Strong finish by Racing. Some excellent tries.
It was basically power vs power and pace. At one point I thought Sale would win through their dominant scrum. But they showed too little imagination with ball in hand. Racing simply had too much gas. And a few fortunate bounces too.
I’ll be in Lagos or Port Harcourt for the semis. Other than my computer, it may be tricky to find a feed! Might go to the Fela Kuti museum on Saturday if no rugby.
A Fela Kuti museum? I’d pay good money to get in.
Unfortunately no more rugby, Deebee, until next week-end.
Also in the small cup Toulon vs Sarries and Lyon vs ?
Oops, Lyon vs Wasps.
I expect to see both English clubs to go through in the small cup.
In the H cup, I think Leinster will win over a tired ( and not just there yet) Toulouse, and I can’t call LaR vs Racing.
Leinster for the final win.
..and in the interest of completion of wonder tries from the weekend, Henry Arundell was a standout performer in the U20s this year. He’s Scottish-qualified too, or so I’m told.
There’s no chance he’ll be joining us though.
He’s also Welsh-qualified.
Russell’s try was exactly the thing we’d tell our U14s not to do (and probably U16s, U18s too) – pick it up and run it back towards your own players or kick deep into the corner – do not volley it forward down the middle of the pitch…..
I gave up trying to play rugby at an age when we were still strongly discouraged from kicking the ball at all, but regardless this looks to me like a good way of hurting your foot.
The old balls we had for rugby practice at school didn’t really have a pointy bit, the were more oval shaped than the posh Gilbert leather “Match” you saw in internationals in those days, more like the Adidas ones the French team used, but even less pointy.
They got so heavy on a wet day that any kicking was damn near impossible for school kids
They got so heavy on a wet day that any kicking was damn near impossible
I guess there in nutshell is the main reason you’d review what constitutes a ‘penalty’ – offences that once wouldn’t attract a shot at the posts are now within range of the modern ball (looking at you Ben Healy)
On the other hand, maybe teams would be worse-behaved if they thought it wouldn’t cost 3pts (having raised the question – I generally lean to the belief that you don’t reduce the value of the penalty)
My favourite is the bloke at midwicket who just stands there for too long, and then after a bit decides to run very slowly to short fine leg, and still doesn’t collect the ball.
On the kicking thing, Scotland used to be famous for the good old fashioned fly hack thru, no ? I remember as a kid at school having dribbling with a rugby ball practice, being told by the coach ( who later worked with England scrum coaches), that any self respecting loosie should be able to outsmart the fancy pants backs like that , particularly in the wet weather, which was why Scots were so good at it, cos it rained all the time north of the border.. Mind you, I also got pulled up by same coach for throwing a dummy and then trying a one handed offload in the days before there was such a thing, on the grounds that that type of behaviour was not acceptable for a prop/ sometime flanker/hooker, and to leave it to the brylcream boys.
@OT – He’s actually gone from something like square leg to midwicket when he obviously should have gone behind square in the first place. That said the angles suggest it was always going to be long leg’s job to back up that throw and he didn’t come in till too late though it doesn’t look like he moves too well either.
I also don’t think the whole incident is quite ‘village’ enough as the batsmen are too quick between the wickets. Should ideally take two bad throws to turn a one/two into an all run four really and this does of course happen.
Should ideally take two bad throws to turn a one/two into an all run four
Reminds me – in reverse – of a game at uni.
Opposition played a decent shot down to the boundary looking to take an easy two – one of those “one for his arm” type shots. However, we’d positioned a lad who was county standard at javelin – no great shakes at cricket but he’d a mighty arm.
The yelps and shouts as this missile arrowed in from the tree-lined perimeters were hysterical – few things as funny as seeing a batsman who’s strolling suddenly having to dive to make his ground. Then followed by general gesticulations to the other batsman and the incoming group sitting on the grassy bank not to play any shots in that direction….
I read recently about how Bryan Ferry turned down Don’t You (Forget About Me). While you can easily picture – or rather, hear – him singing the song, and can also imagine the aptly-named Simple Minds being told to ‘sing it like Bryan Ferry’, I would have lost all respect.
The line in the article was that it was due to a ‘scheduling problem’.
So whatever shreds of respect I had after finding out about some of his non-musical views and actions might be down to that. I like to think it was a polite excuse.
