Cooney. Baloucoune. Stockdale. McCloskey. All injured last week by the brutal Weegiegibbons. This means Ulster are starting nineteen-year-old Nathan Doak at scrum-half. Good luck to the lad!
Today’s picture was inspired by today’s walkies, where we ran across an enormous Doberman carrying a rugby ball in his mouth (a real ball, not a toy as in this pic). Owner hastily explained that Dobie had ‘found’ the ball and there was not a crying child somewhere.
My own dug was enormously impressed and tried her best to get him to do a bit of rough-and-tumble, but he was disdainful. Or was not going to be fooled into dropping the ball.
Onna telly this week
Friday 1st October
| Scarlets v Lions | 19:35 | BBC2 Wales / Premier Sports 2 |
| Connacht v Bulls | 19:35 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Bristol v Bath | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 2nd October
| Argentina v Australia | 08:05 | Sky Sports Main Event |
| South Africa v New Zealand | 11:05 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Treviso v Edinburgh | 13:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Lyon v Bordeaux | 14:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Leicester v Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Glasgow v Sharks | 15:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Biarritz v Toulouse | 16:00 | FreeSports |
| Zebre v Ulster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ospreys v Cardiff | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Munster v Stormers | 19:35 | RTÉ / Premier Sports 2 |
| Castres v Toulon | 20:05 | FreeSports |
Sunday 3rd October
| Dragons v Leinster | 14:00 | S4C / RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 1 | ||
| Sale v Exeter | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 | ||
| Clermont v Racing 92 | 20:05 | FreeSports |
Ovally Balls 
Just had this come into my twitter feed – very interesting photo. Fred Hall is the dad of Martin Hall who somehow got appointed Wales RL captain in the mid-90s, much to his own and his friends’ surprise (when my mate challenged him to name a famous Welsh person he could remember Max Boyce and that’s it).
Peter Deakin invented the Fez at Saracens and has the man-of-the-match trophy in the Premiership final named after him.
Phil Larder introduced tackling to RU in the late 90s despite not being able to tackle himself.
Martin Murphy lived round the corner from me, I often used to see him on his window cleaning round on his bike.
LikeLiked by 1 person
CMW, Kolisi isn’t the only player with a tragic background in the current (or past) Bok sides. Cheslin Kolbe grew up in gang-infested Kraaifontein in the Western Cape, areas riddled with murder, drugs and violence on a daily basis. It’s a Daily Mail article, so hold your nose, but you’ll appreciate it I’m sure:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8771683/South-African-duo-Siya-Kolisi-Cheslin-Kolbe-want-world-know-changed-home.html
Makazole Mapimpi couldn’t have a collage of his family on his jersey for the World Cup Final, because he had no photos of his family – they all died when he was younger:
https://www.rugbyworld.com/players/who-is-makazole-mapimpi-ten-things-you-should-know-about-the-south-africa-wing-129057
Many of the ‘black’ and ‘coloured’ rugby players at the top level in SA have come from places of grinding poverty, continual violence and degradation and little hope. Rugby offers them that escape, but unfortunately only to a few. On the other side, many of the ‘white’ players are from elite schools with fantastic facilities and stable backgrounds (although not all of them), who have never known poverty or violence (other than that meted out on the rugby pitch). Bringing together all these guys, speaking a number of different home languages, different cultures, different life experiences etc is something of a minor miracle every time we get on the pitch! It makes me both damned proud to be a Saffer and a Bok supporter and also sad and angry that these stories are still so prevalent in 2021.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Just to brighten the mood a little, so lovely banjo playing for Thauma:
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thauma hasn’t liked the banjo playing. Internet connection must be down.
LikeLike
Like how the bird song almost drowned out her singing at the start.
LikeLiked by 1 person
More birdy singing in this one. Better than Marley, innit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am fascinated by this. What a genius
LikeLiked by 1 person
@OT
cool – though I think he never sang and played at the same time, but the running repair while singing is impressive…..
LikeLike
He doesn’t play the guitar again so might as well have waited.
LikeLike
He missed a trick there – he could set up a guitar restringing/repair service that he runs at the same time as performing. Massive productivity gains to be had.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Deebee, Nora Brown is terrific, she’s only about 15 years old and sounds like she’s at least double that.
There is a tiny desk gig on youtube
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glasgow’s depth chart for this season. Might not have some of the star quality we’ve had in previous years, especially in the backs but still some good options there. Plus two Lions*, of course….
*3 if you count Big Richie’s appearance years ago.
LikeLike
BB, I think McLean has real star quality about him, he’s going to be as good as Hoggy or Finn, or at least in the ball park. His problem stepping up is that he has to replace one of Hoggy, Big Duhan, Maitland or Graham, no doubt there are some who would argue he’s already ahead of Kinghorn, I wouldn’t be so sure but he does look to be the business.
The Weedgie board are full of praise for Forbes. I think Sam Johnson is pure class, he and Redpath are great depth for Scotland at 12, with Redpath more of a distributor, Johnson being the hard line runner.
