… because the Pro-Woo United Rugby Championship starts tonight! As per fucking usual, Ulster and Cardiff are scheduled to kick off at the same time, forcing a dual Premier Sports purchase. Bastards.
There is a plethora of other matches as well, so without further ado, let’s have a look at the fixtures.
20 minutes left. Can the Boks do it? Vermeulen penalised for tackle in the air. Despite ref confirming he was going for the ball. Still, too many penalties being conceded. Kiwis get the maul going but Havili knocks on. Kiwi handling had cost them today. Let’s hope it costs them dearly.
Boks get the scrum penalty. Marx down though. Not often you see that. Looks like he turned his ankle. Boks down to the 22. Penalty for sacking the maul! 16-17 and the Boks are back in front! 13 minutes left…
McKenzie clatters de Jager in the air at the restart and the Boks clear the penalty to halfway. Fat Frans on for de Allende. Kiwis get a penalty and back on the Bok 22 now. They knock on and Bok scrum in midfield. It the last 10. I can barely watch.
And they mince the Kiwi scrum! Lineout on the Kiwi 10. Boks take it through the phases but a box fucking kick and we’re on our 22. Some frenetic end to end stuff but the Kiwis get the better and it’s their throw on the Bpk 22. Inside the last five.
Stolen by de Jager again! But we give away another penalty and this time Barrett will kick with about 3 minutes left. 6 from touch, on the 10m line. Sneaks inside the post! Boks need a score inside the last 2 minutes.
Last minute, and Mostert loses it forward with Boks surging forward! All over. 19-17. All Blacks win. It was a helluva close match, but the Boks kicking when on attack in the Kiwi 22 means they probably didn’t deserve it. A missed conversion the only difference. Nienaber should’ve brought Elton Jantjies on at half time. Pollard played for too deep to use the forward momentum we generated.
Weve signed up to a sport channel for the EPL, so the 15 year old can have a hobby and reason to get out of bed every now and then. Turns out we also get a thing with it called “United Rugby”, so at last I’ll know what you’re all talking about.
Poomas Wallabies is a cracking game , White and Cooper looking good, woulda thunk it. Poomas looking a little disjointed in the backs without Sanchez, Aussie pack going toe to toe with the Argies. Brutal.
Krema foul play second time in 5 minutes, yellow card for trip,White and Cooper replaced by O’Connor and McDermott, who looks a real live wire, Aussies put the pedal down, Poomas might be in trouble here.
Stormers 8-7 up in Italy. The Bokless SA sides doing ok so far, although sterner examinations await when the focus shifts from Italy to Ireland this evening. Stormers without about 10 Boks in the SA squad at the moment. Warrick Gelant with a lovely show and go, but a forward pass with the last man away blows an almost certain try. Should’ve box kicked it.
Stormers got out to a handy lead, but as in the 1st half, Benneton are finishing stronger. 17-18, but Treviso are hammering away and final go over out wide on the left. 22-18 with the kick to come.
Benetton finished both halves stronger Ticht, with the Stormers just not clinical enough. I think it was a decent performance from them, given the lack of Boks. Our sides need their Boks back to compete in this comp, that’s for sure.
Poor Happy (?) Ianto. His first game for Cardiff, announcing his availability to reboot his Wales career, and he gets an accidental knee to the head after 90 seconds. Then he failed the HIA. He is surely doomed. Also doomed was the no10 position for Cardiff; Jarrod Evans lasts 20 minutes before leaving with suspected fractured sternum after a mid-air collision. So Lloyd Williams goes to 10 and gets a smack in the face (I thought he went off but I’m not sure). Cardiff still won because their pack ground down Connacht ( no really ), so Yosoy should be happy .
Scarlets made some decent efforts to pull off a win with a spectacular try at the end, but while they were at it there were opportunities to do something a bit more boring to win it that they arsed up. Saw most of it and it was pretty entertaining though both sides made quite a lot of errors, often on the end of some of their better bits of play. Try at the end of the first half looked a bit dodgy and Edinburgh possibly a bit lucky there wasn’t more punishment for the maul penalties on their own line in the first half, but 8 and 9 for them were probably the outstanding players and they scored some good tries.
Bit shit from a Welsh point of view as we all know the big three Irish teams are probably all superior so losing to anyone else more than once or twice can kill the season pretty quickly.