Six hours into my work day in Lagos. Despite careful route planning to minimize travel between meetings, I’ve still spent more than four hours in traffic. And with an estimated 400k people (oficially) migrating to Lagos each year and internal growth of around 3%, it won’t get better any time soon.
Also a bit freaked out initially at the lack of masks being worn. I keep mine on in lifts and close proximity but the prevailing view here is that the climate is too hot for Covid and it was just a government plot to control people anyway.
Even his forward defensive shots are hard. When he plays one the fielders actually have to field the ball to stop a run, whereas with everyone else they can just wander over and pick the ball up.
“JJ Smuts was just painfully better than everyone else again at the weekend”
I’d never heard of him, but he seems to be a recent international cricketer still young enough to be playing proper professional cricket. Is this normal and/or desirable for the second division of the Essex League?
If he’s doing coaching and doing it ok, it’s probably all good for Upminster. Great thing to have for the kids at the club. Plus, you’re going to learn from him if you’re in the first side – and the other sides at the nets. Bit of a pisser for the other sides in the league but his opening partner got a ton so can’t be too shabby either. It’s buying success in terms of the league but that’s a long -standing thing in English cub cricket.
The lads at other clubs who get him out / whack him for a few sixes’ll be chuffed as well.
It’s fairly common to have an overseas pro. Of course back in the 80s it was common for these to be internationals, at least in the Central Lancashire League (Carl Hooper played for Werneth for years, Joel Garner and Manoj Prabhakar played for Oldham). In recent years it seems to be more about getting experience for younger up and coming players (Jimmy Neesham played for Upminster around 2011).
What I think has changed recently is the visa rules. The Home Office will only give you a visa if you are already an international, I think. So it means that clubs that can afford it will get top players regardless of the division/league they are in (Upminster have plenty of dosh largely because they have massively expanded their colts section in the last couple of years).
I bet it does annoy the opposition as well. They’re aren’t a great team but have won every game comfortably so far this season.
I’d say it was a bit of a pisser for their own team as well in that they’ll just be winning because he should get a hundred almost every time and probably a pile of wickets too. Quite limiting for the others with there only being so much that needs done in a game of cricket and assuming he’s only doing one season they’ll find themselves in the wrong division next year. Of course they may well sign a replacement though that obviously hasn’t been working consistently for them to be in the second division in the first place and they don’t seem to ever have actually won the thing. If the money is new then I guess then perhaps that will change, but on seeing this I would hope they crash and burn.
I know it was common practice in Lancashire back in the day though that always struck me as ridiculous too, think some more sensible leagues keep the pros out at least below the top division, they do round here these days at least.
This guy is 33 and played for South Africa last year – why isn’t he playing in ‘The Hundred’ or whatever rather than smashing second division club players about?
I’m totally against people playing way below their own level, think it’s a complete waste of time for everyone involved and I see nothing remotely interesting in their records, success etc.
He does also look a bit like proof that you maybe don’t have to be as amazing as KP would have us believe to get to play for SA as a batting/slow bowling allrounder who is white.
why isn’t he playing in ‘The Hundred’ or whatever rather than smashing second division club players about?
He hasn’t been offered anything like that I assume. It’s probably his only way of earning any extra cash this summer. Cricketers not playing international, IPL or Hundred seem to earn peanuts so they’ll take anything they can (over the winter my lads were coached by loads of top Essex players who were all doing it for the money).
they may well sign a replacement
Last week one prominent Essex player and friend-of-the-club unexpectedly announced his retirement at the end of the season. My guess is that he’s got a good year round coaching/pro agreement going on. And it’s better than playing 2-3 more years as a county cricketer.
@OT – I suppose that viewing things generously it may be that Upminster feel they need to be a top division club to keep the best youngsters down the line and that this is a way of achieving that. I guess if all the sides in the Premier League have their equivalents then it will be fair enough though if that makes the games in that league too much about those individuals then I’m still very sceptical about that kind of cricket.
In terms of what role there should be for professionals and internationals in different levels of league cricket I guess the root of the problem is that the whole thing is such a patchwork across the country. How anyone at the ECB thinks they can say anything sensible about the ‘structure’ at all is something of a mystery. As far as I can see your old stomping ground isn’t covered at all by an ‘ECB Premier League’ though it is admittedly hard to tell for sure!
