The new English Premiership season kicks off tonight with Bristol v Saracens. No doubt I speak for all of humanity when I say that I hope that home advantage bears up.
We also have some forrin matches, far away, between minor sides, and some Women’s World Cup matches.
Onna telly this week
Friday 17th September
Bristol v Saracens
19:45
BT Sport 1
Saturday 18th September
Australia v South Africa
08:05
Sky Sports Arena
Argentina v New Zealand
11:05
Sky Sports Arena
Castres v Bordeaux
14:00
Premier Sports 2
Leicester v Exeter
15:00
BT Sport 1
Montpellier v Toulouse
16:00
Premier Sports 2
Clermont v La Rochelle
20:05
Premier Sports 1
Sunday 19th September
Italy v Ireland (women’s WC)
14:00
Facebook / YouTube
Newcastle v Harlequins
15:00
BT Sport 1
Spain v Scotland (women’s WC)
17:00
BBC iPlayer/ Alba
Toulon v Stade Français
20:05
Premier Sports 2
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184 thoughts on “The Return of the League of *cough* Gentlemen”
I’m not sure the Irish Folk Tradition has taken Waltzing Matilda as their own, OT. A lot of Irish artists perform but they wouldn’t claim it as “(Irish traditional)”.
“As you know the Irish folk tradition loves nicking other songs and taking them as their own.:”
My thinking on this is that The Dubs, The Fureys, The Clancys etc were so successful and well-liked that the songs they made popular were synonymous with that particular expression of Irishness, they were ground-breaking in many ways and especially so in the US where they had huge followings in the likes of Boston and New York.
Similarly Planxty and the Bothy Band are still the benchmarks for dance music as played for concert hall gig crowds.
Eric Bogle played a blinder there by calling the fallen soldier “Willie McBride”. It meant the Fureys couldn’t help but record it and Bogle was laughing all the way to the bank.
Was once in a bar in Westport (I think it was) with Mrs CMW. She got chatting in French to some French people who had no English and when the band leader asked for requests they asked her to ask for Dirty Old Town on their behalf as they were worried about making themselves understood. He turned down this request which is obviously entirely fair enough, but on the slightly spurious grounds that ‘the Town’s not dirty any more’. I did suggest that she go back up and ask him which town he thought the song was about, but for some reason she was unwilling.
@Tomp – Thanks, but I’ve used up all my free articles I’m afraid. Not sure if I maybe get more next month or not. Looks like it’s about wind turbines (?).
By the way as wrong as it seems there’s only one ‘L’ in Campbeltown, makes it one of the more commonly misspelt places. Not ‘picking you up’, I know you like to know these things.
Also from Wiki it seems some efforts went in to finding out who Willie McBride was. Turns out he rhymes with graveside.
It also tells us that “In 2009 Eric told an audience in Weymouth that he’d read about a girl who had been presented with a copy of the song by then prime minister Tony Blair, who called it “his favourite anti-war poem”. According to Eric, the framed copy of the poem credited him, but stated that he had been killed in World War I.”
Also from Wiki it seems some efforts went in to finding out who Willie McBride was. Turns out he rhymes with graveside.
To be fair he could have been called Willie Malone. It would have almost rhymed with lines 3 and 4 as well.
Oh how do you do, young Willy Malone
Do you mind if i sit here down by your gravestone
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I’ve been walking all day, and im nearly done
Chimpie, for me it’s worth a punt, I think he has a far higher potential ceiling than Jaco dW or the other two.
He was too gifted, he says himself that he didn’t have to try and he coasted a bit, having the Cockerill game plan was never going to help someone like Kinghorn, it didn’t hurt Big Duhan, but he’d have thrived anywhere given a run of fitness, the bullocking big winger who can sit locks and backrows on their arses will always do well, you don’t need a sophisticated attacking plan for the likes of him to succeed.
Kinghorn needs half a yard, he’s all about pace and he has some great hand skills. If it benefits Edinburgh then great, the back three for Scotland is probably Hogg, vdM and Maitland or Graham, with Forbes, MacDowall and McLean coming up at Glasgow, Blain looks the part on the wing for Edinburgh.
Embra have lots of cover in the back three but we need a really good ten.
