Pack your suitcases and prepare for Round Two of the European Cup.
Cardiff v Harlequins
Home advantage and Ellis Jenkins won’t do enough for Cardiff against in-form Quins. Quins by 10.
Castres v Munster
No-one will ever know the result of this match as anyone who attempts to watch it will die the most horrible of deaths from boredom, judging by the reverse fixture.
Wasps v Toulouse
Ooh. Toulouse by at least 35.
Ospreys v Racing 92
Surprisingly, Racing 92 are languishing even further down the Top 14 table than Ospreys are in the URC. I still think they’ll win, though – by about 12.
Connacht v Leicester
This could be the surprise of the weekend, possibly depending on the weather. Connacht by 3.
La Rochelle v Bath
Bath to take a Bath. La Rochelle by 20.
Exeter v Glasgow Warriors
Glasgow have been looking the business in their last couple of matches, and Exeter are not what they were last year. Weegies by 6.
Bristol v Stade Français
Neither side setting the world on fire this season, so home players by 4.
Leinster v Montpellier
Despite being toppled off the top of the URC, Leinster remain a team to be very scared of, and are at home. Blue Meanies by 17.
Bordeaux v Scarlets
Ooh là là, les Médocs par approximately neufty.
Northampton v Ulster
Will the return of Baloucoune and Hume mean an Ulster away win? Probably not, but I’m going for Ulster by 7 anyway. (This is why I never win the leagues.)
Clermont v Sale
Oh dear, Yellow Army by 30.
Onna telly this week
Friday 14th January
| Castres v Munster | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Cardiff v Harlequins | 20:00 | S4C / BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 15th January
| Wasps v Toulouse | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Dragons | 15:15 | S4C |
| Ospreys v Racing 92 | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Connacht v Leicester | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| La Rochelle v Bath | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| Exeter v Glasgow | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bristol v Stade Français | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 16th January
| Leinster v Montpellier | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Bordeaux v Scarlets | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| Northampton v Ulster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Clermont v Sale | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Thanks for that, TomP – have located & bookmarked it.
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Two young guys worth keeping an eye on in the Bulls-Lions game today. Ruan Venter of the Lions and Reinhardt Ludwig of the Bulls. 5 years ago Ludwig got into his school’s Under 15 Cs.
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I will just leave this here without comment, cos I would be bound to upset or offend someone, somewhere, however unintentionally.
https://www.thedp.com/article/2022/01/lia-thomas-record-swimming-transgender-athlete
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Gloucester game at Newcastle delayed by high winds, and kick off will be 7pm instead of 3pm. Probably not long enough to get Jonny May fit again tho :(
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@SBT – that was an amazingly balanced article.
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One of the few on this particular subject, Refit. Complex issue, needs to be discussed without the levels of hysteria that usually comes from the press on all sides. Its the kind of article that I used to associate with the Guardian………
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TomP, Lions-Bulls called off due a foot and mouth outbreak in the Bulls camp.
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Irish vs Chiefs or Warriors vs Saints?
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Can’t see either of those, so watching Stormers against Sharks and following the Weedge. Who are a try up! And a man down – Big Richie off for a yellow.
Am in! For Sharks.
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Just found the Sharks/Stormers match on Freesport. Nice.
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Sharks and Stormers is a bit scrappy (to say the least). Meanwhile, in the Dan Parks Derby, Glasgow lead The Wesht 17-7.
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Good win for Glasgow in the Wesht by 20-42.
Sharks and Stormers still a bit scrappy.
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Des Drummond RIP
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BB, Glasgow played well. The centres were excellent and the pack did a fair job. They really did a fine job identifying space in the Connacht backfield in the 2nd half and were helped by some poor play by the home side. Connacht had done quite well to haul themselves back to 20-20 but far too many errors from them.
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Butler’s been hanging out with Karl: good low thrust at the end!
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TomP – that just makes the last 30 minutes against Exeter and the whole performance against La Rochelle more annoying.
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Well there’s something you don’t see every day.
Edinburgh trailing for by four, a few minutes to go, a linebreak from Edinburgh and the try is on.
An Ospreys player tackles the ref and he stops play, scrum to Edinburgh
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I used to think Jaco vdWalt was a decent player.
The drop off from Blair Kinghorn, a fullback playing 10, is probably about the same as the drop off from Jaco to me playing ten
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Yup jaco had a bad, bad, day.
Thought we were going to run away with it towards the end of the first half. Breakdown was refereed , how should I say it? ‘Idiosyncratically’
Such a frustrating game. Nice win for the Os
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Reality check though. Need to be a lot better to be in the end of season mix with some tough games coming up.
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“Breakdown was refereed , how should I say it? ‘Idiosyncratically’”
That’s a definition of idiosyncratic that is new to me, tbh.
However, we threw that game away, we could and should have beaten a poor Ospreys side comfortably, the ref didn’t have a conversion charged down and miss a kick to the corner that a youth player should make every single time
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go Cardiff
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Yup jaco had a bad, bad, day.
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Dramatic ending to the Cardiff v Leinster match – well done, boyos!
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@Thaum – If you could remove that link for me from last night that would be good – thanks.
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CMW – done.
