The Baa Baas always conjure up romantic auld rugby images, with fly-halves ghosting defenders, props looping passes to wingers and penalty kicks declined to keep the ball in play for the benefit of a raucous crowd. To be honest though, half the time nowadays they are games where an opposition coach will try out his newbies against a hobbled-together team that has been on the piss all week. The Baa Baas is also a useful team to send off legends of the game: Jason Robinson, Katy Daley-Mclean and Chris Robshaw are all excellent examples of this. No one cares about the result really, even when Finn has ‘one of those days’ and beats England. It’s fun, it’s rugby values, it’s a good distraction when no other international rugby is on.
England
With Saracens and Leicester playing the Prem final, Eddie has gone for youth and I have to say it’s an exciting team:
Freeman; Cokanasiga, Marchant, Atkinson, May; Smith, Randall; Rodd, Walker, Collier, Ewels, Hill, Curry (c), Underhill, Dombrandt.
Replacements: Singleton, Goodrick-Clarke, Schickerling, Lawes, Willis, Care, Bailey, Nowell.
The best thing for me is the back row. Young, fast, powerful and actually able to jackal. Still feels a bit weird to be able to say that about an English back row, but I’ll take it.
Elsewhere, we have centres in the centre, wingers on the wing, and in-form scrum halves. Madness. Here’s hoping that Danny Care is coming back for real too.
Eddie even came up with this gem in the build up:
“We are looking forward to playing against an unusually French Barbarians side – which you normally only get when you play the French Barbarians.”
No shit. And no insults either.
Baa Baas
Spring; Penaud, Vakatawa, Botia, Niniashvili; Hastoy, Couilloud; Gros, Bourgarit, Gigashvili, Kruis, Skelton, Cretin, Ollivon (c), Tanga
Replacements: Priso, Tolofua, Falatea, Lavault, Le Garrec, Carbonel, Macalou, Vili
Kruis gets his send off! Probably by buggering up a conversion from the touch line too. But as Eddie sagely stated it’s a France heavy team coached by a French coach with a sprinkling of Fijian, Aussie and Georgian muscle. It’ll be interesting given the French have a newfound habit of winning stuff.
Prediction
It’ll depend who wants it more. I think the new and returning England players will want to lay down a marker and hopefully the Baa Baas will still be drunk etc. It’ll be fun but ultimately I think England should win it*.
35-20
*Bloody jinxed it now though.
Onna telly today
Sunday 19rd June
| England v Barbarians | 15:00 | Amazon Prime |
As barbered by Craigsman
Ovally Balls 
Ireland C have been a bit better since the break
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Have a really dodgy feed with no sound here, but Ireland seem to have tightened things up a bit since the break and have finally scored from a pick and go. 32-17 with just over 10 minutes left. Cian Healy down and looking in pain. Getting stretchered off with what looks like an ankle problem (I.e. he’s not putting any pressure on his foot).
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Four minutes to go and my feed switched to EFC highlights.
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It took them a while to find their feet but a callow Ireland side will come away from that with some good experience
Coombes in particular looks very comfortable at this level
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Well, that was a sobering experience. We looked what we were – a scratch team thrown together at short notice.
Frawley looked what we was – a 12 press ganged to play 10. Our kicking game was dire…. especially as Sullivan, the Maori FB had a huge boot. We seemed to be kicking by plan – not looking at the play.
Loughman staggered off – but somehow passed the HIA. Healy got a nasty looking injury. Looks like another LH wanted ( Warwick from Ulster or Wycherley from Munster??) Not clear how bad Hume’s injury was.
At one point, we’d given away so many offside pens that it was like one of those training games where the coach refs and “rides” your team to test
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… if you can manage to keep cool with an incompetent or biased ref.
(Not calling Barnes either of those things – but part of me was thinking that Farrell had asked him to penalise us just to see how we’d cope)
Rucks and breakdown were poor – didn’t really protect our ball enough.
Upsides – as Ticht said – Coombes looks ready for the next level. Huge ball carrier and decent hands. Aki was OK. Scannell did well for a guy who arrived Monday – his body clock was probably still around Mumbai.
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U20 updates? Where can I find them?
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Baby Boks 19-3 up against Ireland, who are getting outmuscled and out thought at the moment. 6 minutes to the break. Boks with a penalty in front of the posts, 10m out and opt for the scrum. They take it off the back and drive over after a couple of phases. Bonus point according to the commentators? 26-3 with the conversion.
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SA hooker binned for what I think was deemed a dangerous side entry. Ireland up to the 5m line and looking dangerous, but they’re getting turned over too often. Luckily the Boks knock on and scrum Ireland on the hooter and the 5m line. With an extra man. Take it off the back, get turned over again and that’s half time.