A tough opener for the Weedge, the Kingspan is never an easy place to visit, Thyer is on loan from Cardiff, I don’t know anything about him tbh. The two tightheads in the squad were with Embra last season, as was Jamie Bhatti for the first half of it.
Heart says Glasgow for the win, head disagrees
one to watch from a Glasgow perspective, well two , McLean showed his stuff in that video but Rory Darge at openside is real prospect.
Ulster 3/4s are probably the strongest line up they could find – sub FR is stronger than the starters. Interesting half back/FB subs – Doak looked good in U20 6N – athough played at both 9 and 10 there (IIRC).
Exeter team to face Saints:
Hodge, Cordero, Slade, Devoto, O’Flaherty
Simmonds, Maunder
Hepburn, Yeandle, Williams
Whitty, Lonsdale
Kirsten, Armand, Tuima
Innard, Moon, Iosefa-Scott, McCauley, Tshiunza, Hidalgo-Clyne, Skinner, Whitten
Still very weak and Nowell now added to the unavailable list.
Tuima and Tshiunza = 2 future stars in the making.
Ovally Balls 
I’m not sure the Irish Folk Tradition has taken Waltzing Matilda as their own, OT. A lot of Irish artists perform but they wouldn’t claim it as “(Irish traditional)”.
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@OT – you can add to that list the other Eric Bogle number “No Man’s Land” (aka “Green Fields of France”)
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“As you know the Irish folk tradition loves nicking other songs and taking them as their own.:”
My thinking on this is that The Dubs, The Fureys, The Clancys etc were so successful and well-liked that the songs they made popular were synonymous with that particular expression of Irishness, they were ground-breaking in many ways and especially so in the US where they had huge followings in the likes of Boston and New York.
Similarly Planxty and the Bothy Band are still the benchmarks for dance music as played for concert hall gig crowds.
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I could be talking shite, mind
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@trisk
Eric Bogle played a blinder there by calling the fallen soldier “Willie McBride”. It meant the Fureys couldn’t help but record it and Bogle was laughing all the way to the bank.
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Was once in a bar in Westport (I think it was) with Mrs CMW. She got chatting in French to some French people who had no English and when the band leader asked for requests they asked her to ask for Dirty Old Town on their behalf as they were worried about making themselves understood. He turned down this request which is obviously entirely fair enough, but on the slightly spurious grounds that ‘the Town’s not dirty any more’. I did suggest that she go back up and ask him which town he thought the song was about, but for some reason she was unwilling.
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CMW,
There was a long article out about Campbelltown a couple of months back:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n14/james-meek/who-holds-the-welding-rod
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@Tomp – Thanks, but I’ve used up all my free articles I’m afraid. Not sure if I maybe get more next month or not. Looks like it’s about wind turbines (?).
By the way as wrong as it seems there’s only one ‘L’ in Campbeltown, makes it one of the more commonly misspelt places. Not ‘picking you up’, I know you like to know these things.
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The thing I like about the Campbeltown Wikipedia entry is the table of contents that begins 1. Whisky.
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I can send it to you via thaum if you’d like. (Or even give you a free 6 months’ worth of issues).
I see the name Campbell a lot so that spelling mistake is down to me.
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Also from Wiki it seems some efforts went in to finding out who Willie McBride was. Turns out he rhymes with graveside.
It also tells us that “In 2009 Eric told an audience in Weymouth that he’d read about a girl who had been presented with a copy of the song by then prime minister Tony Blair, who called it “his favourite anti-war poem”. According to Eric, the framed copy of the poem credited him, but stated that he had been killed in World War I.”
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@Tomp – Either would be good. I would like to read it, always interested in C’town’s media presence.
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@cmw
To be fair he could have been called Willie Malone. It would have almost rhymed with lines 3 and 4 as well.
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And did you know it is Eric Bogle’s 77th birthday today?
http://www.australianmusicdatabase.com/people/eric-bogle
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Went to Dublin’s newest tourist attraction today.
It’s an answer to the Blarney Stone. It’s a stone outside the Amazon headquarters. If you kiss it, you pay zero tax.
