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 
Happy birthday Slade!
Seems like all the best people are having birthdays over the next week or so.
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Happy birthday Slade 🎂
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Chris Froome finished 121st in today’s time trial – almost 1 minute slower than Mark Cavendish – cruel but still amazing, considering his injuries
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Happy birthday, Slade!
BB – you couldn’t be more right (a week today).
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Next Monday for me.
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It’s one thing mentioning it on the day to get a few happy birthdays out of us, but this giving a week’s notification business has a whiff of touting for cards and gifts…
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I think it’s fine, CMW. We get to know when the best people’s birthdays are. And we also find out when BB celebrates another year passing.
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Happy Birthday Slade. Big Dan Biggar is lovely.
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I thought the Lionz looked scruffy against Japan, from the kit onwards.
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And the years are passing too bloody quickly….
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“Big Dan Biggar”?? – he looked surprisingly small next to (our) Courtney Lawes in the team photo after the game vs. Japan.
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BB
I find that, as I get older, time passes more quickly and I seem to get less done
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Hopefully in a couple of years Mrs BB and I will be able to get off the old work treadmill – if things like finance, health and pandemics allow.
I suspect she’s already working on ‘A List’…..
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good luck – and get off as early as you can!
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Life off the treadmill can be boring, in case that helps anyone.
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Hey Utna, glad you popped in. Did you watch the Premiership final ? That was a pretty good game of rugby I thought.
Watched both Origin games, NSW do look good, Cleary top of his game, and I always thought Tommy Turbo and James Tedesco were good but not quite as good as made out, they have both looked stunning over the last month + . Turbo has singlehandedly dragged Manly up the table. Outrageous. Queensland just looked horribly disjointed. Difficult to watch British League for me now, look forward every week to being disappointed by the Raiders again.
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Thanks Iks for your cheerful and uplifting message.
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The taxman’s just given me a grand back for not having bothered to get back on the treadmill yet.
The Little One told me yesterday I’m not to get a job as if I do she’ll have nobody to self-isolate with the next time nursery school or school gets Covid. Great times.
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Oh and Happy Birthday Slade!
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Happy Birthday to Slade.
Only a rugby mother could love Dan Biggar.
Having said that, it’s not his playing , it’s his constant moaning his puss off at the ref that does my head in about him.
I say that a someone who constantly moans his puss off at refs from the sidelines, but that is allowed
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Rumsfeld deid. Now he doesn’t know shit.
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Really wouldn’t mind getting off the treadmill.
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My theory on time passing more quickly is that proportionally each additional year is less than the sum total of what went before. That’s why when you were 10 summers lasted forever because it was 5% (a full year being 10%) of your previous life And it’s why my 5 year old always asks when his birthday is.
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Been off the treadmill for 3 months now. Haven’t got bored yet. Should probably start looking for a new treadmill some time soon, though.
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Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. I feel I need them this year – the number of candles is very large………..
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Somebody asked the other day if there is a ‘Bru comp for the Test season. Here we go:
https://www.superbru.com/july_internationals/play_tipping.php?r=1&sbtkD179DD=0A015DAC92112665269B2E14B10A50A8
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Craigs, it has a name that theory -Proportional Theory. There’s also the idea that as a kid you experience more new things so that makes time seem to be stretched out.
On the other hand, time flies when you’re having fun.
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Also, 6-month summers?
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It’s one of the things I like about fiction, the way it plays with perceptions of time. In perhaps my favourite passage in recent fiction I’ve read Javier Marias luxuriates in 150 pages to describe a 10-minute scene. It’s brilliant. Have just read John Lanchester’s The Wall and in that he talks a lot about time spent doing a job that involves watching and how the character’s way of thinking about time changes. Have got Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds to read as well, which is about time and memory.
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Scottish-born Finlay Christie to make his debut for the All Blacks at the weekend v Tonga:
15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Quinn Tupaea, 11 George Bridge, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Brad Weber, 8 Luke Jacobson, 7 Dalton Papalii, 6 Akira Ioane, 5 Sam Whitelock (c), 4 Scott Barrett, 3 Angus Ta’avao, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Karl Tu’inukuafe.
