This week has seen the shocking death of a national icon, and our heartfelt condolences go out to family, friends, former sparring partners, and the general public who will miss one of those who best understood the subtle nuances of international debate, and who intoned those nuances in the most mellifluous of voices.
Eddie Butler – we raise a glass to ye. You entertained us and, most importantly, you told us what was going on with the minimum of bias.
For anyone who’d like a trip down memory lane with FakeEddie, feast on this.
But Eddie would not want us to forget about the rugby that’s on this weekend. (It’s always convenient to assign our own wishes to the departed, but I suspect this is actually true.)
Deebee7 is really excited about the URC kicking off, although he’s picked some strange teams to obsess about. Me, I’m looking forward to Cardiff v Munster (although I bet the mister isn’t) and Ulster v Connacht (often our Nemesis – hopefully not this time).
Meanwhile, most of the English Premiership matches aren’t on normal channels again, although you can watch Evil Quins v Evil Sarries if you subscribe to BT Sport, or Bankrupts v Exeter on Sunday.
There is also some Rugby Championship and Top14 action.
Onna telly this week
Friday 16th September
| Treviso 33 – 11 Glasgow | 17:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 17th September
| Zebre v Leinster | 13:00 | RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Harlequins v Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Cardiff v Munster | 15;05 | BBC2 Wales / RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Lions v Bulls | 15:05 | FreeSports |
| Scarlets v Ospreys | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Ulster v Connacht | 19:35 | BBC2 NI / TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Edinburgh v Dragons | 19:35 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Argentina v South Africa | 20:10 | Sky Sports Main Event |
Sunday 18th September
| Worcester v Exeter | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Toulon v Clermont | 20:05 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
err, First
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Blimey , there’s some names on that old notablog
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Wow. 9 years ago. Well, we are still here.
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Some of us are. Too many have jumped ship.
I certainly regret AoD and the wide variety of tangents. Hope Sag and al are OK.
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Tonight is a choice between Arg vs Deebee’s Boks and Pau vs Toulouse. There was a time I wouldn’t’ve hesitated for a second. Now…
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TRY Cardiff! Max Llewellyn.
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The better evil seem to have come out very hot. Two tries to Murley in glorious sunshine in smaller HQ
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Oh dear. Will Collier off with an injury. Hope it does not disrupt the flow as Sarries have been marmalised in the scrum
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Cobwebs appear to have left Sarries. Fine try by Daly 17-5
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Liam Williams off with a shoulder injury – looks like he’s in a lot of pain.
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Another rather good try for Malins – they can pass very efficiently now. 17-12
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Rather lucky Quins try here. Sarries doing in-Sarries like things such as running the ball out of their 22 only to give the ball away to Joe Marchant. 24-12
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Both teams thoroughly enjoying themselves.
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TRY Dacy!
In the meantime, Munster got two penalties, which had taken them ahead.
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12 – 6 at HT.
It was nearly all Cardiff; every time Munster got the ball they seemed to knock it on.
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So, which second half to watch ?
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Suicidal bit of Quins defence there. 24-17
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Quins going to sleep now 24-20
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As above 24-27. We are looking very fatigued under this onslaught
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Daly bomb gives lead back to Sarries following pair of pens
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Bored of watching Quins kick it to Farrell to feed another Sarries ttack, so over to Wasps Bristol in time to see a nice Bris try finished by Magnus Bradbury.
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Ex-Munster scrum half Stafford comes on for his debut after 2 years. Can he change the mood music no
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Just managed to keep our losing bonus point there. Thoroughly beaten in the second half. Well played Sarries
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Quins threw that one away.
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Quite agree. There is quite a drop off from our starting team (which we could not play unlike Sarries)
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“There is quite a drop off from our starting team (which we could not play unlike Sarries)”
That was a very odd situation, apparently when Quins asked for their internationals to be released for today, they didn’t even get a reply, they were just referred to the regs
I only really saw the first half and Tommy Allan played quite well, I thought
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Many hostilities between the sides in Scarlets v Ospreys. One card each so far. Scarlets have just scored to go up 23-16 at 65 mins.
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Ospreys score after the clock goes red, with Scarlets having had a man sent off for a deliberate knock-on. And the rather difficult conversion ties the match!
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McCloskey to Marshall furra liiinnnneeeee!
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TRY new hooker Stewart on his first start!
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Connacht slot a pen as the clock goes red for HT. 14-3.
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Ten years since Nevin Spence died in that horrible farming accident. Ulster are renaming one of the stands after him.
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Why Connacht still have 15 men on the pitch is a mystery. They’ve finally got the Final Warning.
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TRY Doak, after a massive amount of pressure for a long time.
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Apparently Doak has a younger brother who’s 18, a tight-head, and weighs 130 kilos.
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Not been a great first half, in Argentina. Two tries and a penalty try to SA, two yellow cards to ARG. 6-22 at half time.
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Connacht finally get their card.
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BP TRY! Stewart Moore.
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Doak getting the Big Talk from the commentators: ‘this is how the Greats play’, etc. Then he misses the conversion and gets replaced by Shanahan, who still looks about 12 but must be in his late 20s at least.
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Oh no, I tell a lie. It’s Burns who’s gone off, and Doak is playing 10.
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Lovely Connacht try at last (if the last pass wasn’t forward).
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Must have been the only one who thought that. 21-10. 71 mins.
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Amazingly, neither of the yellow cards were for Lavanini.
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TRY Ulster again!
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Tom Stewart gets MotM on his dayboo.
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Seems as though at least one Scottish side knows how to win a rugby game.
Mind you, it was only the Dragons….
(Sorry Iks).
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36-10 at FT.
Both sides looked a little rusty as you’d expect at the first match, but Connacht were really pretty dreadful. With the exception of the one try, they didn’t chuck the ball around as they usually do, mostly because they were too busy giving away penalties.
Ulster looked good at the set piece, but Baloucoune had a poor match.
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Embra win 44-6
It should really have been more, we took half an hour to get going. Kinghorn is on another level, when he came on Edinburgh became a very very good side.
The real test will be the next two weeks in South Africa
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It’s been mostly Arg in the second half – they’ve upped the pace of the game. Yellow for le Roux, offside after a team warning. No points yet, 60mins.
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Willemse’s just knocked himself out, getting his head on the wrong side in the tackle.
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