Good weekend all in all for the Saffer sides. Two wins, a draw and a narrow loss (with a dubious try being the difference). Got to be pretty happy with that after the first couple of weeks. Don’t think any of our sides can topple the big Irish clubs yet, but realistically, we should be focused on getting into the Big Cup.
Well the Munster coaching team certainly got that one wrong. Sending their reserve team over to play the Scarlets when their U-16’s team would have given us a much better “contest”. I bet they’re feeling a bit silly now with their 6-try bonus point win. On the plus side, Scarlets have plenty to work on and it’s Leinster away next.
John Kirwan’s boy Niko just made a winning international debut (although he was blamed for the goal conceded) in a 2-1 win over Curacao. I think he’s currently employed by Padova in Serie C.
(And yes, England did put 5 past Andorra, but England’s population us 730 times bigger and their FIFA ranking150 places higher than Andorra. NZ is only 30 times bigger than Curacao, and still ranked about 40 places lower).
Not a lot of optimism on the Graun about the England squad for the Ashes. Mainly that the bowling lineup is shite and the batting worse. Best comment so far is that England shoulda picked Cinderella in the top order because at least she knew when to leave the ball.
@Deebee – It’s pretty much as expected, it being the side they finished the summer with. Obviously it wasn’t doing especially well and can be expected to do worse in conditions that suit the bowlers less. Aussies should be too good as they have at least two top drawer batsmen (plus Warner if he hasn’t lost it) to England’s one and a very good bowling attack that can bowl teams out on flat pitches. I suppose the main hope is that they may be pretty rusty having hardly played at all internationally though I guess they’ll still have been playing whatever state or franchise cricket each of them plays.
CMW, agreed. I don’t see any green shoots of optimism except at the Dragons and even then I’m not convinced that they can sustain their excellent start. But at least they can defend, they have a system and they make their tackles. I like Dean Ryan, he seems very reasonable and knows what he’s doing. Hats off to the WRU for bringing him in.
BRB – I’m pleased the Dragons are playing well and saw their second half yesterday which was really good, but their excellent start still involves losing two out of three games. I hope they have a successful season, but from where they’ve been top half would represent success. Might well be enough for them to top our pool if they were to manage it!
CMW, I can see very little to get enthused about in the England cricket side. Archer and Stokes out really does neuter much of the attack, both with ball and bat, leaving England pretty thin in terms of match winners. Someone other than Root has to stand tall in the top order, but I don’t know who that is. I’d really love to see Rory Burns emerge as a proper Test player. I love his style, both batting and his demeanor in the field, but he needs to cut out the lazy shots that he’s prone to getting out to.
The Aussies have a couple more good batsmen than England and a couple of very good bowlers in their conditions, so should be favourites for the series, although I don’t think it’s the Full McGrath.
“Someone other than Root has to stand tall in the top order, but I don’t know who that is.”
I don’t think it’s impossible for any of them, but it doesn’t seem likely that any of them will actually manage it. Burns is one of the more likely ones to make something approaching a vaguely acceptable number of runs, but I think he’s one of the less likely ones to have a really big series that could make a difference. As you say he gives it away when he plays well too often. Even the times he’s gone on to bigger scores have mostly needed a lot of luck, I don’t think he has the concentration to do it regularly.
Now they didn’t actually need as many runs as they scored as they won games by big margins, but it does show the kind of thing that’s needed. The Aussie attack at the time wasn’t anything like as good as it is now though it wasn’t completely hopeless either. Of course runs from the top three don’t do any harm for the chances of the guys at 4,5,6 etc. so it may be a case of almost everyone making runs or hardly anyone at all. Being at least a bit South African seems to help so maybe Malan is the man.
Being at least a bit South African seems to help so maybe Malan is the man.
Yeah, Trott, Pietersen, Prior and Strauss all in there boosting England’s efforts. The last two can maybe be forgiven for at least having grown up in England. To be honest, we could do with Malan and Labuschagne in our side right now. We’ll welcome them back if you accept that KP is indeed a true-blue Englishman with accidental ties to South Africa.
I would love England to Bring Back the Ashes, but I fear that slogan is likely to end up on the same rubbish heap as Make America Great Again, or Get Brexit Done.
trisk, watched it in the evening. Munster were very very good where the Scarlets rubbish. Healy was very impressive. A big shame that Snyman may be fucked again.