” Cricketers not playing international, IPL or Hundred seem to earn peanuts so they’ll take anything they can”
About ten years ago I met a couple of Pakistanis outside a pub in Campbeltown on New Year’s Eve. They worked in the cheapie hardware store in the town (run by a relative or family friend I think) over the winter and were paid to play cricket somewhere round about Manchester in the summer!
I guess at the higher level the changes to the Overseas/Kolpak thing in County Cricket may well mean that there are rather more people in Smuts’ position than before – if there are enough clubs with money to pay them of course.
In recent years it seems to be more about getting experience for younger up and coming players (Jimmy Neesham played for Upminster around 2011).
Neesham certainly went on to better things thanks to the experience. Smuts played 6 ODIs and 13 T20s over four years, and was basically a stop gap for other players who were injured or playing IPL or being rested. He’s never really been considered as a key international player here. He’s just about 34, so doesn’t have much time left and if English clubs like to have a pro in the ranks and pay good money, he’d be an idiot to refuse. England have poached enough talented South Africans, Zimbabweans and West Indians over the years, as well as some comically bad Aussies that I don’t think anyone can grumble about workmanlike pros cashing in for a couple of months in the lower leagues.
Ovally Balls 
Strong finish by Racing. Some excellent tries.
It was basically power vs power and pace. At one point I thought Sale would win through their dominant scrum. But they showed too little imagination with ball in hand. Racing simply had too much gas. And a few fortunate bounces too.
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Only channel that isn’t freezing is some pool tournament or other. What was the final score, Flair? Any more rugby this evening?
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@deebee
41-22 to Racing
Semis are Leinster vs Toulouse in Dublin next Sat, and Racing vs La Rochelle on Sunday.
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I’ll be in Lagos or Port Harcourt for the semis. Other than my computer, it may be tricky to find a feed! Might go to the Fela Kuti museum on Saturday if no rugby.
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A Fela Kuti museum? I’d pay good money to get in.
Unfortunately no more rugby, Deebee, until next week-end.
Also in the small cup Toulon vs Sarries and Lyon vs ?
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Oops, Lyon vs Wasps.
I expect to see both English clubs to go through in the small cup.
In the H cup, I think Leinster will win over a tired ( and not just there yet) Toulouse, and I can’t call LaR vs Racing.
Leinster for the final win.
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Dennis Waterman RIP
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Pete Waterman RIP
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That try from Finn was terrific, I think Teddy’s might have been even better
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..and in the interest of completion of wonder tries from the weekend, Henry Arundell was a standout performer in the U20s this year. He’s Scottish-qualified too, or so I’m told.
There’s no chance he’ll be joining us though.
He’s also Welsh-qualified.
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Russell’s try was exactly the thing we’d tell our U14s not to do (and probably U16s, U18s too) – pick it up and run it back towards your own players or kick deep into the corner – do not volley it forward down the middle of the pitch…..
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@ticht
I believe Arundell is also IQ as well….
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“do not volley it forward down the middle of the pitch”
I’m sure an England player tried this a couple of times in the same match in the 6N, just without the same result.
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I gave up trying to play rugby at an age when we were still strongly discouraged from kicking the ball at all, but regardless this looks to me like a good way of hurting your foot.
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CMW, in the old days of the sodden leather ball, volleying it like that would have taken your foot right off
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@Ticht – The two scenarios that come to mind are:
1) hoofing the pointy bit of the ball with the top of my foot and collapsing in a heap, the ball only travelling a very short distance.
2) missing it all together, getting smashed while in a vulnerable position for my trouble and the opposition running in an easy try.
I may be being overly negative, but I find both of these a great deal more plausible than the Finn Russell outcome…
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The old balls we had for rugby practice at school didn’t really have a pointy bit, the were more oval shaped than the posh Gilbert leather “Match” you saw in internationals in those days, more like the Adidas ones the French team used, but even less pointy.
They got so heavy on a wet day that any kicking was damn near impossible for school kids
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I can imagine, there were a few old balls still knocking around when I was at school, but things had pretty much gone pointy.
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I guess there in nutshell is the main reason you’d review what constitutes a ‘penalty’ – offences that once wouldn’t attract a shot at the posts are now within range of the modern ball (looking at you Ben Healy)
On the other hand, maybe teams would be worse-behaved if they thought it wouldn’t cost 3pts (having raised the question – I generally lean to the belief that you don’t reduce the value of the penalty)
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@cmw
This is fantastic. Just look at some of the mobility in the field
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@OT – I genuinely don’t see anything exceptional there.
