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 
Back to the present day, though, and an early statement from another of the health secretary’s aides – disguised as an unnamed “friend” of Matt Hancock – would only say of the sensational revelation that “no rules have been broken”. Hancock himself has since said he accepts “that I breached the social distancing guidance”, which is one way of putting it; while this morning, he had his honour defended by Grant Shapps. Which doesn’t exactly feel like the Kitemark. Arguably the only way this story could now be more dignified is if a “friend” suggested that the health secretary had – out of an abundance of caution – used a tongue condom.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/25/matt-hancock-sex-cop-busted-clinch-health-secretary-hookups
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Ugh, that was a bad bit of defence
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@chimpie
Hancock is now effectively neutered if he tries blocking the lifting of restrictions in future. As soon as he gets in BoJo’s way he gets the sack
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Here’s hoping Matt Hancock never comes to a blog meet.
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Red card for the England 7. Heid on heid
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@craigs
some good D from England but inept attacking from Scotland
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OT – that’s just unpleasant.
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Was away for a bit. Zinzan Brooke’s boy got himself sent off for England. England were already down to 14 thanks to a yellow card. Good defence by the English kept Scotland out for 5 minutes. Before the Baby Thistles get over to bring it to 24-12 with around 10 minutes left.
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Finally over the line. 24-12
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And in classic Scotland fashion they fluff the retake, hand possession to England who do a nice cross field kick and are in for another
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England take about 3 seconds to score a try from a good cross kick.
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Meh. England been better overall. A few decent players in this team but not got the quality across the squad.
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A pat on the heid gets a scrum reversed for a penalty. Would like to see more of that. Although not against my team
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This ref gave an Italian lad a card for swearing last Saturday.
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A good Scottish try to finish the match.
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Possibly in for a consolation
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Or not. Half a heel in touch.
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Ah poop, foot in touch.
That was the best bit of Scotland play all match.
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I’m sure that Hancock’s snog behind the bike sheds is the last straw for many people re social distancing. In fact I’m pretty sure that’s happened already.
I don’t really talk about it here but I was doing BJJ before the lock down and recently restarted. There’s no requirement for masks just hand sanitisers. On a given day you might train/grapple with up to 3 people which is all within the current rules.
We just had a gazillion footbaw fans from Scotland come to London and, whilst arrests were made, the police couldn’t really do anything. If enough people don’t follow the rules then they may as well not be there.
We should just get the jabs into people ASAP and open up imo. The flu is going go ape shit this winter too apparently.
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Basically, let’s go full Texas.
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Never go full Texas
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I know what ‘BJ’ stands for, but what’s the second J?
The flu will only go ape if people are idiots. There was almost no flu last year.
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Thaum – Brazilian Ju-jitsu. The flu will be hard to avoid with kids at school.
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I’m going full Texas.
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People around here aren’t going crazy yet. Partially ‘cos covid is obviously circulating & even increasing. A lot of schools have sent pupils home recently & I know a few people in the area who have it. Talk of full normality is a bit early if you ask me. Hey ho.
I don’t even really care that much about Hancock’s dalliances, Just more evidence of him being a massive liar and hypocrite. More concerned about the incompetence and sordid political games that are going on instead of governing in the national interest. Wonder who leaked the CCTV footage?
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‘I’m going full Texas.’
Yee-haw!
Getting a massive truck, doing some voter repression and shooting lots of stuff?
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or is it some kind of variation on the brazilian.
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@thauma
I think I know why this was and it turns out a well known seasonal respiratory phenomenon. Apparently one strain of ‘flu’ dominates the rest every year, which is why flu jabs are annual and are given fairly late in the year (basically they don’t know which one will dominate until late summer/early autumn). And the one that dominates one year is unlikely to dominate the next year. The dominant virus last winter (in both hemispheres) was Covid-19 so that dominated all “flu” viruses. And because we don’t class it as flu, it looked like we cured it.
It’s exactly like how one variant of covid dominates all others (I think it was one from France most of last year, then Kent, then Indian).
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OT – well, my thought was that it’s less transmissible than Covid, so with everyone distancing, sanitising & wearing masks, it didn’t get passed on.
Craigs – Going Full Texas is inviting the virus to mutate into something even nastier.
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Oh, and I’ll be sure to send Hancock an invitation to the next meet-up. We’ll tell him it’s to watch the racing. Maybe Brenda will turn up too.
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I’ve just bought a ranch and declared it my own separate country.
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OT – if that’s the case then we just have to learn to live with it Shirley? I knowni probably sound like a Keir hating pub landlord but we can’t keep locking down forever.
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* know i
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Just sitting on my porch with my AR-15. Glock strapped to my side. Barbed wire electric fence already set up. Inside I have an a plethora of crossbows, flash bangs and machetes. Bbq is ready.
Ahhhh freedom.
Think I may have gone full Texas about a month ago.
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*whispers quietly*
I preferred Austin to Seattle.
Sssshhhhhh.
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Not been to either. Houston is a shitehole though
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I wouldn’t say it was that bad, but Bridge of Weir is nicer.
Oh. You meant the AMERICAN Houston?
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63 minutes on the clock and Italy Under 20s on the attack, scrum in the centre field 10 metres out. Match score is France 13 Italy 8.
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Sadly, France win a penalty at the scrum. Still time for the Bambini.
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6 minutes left. 11-13. Italy playing well. France very poor by their exalted standards.
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France give a penalty away with 2 minutes left. It’s about 45 metres out on an angle.
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The kick just slides wide. Heart-breaker.
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Dallas is a complete and utter shithole. And I say this as someone who lived in Detroit for a loooong time.
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France run the clock out.
Player of the match was Italy’s Lorenzo Cannone. He had to give a post-match interview in English. It was a bit beyond him so the interview lasted 1 question and that was that.
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Lovely Dallas song:
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R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcok and Billy Bragg version:
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Great sense of occasion for the T14 final
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For Kaino to be in this match at age 38 is quite something, he can’t be on the beers too often
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