Since there’s nothing else worth watching this weekend (Ulster’s season having finished), Flair99 has some top tips on Top14 matches:
Three intriguing games in France this week-end.
Friday at 20:45: Racing vs Stade Français
The winner gets to the semi, the loser goes on vacation (about time). So Paris vs Paris, about 5kms separate their two stadia. Subplot, Fickou who played 90% of the season for Stade now plays for Racing. Probable winner: Racing.
Saturday 17:45: Biarritz vs Bayonne
Biarritz, ProD2 finalist, host Bayonne, who finished 13th in the T14. About 5kms between the two towns. Winner stays – or climbs – to the T14, loser goes down or remains in ProD2. The biggest game in the Basque country since Asterix. Winner? Who knows, probably Bayonne.
Saturday 20:45: Bordeaux vs Clermont. The other QF.
Probable winner, Bordeaux.
LaR and Toulouse lie in wait.
And so does Galthié who’ll fly to Australia without his skipper (Ollivon sidelined for about 6 months) and all the players involved in the T14 final (they may play only in the third test).
And Deebee7‘s take on the SA squad picked to play the Lions:
Actually in terms of Bok selection, I think Lizo Gqoboka should be in ahead of Coenie Oosthuizen who’s scrummaging technique has always been suspect. As one scribe here put it, he’s been off the Bok radar for so long he may need a visa to get into the camp. Of the newcomers in the Bok set up, I love Joseph Dweba’s all-action style of play, I believe Jasper Wiese has been in excellent form for Tiggers, Wandisile Simelane is a classy operator in an otherwise journeyman Lions outfit, Aphelele Fassi is fast and exciting, whilst Rosko Specman is electric with ball in hand and has great 7s experience. The ones I’m not sure about are Yaw Penxe from the Sharks who has oodles of pace, but little else (so did Mapimpi to be fair before Rassie got his positional play and defence up to scratch) and I have no idea about Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg from Montpellier as a lock.
The squad has been picked with not just the two Georgia and 3 BIL Tests in mind, but also the SA ‘A’ side that will face the Lions, so I think some of the selections are expressly with that in mind – have the players in the Bok bosom, up until the SA ‘A’ match, so that they’re part of the structures and plans should any of them be called upon because of injury in the main squad. My pick for that SA ‘A’ side would be something like this, with F Steyn covering 10, 12 and 15, and Damian Willemse covering 10 and 15 as well. Think I’ve gone 5-3 split which is probably not what Rassie and Nienaber will do, but hey ho. So you could probably drop one of F Steyn or Willemse from the backs and put Rynard Elstadt in as an auxiliary loose forward.
The Lions should deal with that combination fairly easily given that it’s a scratch side, but there are some exciting players who’ll be looking to make a mark for the future and potentially the last two Tests and the 4N after that.
Props:
Thomas du Toit (Cell C Sharks, 12 caps, 0 pts)
Vincent Koch (Saracens, 21 caps, 0 pts)
Ox Nché (Cell C Sharks, 1 cap, 0 pts)
Coenie Oosthuizen (Sale Sharks, 30 caps, 20 pts)
Hookers:
Joseph Dweba (Bordeaux-Bègles, uncapped)
Scarra Ntubeni (DHL Stormers, 1 cap, 0 pts)
Locks:
Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg (Montpellier, uncapped)
Marvin Orie (DHL Stormers, 3 caps, 0 pts)
Jean-Luc du Preez (Sale Sharks, 13 caps, 10 pts) – I believe he’s played largely at lock this season?
Loose forwards:
Dan du Preez (Sale Sharks, 4 caps, 0 pts)
Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo, 6 caps, 0 pts)
Marco van Staden (Bulls, 3 caps, 0 pts)
Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers, uncapped)
Scrumhalves:
Sanele Nohamba (Cell C Sharks, uncapped)
Cobus Reinach (Montpellier, 14 caps, 30 pts) (difficult choice between him and H Jantjies as to who is 3rd choice behind Faf at the moment)
Flyhalf:
Morne Steyn (Bulls, 66 caps, 736 pts)
Midfielders:
Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles, 46 caps, 60 pts) (Kriel to move to 12 or F Steyn to start there?)
Wandisile Simelane (Emirates Lions, uncapped)
Frans Steyn (Toyota Cheetahs, 67 caps, 141 pts)
Outside Backs:
Aphelele Fassi (Cell C Sharks, uncapped)
Sbu Nkosi (Cell C Sharks, 11 caps, 40 pts)
Rosko Specman (Toyota Cheetahs, uncapped)
Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers, 6 caps, 5 pts)
Onna telly this week
Friday 11th June
| Brumbies v Highlanders | 10:45 | Rugbypass |
| Zebre v Munster | 18:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Racing 92 v Stade Français | 19:45 | FreeSports / Premier Sports 2 |
| Leinster v Dragons | 20:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 12th June
| Rebels v Crusaders | 05:35 | Rugbypass |
| Bues v Western Force | 08:05 | Rugbypass |
| Waratahs v Chiefs | 10:45 | Rugbypass |
| Bath v Northampton | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Bristol v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Exeter v Sale | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Harlequins v Newcastle | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v Leicester | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Stormers v Lions | 15:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Sharks v Bulls | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bordeaux v Clermont | 19:45 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 13th June
| Scarlets v Edinburgh | 13:00 | Premier Sports 1 | ||
| Ealing Trailfinders v Saracens | 16:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
English Premiership features:
Exeter vs Sale: both at full strength – Sale include Tuilagi. Will be fireworks. Sale need a BP win and/or Exeter need a losing BP to secure home advantage in the semi-final repeat fixture straight afterwards.
