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 
@Refitman
Politely…………….Bo@@ocks!
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Watching Wales play footie in their change strip is almost like watching Australia.
Although not that close, ‘cos Wales are winning.
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C’mon Wales! Under the cosh a bit at the moment. Weather the storm and get another!
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Ha ha BB! Bale had a very Aus rugby hairdo too.
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Bit of a knee to the nose there. Ouch!
What was with the Irish Fin (not Finn) earlier? Was quite a hoot seeing an O’Shaugnessy amongst all the Russian and Finnish names.
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Wonderful Wales! Brilliant stuff!
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Well that was tense. Every time I think Bale isn’t THAT good (like when he’s taking penalties) he comes up with something just different to anybody else. Lovely bit of skill to set up the second goal for Wales.
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Deebee, Irish dad, Finnish mother. His brother’s called Paddy. His English is good – cos he’s Finnish – but he’s got an accent. This is an interview he gave a few years back:
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Good win by Wales. We looked pretty calm and have 2 brilliant players and a few other good ones so have a chance.
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Thought Ramsey was excellent tonight (if that’s the other player you mean).
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He’s the one. The first goal was really really good.
Joe Allen is below their level but also good. Dan James decent.
Am pleased we pick a goalkeeper who never plays club games over the Nazi idiot.
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SA Under 20 team to play Uruguay on Friday:
Junior Springboks – 15 Quan Horn, 14 Canaan Moodie, 13 Ethan James, 12 Tyler Bocks, 11 Curwin Gertse, 10 Brandon Wilkie, 9 Bobby Alexander, 8 Izan Esterhuizen, 7 Reinhardt Ludwig, 6 Sasko Ndluvo (c), 5 Dylan de Leeuw, 4 Raynard Roets, 3 Blaine Golden, 2 Jacques Goosen, 1 Nolan Pienaar.
Subs (from): Andre-Hugo Venter, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Corne Weilbach (nominated front row), Simon Miller, Rynard Mouton, Siyambuka Ningiza, George Cronje, Bradley Davids, Kian Meadon, Mnqobi Mkhize, Dalvon Blood.
6 of the 7 starting backs went to school in Paarl in the Western Province. 9,11 and 13 are from Paarl Gim and are superb players.
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in the Western Cape not in the Western Province.
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Lovely goal Italy!
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Tom Youngs may have to spend some time living this down. So to speak.
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Another lovely Italian goal!
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And a third. Italy too good.
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Wales game not at all boring! Two teams doing plenty of attacking which has not been the case in any other match I’ve seen and a lot more on it than any of the previous games as both had already played and not won. I realise Turkey are probably not that good so not necessarily expecting that much down the line for Wales, but it made for good entertainment and there was some lovely attacking play from Bale and Ramsey. Missed penalty and what passes for a scrap all added to it.
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Some very enjoyable football so far in the Euros. Teams that have been ‘boring’ (or don’t play end to end stuff) are Spain, Sweden and Germany so far. Didn’t see enough of England’s first match to comment on them (not that it usually stops me), so I’ll need to see how they fare against the might of Scotland. Been pleasantly surprised by Italy, Belgium playing attractive football, not sure about France – possibly looked a bit stilted given the opposition they played against, so looking forward to some more entertaining football before the reality of knockouts and a less adventurous style inevitably seeps into the mix.
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Should Wales beat Italy, we’ll win the Unofficial Football World Championship.
All-time most successful nation is Scotland:
https://www.ufwc.co.uk/rankings/
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Didn’t see a single euro game, although the big ones are on free TV. Too many teams make the so called pool stage irrelevant. Every big team will qualify, mostly trying to avoid injuries and we’ll only get games with something at stake much later.
On the other hand, T14 SF on Friday and Saturday, around 9pm.
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LaR vs Racing on Friday. Titanic forwards battle. Hard to call. Home crowd might make the difference.
Toulouse-Bordeaux on Saturday. Toulouse should win this.
