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 
Impressionnante!
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One bonus of getting Amazon again, is the new series of Kids In The Hall. It’s like they’ve never been away.
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Highlights of the Baa-baas match:
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Thanks, Refit…………………………grim for the Reds.
Klunk vs, wit and skill.
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This may actually be Boris Johnson’s theme tune (see this article for the latest reason):
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@refitman – “Olive oil all the way!” “Joel a singer!” And about 55 different spellings of Penaud, not including my ‘Pennaud’. “Liquor egg.” “Lego rank.”
Subtitles are great. :-)
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Interesting to see Eddie blaming the ref for England being stuffed at the breakdown yet again, for about the 12th time in the last 15 games.
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England’s squad for tour of Australia
Hide
Backs
H Arundell (London Irish), D Care (Harlequins), J Cokanasiga (Bath), F Dingwall (Northampton), O Farrell (Saracens), T Freeman (Northampton), G Furbank (Northampton), W Joseph (London Irish), J Marchant (Harlequins), J May (Gloucester), J Nowell (Exeter), G Porter (Leicester), H Randall (Bristol), J van Poortvliet (Leicester), M Smith (Harlequins), F Steward (Leicester)
Forwards
O Chessum (Leicester), L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), T Curry (Sale Sharks), C Ewels (Bath), E Genge (Leicester), J George (Saracens), J Heyes (Leicester), J Hill (Exeter), N Isiekwe (Saracens), M Itoje (Saracens), C Lawes (Northampton), L Ludlam (Northampton), B Rodd (Sale Sharks), P Schickerling (Exeter), W Stuart (Bath), S Underhill (Bath), B Vunipola (Saracens), M Vunipola (Saracens), J Walker (Harlequins), J Willis (Wasps)
Looks like New Zealand are in for a right stuffing in the third test.
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Lots of England players I don’t know in that squad. Lots I do know and don’t rate. Lots could go wrong with this post in July. Eddie building nicely for the 2027 World Cup in Aus by blooding some of these youngsters though, and all strength to him as he leads the side to a third consecutive World Cup then!
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All the products of the best league in the world, Deebs.
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Sbt – from that, I’d go…
Stuart
Lcd
Mako
Maro
Courtney
Curry
Underhill
Billy
Randall
Smith
Joe Cok
Faz
Marchant
May
Steward
Care
Nowell
Porter
George
Rodd
Schickerling
Hill
Ludlam
What happened to young Raffi Quirke though?
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Watched Leic vs Sarries highlights. Was really happy for Freddie Burns to get some redemption after his try scoring fuck up for Bath. Never quite fulfilled his early promise but happy for the lad.
Also, happy for the Youngs brothers. They have been through some shit recently.
Lastly, happy for Kruis. His donkey kicked conversion (only prediction I got right) was hilarious.
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He’s knackered, Craigs.
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Quirke out injured. I would start with Care, tbh. Maybe Nowell instead of Big Joe too. Good to see Willis back, if he get fit, he is great, and I rate Nick Isekwe. Ewels not so much, and I don’t think Maro does enough at the breakdown, which is our big problem at the moment, need jackling props, and he gets roasted in the scrums if anyone manages to work him out. You would think the centres pick themselves from that squad, but I suspect that Nowell will be at 13, and Marchant at flanker, or some such nonsense.
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Selection game time!
With an eye to the future and a leavening of experience, I’d go:
Heyes, LC-D, Genge
Itoje, Chessum
Lawes, Underhill
Billy V.
Care
Farrell
May
Dingwall(?)
Marchant
Nowell
Steward
Bench: Mako, George, Schickerling, Hill, Willis, JvP, Smith, Arundell
Stuart – yesterday’s man, Rodd – just ‘no’
Iziekwe – prone to brain farts and not as mobile as Hill
Curry – tired, Ludlam – a bit slow at this level?
Randall – no (a poor man’s Care)
……..don’t know enough about: Joseph, Freeman, Porter, Dingwall, Arundell
Furbank – no
Jo Coka – I doubt it
A tough tour for this squad -but I expect some stars to emerge
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Sbt/Tomp – Ahh thought Eddie might have jettisoned him. And switch Ludlam for Willis in the subs.
I think it’ll be Faz and Marchant in the centres tbh.
