… 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.
We were up on the border yesterday and today in Carlingford, pleasant little town where we stayed, and then a quick trip up to Omeath. Had to cross into the North to get back on the road to the South.
Watched some of Cardiff-Connacht – a good win – and then the Leinster-Bulls game and Munster-Sharks match tonight. Leinster and Munster looked hard up front, the Bulls and Sharks too loose. Should improve, but hard starts for them.
I’m headed to Carlingford in a few weeks TomP, I’m doing a cycle event with my dad and the route takes us from Newry, along the side of the lough to Carlingford, then across on the ferry to the other shore and back to Newry again for pizza and beer
Dragons were 16-10 up when I started watching. They’re 16-27 down and under the pump. My apologies, Drags fans. I think we all know that without my support the Boks would be unbeatable. Autocorrect almost got away with unbearable there, something we all know is something you associate with the All Blacks.
Morning all! Eventful rugby filled weekend down here. Local under-age comps all started. (seniors have had 2 run-outs in a local cup comp -winning quite well, and managing to merge in a few grads from recent U18s)
U14s started with a 12-21 defeat – poor enough performance – passing was wretched and too many playing individually. I’d say 3 out of 5 times we win though – plenty of chances but let down by passing, poor decisions and uncertainty (still not sure how our winger didn’t get on the end of a grubber – he looked either surprised or a bit afraid). #2 son is in this group and really didn’t see much ball at IC – again, weird decisions by 10 or players getting in the way – made a couple of breaks but no support. He was so p*ssed off he offered to come with me to our other U14 game (we’re running 2XVs – literally).
So, yesterday bright and early we had a 40min road trip for our U13s – ended up playing 12 a side but they get to play. Bit tentative at first but they grew into – the realization that “I’m not going get killed” and “I can knock these over” – helps that we had a genuine wasp of a 9 – complete nuisance – and a born 10 (excellent kicker and with the ball – a swivel of the hips he’s gone) plus a strong. direct 8 ( maybe 12 if he’ll pass).
We played 3 “halves” :) – official score taken after 2nd one was 17-7 – not bad for U13s playing U14s. Third third – my lad came in a 12 and added a bit of structure – ran straight, engaged defenders and passed to the supporting player – we ‘won’ the 3rd third 17-0
Meanwhile, at home our U18s won 27-12 versus a club who’d probably have beaten them at U14 and U16. Mix of better coaching plus levelling out of physiques in play here.
And #1 son lined our at #9 for the U16s (road trip meant I missed this). Comfortable win again against our nearest rivals. Two years when we played same club at U14, my son was at 7, the 12 was at 8, the 8 at LH and the 13 played TH. Keeps reminding me to keep watching them and not to pigeon hole.
If you were trying to script the return of the prodigal son – you couldn’t have done better than Zebo picking up the loose ball and triumphally running 60-70 metres along the wing. His second try was result of some decent handling – though Sharks were well beaten by that point.
Carbery was a little disappointing as Thaum mentioned (2 kicks missed which was poor by his own recent standards where he’s been pretty deadly). Still, he was out a long time….
However it wasn’t all smiles and sunshine as Ireland’s women’s team failed to qualify for the World cup next year.
Not sure who’s followed it here – strange tournament for Ireland. Lost to Spain, then beat Italy who had comprehensively dismantled Scotland. Italy then beat Spain with a bonus point – so Ireland needed the same vs Scotland and the head-to-head over Italy would take them through. A win or draw would taken them in to a repechage.
5-0 up early on – then 8-5 down at h-t. Then 13-5 down – but came back to lead 18-13 before conceding a last minute 7 pointer….. good for Scotland but it was a weird performance from Ireland – too loose. When they kept it tight, they looked like they’d roll over Scotland. It was the old story of you have to earn the right to go wide – they never sucked in enough defenders and when they did go wide passing was poor. Add to that the lineout was shambolic – so playing tight wasn’t a great option either|
Well, as a follow up to the demise of Ireland’s women’s World Cup hope a fairly local club drops this bombshell…
As a club we have held our tongue for too long but something needs to be said about the current state of girls rugby in the province. Rugby was one of the only sports where with full equality in the men's and womens games i.e. same laws, etc. That is not the case any longer. 1/9
Won’t go down well I can guess with the powers that be.
My inside info is that they were proposed to amalgamate with our U18.5 women’s group. Obviously by no-one with any familiarity with a map or local geography ( or even the odd popular song 🎵 “as I was going over the Cork and Kerry mountains”) Not a drive I’d fancy at 9pm after a late winter evening training session.