Don’t know which of the Welsh teams is the least worst yet of course.
That said I’m not up on the new format. Does it allow us to have a shit-off amongst ourselves and then put forward some hapless bunch of chancers for something at the end regardless of anything else that happens?
Side entry seems to be this season big thing that the refs will ignore by late October, there was some last night, lots today and now early in the Munster Sharks game
Well as there’s probably not much in it we’re going to need a few weeks. If one team or the other loses heavily tomorrow then they’ll be in a good position to nail down the most worst spot, but everything else will still be up for grabs. And the winner will need a while to demonstrate that they’re not going to follow it up by shipping 70 points to Leinster or losing to Zebre or whatever.
Sounds like the pools (which are the only tables the BBC is showing, but that’s par for the course) are only for European qualification and the competition itself revolves around the missing main table. And the pools seem to dictate how hard a set of fixtures you get. RTE says that ‘regional pool mechanics’ will ensure one team from each country (Scitaly is a country isn’t it?) qualify for the Big Cup. All power to the regional pool mechanics I say, they sound like a fine upstanding bunch of individuals.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the Italians! Well, Scitaly has four sides, so I suppose that makes a nice pool for regional pool mechanics. Maybe add a little chlorine.
Ovally Balls 
Hello Micky numbers, good to see you here
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20 minutes left. Can the Boks do it? Vermeulen penalised for tackle in the air. Despite ref confirming he was going for the ball. Still, too many penalties being conceded. Kiwis get the maul going but Havili knocks on. Kiwi handling had cost them today. Let’s hope it costs them dearly.
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Boks get the scrum penalty. Marx down though. Not often you see that. Looks like he turned his ankle. Boks down to the 22. Penalty for sacking the maul! 16-17 and the Boks are back in front! 13 minutes left…
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McKenzie clatters de Jager in the air at the restart and the Boks clear the penalty to halfway. Fat Frans on for de Allende. Kiwis get a penalty and back on the Bok 22 now. They knock on and Bok scrum in midfield. It the last 10. I can barely watch.
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And they mince the Kiwi scrum! Lineout on the Kiwi 10. Boks take it through the phases but a box fucking kick and we’re on our 22. Some frenetic end to end stuff but the Kiwis get the better and it’s their throw on the Bpk 22. Inside the last five.
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This is all a bit frantic
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That is a pressure kick
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Why kick the ball away when you are two behind with a minute on the clock?
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Enjoyable game, well done ABs
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Stolen by de Jager again! But we give away another penalty and this time Barrett will kick with about 3 minutes left. 6 from touch, on the 10m line. Sneaks inside the post! Boks need a score inside the last 2 minutes.
Last minute, and Mostert loses it forward with Boks surging forward! All over. 19-17. All Blacks win. It was a helluva close match, but the Boks kicking when on attack in the Kiwi 22 means they probably didn’t deserve it. A missed conversion the only difference. Nienaber should’ve brought Elton Jantjies on at half time. Pollard played for too deep to use the forward momentum we generated.
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Rugby was tbe winner. Box kicking was a close second though.
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BK as well!
we’re getting the band back together.
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Weve signed up to a sport channel for the EPL, so the 15 year old can have a hobby and reason to get out of bed every now and then. Turns out we also get a thing with it called “United Rugby”, so at last I’ll know what you’re all talking about.
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Poomas Wallabies is a cracking game , White and Cooper looking good, woulda thunk it. Poomas looking a little disjointed in the backs without Sanchez, Aussie pack going toe to toe with the Argies. Brutal.
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Krema foul play second time in 5 minutes, yellow card for trip,White and Cooper replaced by O’Connor and McDermott, who looks a real live wire, Aussies put the pedal down, Poomas might be in trouble here.
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Matera lucky to escape a yellow on the line, another 3 to the Wallabies.
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Helter skelter entertainment from the Aussies, Poomas hanging on with great defence.27-8. Well played both teams.
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Stormers 8-7 up in Italy. The Bokless SA sides doing ok so far, although sterner examinations await when the focus shifts from Italy to Ireland this evening. Stormers without about 10 Boks in the SA squad at the moment. Warrick Gelant with a lovely show and go, but a forward pass with the last man away blows an almost certain try. Should’ve box kicked it.
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Treviso blow one of their own. They’re starting to crank it up a bit now and the Stormers aren’t doing much more than clearing their lines on defence.
