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 
Enjoying the first half at Scotstoun. This may be news to some, but Horne The Younger is a helluva player.
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He’s carrying on.
28-10 at HT.
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Missed tacles stat came up and the O’s have missed more than I thought. Don’t think it’s the main problem though – it’s more that they don’t make any dominant ones (same as the Scarlets the other week) so Ulster will always eventually score. Coughing up easy field position so much has at least made it relatively quick each time on this occasion.
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No ‘k’s in our tackles, missed or otherwise as it should be.
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It’s clearly that Special K factor that you’re missing.
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I don’t remember Luke Marshall playing this well before we went off injured a year or so ago. He’s been fantastic since he came back. Hume may struggle to get the jersey back.
Nice problem for the coaching staff to have!
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If I were Premier Sports, I’d sack whoever is in charge of finding advertising. They are clearly not good at it.
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Bit of a recurring theme in the foments fawr.
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CMW is now channelling Ticht and saying incomprehensible things.
Burns has replaced Madigan for the second half.
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S4C on the BBC just gives you ‘this programme will resume after the break’. Now that’s a bit menacing in the circumstances, but beats ads hands down. Punditry in a language I don’t speak enough of to follow is also a bonus.
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McCLOSKEEEEYYYY!
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Second half kicks of with a foment of complete and utter fawrness. Strictly finishing any second.
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Oh no, Cooney has missed a conversion!
I hate advertising, and am quite happy not to have any, but PS either play the same advert over and over again, or just have a screen with ‘advertising break’ with really annoying music playing over it.
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There was recently a question on Only Connect involving Welsh that I got. Well, I got the Welsh part. (‘Araf’.)
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Cooney has his own foment fawr every time he’s preparing to take a kick. Normally seems to force them out though.
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Running down some dark corridors, these Ospreys. Tackling practice for Ulster.
Sounds like something Cotter would say, and he does have a Scottish accent, but it doesn’t sound like Cotter’s voice.
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Right, I’ve googled that foment fawr now, and it seems to mean ‘big moment’.
I had thought something more sinister.
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O’s do seem to try more things with the ball this season (and have played some good stuff along with some dross in other games). Need to indulge in as much time consuming crap as possible now though to keep the margin under 40 (unlikely).
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Comical moment as Lowry tries some counter-rucking. He’s brave and strong … and smaller than I am. Nearly succeeded.
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smaller than I am
Well … same height, 20 kilos heavier if Wiki is to be believed.
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Oh shit, Burns has gone off for some reason, and Shanahan on. Assume Cooney has gone to 10.
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TRY Carter! Think that was my unidentified earlier one.
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20 kilos heavier
To clarify, that’s Cooney who’s heavier than I am. :-)
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Glasgow 35 – 14 Bulls
Glasgow were very good for 50 minutes, the game has gone to sleep a wee bit.
9 mins to go
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Gwan Glasgow. Anything to keep these South African upstarts from DOMINATING our tournament.
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Nearly a brilliant team try from Ulster, starting with Andrew snaffling the O’s line-out ball. But they won the ball back just short of the try-line.
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TRY Marcus Rea!
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Don’t see McCloskey on the pitch any more (and haven’t particularly been paying attention). Hope he’s not injured; he usually stays for the full 80.
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Ah, commentator confirms he ‘had to go off’. Shit.
Marshall gets MotM.
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And Ospreys score after the clock goes dead!
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47-17
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30 points in the end. More a sign that Ulster didn’t particularly turn it on than anything else.
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Ospreys had a lot of enforced changes vs last week.
I was thinking that I was quite glad that Ulster didn’t roll over after winning the TBP in the first half, and not even at the end … until the try was scored!
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@Thaum – Every reason to think most of those changes would have been made anyway.
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Probably not AWJ, who makes a difference.
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Hard to say. He often makes less of a difference now anyway and it’s standard practice to send a weak side to games they expect nothing from. Now having thrown away a game they really should have won at home with a strong side out against the Lions they do really need to get one back ‘against the head’, but it’s doubtful that they’re capable of it and this wouldn’t have been one to target anyway. It was very run of the mill Pro-whatever/URC fare from the last quite a few years I’m afraid.