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Gloucester Rugby
15. Kyle Moyle
14. Tom Seabrook *
13. Billy Twelvetrees
12. Mark Atkinson
11. Ollie Thorley *
10. Lloyd Evans *
9. Ben Meehan
1. Harry Elrington
2. Jack Singleton
3. Fraser Balmain
4. Ed Slater
5. Andrew Davidson
6. Ben Morgan
7. Lewis Ludlow (c) *
8. Ruan Ackermann
16. Henry Walker *
17. Jamal Ford-Robinson
18. Kirill Gotovtsev
19. Freddie Clarke *
20. Wian Conradie
21. Jack Clement *
22. Stephen Varney *
23. Adam Hastings
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Adam Hastings’ move south is going well, then.
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On the bench covering full back? Ouch
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Shoulda come to Embra
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On the subject of Embra not entirely convinced of this converting horn blairking to 10.
Yes yes I know he was originally at 10 but he’s always looked best to me on the wing for Scotland but a decent enough prowoo level full back.
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Will also mean even less game time for Chamberlain / Savala. Squad planning can leave a lot to be desired.
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Chimpie, for me it’s worth a punt, I think he has a far higher potential ceiling than Jaco dW or the other two.
He was too gifted, he says himself that he didn’t have to try and he coasted a bit, having the Cockerill game plan was never going to help someone like Kinghorn, it didn’t hurt Big Duhan, but he’d have thrived anywhere given a run of fitness, the bullocking big winger who can sit locks and backrows on their arses will always do well, you don’t need a sophisticated attacking plan for the likes of him to succeed.
Kinghorn needs half a yard, he’s all about pace and he has some great hand skills. If it benefits Edinburgh then great, the back three for Scotland is probably Hogg, vdM and Maitland or Graham, with Forbes, MacDowall and McLean coming up at Glasgow, Blain looks the part on the wing for Edinburgh.
Embra have lots of cover in the back three but we need a really good ten.
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mention of McLean gives me an excuse to post this again.
Cheslin who?
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Ulster v Glasgow tonight
Ulster: E McIlroy; R Baloucoune, J Hume, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, J Cooney; A Warwick, B Roberts, M Moore, A O’Connor, S Carter©, G Jones, S Reidy, N Timoney. Substitutes: R Herring, E O’Sullivan, T O’Toole, M Kearney, M Rea, N Doak, M Lowry, W Addison.
Glasgow Warriors 15-1
C Forbes; K Steyn, S Tuipulotu, S Johnson, R McLean; D Weir, G Horne; B Thyer, J Matthews, S Berghan, S Cummings, R Gray, R Wilson©, R Darge, J Dempsey. Substitutes: F Brown, J Bhatti, M McCallum, L Bean, R Harley, J Dobie, R Thompson, O Smith.
A tough opener for the Weedge, the Kingspan is never an easy place to visit, Thyer is on loan from Cardiff, I don’t know anything about him tbh. The two tightheads in the squad were with Embra last season, as was Jamie Bhatti for the first half of it.
Heart says Glasgow for the win, head disagrees
one to watch from a Glasgow perspective, well two , McLean showed his stuff in that video but Rory Darge at openside is real prospect.
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I forgot to take out the 15-1 after Glasgow, they’ve done the stupid thing of naming the backs 15 to 9, then the pack 1 to 8,
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Ulster 3/4s are probably the strongest line up they could find – sub FR is stronger than the starters. Interesting half back/FB subs – Doak looked good in U20 6N – athough played at both 9 and 10 there (IIRC).
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Embra’s injury list is shortening, Ben Toolis and Hamish Watson are the two who would have made the team but for knocks, probably Chris Dean at 12 too
A new head coach, a new stadium, an experimental fly half transitioning from fullback – what could possibly go wrong?
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Exeter team to face Saints:
Hodge, Cordero, Slade, Devoto, O’Flaherty
Simmonds, Maunder
Hepburn, Yeandle, Williams
Whitty, Lonsdale
Kirsten, Armand, Tuima
Innard, Moon, Iosefa-Scott, McCauley, Tshiunza, Hidalgo-Clyne, Skinner, Whitten
Still very weak and Nowell now added to the unavailable list.
Tuima and Tshiunza = 2 future stars in the making.
Saints to win, I fear.
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Hmm, Blairsy has gone full attack. Interesting times
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Guardian writing something interesting at last:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/sep/24/rugby-union-jimmy-gopperth-wasps-premiership
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New post once I’ve typed in all the fixtures, which may take a while!
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New post
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