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If anything the original fielder has possibly forgotten what his team is like and is maybe to blame for throwing it in too hard…
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My favourite is the bloke at midwicket who just stands there for too long, and then after a bit decides to run very slowly to short fine leg, and still doesn’t collect the ball.
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On the kicking thing, Scotland used to be famous for the good old fashioned fly hack thru, no ? I remember as a kid at school having dribbling with a rugby ball practice, being told by the coach ( who later worked with England scrum coaches), that any self respecting loosie should be able to outsmart the fancy pants backs like that , particularly in the wet weather, which was why Scots were so good at it, cos it rained all the time north of the border.. Mind you, I also got pulled up by same coach for throwing a dummy and then trying a one handed offload in the days before there was such a thing, on the grounds that that type of behaviour was not acceptable for a prop/ sometime flanker/hooker, and to leave it to the brylcream boys.
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@OT – He’s actually gone from something like square leg to midwicket when he obviously should have gone behind square in the first place. That said the angles suggest it was always going to be long leg’s job to back up that throw and he didn’t come in till too late though it doesn’t look like he moves too well either.
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I also don’t think the whole incident is quite ‘village’ enough as the batsmen are too quick between the wickets. Should ideally take two bad throws to turn a one/two into an all run four really and this does of course happen.
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@cmw
The immobile square leg/mid-wicket guy does have his jumper tied around his waist which is very village
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Reminds me – in reverse – of a game at uni.
Opposition played a decent shot down to the boundary looking to take an easy two – one of those “one for his arm” type shots. However, we’d positioned a lad who was county standard at javelin – no great shakes at cricket but he’d a mighty arm.
The yelps and shouts as this missile arrowed in from the tree-lined perimeters were hysterical – few things as funny as seeing a batsman who’s strolling suddenly having to dive to make his ground. Then followed by general gesticulations to the other batsman and the incoming group sitting on the grassy bank not to play any shots in that direction….
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Music story in the Graun for OT.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/09/eurovision-winners-brotherhood-of-man-how-we-made-save-your-kisses-for-me
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Music story in the Graun for everyone else.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/09/drugs-exile-on-main-st-rolling-stones-sprawling-masterpiece-50-rocks-off-cote-dazur
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BB – let me guess on your first link: We mainlined one thousand ground-up saccharine capsules?
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Would you believe they were offered Mamma Mia by ABBA, but recorded SYKFM instead?
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saccharine=saccharine
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I read recently about how Bryan Ferry turned down Don’t You (Forget About Me). While you can easily picture – or rather, hear – him singing the song, and can also imagine the aptly-named Simple Minds being told to ‘sing it like Bryan Ferry’, I would have lost all respect.
The line in the article was that it was due to a ‘scheduling problem’.
So whatever shreds of respect I had after finding out about some of his non-musical views and actions might be down to that. I like to think it was a polite excuse.
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@bb
I’m more of Fivepenny Piece kind of guy. Not much different to Brotherhood of Man, if we’re honest
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Six hours into my work day in Lagos. Despite careful route planning to minimize travel between meetings, I’ve still spent more than four hours in traffic. And with an estimated 400k people (oficially) migrating to Lagos each year and internal growth of around 3%, it won’t get better any time soon.
Also a bit freaked out initially at the lack of masks being worn. I keep mine on in lifts and close proximity but the prevailing view here is that the climate is too hot for Covid and it was just a government plot to control people anyway.
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@deebee
JJ Smuts was just painfully better than everyone else again at the weekend
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OT, I suppose it illustrates the gulf between actual pros and us wannabe aspirational coulda been contenders! Speaking purely for myself, of course.
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@deebee
Even his forward defensive shots are hard. When he plays one the fielders actually have to field the ball to stop a run, whereas with everyone else they can just wander over and pick the ball up.
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“JJ Smuts was just painfully better than everyone else again at the weekend”
I’d never heard of him, but he seems to be a recent international cricketer still young enough to be playing proper professional cricket. Is this normal and/or desirable for the second division of the Essex League?
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If he’s doing coaching and doing it ok, it’s probably all good for Upminster. Great thing to have for the kids at the club. Plus, you’re going to learn from him if you’re in the first side – and the other sides at the nets. Bit of a pisser for the other sides in the league but his opening partner got a ton so can’t be too shabby either. It’s buying success in terms of the league but that’s a long -standing thing in English cub cricket.