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Nice to see that England centres have had their usual impact on the blog.
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@BB – I thought you’d appeared to answer Slade’s question “Dingwall?”
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The answer would be ‘Ross County’.
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That’s about what I know. Though there is a chap I used to see years ago in the pub who’s just moved to my street who is the only person I’ve ever met from Dingwall. He’s been in York even longer than I have though.
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BB – at least one isn’t an inanimate lump of concrete*. Then we’d really be moaning.
* Faz ain’t this.
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I would start with Care, tbh.
Rubbish! Throw caution to the wind and crush Australia! The Only Way is England! Think I spent too much time in THAT London.
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Just noticed: no Ben Earl in the squad
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No Ben Morgan either. In fact no Bens at all. Conspiracy.
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“Just noticed: no Ben Earl in the squad”
‘They’ are saying that Jones doesn’t think he’s big enough to play international rugby, which means he wouldn’t have picked the similarly-proportioned Hamish Watson for an international side, or Michael Hooper for that matter.
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Dingwall, the player, not the home to the mighty Ross County FC, has been playing really well this season. He could have taken the Righteous Route and joined his Saints mate Hutchinson on the Scotland tour, there were noises to that effect but it wasn’t to be.
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ticht, he played for Scotland Under 18s a few years ago alongside Cameron Redpath, who also played Under 20s for England and got called up by Eddie once. In the England squad they met was future Scottish internationalist Ben White, who shifted allegiance when he learned of the No Ben Rule.
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This made me laugh, a quote from The Breakdown:-
“…the Barbarians had enjoyed such a social buildup week that Amazon Prime’s pitchside pundits even noted on air that the perspiring man of the match, George Kruis, “smelt of Moscow Mules”. Losing against a talented French-dominated side is one thing but getting pumped by more than 50 points in an England jersey by a team who had been in the pub for much of the week is properly embarrassing. “
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Gordon Dingwall, father of Fraser, played in the centre for London Scottish and I’d wager he’ll know his Scots language, where “ben” means, in or inside. Tae cam ben wi yon bonnie callants in the Scottish squad would have been a good choice for Dingwall, he’d have been welcome.
I hope he does well, just not as well as Hutchinson and Scotland. There was a thing I saw the other day from Dan Biggar, he was, errr, bigging up Rory Hutchinson, saying how important he has been for Saints as a second first receiver and playmaker, which is exactly what Toonie wants from Redpath, so it will be interesting if he is used in that capacity. It’s the way I want Scotland to play and I think having Kinghorn, Hutchinson plus Bennett gives us an exciting midfield.
I think Huw Jones would have played at fullback, so with him out it will fall to young Ollie Smith to stake his claim, he played well in an under-performing Glasgow side in recent months.
Ones to watch for Scotland will be Rory Darge to continue his ascent into international rugby stardom, Luke Crosbie too.
22 year old Murphy Walker is a lad I have high hopes for, in the first Glasgow/Embra game this season he was on top in the scrum on the loosehead side before switching over to tighhead when Boan Venter came on for Edinburgh.
Venter has been really good for us this season and I really rate him, some of the SA fans on another forum have been calling for him to be called up to the Boks squad this summer, though he is injured at the moment.
Walker gave Venter a hiding in the tight.
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Why am I not surprised…
“Last November Boris Johnson committed £50m to transform MND research. Has any of the money been forthcoming? “No,” Weir says.”
From the interview with Doddie in the Graun.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jun/21/doddie-weir-money-motor-neurone-disease-mnd-rugby-union
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Doddie must not have contributed enough to the wallpaper fund.
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Mrs BK is away for work and sent me a selfie taken with a handsome young man wearing All Black gear. Apparently there had been a big bus and lots of people milling about, and when she asked who he was with, he said he was with the All Blacks. So she asked for his name, and had to tell him she’d never heard of him and he looked too skinny to play rugby.
At this point a (young Samoan) courier driver arrived on my doorstep, so we both studied the photo and neither of us knew who he was either.
Turns out it was Stephen Perofeta, and he was really lovely, chatting away for ages.
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I have, in fact, heard of Perofeta, but it made me realise that the last full game I watched was the RWC quarterfinal, and the last extended highlights package I saw had 4 tries scored from lineout mauls, and I’m pretty much over it. Not even tempted to watch the Bulls play the Stormers in a Crusaders-free final.
