1. Leinster v Glasgow Warriors
2. Stormers v Edinburgh
3. Ulster v Munster
4. Bulls v Sharks
If I’ve got this right, it means Leinster host one of the Bulls or Sharks in the SF, with the other two Irish sides hoping that Edinburgh pull off a win in Cape Town. Apologies to Glasgow fans in advance.
The reason you didn’t get a line-by-line commentary from me on this game – unlike the Ulster/Sharks game – was because I spent my time shouting at the television (having gone to Dublin for the Toulouse game, I opted out of another road trip…. anyway 7.15pm ko means staying overnight or a 4 hour drive home starting around 9.30 at best)
After the hope engendered by the performance vs Toulouse – this was as we say “a land”. Apart from a short spell after Leinster’s early try – this was really poor (against Leinster thirds)
The most telling thing was after Carbery tried a chip to Earls standing in the 5m channel which went straight out of play – Earls was caught walking away shaking his head. I suspect not because the execution was wrong but because the idea was so wrong – Leinster had 2 defenders in the 15m – plenty of cover. Carbery had a poor game – too lateral all day.
Summed up – for me – by a passage near the end where with a huge gap between the pillar and the next defender, he opted for a long miss pass to the Munster sub openside in the 5m channel who was promptly hammered into touch by the Leinster defense. It was like U14s when you show them the miss pass – everything becomes a miss pass (cos it looks flashy) until they work out (or you tell them) that they need to fix the defense first.
I’ve accused Connacht of only being “up” to play the other Irish teams – this seems to be the opposite. We’ll probably have a right cut off Ulster, win the semi and then faint dead away on sight of a Leinster shirt in the final
Cmw – I go back and forth between whether the Argies should have tried to tackle or whether the English guy should have been more sporting. Both teams benefitted from that.
@Craigs – I don’t know if there’s an ‘unsportsmanlike conduct’ thing in rugby that can be used by the ref. I think he ought to be able to send off the England player and the Argentina captain and then the only decision is whether it’s a penalty to England that’s then reversed or the other way around. In the absence of that then obviously just throw both teams out of the tournament.
If it’s supposed to be OK then they should have just stood around with nobody going anywhere or tackling anyone straight from kick-off.
@Craigs – Yes, fair enough, it sounds like the score needed to get to a certain point for it to suit both sides, but the principle is the same – if a draw had suited both then no need to play at all.
I don’t watch sevens either. Think I’ve seen a handful of games in the Olympics and otherwise I’d have to go back to the Hong Kong stuff appearing each year on the telly about thirty years ago.
Cmw – I think we can safely say that it was Argentinas fault
I don’t think this is good for the game. A player or team must not do anything that is against the spirit of the game. I’m surprised the referee didn’t make him to ground the ball. Thats what we use to do when I was on the 7s circuit, many years ago 😂. https://t.co/D6rdAhysEp
@Refit – They seem very keen to allow it for no obvious reason. If the referee wasn’t standing right next to a man who was both wasting time and doing something against the spirit of good sportsmanship then they’re watching a different game to me.
Time-wasting in 7z is a time-honoured tradition, but that was taking the piss on both sides. Hopefully it’s addressed timeously so that next time no time is wasted.
Jones to partner Smith and Farrell as his 10-12 axis for the tour to Australia in June, with Manu Tuilagi at 13, according to the Graun, so that’s the end of the England centres debate for the time being. Until Manu gets crocked 10 minutes into the first Test and Farrell finally falls foul of the refs for a swinging armed shoulder charge.
Didn’t realise England had beaten the Wobblies eight matches on the trot. That’s almost Kiwi-like. Should be a good series though, with the Aussies showing signs of revitalisation last year, and perhaps, even, bringing a bit more grunt to the set piece than in the recent past.
I listened to a good interview the other day with Molly White, who runs this nice site: https://web3isgoinggreat.com/
What disturbs me about the Seth Green story is he had 4 NFTs “stolen” but it seems only 1 of “them” had a contract for a cartoon series so the other 3 must have been pissed off. Pissed off enough to fake “their” own kidnapping along with the real kidnapping of the Bored Ape? I’m no copper (too good-looking for a start) but that’s where I’d be investigating.
