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 
This is not a great match.
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Moodie with a try on day-boo. Hendrikse puts in a box kick and Koroibete sets to catch the ball and Moodie just appears in the air above him, catches the ball and gallops in to score.
Half time. 3-12 to SA.
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Ticht, French pundits on C+ made the same remark as you did about Lavanini’s YC, but then someone said he didn’t retreat before the knock on. TBH, I can’t remember when it was exactly. That’s what we’d called in Frenh a YC ” pour l’ensemble de son oeuvre”.
Poor game in Oz. T-14 resumes this afternoon and even Racing Castres could be better than that.
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SA score early in the 2nd half. Lots of kicking, then Le Roux decides to run. He’s stopped in the middle of the park, but SA just keep passing the ball and picking nice lines. Eventually they work an overlap and Mostert carries the ball over the line.
3-17 44 mins
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Flair, for me it’s just one of those interesting points that sometimes crop up in matches.
To my mind if the ref had seen the knock on he would have stopped the game right there because he was playing under penalty advantage to NZ, then the tackle is not considered – a bit like when foul play prevents a try, the action is refereed as if the player who commits the foul is not there and a try decision is taken under those conditions.
If the tackle was dangerous or violent then that overrides everything else, but it wasn’t. The knock on was discovered on replay by the TMO, and I think that Lavanini was hard done by on this occasion, even if it was given “for the entirety of his work”
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Lavanini didn’t retreat for a quick tap inside his own 22 (I think). Then after that, there was a knock on that scratched the try. Arg were already on thin ice, for repeated infringements, so I don’t see an issue with Lavanini being binned.
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Ahh, I thought the tackle happened after the knock on at the ruck, if it was before the ruck then forget everything I’ve said.
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SA on a team warning for off side or mauls – they’ve conceded 7 advantages in 3 phases.
And the Aus penalty is cancelled out, for the 3 throwing an arm into a ruck clear-out.
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Aus commentators are perplexed that actual foul play supersedes and off-side.
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It looks like Mapimpi has scored in the corner, Koriobete unable to stop him this time. And then it ALL kicks off after, most of both teams piling in.
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It started with Mapimpi not being happy with Koriobete being a bit high in the tackle, and grabbing him after the try is scored. Mapimpi gets a yellow.
Somehow, Alaalatoa and Etzebeth both escape sanction for raking fingers across each other’s faces.
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It’s 3-24 with 71 on the clock.
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I totally tuned out for a minute and when I focus again, it looks like Aus have remembered how to play. They’re attacking in the SA 22, Le Roux sticks out and arm and bats down a pass (he gets a yellow for that). White(?) gathers the ball, passes wide and it goes to Samu to score.
8-24 80mins on the clock.
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SA kicking from hand was terrible most of the match.
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Moodie’s day-boo try
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Don’t like me this reversion to the mean business.
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I think they’re trying to make sure all 4 countries end on exactly the same points.
Although I’m not sure how they sort out the teams on the same points. It can’t be bonus points, because Aus, Arg and SA have 1 each. It can’t be points difference, because Aus have -24 they are above SA who have +12. It can’t be points scored, because Arg have scored 102 which is more than Aus and SA.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/rugby-championship/table
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BB – number of tries scored?
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A Kent brewery chosen to help champion export opportunities for the government after Brexit has revealed that burdensome customs checks and paperwork have left it with just one remaining customer in the EU……
Virginia Hodge, export manager at the brewery, based at Tenterden, said: “Some transport companies won’t take alcohol now because of all the transit documents you need. I used to be able to make up a case of beer and send it by courier [to the EU] and now I have to send it through the full customs declaration. Our customers in Europe say they want to take British beer, but it’s just not cost effective. They’ve got to do a lot more paperwork.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/04/it-was-a-brexit-export-champion-now-kent-brewery-has-one-eu-customer-left
To be fair they can’t even deliver to my local cafe who stopped stocking them last year.
Blue Top is a great beer though. A really well balanced IPA.
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@Craigs
IIRC I had Blue Top on a trip to Eastbourne (not in Eastbourne tho’) – stopped off somewhere in the back of beyond after an abortive attempt to visit Herstmonceux…. ( closed in Feb apparently)
Can’t recall what “blue top” milk was – Silver was pasteurised, red homogenised, green raw, and gold was jersey milk…..
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I have a couple of of friends who have their own businesses making guitars. They each have customers in the EU, one of them says the EU clients accounted for almost a third of his business.
They now have to charge and extra 20% (VAT) on their instruments because of Brexit. Neither of them were VAT registered before because they didn’t have to be due to how much they turned over.
The bottom line is that because these are time-consuming products, hand-made by one person 20% is an an extra thousand pounds, sometimes two thousand pounds.
It has made a difference and orders from the EU are drying up.
I can’t imagine they are alone.
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btw, on Johnson’s leaving speech this morning, there probably has been a bigger narcissist, more delusional, less honest, more conniving politician in the UK government, but it’s difficult to think of one right now.
The classical reference telling us that he’ll be back to save us all…
What a cock.
Dinnae let the door hit your arse on the way out, pal.
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Ticht, I think you could probably find quite a few who beat Bojo on each score individually, but as an overall score, he is the worst I can think of by some distance in the UK.