Also, Aherne looks a great prospect. I enjoyed watching Baird on Saturday, though the Leinster line out was a bit dodgy at times. Ireland have a couple of fine young locks there.
Personally I’m quite happy to blame the English for KP as long as Labuschagne keeps turning out for Glamorgan, but sadly for you I don’t think anyone’s ever going to be convinced that KP’s from anywhere other than where he’s really from.
@TomP – in defence line speed was great and so was the tackling – completely stopped Scarlets getting any momentum for most of the game.
Probably Healy’s best game – in the past he’s been a bit guilty – in my eyes – of just shovelling the ball on. Now that might be a consequence of coming on with 20-30 left and the game pretty much decided – so you’re just playing out time and speculative passes that get picked off are what ‘everyone’ remembers, so KISS is the order of the day.
He’s up there will Daly as a menace if you give away pens around half way. But his decision-making was good.
CMW, I’d forgotten about the Kiwi Saffer. KPs mum is English, so that settles it. He’s English.*
* Mine was too, but I haven’t turned out for England at any sport, so I’m safe. I haven’t been to England for closing in on five years now and I do miss it terribly. I know it’s popular to slag off the UK in some parts, but I’ve had brilliant trips there over the years, pretty much every time I’ve been. I may have to go over early next year for family stuff, so will try to get it to coincide with some rugby. And boozing.
Unclear at the moment, Deebs. Now they have the discussions about putting the coalition together and the new government is sort of in the hands of the President. But the President got rushed to hospital.0
Good that the SPD didn’t significantly increase its share of the vote as some feared. They’re fascists really.
Good that Babis’s ANO party didn’t win as he’d’ve claimed victory when he should be banged up – my joke is that they succeeded in their main aim, which was keeping him out of prison, so deserve some praise.
Good that the Communists failed to make 5%. The party may unravel now as it is his project.
Good(ish) that the former junior coalition partner the CSSD (Social Democrats) failed to make 5%. They’re a cartel party and fabulously corrupt. But my missus’s boss’s boss is CSSD so there’ll be some changes at her workplace in Prague and lots of her civil service colleagues won’t like that, particularly the nice lady we know who got a massive promotion a couple of months after she joined the CSSD.
Good that the new “anti-corruption” party run by an ex-copper didn’t do anything.
Bad that the SPOLU came out on top. They’re centre-rightists who’ve failed before in government and are basically corrupt. Fiala, the likely PM, gets some good press bu
Bad that Pirates-Mayors didn’t do better. Especially, the Pirates only getting a handful of seats. Nowhere near perfect but the best of that muck. They got attacked really hard by ANO and struggled to come back.
Good that Babis’s ANO party didn’t win as he’d’ve claimed victory when he should be banged up – my joke is that they succeeded in their main aim, which was keeping him out of prison, so deserve some praise. The party may unravel now as it is his project.
Well, I think I may wait until tomorrow or so to publish, not least as the EU will announce its negotiation strategy (but also because a cool-off period might be wise).
CMW – some things cannot be changed with a phone call. The Lions, blessed, beloved and utterly bewildering that they are, have me as a supporter, so are doomed to repeated failure, whatever the opposition does. I now know what it’s like to be a Scotland football supporter (although they’re on the brink of the playoffs!).
In Deebee (dis)pleasing news, Dylan Richardson of the Sharks is said to be in the Scotland squad for the upcoming test series.
It’s an odd selection, the one area I’d say we had a decent pool depth is at flanker, he’s not even a huge beast of a number 8, which we could do with.
oh, although he also a hooker apparently, Rambo, Brown and Cherry are all the wrong side of 30, but then again Jake Kerr has been playing well for Brizzle
“Scottish Ancestry” giving him a wave through straight into the Scotland set up. That’s pretty pathetic. Born and raised in SA, nurtured by schools and clubs in SA, played for SA at Schools and U20-level, paid for by our rugby union and now to represent Scotland because that country, ranked 7th in the world, can’t produce a couple of decent hookers outside of Blythswood Square (had to look that up). He’s never lived in Scotland, he hasn’t gone through residency, he hasn’t played for a Scottish club, fuck all, just ‘ancestry’.