Tuipulotu has looked very promising so far – he’s played better for Glasgow than Huw Jones did at 13, something just never clicked for him at Scotstoun.
Dobie is destined for great things.
Steyn is another who is being talked up and I’d argue that Ross Thompson is already ahead of Weir – he certainly has a higher ceiling than Weir.
The Kinghorn experiment at ten for Edinburgh will have some bearing on how far he and the two young ‘uns at Murrayfield can go. I was mistaken about van der Walt, I thought it might be the system but he’s just a very average player who cannot execute under pressure. He and Immelman did more than most to lose us the game against Benetton at the weekend. How the flipping heck can seasoned pros miss touch from a penalty or kick out on the full and not know where the 22 line is? It would be okay if it was once, but it’s an ongoing thing over seasons, like Nick Groom getting charged down on a box kick every game, but the other scrum halfs don’t.
The Saffa forwards we’ve signed have usually come up trumps, but the backs have been mediocre at best.
Anyway, my point is really that Glasgow didn’t have star names before they became stars, this current crop of young players have bags of potential and I think they could be as good as the previous lot.
LikeLike
“The Saffa forwards we’ve signed have usually come up trumps, but the backs have been mediocre at best.”
There is obviously a van der Merwe-shaped exception to that rule
LikeLike
Glasgow had their own Canadian-accented van der Merwe-shaped exception to that rule too
LikeLike
Steals are too easily come by these days.
LikeLike
‘He and Immelman did more than most to lose us the game against Benetton at the weekend. ‘
I was practically screaming at points during that game. Played some good stuff but so, so loose at times, need a bit more control – don’t want to go too far the other way from the cockers era and end up back like the bradley days.
And yes VDW and Immelman were pretty honking at times. Velacott certainly has the attacking chops (helped by the blairvolution attacking structure) but, and I can barely believe I’m saying this, his box kicking needs work.
LikeLike
Still, at least it was a narrow loss being entertaining rather than a loss being dull as hell.
And Benetton are no mugs these days. Although losing to an 85th minute drop goal (a fine effort BTW) after having a lineout on their 22 at 80 minutes is somewhat galling.
LikeLike
McLean over at weedgieland looks the biz. Seems to have that happy blend of pace, skillz & timing. Still more than happy to have treacle toes for Scotland (especially on last seasons form) but isn’t he towards mid 30s now so not going to be at that level much longer.
LikeLike
RE embra 10s if BlairHorn works out then punt VDW to back up 15 (only to be 10 in case of emergency) and use the young guys as back up to get experience.
Also, Thompson > meatball currently and should be 3rd in line for Scotland. Very tidy player, VDW could learn about game management & error counts from him….
LikeLike
Yup, steals are too easy
LikeLike
May have to increase the post no. and time period criteria
LikeLike
“punt VDW to back up 15 (only to be 10 in case of emergency) and use the young guys as back up to get experience.”
To be honest I’d have vd Walt in the “use only in case of injury Armageddon” category. Chamberlain and Savala are good young players who need minutes on the park. Kinghorn already looks miles ahead of vdW, it’s just whether or not he can overtake Hastings as back up to Finn, but there is no reason he can’t be 10 for Embra and back three for Scotland in the mean time.
Boffelli is coming in as a fullback, Blain played very well there last season, Hoyland was in very good form there too. Moyano is a winger who can play 15 as well. With Kinghorn and Graham also able to play 11, 14 and 15, I reckon we are pretty well covered in the back three.
LikeLike
Forgot Bofelli was coming. Wondering why we signed Immelman too.
LikeLike
Is there some sort of contractual requirement we need a certain number of average saffas?
LikeLike
“Is there some sort of contractual requirement we need a certain number of average saffas?”
The biltong supply depends on the number of Saffas we have.
LikeLike
One morning out of the office and the Scots run riot on their Saffa imports! Much like all the other debates about ‘why is so and so picked every year when he’s so useless’ I’d have to say that the various coaches see something in van dere Walt that we don’t. I haven’t watched much of him, so can’t comment.
Looking at the Glasgow depth chart, it gives an interesting perspective on things. A quick whistle through and I count 18 internationals in that squad, almost all of them current. I don’t think think the four Saffa squads in Europe at the moment have 18 current internationals between them.*
* I’ll wait for TomP to fact-check me on this.
LikeLike
@Deebee – When you’ve only got two teams to pick from then almost anyone who’s first choice for either of them is going to get capped at some point. And most of the second choice ones as well.
LikeLike
Not that familiar with quite a lot of names in that Glasgow squad and that will include a fair few who there seems to be optimism about. That optimism probably needs to be well founded if they’re to have much success as on the players I do know anything about it still looks quite a bit weaker than it was back when they were doing well. Definitely a team I’d be hoping the better of the Welsh teams will be beating though it won’t surprise me greatly if they don’t.
LikeLike
Deebs, with van der Walt it’s a case of “you had one job…” No one expects him to be Finn Russell, although I thought that perhaps the previous regime was stifling any creativity he possessed. However he missed three easy punts to touch, two penalties which didn’t find the corner but went dead and one touch kick with which he was well outside the 22, by at least a couple of metres.