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Second half about to start. Lovely evening in ? and Ireland have a scrum from the kickoff. Can they make the man advantage count? Nope. Under pressure against a 7-man scrumcand knock on in midfield.
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Some lovely phases by Ireland, but again cough it up and after a bit of kicking the Boks get field position. They’ve got some fabulous kickers, finding space and distance. Ireland get a scrum penalty for the Boks not strumming straight. Ireland pour downfield but cough it up with the tryline in sight again. Looking much better though.
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Still getting battered in contact though. Lost in the tackle for the umpteenth time and SA clear. Ireland making good yards when they go wide and a lovely chip and chase sees them go over under the posts! 26-10 and that’ll give them a boost!
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Boks now getting a bit sloppy and gifting Ireland possession. Still battering the Irish scrum, but not making much of it. Boks finally get a penalty in the 54th minute and kick to the 5m line. Not straight. Ref has pinged both hookers for that. Obviously not feeding the scrum into the 2nd row though!
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Water break and Ireland will be the happier. Kept the Boks scoreless and have made some good yards away from the big boys. But the Boks get a 5th try after taking it into midfield from the 5m lineout and then battering away. 33-10 with just over a quarter to go.
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Boks get good momentum from the maul, but Ireland with the turnover penalty! Go quickly and well, moving it through the hands. A slew of penalties conceded in that passage and the next one goes to the bin. Ireland 5m out. Tap and go and over! Under the posts and back to 16 points in it. 33-17.
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Ireland win a turnover, but concede a penalty moments after and the Boks opt for posts. Win for Ireland you feel, especially as it’s wide. Ireland run it out but once again the pass goes to a Bok and they get back into Ireland’s half. Ireland penalty for playing the ball on the ground.
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Ireland going backwards in possession and then cough up a penalty for being in front of the kicker. Bok lineout on the Irish 22. Just over 10 to go. Benches emptied, pretty much. Skew again. Ireland scrum with mostly replacements on both sides. Solid. Ireland run it out and they’re 10m out! And knock it on. That was a good passage (with a couple of scrappy moments!) but Ireland needed to score there.
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Boks run it from the scrum but knock on and Ireland have an attacking scrum in the Bok 22. 5 minutes to go. Ireland knock on under huge tackle pressure and you’d think that’s it. Scrum penalty to the Boks and they’ll take their time to move upfield , except they don’t find touch! Another Irish handling error and with 2 minutes left, the fat lady has hit her straps.
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Scrappy after the hooter flingaboutery from both sides, and Ireland do it better, getting a consolation try! 33-24 the final score.
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Refit – that Cuthbert try was Ashton esk!
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So apropos of nowt, has anyone read ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ by Neil Postman? It was written in 1985 so some of the details are outdated bur it really made me think about how technology affects culture. It’s about the shortcomings of television disseminating information to the general public as a series of short sound bites lacking context vs the longer form typography and debates that preceded it (in the US). His point is that being entertained is more important to audiences than the content of the message which was not the case in the 18th and 19th centuries.
I wonder what he would make of social media.
I also listened to The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad. It was free, and shit.
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Just time to get this in
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This is amazing
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Good guys
15. Freddie Steward
14. Jack Nowell
13. Joe Marchant
12. Owen Farrell
11. Joe Cokanasiga
10. Marcus Smith
9. Danny Care
1. Ellis Genge
2. Jamie George
3. Will Stuart
4. Maro Itoje
5. Jonny Hill
6. Courtney Lawes (C)
7. Tom Curry
8. Billy Vunipola
Finishers
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie
17. Mako Vunipola
18. Joe Heyes
19. Ollie Chessum
20. Lewis Ludlam
21. Jack van Poortlviet
22. Guy Porter
23. Henry Arundell
No Randall or Underhill. Otherwise, I quite like it. Don’t fuck up my birthday boys.
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No May either.
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Us MLR final highlights here :-
https://www.therugbynetwork.com/videos/mlrchampionshipfinal
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Australia: Tom Banks, Andrew Kellaway, Len Ikitau, Samu Kerevi, Marika Koroibete, Quade Cooper, Nic White; Angus Bell, David Porecki, Allan Alaalatoa, Darcy Swain, Cadeyrn Neville, Rob Leota, Michael Hooper (c), Rob Valetini.
Replacements: Folau Fainga’a, Scott Sio, James Slipper, Matt Philip, Pete Samu, Jake Gordon, Noah Lolesio, Jordan Petaia.
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Johnny May out for covid protocols. Wallabies by 20.
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Thauma, you’ve got mail… wanted or not.
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Surprise! New post!
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