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@Flair – I agree that there are too many teams there and it does make a lot of the group games a bit of a waste of time – the ones with something on them are really only going to be the ones involving teams that might go out. Wales-Turkey featured two such teams and was all the better for it. There might be the odd surprise for the big teams though – must be some sort of chance of Germany not making out of the group for example.
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Keir Starmer picks ‘Stronger Together’ slogan used by Hillary Clinton to rebrand
Seriously, wtf.
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What kind of party are you where the branding of the one who lost to trump is seen as some kind of upgrade?
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I propose No gain in keeping, no loss in weeding out when this slogan fails.
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Should have gone with Jeremy Thorpe’s ‘one more heave’
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Chimpie – the Labour Party need to bite the bullet and hire a decent marketing dept. The branding has been shit for years.
I really want to go back to Cambodia now that I used a Khmer Rouge slogan. Which is a bit weird if I’m honest.
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Tomp – I feel like we always argue when I talk about this but it’s a shit slogan right?
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That made me look (sad case that I am) for bad political slogans. Some classics from the past:
‘Vote for Al Smith and Make all your wet dreams come true’. A slightly disturbing one from prohibition era New York
‘I’m not a witch, I’m you’ Err, OK (Christine O’Donnell, a Republican in the US)
‘I’ll do my best but I can’t promise anything’ my favourite – a local election in the Philippines.
‘he killed my ma, he killed my pa, I’ll vote for him’ downright sinister – Charles Taylor used this in the 1997 Liberian presidential elections. He killed a lot of people & used this as a kind of threat of starting civil war again. Won him the election.
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In other news:
‘one journalist shouts: “Are you hopeless Mr Hancock?”
“I don’t think so,” replies Mr Hancock, who is wearing a Union Jack face mask.’
That’s that settled then.
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It must be a strange existence knowing your function is being a meat shield to a colossally incompetent sociopath.
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Chimpie – can we be sure it wasn’t a face mask tattoo?
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“Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government.”
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“Stronger together”
Meaningless, vacuous drivel. Slide 37 in the Powerpoint presentation a dumped boyfriend has put together to try to persuade his ex that they should give it another chance.
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CMW, sorry you’re right, I forgot games like Wales /Turkey.
Doubt Germany won’t make it. Beat Hungary, and they’ll be through, at worst as among the best third . Same for Portugal. The so called group of death ( including France) is nothing of the sort.
I’d suggest that before investing in marketing their “product”, the Labour party first know and define their product and find a credible person to give it flesh. If the product is neither meat nor fish, how can you sell it?
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Onto proverbs now.
‘Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner’
Going to keep this one to hand when it comes to my next appraisal. I’m not a prisoner!
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craigs, “For the many, not the few” is good.
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‘The fruit of silence is tranquillity’
A great one to start off meetings with
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Well, I like
‘I’ll do my best but I can’t promise anything’
Truthful, earnest, honest…..
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“Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man. ”
Iain Duncan Smith. Whose determination to remain Conservative leader lasted another 4 weeks.
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These are good: https://www.dailyedge.ie/gas-election-posters-ireland-1454769-May2014/
Apart from their top pick, my favourite is probably number 12:
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Tomp – Spock?
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My favourite is your man with his dogs…. they know him too well to be impressed. (actually, that’s not far from here – although I can’t recall him at all)
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@tomp
As well as being hilarious some of them are absolute genius. Basic tenet of advertising is that you’ve got to make the public remember you – what they’ve done is made sure the person wandering into the polling booth to cast their vote remembers who they are when they read the names. So you’ll get some people voting for you purely on the recognition heuristic alone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_heuristic
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“I don’t think so,” replies Mr Hancock
Was the emphasis on the ‘I’ or the ‘don’t’? Or has the reporter misplaced the comma, so it should read “I don’t think, so…”
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‘put willie in’? Jayzus
I like the Don’t give a Feck Party One. ‘I promise I’ll do nothing for you…. And promise my best to do it’.
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OT,
I find it hard to understand how the USSR lost the Cold War:
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And if you can’t get to Greece on your hols this summer let Costa Cordalis transport you there:
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