Tomp/Refit – I don’t think you can even class this as ‘theft’ given the nature of the, ah, thing.
If you can stand him Balaji Srivinasan explains why you would use this technology. I can see* the value in having your own, unique, distributed identity, or even use it to tag to something real, but this is dumb.
* Well I remember seeing this but forgot right after Balaji stopped talking.
“spending money on pictures with unique code baffles me”
It’s simply a case of the pictures being marketed as investments, no? As someone said the other day, at least with snakeoil salesmen you got a bottle out of it.
Tomp – yes, because of the unique code behind them. So they are like electronic Mona Lisa’s apparently. I just can’t quite get that idea around my head. Most of them are shit. But there are other reasons for having unique, distributed ids which seemed to have a reason behind it. Having your own unbreakable, online id for instance, or attaching codes to actual things like cars. Because it is unique and distributed (and on Web 3) it can’t be faked, changed or controlled by govt so everyone can rely on it. Apparently.
Although Balaji lost me when he said you could have virtual towns with virtual mayor’s providing real world utilities. That seemed both needless and somehow worse than the systems we have now.
A half-hour look at a history of Eddie Jones antics and why I think England might be in line to surprise a few people at next year's World Cup will be with everyone before the weekend…
Really excited for everyone to see this one, one of the deepest dives I've ever put together https://t.co/S5qLbBuTyg
Ever read an obituary of someone you didn’t know about until they deid? Just read Dervla Murphy’s inna graun who started her travel writing career cycling to India. However, this bit stood out:
As a single mother after her daughter Rachel was born in 1968 – no easy matter in 1960s Ireland – she defied convention by insisting on taking the girl wherever she went. “People would say to me, ‘what do you think you’re doing, taking a defenceless girl to the wilds of the Andes?’”
You’ve already got Steyn, Kebble and McBeth so going further down the SA route.
Probably a good move for him. He was really good for the Cheetahs but hasn’t been able to break in ahead of the excellent Nortje or Steenkamp in Pretoria. Hope he does well in Glasgow.
Have exchanged pleasantries with the Lesser Spotted Iks who was unsurprisingly to be found sniffing round an article on The Guardian about fillums what’ve got dinosaurs in them. He and I share a love for what turns out to be ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’, I couldn’t remember what it was called. Sadly and wrongly it didn’t make the list and neither did ‘Giants of Gwent Rugby’ which might also have had a reasonable claim.
Yeah, forgot about him – also too young. A local actor here (TomP may know him, but possibly not given that he was largely in soapies), Jamie Bartlett passed away this week, aged 55. He was a couple of years senior to me at school, which was a bit of a jolt. Larger than life character even at school. Played 1st team prop and always threw himself into everything at 100 miles an hour. The first aid team were doing what then passed for a concussion protocol on him after a collision and were monitoring his vision with a finger moving in front of his face. “What can you see?” she asked, to which he replied “Two bloody fingers to you too” and ran back onto the field.
Ovally Balls 
7z the all-action game:
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QF confirmation for URC:
1. Leinster v Glasgow Warriors
2. Stormers v Edinburgh
3. Ulster v Munster
4. Bulls v Sharks
If I’ve got this right, it means Leinster host one of the Bulls or Sharks in the SF, with the other two Irish sides hoping that Edinburgh pull off a win in Cape Town. Apologies to Glasgow fans in advance.
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Don’t need to Deebs. We’ll get humped.
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The reason you didn’t get a line-by-line commentary from me on this game – unlike the Ulster/Sharks game – was because I spent my time shouting at the television (having gone to Dublin for the Toulouse game, I opted out of another road trip…. anyway 7.15pm ko means staying overnight or a 4 hour drive home starting around 9.30 at best)
After the hope engendered by the performance vs Toulouse – this was as we say “a land”. Apart from a short spell after Leinster’s early try – this was really poor (against Leinster thirds)
The most telling thing was after Carbery tried a chip to Earls standing in the 5m channel which went straight out of play – Earls was caught walking away shaking his head. I suspect not because the execution was wrong but because the idea was so wrong – Leinster had 2 defenders in the 15m – plenty of cover. Carbery had a poor game – too lateral all day.
