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 
I know…………….boring Exeter never score in open play
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Exeter, Schmexeter, pah! The real news of the weekend was clearly the LIONS winning on the road! Against the might of Ospreys too!
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Bask in the highlights Deebee
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Just read the Rickman Diaries – thanks for the link, Thauma – and I have to say my levels of admiration for the man reached new heights. Wonderfully pithy putdowns combined with a seemingly never-ending series of lunches and dinners. Lucky bastard!
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Hmmm…….Sam Simmonds and Jack Nowell said to be leaving Exeter at end of season.
Simmonds to Montpelier, Nowell tbc.
Gotta keep those books balanced!
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Thanks Refit, it is actually a very good result for the Lions considering the mismatch in the squads. The O’s had 12, 13? current internationals in their squad, to our none, and especially given that we lost most of our players who have higher ambition in the off-season too. And after such a rousing win, we’ll probably get hammered by an inconsistent Cardiff, who beat Munster first up and then got stuffed by Glasgow.
Didn’t see the match in Glasgow, but shipping 8 tries sounds like Cardiff have some work to do defensively. Looking at their schedule, I’m pretty sure they also looked at the Lions match as one they could play a few fringe guys in between the rigours of Munster, Glasgow and the derby against the Scarlets in Round 4.
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The O’s did rather throw it away. I thought when the yellow card (for a Lions player) turned the match in the Lions’ favour that it would end as it did. As it turned out the O’s did just about enough to get away with that only for Walsh to miss a straightforward kick at the end.
Thought the Lions looked good for 10-15 minutes leading up to the final try, but otherwise really just stayed in the game due to Ospreys sloppiness. Don’t really want to see the SA teams winning away from home at this stage of the season as we have a good idea they’ll do well later on so great result for the Lions. Pretty disastrous for the O’s to lose a game at home against beatable opposition with a side featuring so many of our better players. Scored some good tries which is nice to see, but doesn’t count for much in the long run. The Welsh teams’ seasons will probably be all over by the end of November just like last year.
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Thought the Lions looked good for 10-15 minutes leading up to the final try,
Classic All Blacks at their best: just about in the game for long periods, then rip it up for 10 minutes to put the result beyond doubt. Can we have the trophy now, please?
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@Deebee – They only got one try in the good bit so not quite up to ABs standards. I’ve rarely seen the ABs require the level of arsing around the O’s indulged in to win a game. I fear for the Lions that it won’t be enough to beat better teams than the O’s who (unusually for them) played the best rugby in the game but found their own way to lose, the latter being a bit of a throwback as losing hasn’t been up to them much of the time the last few years.
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Super League Grand Final kicks off at 6pm
I watched it – in a fascinated-type way but can’t say I enjoyed it (same as Drags vs Munster). St Helens didn’t seem to be very inventive – but happy enough to ‘break the door’ down rather than ‘pick a lock’ and then dare Leeds to break through their defence. It was a bit late when Leeds started to “throw it around”.
In truth, there was the inkling of an argument to go to 12-a-side and leave a bit more room on the pitch – because even with a set of six from the 10 m line I was thinking how do you find space here ?
patronising commentary from Ken Doherty referring to ‘the ladies’
Yeah – we have women’s rugby here but the body that runs gaelic football for women is the LGFA “Ladies..etc” – so it’s slightly ingrained and thoughtless.
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Super League Grand Final kicks off at 6pm
And I know – it was a final and not an exhibition – so percentage plays dominated – 1 out runners and then a kick to pin the opposition back in their 22. Not so far off some union teams…..
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@trisk
That’s because St Helens are so much better than Leeds. They didn’t need to try too hard to beat them, unfortunately.
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@ot
They didn’t need to try too hard to beat them
Yeah, that was beginning to dawn on me – I don’t follow league enough….
Still World Cup is coming up – looking forward to seeing how Ireland get on – must check if we’ve any home grown players a la Carney or if they’re all 2nd / 3rd gen ….
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For those of you who are/were habitués of Cif, especially the cartoon threads more recently, I have some very bad news.
MsChin has passed away today. She was an amazing person, a fighter for Truth, Justice and the Yorkshire Way.
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@trisk
Look at this article from earlier in the year guessing at what the Ireland squad might be. You’ll see the word “heritage” used a lot. Plus this sentence stands out from the rest of the article:
“In 2020, Balbriggan-born (Ronan) Michael became the first Ireland-born player to play in the Super League since Brian Carney in 2009.”
