Rejoice, northern hemisphere rugby fans! For there is actually some rugby on the telly tonight, in the form of a pre-season ‘friendly’ between Ulster and Exeter. Scarlets v Bristol and Leinster v Harlequins are also tonight, but on some dodgy channels I’ve never heard of. On Saturday and Sunday, there are Rugby Championship and Top14 matches.
Ulster are putting out a slew of new/little-known faces, including five new signings. Jake Flannery (10) and Michael McDonald (9) start at half-back, with the other three newbies – Jeff Toomaga-Allen, Frank Bradshaw-Ryan and Sean Reffell – in the pack.
There’s a massive replacement list that will have to be whittled down before kick-off, but Jacob Stockdale is expected to make an appearance.
Ulster: Shea O’Brien; Aaron Sexton, Angus Curtis, Ian Madigan, Rob Lyttle; Jake Flannery, Michael McDonald; Callum Reid, Declan Moore, Jeff Toomaga-Allen; Frank Bradshaw-Ryan, Sam Carter; Harry Sheridan, Sean Reffell, Jordi Murphy (capt).
Replacements from: Eric O’Sullivan, Tom Stewart, John Andrew, Marty Moore, Gareth Milasinovich, Alan O’Connor, Cormac Izuchukwu, Matty Rea, Marcus Rea, Greg Jones, Nathan Doak, Conor McKee, Billy Burns, Jacob Stockdale, Luke Marshall, Craig Gilroy, Stewart Moore, Rory Telfer.
I can’t find any info on the Exeter side, but let’s hope it’s equally experimental. Perhaps Slade can enlighten us.
Onna telly this week
Friday 2nd September
| Ulster v Exeter | 19:00 | BBC2 NI / iPlayer |
| Scarlets v Bristol | 19:00 | recast |
| Leinster v Harlequins | 19:30 | 247.tv |
Saturday 3rd September
| New Zealand v Argentina | 08:05 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Australia v South Africa | 10:35 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Racing 92 v Castres | 14:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| England v USA (women) | 15:00 | ITV4 |
| Stade Français v Clermont | 16:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| La Rochelle v Montpellier | 20:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 4th September
| Bordeaux v Toulouse | 20:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
Ovally Balls 
…..should have opted to go for 3 points.
Raynal technically correct so how can he choose not to apply the law?
He warned Oz numerous times during the game (though didn’t penalise).
Oz could be good with a more collective focus – and making sure they dot the ball down! One could that that failure was the match as they had all the momentum.
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On the NZ push over try in the first half, a number of the NZ bound ruckers (!) were in touch – doesn’t that negate the TD by the rucker with the ball even if he personally is not in touch?
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URC starts this weekend! Fantastic!
The Mighty Golden Lions host the whipping boys of the Bulls first up! Awesome!
The Lions have announced their side, which is overflowing with world class internationals in every position! I’m lying through my teeth!
A total of 17 Springbok caps in the 23, divided between Andries Coetzee (13 caps, last one in 2017) and Ruan Dreyer (4 caps, last one in 2016). Of the rest, there’s nobody knocking on the door of Bok selection, with Vincent Tshituka (flank) and Wandisile Simelane (centre) both gone. Jordan Hendrikse and Quan Horn are both exciting players, but for the most part this is journeyman stuff. It’s going to be a long, long season. It’s so bad, we’ve imported two discarded props back from Australia (Smith twins)!
Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Quan Horn, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Ruhan Straeuli, 6 Sibusiso Sangweni, 5 Reinhardt Nothnagel (captain), 4 Ruan Venter, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Pieter Botha, 1 Sithembiso Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Jean-Pierre Smith, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Pieter Jansen van Vuuren, 20 Emmanuel Tshituka, 21 Sanele Nohamba, 22 Gianni Lombard, 23 Zander du Plessis.
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“URC starts this weekend! Fantastic!”
Er, yeah.
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Darcy Swain is becoming one of the biggest dicks in world rugby. That is a really nasty Callum Clarkish assault on another player. Just for that shoulder to the side of the knee, I am happy that the ref called Foley out.
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I think I looked in on the match just as that was happening, SBT, I saw him being sin binned, but not what it was for.
Now that I’ve seen the replay it’s horrible, to me that is a red card all day long
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What? RealEddie? Say it ain’t so! Far too young.
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No more Eddie and Brian bickering? It won’t be the same.
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I’m going to miss his mellifluous tones.
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Who was it, that did NotEddie?
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Claw.
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Big fan of Real Eddie, that’s very sad. I can’t find anything with his commentary at the end of the 2005 grand slam game, but it was absolute magic – something like “The crowd in the stadium and people in the pubs and living rooms all across Wales are out of their seats…OUT OF THEIR MINDS…As the Grand Slam…is taken.”
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Damn. Rip Eddie.
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Found this though CMW, would you like some cake?
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Real Eddie was a terrific commentator, like Refit I particularly enjoyed his to-and-fro with Brian Moore.
65 is far too young.
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This clip is well known mainly because of Brian Moore. But we should also take delight in Eddie pissing himself laughing at Brian
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https://twitter.com/paulcullystuff/status/1570612777093599232?t=g6aq-UjZNevVIodKDZG9sw&s=19
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So sad to lose Real Eddie! :(
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@Dab – Where are we going to get our required dose of over the top cliche-ridden Welsh verbosity from now?
Well, you can probably source some easily enough locally, but what are the rest of us to do?
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Anybody seen Craigs since the Far Right swept to power in Sweden? Probably still out celebrating with akvavit and meatballs.
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I think he’s probably drowning under a torrent of Center Parcs advertising after his recent web activities.
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Wuss missed the midday deadline for assurances over this weekend’s match.
They’ve asked for an extension, but this does not look good.
I hope there is a rabbit to be pulled out of the hat, but I doubt it. What a shame.
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Deebs – it’s not entirely surprising given the errr ‘mood’ over there. Sweden has changed quite a bit since the migrant ‘crisis’ and I think that’s affected a lot of peoples voting patterns. They are even talking about Making Sweden Great Again.
Violent crime (especially gang related) has increased and there has been a push amongst certain alt right/neo-Nazi types to solely blame the immigrant population. So I am unsurprised. Not sure they will get anything done though. The majority is slim.
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“If and when his eyes started to glitter, maybe after a couple of drinks or if someone was in danger of taking excessive liberties…”
Nobody would do that on here.
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“Financially troubled Worcester Warriors have been given permission to play this weekend after proving they can safely host matches at Sixways.
Sunday’s Premiership game against Exeter can go ahead after they showed the Rugby Football Union they had obtained a general safety certificate.”
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Some of the best photos I’ve ever seen…
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“What do you mean smile? I am smiling bucko!”
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When I was at school I’d much rather have talked to Jordan Peterson than half the teachers and priests we had inflicted on us.
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Benetton are a good side, especially at home, but Glasgow have been honking
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Hadn’t realised that Sam HC was at Benetton.
Ah well, meet the new Glasgow, same as the old Glasgow. We have only had one warm up game, that doesn’t excuse how bad we appear to have been. Think there are a few players that have been living off past reputations and either need to buck up or bugger off.
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OT – Ceej would have been so jealous.
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New post shortly. A bit late!
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New post is here.
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