oli Kebble (Glasgow Warriors) – 8 caps
Kiran McDonald (Glasgow Warriors) – Uncapped
Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh Rugby) CAPTAIN – 27 caps
Javan Sebastian (Scarlets) – Uncapped
Sam Skinner (Exeter Chiefs) – 12 caps
Grant Stewart (Glasgow Warriors) – 3 caps
George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) – 17 caps
Backs
Jack Blain (Edinburgh Rugby) – Uncapped
Jamie Dobie (Glasgow Warriors) – Uncapped
Cole Forbes (Glasgow Warriors) – Uncapped
Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors) – 23 caps
George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – 14 caps
Damien Hoyland (Edinburgh Rugby) – 4 caps
Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby) – 25 caps
James Lang (Harlequins) – 6 caps
Rufus McLean (Glasgow Warriors) – Uncapped
Matt Scott (Leicester Tigers) – 39 caps
Charlie Shiel (Edinburgh Rugby) – Uncapped
Scott Steele (London Irish) – 4 caps
Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors) – 1 cap
Ross Thompson (Glasgow Warriors) – Uncapped
Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) – Uncapped
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Very green looking bunch. Rest for Jonny Gray.
Auterac? Sebastian? Not a clue. Props apparently, we’re looking awfy weak in that area. otherwise some promising talent in there.
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No Huw Jones either. What fresh outrage is this? Is he injured?
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@Chimpie
2 or 3 years ago Auterac was on the fringes of England, I think.
Got badly injured, now fully recovered.
Not tall but very strong physically and plays tighthead.
Experienced. Was at Bath then Quins, now Saints.
https://www.northamptonsaints.co.uk/person/nick-auterac
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Thanks Slade. Actually sounds reasonably promising.
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some other random disconnected thoughts seeing as i have the floor.
Looks like Hutchinson has been discarded as an option. TBH he hasn’t screamed ‘pick me!’ when I’ve seen him over the last year or two and we seem to have a lot of centres currently.
Still no place for Bennett. Paying the price for playing in Embra’s stodgy attack? Still keep thinking he’s going to be back to top form at some point.
Could have been an option to blood some centre yoof (Taylor, McDowell) but it’s a bit congested at the mo and their time will come.
Ritchie as captain! whoop!
No Ryan Wilson either. Would have brought the bantz and aggro.
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Javan Sebastian’s a big fat lad. Looks fun. 3rd choice tight-head prop I’d guess when everyone’s fit.
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Sione Tuipulotu’s story is good (and ‘pro enraging for good reasons).
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Looks fun? Well that’s something I suppose. Don’t know much of Tuipolotu’s story TBH.
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Just realised there’s no Blade Thompson either, is he still injured from the 6N?
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Well?
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one or t’other……………
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Some interesting picks there, Darge might have jumped a couple of places with his showing over the last two weeks, he’s played well.
Most positions in that squad are fairly well covered, some of these guys have big futures, Dobie, Shiel, Thompson, McLean, Blain in the backs, Crosbie, Hodgson and Ashman in the furrits are my picks of those who supporters of other teams might not know.
But prop, ffs.
( presumably Schoeman isn’t SQ yet, he’ll get called up later)
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ticht, I know props develop later and all that but why is Scotland producing so few? Is it waiting to qualify Saffers blocking the spaces at Edinburgh and Glasgow?
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Chimpie,
Here you go:
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/sione-tuipulotu-scotland-rugby-glasgow-rebels-yamaha-japan-austrailia/
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Tam, I think only having two teams has something to do with it, not everything, but something. The two sides need to remain competitive and when we have a season like this one just gone we are really shown up when the internationalists are not there.
There have been a few promising looking young guys on the books at both clubs, D’Arcy Rae at Glasgow never fulfilled the early promise and Murray McCallum hasn’t broken through in the way we all hoped at Edinburgh.
There are around half a dozen or more who have had the odd game, but haven’t kicked on.
We’ve suddenly got a good crop of scrum halves, centres and back three players. Thompson has looked very composed at fly half for Glasgow, there are very good, very young, forwards in every position bar prop.