On the other hand, I watched all 70 laps of the Canadian Grand Prix, so it’s not as though I don’t have the patience for boring repetitive crap where nothing happens. I’m with Utnap now.
It all went downhill when Barry John retired early.
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BK kills the blog.
Barbarian!
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I’m still coming to terms with the news that Barry John has retired.
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I do have some sympathy with Utna and now BK, rugby is a bit boring at the moment, the power uber alles is dull really.
I’ve been told for many moons now that the current game is so much better than the old amateur version and I do appreciate that lifting a jumper makes for a spectacular lineout restart, and that training for hours every day means you spill the ball less than you would do after Tuesday and Thursday nights under the lights in the rain during January and Feb, but…
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I too am considering whether rugby is turning into shit, but only if Australia break their current mini hoodoo against us this summer.
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It’s still a good game but we all watch too much – and here particularly don’t play much if at all.
To make it more attractive for television there’s been a move away from competition for the ball at re-starts, but that’s also good for players who want to attack as clean ball is good ball.
The good players of the past would be good players now and vice-versa.
Television does a bad job of talking about the game because it’s scared of complexity, or, perhaps, loves simple repeated “truths”, but television is in love with hyperbole.
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Am going on holiday to the Czech Republic tomorrow for two weeks. Have already set up the telly to record the Maori v an Ireland XV next week. 40 years ago I’d’ve heard a report about that on the radio if lucky or if I was in Prague would have had to wait a day to go to find a paper to find out the result.
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“we all watch too much – and here particularly don’t play much if at all.”
I’ve always found rugby to be a bit of a funny one on this front. If you don’t count a few people that used to be on AoD I can’t think of anyone I’ve known who plays as an adult who watches much. Relatively small sample admittedly and obviously playing takes up time, but it’s something I haven’t found to be the case to the same extent with football or cricket.
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That’s probably because the likelihood of getting seriously injured is much less with football and cricket.
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BK, short for Barbaric Kiwi, I assume. Barbaric is possibly redundant, given the word that follows.
There is too much of all sport these days, no more ‘seasons’ where you only played cricket in summer, rugby in winter and squeezed the swimming and athletics seasons into spring and autumn or however it used to work. I remember how much anticipation there was over the start of the Currie Cup here as a kid, and even early Super Rugby when there were only 12 teams. Ditto for cricket and football, where seasons were far more defined, without interminable post-season competitions or tours etc.
The horse has obviously bolted after the genie was let out of the bottle on this one, so no chance it’s ever going back, but on a personal level, I find that I only watch as much as I used to anyway (possibly slightly less), so I’m not finding it too boring or dispiriting. That said, I don’t watch the 7s circuit much at all, only watch the English and French leagues if Mrs Deebee has gone to bed or is away and wiht no real dog in the fight, only to watch because they’re a bit novel to me and to see if any Boks or potential Boks are playing to keep up with their form. Don’t get to do this often either.
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Don’t think I watched a complete match of the Super Rugby Pacific tournament either. Don’t know what the viewing stats say, but on rugby boards here that I occasionally skim through, there are very few Saffers following it now that we’re not involved anymore.
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@Thaum – That’s a reason for fewer people playing. But not for those that do play not watching.
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Any Ben’s in the England football team? There’s two in the cricket side, so maybe it’s old trifecta thing again.
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Ben Chilwell was knocking around the squad for a bit and the Arsenal boy Ben White’s played recently.
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One for you, Deebee: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/jun/23/grounded-what-to-do-in-an-airport-if-your-flight-is-delayed-by-one-three-six-or-12-hours
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1 hour delay – drink
3 hour delay – drink. Almost miss flight due to staggering to wrong gate.
6 hour delay – drink. Miss flight. Later found unconscious on floor of airport toilet.
12 hour delay – drink. Miss flight. Arrested after fighting with airport staff.
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BB got it pretty close. Except 13 hour delay and no booze available for the first 7, so technically a 6 hour delay. And didn’t miss the flight because I was too busy trying to use all the data in the airport and laughing at the ludicrous prices of the booze in the ‘duty-free’ which were more expensive than in the high street shops in Joburg.
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