The lads at other clubs who get him out / whack him for a few sixes’ll be chuffed as well.
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It’s fairly common to have an overseas pro. Of course back in the 80s it was common for these to be internationals, at least in the Central Lancashire League (Carl Hooper played for Werneth for years, Joel Garner and Manoj Prabhakar played for Oldham). In recent years it seems to be more about getting experience for younger up and coming players (Jimmy Neesham played for Upminster around 2011).
What I think has changed recently is the visa rules. The Home Office will only give you a visa if you are already an international, I think. So it means that clubs that can afford it will get top players regardless of the division/league they are in (Upminster have plenty of dosh largely because they have massively expanded their colts section in the last couple of years).
I bet it does annoy the opposition as well. They’re aren’t a great team but have won every game comfortably so far this season.
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I’d say it was a bit of a pisser for their own team as well in that they’ll just be winning because he should get a hundred almost every time and probably a pile of wickets too. Quite limiting for the others with there only being so much that needs done in a game of cricket and assuming he’s only doing one season they’ll find themselves in the wrong division next year. Of course they may well sign a replacement though that obviously hasn’t been working consistently for them to be in the second division in the first place and they don’t seem to ever have actually won the thing. If the money is new then I guess then perhaps that will change, but on seeing this I would hope they crash and burn.
I know it was common practice in Lancashire back in the day though that always struck me as ridiculous too, think some more sensible leagues keep the pros out at least below the top division, they do round here these days at least.
This guy is 33 and played for South Africa last year – why isn’t he playing in ‘The Hundred’ or whatever rather than smashing second division club players about?
I’m totally against people playing way below their own level, think it’s a complete waste of time for everyone involved and I see nothing remotely interesting in their records, success etc.
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He does also look a bit like proof that you maybe don’t have to be as amazing as KP would have us believe to get to play for SA as a batting/slow bowling allrounder who is white.
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@cmw
He hasn’t been offered anything like that I assume. It’s probably his only way of earning any extra cash this summer. Cricketers not playing international, IPL or Hundred seem to earn peanuts so they’ll take anything they can (over the winter my lads were coached by loads of top Essex players who were all doing it for the money).
Last week one prominent Essex player and friend-of-the-club unexpectedly announced his retirement at the end of the season. My guess is that he’s got a good year round coaching/pro agreement going on. And it’s better than playing 2-3 more years as a county cricketer.
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@OT – I suppose that viewing things generously it may be that Upminster feel they need to be a top division club to keep the best youngsters down the line and that this is a way of achieving that. I guess if all the sides in the Premier League have their equivalents then it will be fair enough though if that makes the games in that league too much about those individuals then I’m still very sceptical about that kind of cricket.
In terms of what role there should be for professionals and internationals in different levels of league cricket I guess the root of the problem is that the whole thing is such a patchwork across the country. How anyone at the ECB thinks they can say anything sensible about the ‘structure’ at all is something of a mystery. As far as I can see your old stomping ground isn’t covered at all by an ‘ECB Premier League’ though it is admittedly hard to tell for sure!
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” Cricketers not playing international, IPL or Hundred seem to earn peanuts so they’ll take anything they can”
About ten years ago I met a couple of Pakistanis outside a pub in Campbeltown on New Year’s Eve. They worked in the cheapie hardware store in the town (run by a relative or family friend I think) over the winter and were paid to play cricket somewhere round about Manchester in the summer!
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I guess at the higher level the changes to the Overseas/Kolpak thing in County Cricket may well mean that there are rather more people in Smuts’ position than before – if there are enough clubs with money to pay them of course.
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In recent years it seems to be more about getting experience for younger up and coming players (Jimmy Neesham played for Upminster around 2011).
Neesham certainly went on to better things thanks to the experience. Smuts played 6 ODIs and 13 T20s over four years, and was basically a stop gap for other players who were injured or playing IPL or being rested. He’s never really been considered as a key international player here. He’s just about 34, so doesn’t have much time left and if English clubs like to have a pro in the ranks and pay good money, he’d be an idiot to refuse. England have poached enough talented South Africans, Zimbabweans and West Indians over the years, as well as some comically bad Aussies that I don’t think anyone can grumble about workmanlike pros cashing in for a couple of months in the lower leagues.
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