So that tells you where the bulk of the squad will be coming from.
https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/ireland-line-up-at-world-cup-rlwc2021/
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Wuss seem to have gone pop
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@Thaum – oh, that’s terrible news. Thanks for letting us know, I’ve passed this on to some CiF refugees, over on other sites.
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Thanks, Refit. I had the pleasure of meeting her in person several times, and her youngest, BabyChin, who is a delight.
We partied together in this very room.
She sent this link once – it’s a fab video.
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Great video-and soundtrack from my student days…………
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There’s no governance on being fit to run a rugby club from Prem Rugby, these guys should never have been allowed near Worcester.
The groundsman lives on site, he had to find a home last night.
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The crowd catch is an important part of cricket
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@OT – Great stuff, but for some reason I suspect that the average cricket-playing ability in that ‘crowd’ may be higher than in some others.
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@cmw
You’re right. I was watching the Upminster vs Essex Annual Benefit game the other day and Jamie Porter and Dan Lawrence were launching it into the crowd. I was bricking it in case it came my way – I’d have been diving out of the way of the ball rather than trying to catch it.
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@OT – I wouldn’t mind, I’m very good at catching on the boundary though I’ve always had to hide my weak throwing arm to get the chance when playing league cricket. Wouldn’t be backing myself for the one in the clip though (!), but he presumably plays at the same level as the match he’s attending (was he actually playing in it?) and might just be one of the better fielders in the competition…
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Though catches in genuine crowds do look dangerous as a number of people often go for them rather than leaving it to the person it’s going straight to. Wouldn’t fancy that bit of it.
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@cmw
Turns out the bloke making the coach is Corey Rutgers, coach of the Spain team in that tournament. I expect he’s played at quite a high level.
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This popped up on my YouTube and, after all the bs he’s been through, I thought Ollie Laurence does his club proud here:
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‘Lawrence’ you arsehole!
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@OT – I’d assumed he was something to do with one of the teams as a) he was there and b) the commentators knew his name.
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@cmw
He’s a commentator as well!
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@OT – Course he is, it’s ECN!
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Debate on the Graun about Tom Hanks best movies and sadly, Volunteers doesn’t get a mention. It’s pretty crap, but does have one of my favourite throw-away lines in it from Hanks as a spoiled Yale brat running away from his gambling debts and ending up on a Peace Corp trip to Vietnam (or Thailand, maybe?):
“It’s not that I can’t help these people, it’s just that I don’t want to.” he whines when asked to do a bit of actual work. Was very funny at the time, (well delivered by Hanks) and sums up the entitlement of the rich in a nutshell.
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Coolio finally livin’ in paradise.
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This is excellent:
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Liz Truss having a morning.
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It’s alright everybody, I’ve found Sag!
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Must. Do. Some. Work.
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Sharks have signed this kid from Paul Roos, a school in Stellenbosch in Stormers country. Played SA Schools and looks like a bit of a handful. Of course, he still has to step up at senior level, where it’s a lot more difficult to bully guys like this!
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Don’t know about anybody else, but all I see is this: “The following media includes potentially sensitive content.”
Internet quite rightly shielding us from seeing South African rugby players
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BB – you are not hallucinating. I see that too.
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It’s just a big kid bashing a few other kids. Nothing you don’t see in Coventry on a Saturday night, Thauma.
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We have a TV series here called Ultimate Braaimaster, which is actually great fun – crews cook on open fire all over the country in remote areas, usually with wild animals (not the rugby variety) in close attendance – and I’ve completely forgotten where I was going with this. Shit.
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I managed to watch the Sharks clip. Not as much pissing in the street going on as I saw the last time I found myself out and about in Coventry of an evening.
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“crews cook on open fire all over the country in remote areas, usually with wild animals in close attendance”
I take it ‘close attendance’ means being cooked on the fire?
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Here in Coventry, we usually cook unwary notablog posters on the fire.
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Right, so it was to do with viewer warnings: on the programme they have a warning for language (quite a bit of swearing) and substance abuse! They have the odd beer after the cooking is done. Bit OTT.
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CMW – a lot is in game reserves, with the Big Five unfenced. One of the reasons you can never get Africa out of your soul if you’ve grown up with it.
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Well, the ‘mini-budget’ seems to have gone swimmingly
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Thauma, must be a lot of unwary notablog posters in Coventry from what I’ve seen!
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*clutches pearls*
I’m so glad they have trigger warnings for such heinous offences!
Here in Coventry, we enjoy watching old videos of Victor Matfield blatantly cheating and ripping heads off old ladies and endangered species.
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