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The classical reference
Can’t resist the “I did classics – I’m smart” vibe.
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“it’s difficult to think of one right now”
And here’s me thinking we’ve got it all to look forward to only without even a sense of humour.
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The utter horror of this shitshow.
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taxpayers to fund the power companies – doesn’t sound to me to be a great start
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Those of you who live in France should benefit immensely!
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These pricks con the electorate, via their press, that they are the economically sound party.
They put the country through austerity for ten years, cutting services and not investing in energy or water infrastructure at a time when interest rates gave us essentially free money.
Now they are going to borrow anything between £100-200Bn to keep the lights on and ensure the money spent on help during lockdown wasn’t wasted.
They could have built an infrastructure that went a long way to mitigating droughts and gas shortages, but no.
I’m all for borrowing when it’s necessary, and this IS the rainy day, but, for example Norway are using their sovereign wealth fund to ameliorate the current situation. Westminster spent the money that came out of the North Sea on tax cuts.
Trickle-down is the great con, the money gets sent offshore rather than reinvested in the country.
As Thaum alludes to, they bleat on about private enterprise and the evils of nationalisation of essential industries, all the while selling our transport and energy sectors to companies who are ultimately owned by the French, German and Italian states
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Fuck it. Renationalise utilities and railways. Pull your finger out of your arse, Keir, for fuck sake, or piss off and let someone who has the balls do it.
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Ticht
They put the country through austerity for ten years, cutting services and not investing in energy or water infrastructure at a time when interest rates gave us essentially free money.
And then they allow the water companies to dump raw sewage into the seas and rivers, and talk about more fossil fuel extraction, including fucking fracking.
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What SBT says. It doesn’t even have to be expensive: you take back ownership of the railway franchises as they expire, and you set up a government-backed utility company that is cheaper than the commercial ones (a Corbyn idea, I think).
Then you give everyone a free or very cheap basic amount of energy, and charge more for greater usage. Helps the environment as well as the worse off. Oh, and you invest heavily in renewables and dump fossil fuels as far as possible.
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Looks like the Tories have managed to out-flank Labour and also pass the eventual costs onto the consumers
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Refit – it’s evolved since then: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/sep/06/liz-truss-expected-to-freeze-uk-energy-bills-at-2500-a-year
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Well, we’re paying for it either way.
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Only the little people who pay taxes. The energy companies will have bonuses and massive profits all around. Trebles all around!
Apparently Radon Liz used to work for Shell.
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Just caught up on the 9 o’clock news. Is it just me, or does Liz Truss look uncannily like the blessed Margaret reincarnated. One of the first shots looks right up her nostrils, and I had an involuntary cold shudder as her face seemlessly morphed into that famous spitting image puppet. No pharmaceuticals involved either. Brings to mind Craigs’ well founded investigation into the cloning of J-P Rives.
Arrrghmtalking of someone who sounds like they have been at the pharmaceuticals, news on in background, and I just heard Boris’ goodbye speech. What on the earth are those idiots all clapping for ? Astounding reaction to the cringe making ramblings of the fat fuck.
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No, its not just me, internets are full of it . ( Well, not the actual cloning bit, BUT……..)
Well, well, well.
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Reminds you of Thatcher you say?
https://twitter.com/scotwilliams/status/1566757860897439752?t=WerX4wv6sIEo30LEVAQH8g&s=19
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I went to make a coffee and Refit has beat me to it, Truss has positioned herself as Maggie 2.0 to appeal to the pale, male and stale base in the south east that has elected our new prime minister.
At some point you think reality has to smack her in the face and she’ll realise that she isn’t going to tax cut her way out of this.
Others are saying she’s a mug for taking on the leadership at this time, the next election is lost and serious candidates are playing a longer game
Not all Tories are happy though
https://twitter.com/mercer_felicity/status/1567229997881987078?s=20&t=oeiaLvjox54uBqrcSDmcUA
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Ticht – it’s worse than just that, regarding Coffey
https://twitter.com/benjamincohen/status/1567212943594373120?t=5KH7sQqqPzIhM155h0OJVQ&s=19
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@refit
Based on the first name (esp with the accents on the ‘e’s) and surname combo, I’d expect Coffey to be of Irish Catholic stock and allied to the fact she’s in the Conservative party – none of those positions are very surprising.
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Refit, given her name I made a guess that she was brought up Catholic, and it seems that is the case, so the bigotry doesn’t surprise me (of course Catholicism doesn’t have exclusive rights on this, the wingnuts in the Prod community have lots in common with those they hate)
She has the full Tory Bingo – tax the poorest via VAT, ableism, gerrymandering etc as just a selection
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24771/therese_coffey/suffolk_coastal
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the old knee, etc
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It should be noted that some Coffeys do indeed do God’s work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_still#Aeneas_Coffey
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This is more important
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Oh dear.
The Guardian – “Blackbird review – Michael Flatley’s fabulously bad spy tale is a classic of egosploitation cinema
In various rakishly-angled hats, the Riverdance star wrote, directed and stars in a jet-setting Bond knock-off that plays out like the unsexy bits of a mid-80s porn film”
The Irish independent called it a “cult comedy classic”
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I didn’t realise that Blackbird was about 3-4 years old. Got buried – but somehow escaped into the wild
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