Summed up – for me – by a passage near the end where with a huge gap between the pillar and the next defender, he opted for a long miss pass to the Munster sub openside in the 5m channel who was promptly hammered into touch by the Leinster defense. It was like U14s when you show them the miss pass – everything becomes a miss pass (cos it looks flashy) until they work out (or you tell them) that they need to fix the defense first.
I’ve accused Connacht of only being “up” to play the other Irish teams – this seems to be the opposite. We’ll probably have a right cut off Ulster, win the semi and then faint dead away on sight of a Leinster shirt in the final
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Can’t believe the commentary on that 7s thing – “You can’t blame the players or the coaches”????!!
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Cmw – I go back and forth between whether the Argies should have tried to tackle or whether the English guy should have been more sporting. Both teams benefitted from that.
Pro would have been pleased
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@Craigs – I don’t know if there’s an ‘unsportsmanlike conduct’ thing in rugby that can be used by the ref. I think he ought to be able to send off the England player and the Argentina captain and then the only decision is whether it’s a penalty to England that’s then reversed or the other way around. In the absence of that then obviously just throw both teams out of the tournament.
If it’s supposed to be OK then they should have just stood around with nobody going anywhere or tackling anyone straight from kick-off.
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Cmw – wasn’t points difference the key thing? I don’t really like 7s tbh and this hasn’t changed my mind.
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@Craigs – Yes, fair enough, it sounds like the score needed to get to a certain point for it to suit both sides, but the principle is the same – if a draw had suited both then no need to play at all.
I don’t watch sevens either. Think I’ve seen a handful of games in the Olympics and otherwise I’d have to go back to the Hong Kong stuff appearing each year on the telly about thirty years ago.
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To be fair to Argentina they were at least trying (at this point without having to try) to win the game. So they can have the penalty.
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Cmw – I think we can safely say that it was Argentinas fault
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Sounds like the ref could have penalised him then. Missed opportunity.
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This is a good thread, on the 7z thingy
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@Refit – They seem very keen to allow it for no obvious reason. If the referee wasn’t standing right next to a man who was both wasting time and doing something against the spirit of good sportsmanship then they’re watching a different game to me.
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Time-wasting in 7z is a time-honoured tradition, but that was taking the piss on both sides. Hopefully it’s addressed timeously so that next time no time is wasted.
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Jones to partner Smith and Farrell as his 10-12 axis for the tour to Australia in June, with Manu Tuilagi at 13, according to the Graun, so that’s the end of the England centres debate for the time being. Until Manu gets crocked 10 minutes into the first Test and Farrell finally falls foul of the refs for a swinging armed shoulder charge.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/may/23/englands-farrell-and-smith-partner-up-to-revitalise-attack-for-australia-tour
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Didn’t realise England had beaten the Wobblies eight matches on the trot. That’s almost Kiwi-like. Should be a good series though, with the Aussies showing signs of revitalisation last year, and perhaps, even, bringing a bit more grunt to the set piece than in the recent past.
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Deebs – nah we’ll stuff em. Up their holes.
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Hope so! Will be grand if Project Eddie soars in Aus and gives him hope a year out from the big thing.
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Pretty sure he can another one
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*get
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I listened to a good interview the other day with Molly White, who runs this nice site: https://web3isgoinggreat.com/
What disturbs me about the Seth Green story is he had 4 NFTs “stolen” but it seems only 1 of “them” had a contract for a cartoon series so the other 3 must have been pissed off. Pissed off enough to fake “their” own kidnapping along with the real kidnapping of the Bored Ape? I’m no copper (too good-looking for a start) but that’s where I’d be investigating.
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I mean, he could just get the jpg removed from the server the link in the NFT points to. All an NFT is, is a bit of code, that holds a URL.
This is a good video on the whole NFT/blockchain thing
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Also this one:
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The Molly White interview’s here:
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-jnbz5-13c58543?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share
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@Tomp – Molly was also on Trashfuture last month: https://trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/e/there-s-a-casino-in-my-trojan-horse-feat-molly-white/
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refit,
I like these guys and they did a thing on NFTs and Crypto earlier this month: https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/the-last-100-in-your-bank-account-economy-how-crypto-nfts-and-gambling-prey-on-working-people
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Tomp/Refit – I don’t think you can even class this as ‘theft’ given the nature of the, ah, thing.