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The Stormers have been good on the ground and get a penalty from a contest within kicking range. Manie Libbok makes no mistake 7-11.
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Treviso blow one of their own.
Oh dear. Somewhere, Karl is weeping.
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Stormers got out to a handy lead, but as in the 1st half, Benneton are finishing stronger. 17-18, but Treviso are hammering away and final go over out wide on the left. 22-18 with the kick to come.
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Good win for Benetton
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Benetton finished both halves stronger Ticht, with the Stormers just not clinical enough. I think it was a decent performance from them, given the lack of Boks. Our sides need their Boks back to compete in this comp, that’s for sure.
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Pity the ions have more Boks in the coaching box than in the squad.
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Lions. Ions may be more positive than they deserve.
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Poor Happy (?) Ianto. His first game for Cardiff, announcing his availability to reboot his Wales career, and he gets an accidental knee to the head after 90 seconds. Then he failed the HIA. He is surely doomed. Also doomed was the no10 position for Cardiff; Jarrod Evans lasts 20 minutes before leaving with suspected fractured sternum after a mid-air collision. So Lloyd Williams goes to 10 and gets a smack in the face (I thought he went off but I’m not sure). Cardiff still won because their pack ground down Connacht ( no really ), so Yosoy should be happy .
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Bristol are poop.
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I thought they rather played to Wasps new-found strengths
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Got to keep your eye on this Edinburgh scrum half.
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Leinster not poop.
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@CMW, he’s got a bit of pep about him right enough
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TF for that, I was sure we were going to blow it, good game.
Commiserations CMW.
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Scarlets made some decent efforts to pull off a win with a spectacular try at the end, but while they were at it there were opportunities to do something a bit more boring to win it that they arsed up. Saw most of it and it was pretty entertaining though both sides made quite a lot of errors, often on the end of some of their better bits of play. Try at the end of the first half looked a bit dodgy and Edinburgh possibly a bit lucky there wasn’t more punishment for the maul penalties on their own line in the first half, but 8 and 9 for them were probably the outstanding players and they scored some good tries.
Bit shit from a Welsh point of view as we all know the big three Irish teams are probably all superior so losing to anyone else more than once or twice can kill the season pretty quickly.
Don’t know which of the Welsh teams is the least worst yet of course.
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That said I’m not up on the new format. Does it allow us to have a shit-off amongst ourselves and then put forward some hapless bunch of chancers for something at the end regardless of anything else that happens?
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Nice to see Pienaar playing again, even if I don’t want his side to win.
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Side entry seems to be this season big thing that the refs will ignore by late October, there was some last night, lots today and now early in the Munster Sharks game
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Zeeeeeboooooo!
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Welcome home Zebo
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CMW ; Don’t know which of the Welsh teams is the least worst yet of course.,
We should know by tomorrow. Probably not much in it.
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Well as there’s probably not much in it we’re going to need a few weeks. If one team or the other loses heavily tomorrow then they’ll be in a good position to nail down the most worst spot, but everything else will still be up for grabs. And the winner will need a while to demonstrate that they’re not going to follow it up by shipping 70 points to Leinster or losing to Zebre or whatever.
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The BBC tells me our lot are in a group of their own. It doesn’t tell me what that means down the line though.
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RTE says there’s only one table, but that there are also ‘Regional Pools’. Can’t make sense of that I’m afraid.
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Haven’t looked at it at all, but sounds like they’re trying to get one side from each nation into the QFs?
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We’re in with the Italians. How will that work when they both come top of the group?
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Sounds like the pools (which are the only tables the BBC is showing, but that’s par for the course) are only for European qualification and the competition itself revolves around the missing main table. And the pools seem to dictate how hard a set of fixtures you get. RTE says that ‘regional pool mechanics’ will ensure one team from each country (Scitaly is a country isn’t it?) qualify for the Big Cup. All power to the regional pool mechanics I say, they sound like a fine upstanding bunch of individuals.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about the Italians! Well, Scitaly has four sides, so I suppose that makes a nice pool for regional pool mechanics. Maybe add a little chlorine.
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I’m pretty sure they were in the AEEU and then Amicus and Unite along with my lot.
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Munster being Munster at at Thomond.
“Smartarse mode”, I thought the SA sides would get one victory this weekend. This isn’t over yet but it’s looking like a safe bet
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