Been a hectic few days, had the joys of cub camp (not a beaver in sight) and it’s taken aaages to catch up with important things (rugby) in amongst work, kidz etc.
A most pleasing effort by the edinbuggers on Saturday if a little defensively soft, but then the Scarlets are quite handy on the attack themselves. Velacott had a good outing (better than I was expecting) and wee Darcy was great. Really can’t grumble too much and so nice to see the ball being actually moved rather than endless box kicks and fruitless forward drives. Hornking went generally fine at 10 too although I’m sure sterner tests will come.
Bit of a bumsqueaker for the ABs vs the Boks. That’s 3 losses inna row for the world champs. Puts the lionz tour into a bit of perspective eh.
Think we’ll lose by a bigger margin this weekend. The Kiwis know what’s heading their way and won’t likely drop as many passes this weekend. But we’ll still be box kicking when we’re on their 5m line.
Frans Steyn on the bench tells you all you need to know about the depth available to the SA selectors or their stubborness.
Agree with Deebee that the margin of the ABs victory will be larger. SA won’t be more accurate nor more enterprising and the ABs shouldn’t drop so many balls.
Most important question of the week is whether the fabulous Lions can continue their rampant plunder of Europe. Obviously everyone is hoping they do, especially the older supporters given that we’ve got more (ex)Boks in the coaching team than in the playing squad.
Ovally Balls 
Got the dog doing TRY FIVE!
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I don’t think TCod is at the match. You can’t feel The Stare.
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Karl must be commentating. It finishes with Simon Zebo going down for Munster.
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Not impressed with Carbery today. Still worry about who will replace Sexton.
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Bulls and Sharks both got schooled tonight. They know where the bar is now.
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Are there Saffricans who don’t know where the bar is? Asking for a friend.
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We were up on the border yesterday and today in Carlingford, pleasant little town where we stayed, and then a quick trip up to Omeath. Had to cross into the North to get back on the road to the South.
Watched some of Cardiff-Connacht – a good win – and then the Leinster-Bulls game and Munster-Sharks match tonight. Leinster and Munster looked hard up front, the Bulls and Sharks too loose. Should improve, but hard starts for them.
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“Got the dog doing TRY FIVE!”
I understand each of the words, but the meaning eludes me.
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“Sharks”
Quarks.
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CMW – it’s like a high five, which she already knows how to do, but she does it when a team I like scores a try.
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But of course.
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You have to use a cod southern US accent, of course.
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I reckon C&W musicians write songs about this sort of thing.
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I am fairly sure that rugby union tries don’t feature heavily in cuntry songs.
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(I noticed that typo and chose not to correct it.)
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High-fiving dogs while watching sport. Feels like a staple.
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Did you get a new dog Thaum?
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I’m headed to Carlingford in a few weeks TomP, I’m doing a cycle event with my dad and the route takes us from Newry, along the side of the lough to Carlingford, then across on the ferry to the other shore and back to Newry again for pizza and beer
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Sounds good, Micky Numbers. Watch out for Vikings.
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Michael – yes – well, in August of 2020! She’s a comedian.
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Have some of this for brunch, Thaum :)
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SBT – oh what a shame, bacon and eggs is on the agenda.
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Sale not messing about, first try inside 3 mins.
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Dragons were 16-10 up when I started watching. They’re 16-27 down and under the pump. My apologies, Drags fans. I think we all know that without my support the Boks would be unbeatable. Autocorrect almost got away with unbearable there, something we all know is something you associate with the All Blacks.
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Alan Lancaster RIP.
In the words of John Peel:
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Killsy will be devastated.
Looks like he’s having more fun after moving to Aus here.
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Morning all! Eventful rugby filled weekend down here. Local under-age comps all started. (seniors have had 2 run-outs in a local cup comp -winning quite well, and managing to merge in a few grads from recent U18s)
U14s started with a 12-21 defeat – poor enough performance – passing was wretched and too many playing individually. I’d say 3 out of 5 times we win though – plenty of chances but let down by passing, poor decisions and uncertainty (still not sure how our winger didn’t get on the end of a grubber – he looked either surprised or a bit afraid). #2 son is in this group and really didn’t see much ball at IC – again, weird decisions by 10 or players getting in the way – made a couple of breaks but no support. He was so p*ssed off he offered to come with me to our other U14 game (we’re running 2XVs – literally).
So, yesterday bright and early we had a 40min road trip for our U13s – ended up playing 12 a side but they get to play. Bit tentative at first but they grew into – the realization that “I’m not going get killed” and “I can knock these over” – helps that we had a genuine wasp of a 9 – complete nuisance – and a born 10 (excellent kicker and with the ball – a swivel of the hips he’s gone) plus a strong. direct 8 ( maybe 12 if he’ll pass).