This is a slightly odd one. no idea who he is TBH but we do have a range of options at hooker although as ticht mentioned some of them are ageing a bit.
It maybe just an opportunity to have a look at him. I’d rather the domestic pipeline was a bit more robust & we didn’t have to resort to this kind of stuff but it’s limited with just the 2 teams. He’s eligible so I suppose it’s likely to happen.
It’s a really odd selection, as a hooker Rambo and Brown are good for another two or three years, Cherry at least that, possibly more. Turner was 29 a few days ago, Ashman is a young pup, Harrison and Drummond both look good prospects at this stage, they’ve both still in their teens I think.
I’d much rather we were looking at the likes of Grant Stewart for cover if injuries go badly. There is McBurney at Embra too.
That’s eight hookers, albeit two of them are still in the U20s.
In the back row we have Watson, Ritchie, Crosbie, Fagerson, Gordon, Darge, Boyle who can all play 7, plus Rambo, Brown and Turner as cover
Ovally Balls 
Vaya Chile!
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Good weekend all in all for the Saffer sides. Two wins, a draw and a narrow loss (with a dubious try being the difference). Got to be pretty happy with that after the first couple of weeks. Don’t think any of our sides can topple the big Irish clubs yet, but realistically, we should be focused on getting into the Big Cup.
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Well the Munster coaching team certainly got that one wrong. Sending their reserve team over to play the Scarlets when their U-16’s team would have given us a much better “contest”. I bet they’re feeling a bit silly now with their 6-try bonus point win. On the plus side, Scarlets have plenty to work on and it’s Leinster away next.
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John Kirwan’s boy Niko just made a winning international debut (although he was blamed for the goal conceded) in a 2-1 win over Curacao. I think he’s currently employed by Padova in Serie C.
(And yes, England did put 5 past Andorra, but England’s population us 730 times bigger and their FIFA ranking150 places higher than Andorra. NZ is only 30 times bigger than Curacao, and still ranked about 40 places lower).
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Jeez BK, now that Super Rugby is dead you’re watching minor island soccer instead?
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Not a lot of optimism on the Graun about the England squad for the Ashes. Mainly that the bowling lineup is shite and the batting worse. Best comment so far is that England shoulda picked Cinderella in the top order because at least she knew when to leave the ball.
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@BRB – Hard to see the season still being alive in any meaningful sense beyond November for any of the Welsh teams.
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@Deebee – It’s pretty much as expected, it being the side they finished the summer with. Obviously it wasn’t doing especially well and can be expected to do worse in conditions that suit the bowlers less. Aussies should be too good as they have at least two top drawer batsmen (plus Warner if he hasn’t lost it) to England’s one and a very good bowling attack that can bowl teams out on flat pitches. I suppose the main hope is that they may be pretty rusty having hardly played at all internationally though I guess they’ll still have been playing whatever state or franchise cricket each of them plays.
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CMW, agreed. I don’t see any green shoots of optimism except at the Dragons and even then I’m not convinced that they can sustain their excellent start. But at least they can defend, they have a system and they make their tackles. I like Dean Ryan, he seems very reasonable and knows what he’s doing. Hats off to the WRU for bringing him in.
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BRB – I’m pleased the Dragons are playing well and saw their second half yesterday which was really good, but their excellent start still involves losing two out of three games. I hope they have a successful season, but from where they’ve been top half would represent success. Might well be enough for them to top our pool if they were to manage it!
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CMW, I can see very little to get enthused about in the England cricket side. Archer and Stokes out really does neuter much of the attack, both with ball and bat, leaving England pretty thin in terms of match winners. Someone other than Root has to stand tall in the top order, but I don’t know who that is. I’d really love to see Rory Burns emerge as a proper Test player. I love his style, both batting and his demeanor in the field, but he needs to cut out the lazy shots that he’s prone to getting out to.
The Aussies have a couple more good batsmen than England and a couple of very good bowlers in their conditions, so should be favourites for the series, although I don’t think it’s the Full McGrath.
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“Someone other than Root has to stand tall in the top order, but I don’t know who that is.”