Subs: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 George Bower, 18 Tyrel Lomax, 19 Patrick Tuipulotu, 20 Ethan Blackadder, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Beauden Barrett, 23 Jordie Barrett.
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Typical, the Kiwis have plundered the Island stocks for years and now they’re turning their attention to other sources of cheap, high quality rugby players desperate for a dime.
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Rumsfeld dead. Shame he didn’t live long enough to discover whether there were WMDs in Iraq. Still at least he shares that with the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in his illegal war.
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“Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. I feel I need them this year – the number of candles is very large………..”
That reminds me of a Stanley Baxter line, he was at a birthday party, “I don’t know what age she was, but the heat from the cake was tremendous”.
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Hrmm, I was going to keep this light, but I have to mention that Saddam was personally responsible for the torture and murder of a quarter of a million Iraqis.
His death squads would execute people in front of their families who were made to applaud the act. They operated rape rooms as terror and conducted a genocidal regime against the Marsh Arabs, the obliteration of their homeland could be seen from space.
This isn’t a justification for the way the war was perpetrated, but I wasn’t unhappy to see the back of the murderous prick, he was on the All Time Great list of evil fuckers.
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Yeah, I wasn’t a fan either.
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Anyway, here’s a pic of Donny and Saddo in happier times:
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Tomp – guestimating. Couldn’t shake the feeling that summers lasted from April to September in my yoof. I didn’t know it was an actual thing though. Although I think it happens to people even when nothing new is experienced. For example a prisoner who raped loads of women might suddenly find themselves released waaaay before they had any reasonable hope of it happening.
On a similar note Michael Pollan spoke about the experience of new things in How to Change Your Mind. (From my simplistic recollection) Kids brains do not have a developed ‘Default Mode Network’ (which regulates howuch information gets experienced in consciousness) and therefore every new experience is wonderous to them. Later in life the DMN constrains the amount of information entering the child’s consciousness as a survival strategy and everything becomes more mundane. Something like that.
Going on holiday to a completely different culture shocks this temporarily and provides a new sense of awe. As does tripping. Apparently children below a certain age are basically tripping all the time. Probably.
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Ticht – agree. Donald could have just said that though.
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Problem with overthrowing a murderous bastard like Saddam – same applies to Ghaddafi, Assad, Bashir in Sudan and other long-term dictators – is what you replace them with. Generally, the institutions of the country have been completely hollowed out, they stay in power by co-opting different power elites and playing them off against each other, bankrupt their countries and more generally ruin them for whatever follows. Removing them violently (usually the only way they go) opens a Pandora’s Box immediately which is almost impossible to deal with. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
This is not a defence of Rumsfeld or anyone else involved in Iraq, Syria, Libya etc, it’s a criticism that there is generally little or no planning around what follows the overthrow, other than boots on the ground.
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Deebs – it’s almost like we had no experience of doing that before…. except with the Japanese, Germans and Italians.
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@craigs
Well, put it this way. After I moved to your neck of the woods I didn’t wear a coat for 2 years, so it might be because leafy Middlesex/Surrey is quite mild.
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A quick read of Imperial Life in the Emerald City might show what the Americans actually did in Iraq after in 2003.
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Craigs, exactly. Nick the best scientists and turn a blind eye to other people’s pasts. It’s the only way forward.
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@tomp
And machine tools. One of the reasons* Germany and did so well after the war was because we nicked their factory assets, which meant they had to get new, better stuff while we used their soon-to-be-obsolete machinery.
*Main reason is, of course, shed loads of US investment and writing off loans.
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And some cleverness regarding the currency.
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Tomp – wasn’t there a lot of ‘deprogramming’ as well. Agree it wasn’t perfect but it was more successful.
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And my point being is that we had experience even if a lot of ‘mistakes’ were made.
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@craigs
“Hey Wernher, tell you what. Tell us how to build a rocket and we won’t put you on trial at Nuremberg”
“Ok, that sounds great! Here you go…”
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Of the general population you numpties.
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The Americans are crap at fighting wars and not very good at winning the peace either. They have a better record when they sub-contract the mass slaughter of people to lads like Suharto, Rioss Montt and Pinochet.
What they are good at is photo-ops and claiming the war is won.
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