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 
Thauma, you have mail.
Morning BK! Love that graph, but it doesn’t address the England centres debate.
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Hello again BK!
I’d have said 20 or so years ago we’d be thoroughly in the “poachers”. Now the foreign born numbers don’t yet represent the make up of foreign born nationals (or their Irish-born offspring) . But it’s beginning to turn… U20s and academies are beginning to show surnames from variety of countries and cultures…
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Lovely to see BK back and of course it is a very fine graph. However, I suspect that there is a flaw in it in that where the UK teams are concerned players born in other countries of the UK are being considered ‘foreign born’, but the general population born in other countries of the UK are not.
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I don’t object to Wales being ‘poachers’ – in rugby terms we certainly are and for that matter there were real poachers in the family on my step-father’s side including one who accidentally shot himself and lost an arm. I have a feeling that on the graph’s terms we will turn out to be slight xenophobes though and as it happens the poachers were at least half-Irish from what he tells me as were the tramps.
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I do like a good graph.
Need to take into account that some nations (e.g. Scotland, Wales, Ireland & pacific islands) tend to have a large diaspora & a fair few generations born elsewhere playing for them.
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‘but it doesn’t address the England centres debate’
part one of this will be answered at some point today. I doubt that will end the debate though.
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Was trying to teach the eldest to do graphs on excel the other day furra project. I think there were few things he was less interested in. He did at least end up drawing some nice ones.
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“Our” England team for Saturday
Starting XV: F Steward (Leicester); M Malins (Saracens), E Daly (Saracens), H Slade (Exeter), J Marchant (Harlequins); M Smith (Harlequins), B Youngs (Leicester); E Genge (Leicester), L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), K Sinckler (Bristol); M Itoje (Saracens), N Isiekwe (Saracens); L Ludlam (Northampton), T Curry (Sale, captain), S Simmonds (Exeter).
Finishers: J George (Saracens), J Marler (Harlequins), W Stuart (Bath), C Ewels (Bath), A Dombrandt (Harlequins), H Randall (Bristol), G Ford (Leicester), J Nowell (Exeter).
Interesting back row selection. No out-and-out wingers.
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Imagine it’ll be Slade + 1 (probably atkinson)
For Scotland Harris + 1. Would go for Redpath personally as he seems to be back to full fitness & he’s got a higher ceiling than the other options. Johnson would be a perfectly good option. Half expecting toonie to throw in Tuipolutu, which would also be a decent option but unproven at this level.
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Well aren’t I a slowcoach
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Wales: L Williams; McNicholl, Adams, Tompkins, Rees-Zammit; Biggar, T Williams; W Jones, Elias, Francis, Rowlands, Beard, E Jenkins, Basham, Wainwright.
Replacements: Lake, G Thomas, D Lewis, S Davies, Moriarty, G Davies, Sheedy, Watkin.
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Yeah – this is an ongoing thing in these articles – JD2 and a couple of others get categorised as “English”. Back to the good old days of American ROG, Israeli Heaslip, and Catalan Jordi Murphy….
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I think the standard comment at this point is ‘looks weak’
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That’s a pretty mobile back row for England. 5-3 split on the bench too. Been a lot of speculation on a 6-2 split.
Weather forecast still looks pretty pish.
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Be weird not to have Brian’s dulcet tones covering the rugby.
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Sanguine about the team too. With what we have available.
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Interesting looking backline for England there. Surprised that there is no real solid defensive guy ie Atkinson in the centres, but Daly is a centre, and should never ever have played full back for England. Certainly has a very attacking feel to it. Surprised but pleased for Marchant, who I like, and so does Eddie, obviously. Personally would have started Dombrandt at 8 to work with Smith, but Simonds and Dombrandt in the 23 is a positive.
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That lightweight English pack is going to come unstuck in the mud this weekend. Mark my words. Curry as captain? Is he captain at Sale?
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@Trisk – Or looking at it the other way only 73% of the Welsh population were born in Wales as of 2011 and I doubt if it’s higher now. On the xenophobe front idiots on the Guardian like to claim the large English contingent are ‘to blame’ for ‘Wales voting Brexit’. They do so on the basis of a poor understanding of a dodgy study that you can’t really conclude any such thing from though of course it’s possible it might turn out to be the case if anyone tried to find out properly.
I don’t know but I do also suspect that our ‘foreign-born’ population might be disproportionately too old for rugby.
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That Welsh team looks about as good as it was going to get from the squad we’ve got. Worried about the midfield defence and the pack getting beaten up, but that was going to be the case whatever.
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Irish side looks weak.
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Well, Deebs, does look like Eddie has gone the full southern hemisphere basketball rugby, thats not a team to pick for 10 man rugby in the driving rain, so could be interesting.