I don’t think it’s impossible for any of them, but it doesn’t seem likely that any of them will actually manage it. Burns is one of the more likely ones to make something approaching a vaguely acceptable number of runs, but I think he’s one of the less likely ones to have a really big series that could make a difference. As you say he gives it away when he plays well too often. Even the times he’s gone on to bigger scores have mostly needed a lot of luck, I don’t think he has the concentration to do it regularly.
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Batting averages from the last time England won out there:
Cook – 127
Trott – 89
Bell – 65
Pietersen – 60
Prior – 50
Strauss – 43
Now they didn’t actually need as many runs as they scored as they won games by big margins, but it does show the kind of thing that’s needed. The Aussie attack at the time wasn’t anything like as good as it is now though it wasn’t completely hopeless either. Of course runs from the top three don’t do any harm for the chances of the guys at 4,5,6 etc. so it may be a case of almost everyone making runs or hardly anyone at all. Being at least a bit South African seems to help so maybe Malan is the man.
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Well, I’d probably have said same thing….
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Being at least a bit South African seems to help so maybe Malan is the man.
Yeah, Trott, Pietersen, Prior and Strauss all in there boosting England’s efforts. The last two can maybe be forgiven for at least having grown up in England. To be honest, we could do with Malan and Labuschagne in our side right now. We’ll welcome them back if you accept that KP is indeed a true-blue Englishman with accidental ties to South Africa.
I would love England to Bring Back the Ashes, but I fear that slogan is likely to end up on the same rubbish heap as Make America Great Again, or Get Brexit Done.
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trisk, watched it in the evening. Munster were very very good where the Scarlets rubbish. Healy was very impressive. A big shame that Snyman may be fucked again.
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Also, Aherne looks a great prospect. I enjoyed watching Baird on Saturday, though the Leinster line out was a bit dodgy at times. Ireland have a couple of fine young locks there.
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@Deebee – You’d be better off getting NZ’s new opener back rather than any of yours that we’ve got.
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Personally I’m quite happy to blame the English for KP as long as Labuschagne keeps turning out for Glamorgan, but sadly for you I don’t think anyone’s ever going to be convinced that KP’s from anywhere other than where he’s really from.
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@TomP – in defence line speed was great and so was the tackling – completely stopped Scarlets getting any momentum for most of the game.
Probably Healy’s best game – in the past he’s been a bit guilty – in my eyes – of just shovelling the ball on. Now that might be a consequence of coming on with 20-30 left and the game pretty much decided – so you’re just playing out time and speculative passes that get picked off are what ‘everyone’ remembers, so KISS is the order of the day.
He’s up there will Daly as a menace if you give away pens around half way. But his decision-making was good.
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And on Snyman – didn’t look good as he departed, the hands on the hips as he walked down the tunnel looked like a sign of resignation….
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CMW, I’d forgotten about the Kiwi Saffer. KPs mum is English, so that settles it. He’s English.*
* Mine was too, but I haven’t turned out for England at any sport, so I’m safe. I haven’t been to England for closing in on five years now and I do miss it terribly. I know it’s popular to slag off the UK in some parts, but I’ve had brilliant trips there over the years, pretty much every time I’ve been. I may have to go over early next year for family stuff, so will try to get it to coincide with some rugby. And boozing.
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What happened to wee RG?
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Chris Cloete, meanwhile, played like Heinrich Brussouw yesterday. The Scarlets couldn’t handle him at rucks at all.
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TomP, what do the election results in Czechia mean? Good, bad, ugly?
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Unclear at the moment, Deebs. Now they have the discussions about putting the coalition together and the new government is sort of in the hands of the President. But the President got rushed to hospital.0
Good that the SPD didn’t significantly increase its share of the vote as some feared. They’re fascists really.
Good that Babis’s ANO party didn’t win as he’d’ve claimed victory when he should be banged up – my joke is that they succeeded in their main aim, which was keeping him out of prison, so deserve some praise.
Good that the Communists failed to make 5%. The party may unravel now as it is his project.
Good(ish) that the former junior coalition partner the CSSD (Social Democrats) failed to make 5%. They’re a cartel party and fabulously corrupt. But my missus’s boss’s boss is CSSD so there’ll be some changes at her workplace in Prague and lots of her civil service colleagues won’t like that, particularly the nice lady we know who got a massive promotion a couple of months after she joined the CSSD.