To be clear I think the O’s would have lost with a strong side out. The problem is that so do they so we get a non-event – over and over again, year after year. Of course they can’t play their best players all the time anyway so it makes sense and it’s painfully obvious that in contrast to the Irish teams (who of course do compete and generally win away from home) the overall squad is weak.
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Anyone (Ticht?) know why our last try was disallowed? The one that followed the kick through (by Turner, I think). There was also what looked like a tip tackle at some point which didn’t seem to be punished. Although I couldn’t see clearly on the screen at the ground.
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BB, I think the Turner try was chalked off due ti an obstruction earlier in the move.
The tip tackle was judged to been a leg lift when the player was already on the ground
That one fair enough, I was less happy with the Turner try.
Overall, Glasgow were as good as Edinburgh were poor on Friday
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Anything to keep these South African upstarts from DOMINATING our tournament.
One season, two finalists, one trophy. Think the barn door’s closed a wee bit late on that one. And the Lions lurking with intent.
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On my way back from Cape Town to Joburg after four days of drinking wine and eating fabulous food. Couldn’t give a shit about the rest of the Saffer sides; the Lions won!
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There’s a blackboard easel type thing in our living room that the girls use for playing ‘schools’ or just writing any old stuff on. I’ve flaked out on the sofa and been staring at it for a while now. I’m pretty sure it’s a ‘things to do’ list for the Little One written by The Middle One. No matter how I look at it it still says:
1. Get PJs, dressing gown and slippers.
2. Get wasted.
3. Watch Strictly results.
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CMW – you need to have a word with her on her taste in television programmes.
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She was too wasted last night, I’ll take it up with her after school today.
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I don’t suppose anyone would like to write anything on the Women’s World Cup? @refitman?
Confess I haven’t watched any of it myself yet, and suspect it will be DOMINATED by one or two sides.
I would like to get a new thread up for the weekend, but I am travelling to Sheffield on Friday.
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…So, therefore, if no-one wants to write on that, a post on the Middle One’s nefarious television-watching habits or anything else, really, would be fine.
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I saw the last fifteen minutes of Wales v Scotland. Seemed to be a victory for cynical professionalism which I thought was what everyone wanted, but apparently not.
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Thauma, you’ve got mail. Which has nowt to do with CMWs Middle One, television habits, drinking or anything else.
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CMW, you should see the whining about the Emerging Ireland side that played a tournament here recently in terms of cynical play – their match against the Cheetahs took 56 minutes a half because of the ploy of the medics rushing onto the pitch at every break in play to slow things down. You’d never see our sides do that.
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When I switched on the Wales-Scotland game there was a very long hold up for a serious injury. Haven’t heard since what the outcome was of that, hope it’s not too bad.
The game could have been settled a good bit before it was as Wales blew a certain try when they were five points ahead with only a few minutes left. The player who ended up getting tackled (and injured unfortunately) just short of the line had made a very good break, but her failure to pass was a really terrible bit of play. A bit like with the women’s cricket poor play didn’t seem to get commented on to the extent that it would in the men’s game which I find a bit irritating.
Wales did get two yellow cards in the fifteen minutes I watched, but the main gripe seems to be that the first one hadn’t come sooner. The penalty count suggests that may well be a reasonable point of view. Scotland would very likely have won anyway if they had a goal kicker, the two conversions she missed while I was watching were both from near the touchline, but I gather some of the earlier ones were easier.
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the ploy of the medics rushing onto the pitch at every break
The only comment I’d add here is that this tour was not popular at all with the provincial coaches *(they’re missing 3/4 URC games) – so I guess the IRFU and management team were keen not to be handing back Crowley, Baloucoune, etc saying “sorry we broke him” – hence medics on at every break.
* For Munster, Salanoa (TH) went but Knox (also TH) stayed home. There were similar trade-offs in Ulster, Leinster – hence a few odd “Emerging” selections when better-placed/younger players stayed back
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