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Sbt – my main worry is that we’ll be out muscled by the orchestra in blue.
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Fucking orchestra
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Irish side looks weak.
Yep. Only one Ulsterman, and he on the bench.
Ireland: Keenan; Conway, Ringrose, Aki, Hansen; Sexton (c), Gibson-Park; Porter, Kelleher, Furlong; Beirne, Ryan; Doris, van der Flier, Conan.
Replacements: Sheehan, Healy, Bealham, Baird, O’Mahony, Murray, Carbery, Hume.
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Scotland team to face England: Hogg; Graham, Harris, Johnson, Van der Merwe; Russell, Price; Sutherland, Turner, Z Fagerson, J Gray, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Watson, M Fagerson.
Replacements: McInally, Schoeman, Nel, Skinner, M Bradbury, White, Kinghorn, Tuipulotu.
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Only one Ulsterman? Outrage
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A very un-toonie orchestra in blue. No real surprises.
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Only real points of debate are gilcho starting, no Cummings , inside centre and no Velacott
Gilcho is our best lineout lock & cummings not been in top form so happy with this, and Skinner off the bench is decent.
Johnson is a pretty safe pick but would have liked to seen Redpath given a run. I’m sure we’ll see him at some point. Still no idea who white is, but Velacott maybe not the best to calm things down & close out the match.
I’m concerned about this match. That’s a very interesting England line-up, things are set up for a classic Scotland with a stale line-up collapsing vs England scenario. I’m not sure I like the tune of this orchestra.
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Chimpie – nah, you’ll stuff us. Up our holes.
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@Craigs – Sadly the concerto for chimp and orchestra ‘Up Your Hole’ is rarely performed, possibly on grounds of public decency, but it would be nice for it to get an airing so I hope you’re right.
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Should have refreshed before posting.
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Chimpie, Tuipolotu is my one complaint, assuming Redpath is deemed not quite ready. I think it would have been better to have Steyn covering more bases from the pine.
OTOH, if the game goes his way then Tuipilotu is a very strong carrier up the middle, I have concerns about his defence.
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I’m a bit surprised by Hansen going straight in – now we didn’t entice him from Oz just to make up the numbers out Wesht but I’d have figured on Baloucoune, if not Earls
Carbery – makes sense. There’s a lot of noise for Carty but look at Connacht recent results (no doubt they’ll give Ulster a hard time Friday night) Carbery will cover 15 as well
No Henshaw – slightly surprising. Glad to see Hume in there
Look a tiny bit lightweight at SR – Ryan isn’t really a TH lock. Baird is still fairly raw.
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@Thaum – We’ve left out our Ulster player too!
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Looks an alright England side to me. Would expect to win if playing in dry conditions at Twickenham. Am not expecting to win in the pissing rain at Murrayfield!
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I’d guess the problem is that Ulster’s best players are in positions where Ireland tend to be well stocked (McCloskey, Timoney, Herring) I think Henderson would start if fit. I’d expect to see Lowry vs Italy, and Baloucoune maybe sooner
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We’re not overly blessed at hooker in the absence of Ken so I’ll assume that our Ulster player isn’t very good.
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Cmw – well, he plays for Ulster sooo…..
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…if he was any good he’d be getting left out by Ireland for a Leinster player?
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Not a bad England bunch:
– I don’t like Slade at 12 but, that is an intelligent backline with ‘only’ two out of club position. I expect Eddie will look for a fluid set-up of the players rotating around. I am a fan of Marchant and Daly when playing 13. Nowell should be a starter, but he can sub for any position except 10.
– a half each for Simmonds and Dombrandt is ok – I’d have started Dombrandt to keep Smith company but I can also see that they are dangerous together as the game loosens up.
Should be interesting.
I’d have made LC-D skipper as he is cooler and more central than Curry – who isoccupied enough just keeping on the right side of legal!
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Can see a lot of kick-chase by England. That’s a lot of kickers in the backline. Followed by a fast chase.
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Chimpie – are you saying that they have the players to kick, and chase?
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Indeed. A chase, after a kick.
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Not the other way around. That would be tactically inept.
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Just heard a stat that this is the first time since 2014 that Scotland’s matchday squad has more caps than England’s.
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Sheehan – who’s ousted Herring – is highly rated. Apparently, there were suggestions he move to Munster to be provincial #1 rather than #2 to Kelleher. Obviously, as he’s now #2 to Kelleher at provincial and national level – he didn’t really see any point. (and anyway Munster have high-ish hopes of Barron and Buckley)
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Trisk – Herring is injured, afaik, so not necessarily ousted.
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