Good that the new “anti-corruption” party run by an ex-copper didn’t do anything.
Bad that the SPOLU came out on top. They’re centre-rightists who’ve failed before in government and are basically corrupt. Fiala, the likely PM, gets some good press bu
Bad that Pirates-Mayors didn’t do better. Especially, the Pirates only getting a handful of seats. Nowhere near perfect but the best of that muck. They got attacked really hard by ANO and struggled to come back.
Bad that the Greens didn’t do better.
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Don’t know what happened in the middle but:
Good that Babis’s ANO party didn’t win as he’d’ve claimed victory when he should be banged up – my joke is that they succeeded in their main aim, which was keeping him out of prison, so deserve some praise. The party may unravel now as it is his project.
Good that the Communists failed to make 5%.
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Basically some good, some bad and some ugly.
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And that’s just the Saffer sides.
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Doesn’t sound like there was ever a good outcome on the cards.
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And that’s just our lot having to play the Saffer sides.
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I think Welsh sides should just play Connacht and the Lions.
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@TomP – They’d work us out eventually.
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Connacht might.
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We don’t need to. Welsh sides shoot themselves in the foot for us.
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@Deebee – Well spotted. Now that you’ve worked us out you’d better get on the phone to the Lions as they don’t seem to be as quick on the uptake.
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Thaum
1,000 thumbs up for your comment below Marina’s article!
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Cheers, Slade!
I am angry about all this (in case you hadn’t noticed), and have just posted this elsewhere as a good summing-up:
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I may be having an ATL rant shortly.
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Well, I think I may wait until tomorrow or so to publish, not least as the EU will announce its negotiation strategy (but also because a cool-off period might be wise).
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It will be interesting to see what Exeter’s image and re-branding strategy turns out to be………………
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CMW – some things cannot be changed with a phone call. The Lions, blessed, beloved and utterly bewildering that they are, have me as a supporter, so are doomed to repeated failure, whatever the opposition does. I now know what it’s like to be a Scotland football supporter (although they’re on the brink of the playoffs!).
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In Deebee (dis)pleasing news, Dylan Richardson of the Sharks is said to be in the Scotland squad for the upcoming test series.
It’s an odd selection, the one area I’d say we had a decent pool depth is at flanker, he’s not even a huge beast of a number 8, which we could do with.
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oh, although he also a hooker apparently, Rambo, Brown and Cherry are all the wrong side of 30, but then again Jake Kerr has been playing well for Brizzle
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“Scottish Ancestry” giving him a wave through straight into the Scotland set up. That’s pretty pathetic. Born and raised in SA, nurtured by schools and clubs in SA, played for SA at Schools and U20-level, paid for by our rugby union and now to represent Scotland because that country, ranked 7th in the world, can’t produce a couple of decent hookers outside of Blythswood Square (had to look that up). He’s never lived in Scotland, he hasn’t gone through residency, he hasn’t played for a Scottish club, fuck all, just ‘ancestry’.
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Calm down now deebee, it’s nearly lunch
This is a slightly odd one. no idea who he is TBH but we do have a range of options at hooker although as ticht mentioned some of them are ageing a bit.
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‘Jake Kerr has been playing well for Brizzle’
Also there’s Turner, Ashman etc.
It maybe just an opportunity to have a look at him. I’d rather the domestic pipeline was a bit more robust & we didn’t have to resort to this kind of stuff but it’s limited with just the 2 teams. He’s eligible so I suppose it’s likely to happen.
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Richardson’s a good player. He wouldn’t be in line for a Springbok cap at the moment.
He’d be the 3rd Kearsney College Old Boy to play for a Home Union this century.
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It’s a really odd selection, as a hooker Rambo and Brown are good for another two or three years, Cherry at least that, possibly more. Turner was 29 a few days ago, Ashman is a young pup, Harrison and Drummond both look good prospects at this stage, they’ve both still in their teens I think.
I’d much rather we were looking at the likes of Grant Stewart for cover if injuries go badly. There is McBurney at Embra too.
That’s eight hookers, albeit two of them are still in the U20s.
In the back row we have Watson, Ritchie, Crosbie, Fagerson, Gordon, Darge, Boyle who can all play 7, plus Rambo, Brown and Turner as cover
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