If this was a one off, fine, even if he got a few of those punts right into the corner then he could be excused the odd miss, but I don’t remember him getting any of them, seriously not one, but he does miss lots of them every season.
Immelmann is an unknown quantity to me, but he did the same thing and these four kicks turned pressure, territory and possession from Edinburgh and handed it back to the opposition in a tight game.
It’s simply not good enough.
Again if he possessed great attacking abilities or stood ridiculously flat and got the backline moving then fine, but he doesn’t.
LikeLike
I don’t think VDW is useless Deebs
He’s a pro standard player who can run, kick pass and tackle, but maybe without the decision making capability to make it to the top.
Jury is out on Immelman currently, he’s had one decent game and one terrible game.
I’d prefer a better balance between local talent(TM) & the imports
LikeLike
Too slow chimpie
LikeLike
Anyhoo looking back to the Solomons era it’s nothing like wot happened then, when we had about 100 [1] dubious quality saffas come in, half of whom ended up playing in the prem [2] and some of which honked up the prowoo. Not their fault but it was no fun for the fans at the time & it took up resources which could have been deployed elsewhere.
[1] this may be an exaggeration
[2] Poor sods
LikeLike
‘That optimism probably needs to be well founded’
Pfft
That’s a boring sort of optimism
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Chimpie – Well yes. And of course the thing can be won with a startling late run out of nowhere that bypasses the optimism phase all together. That only leads to misplaced optimism for following seasons though.
LikeLike
That’s ‘evidence based’ optimism.
I’m ignoring the evidence of last season and of this season so far & splurging optimism all over the URC. Embra gonna be top 4.
So there.
LikeLike
Seeing as this ‘evidence’ stuff is so out of fashion these days.
LikeLike
Well with the Irish teams having to play each other more than the rest of us have to play them (that’s my understanding anyway) there might be two spots available and someone’s got to fill them. Winning lots of games in your own weak pool would seem to be the best way forward…
LikeLike
Deebee,
16 I think
LikeLike
When you’ve only got two teams to pick from then almost anyone who’s first choice for either of them is going to get capped at some point. And most of the second choice ones as well.
No doubting that, but it does mean that they’re familiar with playing 6N, World Cup and touring Test matches every year. Just looking at all the NH sides in the URC/ProWoo, they all have plenty of internationals to choose from, whether home ones or imports from the SH.
LikeLike
Winning games? whit kind of competition is this?
Well there’s my optimism gone.
LikeLike
TomP, I make it 20, although many of them are ex-internationals. even by the Bok standards of Morne Steyn. Of those, the bulk were last capped four or five years ago, or have single figures (or both), with only really four or five possibly to play for the Boks again. I think Thomas du Toit is the only one to have played for the Boks since the last World Cup. Not moaning, just putting our squad depths into context.
Lions – 4 capped players:
Ruan Dreyer (4 caps, no longer in contention), Jannie Du Plessis (loads, old and no longer in contention), Jaco Kriel (some caps, injury prone, no longer in contention) and Jamba Ulengo (1 cap – in 2016)
Bulls – 9 capped players:
Lizo Gqoboka (2 caps, one for the future), Bismarck du Plessis (legend, older than me. no longer in contention), Arno Botha (2 caps in 2013), Marcell Coetzee (legend, lots of caps, but seemingly no longer in the national frame), Embrose Papier (7 caps), Johan Goosen (13 caps – last one in 2016), Cornal Hendricks (12 caps – last in 2015), Lionel Mapoe (14 caps – last in 2018), Ruan Combrinck (7 caps – all in 2016).
Sharks – 4 capped players:
Lourens Adriaanse (6 caps – last in 2016), Thomas du Toit (13 caps – still in contention), Curwin Bosch (2 caps – last in 2017), Ruan Pienaar (legend – loads of caps, but way past contention),
Stormers – 3 capped players:
Scarra Ntubeni (1 cap – in 2019), Juan de Jongh (19 caps – last in 2016), Warrick Gelant (9 caps – still in contention),
LikeLike
Fairly sure I recall him do this vs Munster in Musgrave in Nov 18 (we met Joe Schmidt that night and Dougie)
LikeLike
Some heavy duty underdogging going on round here.
LikeLike
Deebee, missed Dreyer and Ulengo (surprised he got a cap) and Lourens Adriaanse. Plus I can’t count. I’m surprised Divan Roussouw hasn’t got capped by Namibia yet.
LikeLike
’tis a bit harsh for the saffa sides currently with their boks away. Sure they’ll get their own back during the AIs & 6N.
LikeLike
No matches during the AIs, Chimpster.
LikeLike
Ah well. Harsh times for the saffas then.
LikeLike
With their boks back & on home turf I’m sure they’ll hand out a few beatings.
LikeLike
Own refs as well.
As I’ve got some interest in how they go I am not surprised they’ve not got the results so far – especially for the Bulls. No way are they beating a very strong Leinster first time out and no South African team’ll win in Galway.
It’ll take some time to pick up. The big thing I’ve noticed so far is the relative lack of structure and fitness.
LikeLike