Wasps need to beat Tigers and Bath need to beat Saints to secure top-6 finishes. Saints are safe but Tigers also need to win. Expect fireworks.
Ealing vs Saracens will give a cold shower of reality.
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Thank you, Slade!
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Lions of Joburg have had to pull out of their game in Cape Town because of Covid stuff. That game wasn’t going to affect qualification for the Rainbow Cup final as the Lions are rubbish and the Stormers can’t make first place.
So it comes down to the Sharks – Bulls game. The Bulls are 4 points ahead on the log and cuffed the Sharks a few weeks back so the Durbanites need a bonus point win to be crowned champions of SA Rainbow and thereby earn the right to take on the might Benetton, European’s best, in the final next week in Italy.
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BB (and others), one for later perhaps. I saw this and thought of you (to be honest I’ve only watched half of it so far, it’s half an hour, and whilst I realise that is only a fraction of a second in Prog terms, I haven’t found time to watch it all yet)
It’s a really good breakdown of Firth of Fifth
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Football punditry – maybe just BBC football punditry – is an absolute piece of piss. When predicting who’ll win a tournament, they basically just go for the team that won last time.
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Thanks Ticht. I’ll get to it after the footie.
Forza Italia!
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I’ve just watched a bit more, BB, it’s very heavy on the music theory, which is fine if that is what you’re watching it for.
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Allez Finn
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Well, that didn’t take long. The BBC in their ‘Let’s Look at The Home Nations’ slot had a nice section on Wales followed by discussion in the studio, an interview with Gareth Southgate (although someone should tell Gareth that England isn’t an island) followed by discussion in the studio. Scotland? It’s good to see Scotland back says Gary, here’s an interview with the manager, followed by …..
…no discussion and straight on to England.
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Fickou in for an early score
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Historically, that makes sense. They’re right to focus on the country that always qualifies from its group in finals tournaments and to mention England.
This is a tricky tournament for me. England have now proved themselves to be Marxists so I kinda of want them to do well – obviously not to win it. Scotland I always like but, y’know, they’re Scotland.
The main problem is I’m out of the football loop and don’t know enough of the players.
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Match ball taken on to the pitch in a toy car! For shame in Italy, it’s a VW.
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Racing 14-0 up at, er, 14 minutes.
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BB – and Norn Iron? Mentioned at all?
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thaum, they didn’t qualify this time, unfortunately.
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Machenaud in for a third try.
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TomP – suspected as much!
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Teddy is having one of those nights.
21-0
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Stade losing their collective shit
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Second yellow for Stade F
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I think they might have a commercial arrangement with capri Sun
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This isn’t even like when Racing battered Edinburgh by 50 odd, they were magnificent then, especially Chat, they aren’t even doing much tonight
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Finn special pass
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Super pass from Russell, fourth try
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Italy getting closer.
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Hadn’t realised that the Top14 games were on Freesports (I don’t have the Premier Sports paid channels). Might be flicking between games second half, see how Finn’s doing.
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What a beautiful try by McCloskey :-)
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Better by Sau, though
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Sau is leaving Edinburgh, I can only assume we can’t afford to keep him, he has been in really good form lately
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Big Bill staying Ticht? Thought he was one who might be leaving due to finance.
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Big Duhan and Eroni Sau leaving is a huge loss for us, we have a couple of exciting-looking kids, but we lose about 100kg on the flanks
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Thereby solving Scotland’s obesity problem.
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Bill has signed on, BB, Berghan is moving over to Glasgow, Davidson is going to Glaws, but otherwise most of the first choice 18 or so furrits are staying
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Stade F are really getting stuffed. Serves them right for playing in pink.
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The one area where we could afford to lose players is the back row, if Mata and Watson moved on we’d still be okay, but we’ve splashed the cash there
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That try should stand
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It does
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Machenaud is getting a hiding, that is not the first time he’s had crap ball and made a pig’s ear of it
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Italia!
(OK a Turkey own goal, but still…)
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The comeback is on, 38-14 now
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Et un autre aussi, et Teddy Thomas binné!
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(Flair, how do you say ‘binned’ in French?)
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Blimey, it might be on, third SF try, Teddy inna bin and Racing down to 13
38-21
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A la peubelle?
(Sp?)
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Mis a la poubelle
According to google
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Italia! Italia!
Scored by an Italian this time. Don’t want Italy to score any more as I had Italy to win 2-0 in the work sweepstake.
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Well, that would be a literal translation.
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Thaum, a quick search turns up, le frigo – a player has been sent to the fridge for 10
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… A literal translation which may or may not mean the same thing.
I’m reminded of a French friend of mine who’d spent a lot of time in the US, then went to visit her granny, who asked her how she found life there. She said, On utilise beaucoup de préservatifs, thinking of the food. Unfortunately préservatifs are condoms in French.
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Ah, le frigo – that sounds right! Well found.
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