If anyone else wishes to donate, they can email me for the link, or let me know that they wish to do so and I’ll email them.
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*As always, if you’ve sent an email to the address I use here, let me know in a post, because I don’t check it that often.
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Thanks Thaum.
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Refit – I’m interested to know what you think about the grauns position on the EHRC. I just read this editorial in the Observer:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/30/observer-view-ehrc-decision-scotland-gender-recognition-reforms
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@Craigs – they conflate sex and gender throughout the article and do not mention that there have already been two consultations, which the EHRC submitted to. It’s pretty typical reporting over trans issues for the Graun/Observer.
Last year they published a column by Catherine Bennet* that linked trans women in single-gender spaces, to the murder of Sarah Everard, so pardon me if I generally disregard any of their reporting
* https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/03/which-bit-of-women-need-safe-places-dont-men-understand
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Grassroots Update:
Tough day at the office for Old Belvedere Under 8 Red squad. They played away to Blackrock College RFC and, according to my lad’s reporting, dropped one but won two, although I’m not entirely sure that’s right. Blackrock went with proper competition in rucks – which meant mayhem as our lads didn’t have a clue what to do at first and the rulings for entry into the ruck were flexible (though for both sides). Also, the 3-passes before a score rule wasn’t imposed so some big lads just made hay. There were lots and lots of tries so that was enjoyable for the kids and some ferocious close-quarters competition once our lads picked up some of the things they needed to do at rucks, which they also liked.
Quite fancied a look inside the Blackrock club house as they have quite a storied history but it wasn’t open. They did have a drive-thru coffee shop that did a nice line hot chocolate so that made up for it.
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@Craigs/ Refit
I support you all the way- but just want to point out that ‘Comment is Free’ is neither editorial nor reporting…..
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Crap day at the office for Exeter reserves plus Scotland contingent vs. L Irish.
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Slade, the article craigs linked to is one the two editiorials in today’s Observer.
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And the Guardian absolutely have editorial control over published pieces – they removed parts of a interview of Judith Butler, which was critical of the GC movement https://novaramedia.com/2021/09/14/judith-butlers-censorship-by-the-guardian-shows-whos-really-being-silenced-in-the-fight-for-trans-rights/
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Good win for Sale, over Tigers. And Wasps beat Sarries.
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Saw the last 20 minutes of the Sale match, Refit – they really did turn things around and stormed to victory. Must admit that Sale winning and Sarries losing probably hasn’t done my Superbru standings much good.
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Maybe I should have watched after all! I just thought it would make me angry. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.
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Spent whole of Saturday (almost) at the club….
U14 A team (featuring son #2) kicked off with a win – 3rd time over these opponents this season.
A fellow coach was reffing ( he’s actually a fully qualified ref) by half time we were out of sight, so he reffed our opponents in for a score (can’t let them be nilled) early in the 2nd half. He tried to get them another score but after 4 consecutive pens – we stripped the ball from them in a maul on our line and one of our lads ran the length of the field to score.
At this age group we’ve 3 strong teams who we’ve lost to by a score in each match and 3 weaker clubs who we’ve beaten by 20+ every time.
Son #1 played a few mins for the U16s having missed about 4 weeks with an Achilles issue. Leading 13-7 with minutes left, the opposition managed a try close to the posts. However, in a Don Fox moment the Bandon 10 missed an easy conversion to win the game. I was quite proud of my lad who went over to shake the hand of the poor misfortunate (” ‘e’s a poor lad” ran through my head)
Then back to the U14B team who played the team the A squad had beaten the previous week. Losing was overshadowed by one of our lads breaking his wrist right at the end. As ever, it’s innocuous-looking tackles that seem to do the damage.
Just spent half my evening trying to organise next week’s fixtures – avoiding Ireland vs Wales, and working around other fixtures on our pitches…
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The first one includes that rarest of things – a Mike Brown pass:
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Could have done without having to hear Jiffy’s groan when JD2 makes that clearance kick again, but I suppose it makes up for it by leaving Horse till the end.
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Refit – that first game was brilliant.
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Cmw – I’d forgotten about that last game.
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The Heaslip try from 2009 is a good one I’d forgotten.
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Getting a cover for my pizza oven. It let’s you add a name or logo to the front. Probably going with ‘Craigsman’s Inferno’ but I’m not sure. I’ve also got:
Craigsman’s flame cave
Hell Mouth
El Diablo
Any suggestions?
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“Have you ever had Domino’s pizza?”
“No I don’t need to, we’ve got a pizza oven”
That is probably the most Upminster* conversation I’ve ever been in earshot of.
*Think very middle class.
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I might call it ‘OurTerry’.
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Versus France? Or the cheeky line out move vs Scotland?
It was an odd GS (maybe they all are in retrospect) – started badly against France then really blew them away (in my memory), vs England – ROG had an off-day (3 pens and 1 conv missed) and we were hanging on at the end of a game when we should have been out of sight. Italy – functional win, Scotland – nearly blew it – terrible first 60, great last 20. Wales – well, it’s all been said N times about that game.
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@craigs
That would be a very niche reference. I welcome it.
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OT – I could call it ‘pastries’, ‘LFB’, ‘gethsemane’ or ‘ capping off a very fine day for me personally’.
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