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 
Something that has been said about Rory Darge for a while now, and it was mentioned in the commentary there, he is way ahead of where Hamish Watson was at the same age, indeed he is very close to Watson now and he’s only 21. If he does show the same level of improvement from that age then Darge is going to be some player.
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Ticht – heard that, and remarked that Darge needs to hit the gym a bit to get up to Watson’s level. ;-)
Puny arms (relatively).
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And there he goes, jackaling one, right on cue!
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Flats: Tail between his legs, chewing his own hamstrings.
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Lovely try!
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Great try from Glasgow.
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I’m so glad Edinburgh let Darge go along the M8 to Glasgow last year
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So am I.
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to be honest BB, he wouldn’t be where he is now without moving, he is the form 7 for us, he must be very close to starting against England. He would be barely getting a game at Edinburgh with Watson, Crosbie and Kunavula there
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Making our own problems here. Reckon if Exeter get another one, that’s it. We might get an LBT or TBT but won’t win.
Yep, that’s it. Bugger.
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That was a very good cross-field kick.
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Exeter got away with one there, but Glasgow should be defending better than that
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Darge off! Is that wise?
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Very impressed by Darge – but I genuinely worry for the boy’s health….
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This is turning into a rout.
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Ach, making our own problems here. Have to defend better than that and stop giving the ball away. We’ve just fallen apart here.
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Innard comes on for Exeter, he’s a gutsy player
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For about 50 minutes we were right in this game.
Since then?
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Gubbed, absolutely gubbed
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I’ve never played cricket, but this is what I imagine a batting collapse to look like
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Ye Dogs Glasgow! Every feckin’ thing you can do wrong now, you’re doing wrong! This is getting embarrassing now.
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Exeter have been good, but really, Glasgow have been appalling in this last third of the game, as bad as I’ve seen them.
It’s been embarrassing
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Well. Exeter were very, very good in the second half, and Glasgow poor.
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I’ve never seen Glasgow that bad, not since I used to hear scores on a Saturday morning from the Friday night because the games weren’t televised, back in the Firhill days.
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We do have a number of young players in the back line, but there were enough experienced players out there that should have sorted ourselves out. We also seemed to change the whole back line round when Tuipulotu went off. Also have to say, I think Horne The Younger hasn’t developed the way I thought he would – tried to hurry things up too much.
Well played Exeter – you were the best team in the second half by a significantly large distance. Ah well, only La Rochelle at home next week….
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I think Exeter put 40 points on us the last time we played there, Ticht. Although I think that was just a generally bad performance. Tonight was worse because of how well we played for the first 40/50 minutes.
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Aye, and I saw Bath pump Glasgow’s scrum, but there was some fightback and playing to strengths, but tonight was an utter collapse of all the systems, they weren’t outplayed so much as just stopped playing, they weren’t drifting or rushing in defence, O’Flaherty is no beast, but he burst through three defenders on the line to score.
Hoggy ripped Glasgow apart, they were getting beaten everywhere.
I think that last half hour should be looked at, then a line down under it and move on, never to be spoken of again.
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still losing comments, grrr
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I thought I lost one earlier but decided that I failed to hit Post correctly and reloaded the page.
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Oh, hang on – just found two of yours in the spam bin. One from yesterday, and one from the 8th.
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I think major contributions were:
– Glasgow’s aggressive press left too much space behind to deal with Exeter’s very good kick chase
– Slade had a sublime game – encouraging and demonstrating very fast ball transfer
– Jo Simmonds is re-finding his game at 10
– O’Flaherty can be surprisingly effective in semi-open space -he’s made fools of other players at least as good as Glasgow’s
– Hogg is on top form
– Schickerling was a big and surprise improvement over Iosepha-Scott (who doesn’t look fit but has to play as Williams and Street are injured
– Nowell also back on his game
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Slade was indeed very good, but he’s not going to be available for any matches in Europe (or at least France), is he? (See my earlier post.)
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Thaum
I believe you may be right – I really don’t know his current vaccine status……………………..
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Well, I hope he’s seen sense. It would be shame for him to miss out. Plus the final is in France, should Exeter make it so far!
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My first ever game for Dunbar RFC was for the thirds, I was 14 years old. There was a guy in that team who was probably 44 at the time, Jimmy Purves. He kept on playing long after that. He usually played fullback and had a wicked side step on him, whenever the subject came up the older players and members of the club always said, “You should have seen him in his twenties”.
Jimmy died last week, he was a really kind man, the tributes to him have almost all contained the word, “gentleman”.
There is a post on the rugby club FB page from a man from Skerries just outside Dublin, the annual fixture between our clubs is nearing its 70th edition, the post is long and lovely, but I’ll just quote the start of it, “Gentlemen of Dunbar I’m deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our beloved Jimmy Purves RIP. What a man.”
He goes on to talk about the friendship his father, a former captain and president of Skerries RFC had with Jimmy and how they would visit outside of the annual fixtures.
This is what rugby is all about.
RIP Jimmy Purves.
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I said the other day that Leinster Montpellier might be a good watch.
It’s not if you’re a MH fan. The only competition so far is on the clock, can Leinster keep to a point a minute for the full game?
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Well, that comment aged pretty quickly, two tries from Montpellier in quick succession
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Good lord, Leinster aren’t messing around. 5 tries inside 35mins.
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10 tries down and Montpelier are going to have to see out the last 12 mins with 14 men. Red card for Dakuwaqa.
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While I was typing that, Leinster scored again. 75-7.
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12 tries down, 5 mins to play.
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13!
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@Ticht – more than a point a minute. Final score 87-7.
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‘MON ULSTER!!
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4 minutes without a try? Booooooo!!!!
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Sorry, it took 6.
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Watta try!
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Thauma must be pleased with this start! Great counter attack!
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Oops! Saints right back in it! Great hands and timing!
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Fortunately we get one back again….
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