If you can stand him Balaji Srivinasan explains why you would use this technology. I can see* the value in having your own, unique, distributed identity, or even use it to tag to something real, but this is dumb.
* Well I remember seeing this but forgot right after Balaji stopped talking.
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“the nature of the, ah, thing”
This is where I’m lost. Think I’ll go back to painting pictures of the Ding an sich.
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Cmw – yeah, I can see some blockchain utility down the line but spending money on pictures with unique code baffles me*.
* I am still open to the tech bros being annoyingly right about this. Just not sure how.
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“spending money on pictures with unique code baffles me”
It’s simply a case of the pictures being marketed as investments, no? As someone said the other day, at least with snakeoil salesmen you got a bottle out of it.
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Tomp – yes, because of the unique code behind them. So they are like electronic Mona Lisa’s apparently. I just can’t quite get that idea around my head. Most of them are shit. But there are other reasons for having unique, distributed ids which seemed to have a reason behind it. Having your own unbreakable, online id for instance, or attaching codes to actual things like cars. Because it is unique and distributed (and on Web 3) it can’t be faked, changed or controlled by govt so everyone can rely on it. Apparently.
Although Balaji lost me when he said you could have virtual towns with virtual mayor’s providing real world utilities. That seemed both needless and somehow worse than the systems we have now.
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Mind you, people paid £10 for preserved shark.
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*£10m
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In contrast to the horrible news coming out of Texas, I found this to be a good read, young Dubliner goes to New York via Belfast and has her life changed
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/may/25/moment-that-changed-me-summer-in-new-york-annie-macmanus
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Something to look forward to
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Ever read an obituary of someone you didn’t know about until they deid? Just read Dervla Murphy’s inna graun who started her travel writing career cycling to India. However, this bit stood out:
As a single mother after her daughter Rachel was born in 1968 – no easy matter in 1960s Ireland – she defied convention by insisting on taking the girl wherever she went. “People would say to me, ‘what do you think you’re doing, taking a defenceless girl to the wilds of the Andes?’”
Legend.
Another pile of books to read.
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She’s good is Dervla Murphy.
I do like reading the obits, whether I know of someone or not.
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In rugby news Edinburgh pick up Wes Goosen from the Hurricanes.
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In happy news for DeeBee, Weedgies going down the South African route.
https://www.glasgowwarriors.org/news/manjezi-signs-for-glasgow-warriors
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You’ve already got Steyn, Kebble and McBeth so going further down the SA route.
Probably a good move for him. He was really good for the Cheetahs but hasn’t been able to break in ahead of the excellent Nortje or Steenkamp in Pretoria. Hope he does well in Glasgow.
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Have exchanged pleasantries with the Lesser Spotted Iks who was unsurprisingly to be found sniffing round an article on The Guardian about fillums what’ve got dinosaurs in them. He and I share a love for what turns out to be ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’, I couldn’t remember what it was called. Sadly and wrongly it didn’t make the list and neither did ‘Giants of Gwent Rugby’ which might also have had a reasonable claim.
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BB – a good signing for Glasgow; as TomP rightly says, there’s plenty of tall timber in Pretoria and this may be the break that he needs.
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Rip Alan White from Yes and Andy Fletcher from Depeche Mode, 72 and 60 respectively. Too young.
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and Ray Liotta.
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Yeah, forgot about him – also too young. A local actor here (TomP may know him, but possibly not given that he was largely in soapies), Jamie Bartlett passed away this week, aged 55. He was a couple of years senior to me at school, which was a bit of a jolt. Larger than life character even at school. Played 1st team prop and always threw himself into everything at 100 miles an hour. The first aid team were doing what then passed for a concussion protocol on him after a collision and were monitoring his vision with a finger moving in front of his face. “What can you see?” she asked, to which he replied “Two bloody fingers to you too” and ran back onto the field.
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I’ve stuck a new post up.
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