We played 3 “halves” :) – official score taken after 2nd one was 17-7 – not bad for U13s playing U14s. Third third – my lad came in a 12 and added a bit of structure – ran straight, engaged defenders and passed to the supporting player – we ‘won’ the 3rd third 17-0
Meanwhile, at home our U18s won 27-12 versus a club who’d probably have beaten them at U14 and U16. Mix of better coaching plus levelling out of physiques in play here.
And #1 son lined our at #9 for the U16s (road trip meant I missed this). Comfortable win again against our nearest rivals. Two years when we played same club at U14, my son was at 7, the 12 was at 8, the 8 at LH and the 13 played TH. Keeps reminding me to keep watching them and not to pigeon hole.
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And Munster won…..
If you were trying to script the return of the prodigal son – you couldn’t have done better than Zebo picking up the loose ball and triumphally running 60-70 metres along the wing. His second try was result of some decent handling – though Sharks were well beaten by that point.
Carbery was a little disappointing as Thaum mentioned (2 kicks missed which was poor by his own recent standards where he’s been pretty deadly). Still, he was out a long time….
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However it wasn’t all smiles and sunshine as Ireland’s women’s team failed to qualify for the World cup next year.
Not sure who’s followed it here – strange tournament for Ireland. Lost to Spain, then beat Italy who had comprehensively dismantled Scotland. Italy then beat Spain with a bonus point – so Ireland needed the same vs Scotland and the head-to-head over Italy would take them through. A win or draw would taken them in to a repechage.
5-0 up early on – then 8-5 down at h-t. Then 13-5 down – but came back to lead 18-13 before conceding a last minute 7 pointer….. good for Scotland but it was a weird performance from Ireland – too loose. When they kept it tight, they looked like they’d roll over Scotland. It was the old story of you have to earn the right to go wide – they never sucked in enough defenders and when they did go wide passing was poor. Add to that the lineout was shambolic – so playing tight wasn’t a great option either|
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Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat? You sure it was Scotland they were playing?
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Well, as a follow up to the demise of Ireland’s women’s World Cup hope a fairly local club drops this bombshell…
Won’t go down well I can guess with the powers that be.
My inside info is that they were proposed to amalgamate with our U18.5 women’s group. Obviously by no-one with any familiarity with a map or local geography ( or even the odd popular song 🎵 “as I was going over the Cork and Kerry mountains”) Not a drive I’d fancy at 9pm after a late winter evening training session.
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Kills the blog and steals it in a single bound!
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Ermm……
You missed a bit.
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@BB – happy to share the blog kill with you!
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‘You missed a bit’ somehow reminded me of this:
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Blogkilling?
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Bunch of murderers
Been a hectic few days, had the joys of cub camp (not a beaver in sight) and it’s taken aaages to catch up with important things (rugby) in amongst work, kidz etc.
A most pleasing effort by the edinbuggers on Saturday if a little defensively soft, but then the Scarlets are quite handy on the attack themselves. Velacott had a good outing (better than I was expecting) and wee Darcy was great. Really can’t grumble too much and so nice to see the ball being actually moved rather than endless box kicks and fruitless forward drives. Hornking went generally fine at 10 too although I’m sure sterner tests will come.
Bit of a bumsqueaker for the ABs vs the Boks. That’s 3 losses inna row for the world champs. Puts the lionz tour into a bit of perspective eh.
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*tumbleweed*
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Bok side for the rematch:
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Think we’ll lose by a bigger margin this weekend. The Kiwis know what’s heading their way and won’t likely drop as many passes this weekend. But we’ll still be box kicking when we’re on their 5m line.
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*tumbleweed*……..
….has more variety of attack than the Springboks?
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probly
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I sympathise with supporting a team employing the bosh & box kick heavy approach. can be awfy frustrating
it may work this time you never know.
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Won the boks the world cup after all.
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And Kolbe.
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Frans Steyn on the bench tells you all you need to know about the depth available to the SA selectors or their stubborness.
Agree with Deebee that the margin of the ABs victory will be larger. SA won’t be more accurate nor more enterprising and the ABs shouldn’t drop so many balls.
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Lovely shot:
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There’s being deep in the crease and then there’s just being silly
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Stumped if I can come up with a response.
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Most important question of the week is whether the fabulous Lions can continue their rampant plunder of Europe. Obviously everyone is hoping they do, especially the older supporters given that we’ve got more (ex)Boks in the coaching team than in the playing squad.
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