Cockerill in particular doesn’t take chances, he is much more likely to bring in tight five players from South Africa, and to be honest they aren’t troubling the selectors in their home countries, so they don’t cost a lot and it’s an easy fix in a position where you can be cruelly exposed when up against even half decent opposition, more so than anywhere else, imo.
The Super Six was set up to address these problems, but they haven’t played this year, so they’ve had half a season in total.
Hopefully we’ll get more coming through in future, but we have far fewer players than any of the other 6N, it’s really not a big sport in Scotland.
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Just saw an article in the Graun about Transport for London getting a billion squid to patch up holes in their finances. Part of the deal is to move to driverless trains.
According to the article “The bitter standoff between the Labour mayor and the Conservative government does not appear to have abated, with ministers still affirming that TfL mismanagement, rather than the multibillion-pound revenue loss when passengers were told to avoid public transport during the pandemic, is responsible for its parlous financial situation”
So, with over 550 staff earning 100k or more a year, you sack the drivers because of mismanagement? Wow.
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♫ Driverless trains, high on cocaine ♫
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For the yoof:
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Tube train drivers are in a relatively strong union and a strike by them is not good for TfL management. It’s good for the boss class to get rid of them, or to get them in the position bus drivers or overground train drivers in London are in.
However, probably more important is Sadiq Khan’s mayor and a deterioration of transport in London will have a negative impact on the Labour vote. Second, TfL is a public sector(ish) organisation and so can be hit hard whereas the train companies like Go-Ahead can post “profits” and pay dividends after receiving massive subsidies from government.
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Drawback of having lots of choice on the telly is I get to watch stuff like Will Greenwood’s Lions Podcast or something or other in which he’s allowing that wanker Alastair Campbell to Lionswash his reputation, despite the warmonger being part of the most dismal Lions management team this century (or ever, probably).
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That (wanker) Alastair Campbell?
*goes for a shower*
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That guy.
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Oh, THAT guy.
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No, the other guy
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Plenty to pick from.
Rassie Erasmus has made some interesting observations about the upcoming tour. Notably that he’s fairly confident about the Lions because whilst the Boks haven’t played a Test since late 2019 against England (anyone remember that match?), the Lions as a unit haven’t played together in 5 years, so there’s no real advantage to either side on that score. However, injury permitting (big if in some positions), 30 of the 33 that were in the World Cup squad (that’s it – now I remember the match) will be available for the tour with only Beast, Francois Louw and Schalk Brits having retired in the interim, so the guys know each other pretty well, know the systems and should be able to pick things up pretty quickly.
He also mentioned that with SAle and other clubs in the NH having picked up quite a few of those World Cup winning Boks (It’s All Coming Back To Me Now!) a good core of the side will be as battle hardened as the Lions, and will know their individual qualities pretty well too (the reverse is obviously the same).
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Such glimmers of optimism will only make the inevitable defeat all the more painful Deebee. Best just to accept the doom.
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God Chimpie, I’m not Scots you know!
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Well, that shocking admission seems to have stunned the notablog.
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………..why? – most people would say similar……………………….
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Never ask someone if they are Scottish, if they are they will have made it obvious by now, if they are not you are only going to make them feel bad about themselves.
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And on that bombshell….
Time furra read back.
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That article is behind a subscription paywall, unfortunately.
Margot Wells coached a 100m Olympic champion before taking on rugby players, including the legend that is The Hask.
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Ticht – it was more the pronouncement that Jonny is a deep thinking renaissance man.
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Just like to say fuck tfl.
Cheers.
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Hask liked to model himself as a Warrior-Poet, or Poet-Warrior, so anything is possible,
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Beavers in the news
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Jonny Renaissance sounds like an adult entertainment star.
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‘entertainment’
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Not sure an adult star could spell Renaissance. Unless they’re not all pub meathead types.
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England have done well in this session, taking four wickets and keeping the runs down. Not Microsoft $315bn profit and not a cent of tax well, but pretty well nonetheless.
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