The image editor posts hopefully
Scotland vs Italy
Previously the wooden spoon fixture, these teams have made some recent progress but the Italians are definite underdogs here. Italy have made 4 changes and given a dayboo to Simone Gesi on the wing. However, they lack Capowuoouuzzzo at full back so, whilst they look fairly settled, they don’t have much in the way of X factor.
Scotland have made 5 changes including leaving out Finn and Hoggy so, while I predict a win, the margin will be smaller without them. Also, given they have lost their last 2 games, they will be motivated to end in style (same could be said for Italy tbh).
Scotland have a better pack and cooler heads. Against Wales, Italy played like headless chickens for much of the game and gave Wales some points either by coughing up the ball in their half or failing to execute the basics. Scotland will be patient and gradually rack up a decent win.
Head-to-head Planet Rugby says that Scotland have won the last 8 fixtures but this only goes back to 2017 and I haven’t dug further. It would take a miracle or a card for Italy to win and it won’t happen this weekend as Scotland get their 9th (or more) win in a row.
30 – 10 to Scotland.
France vs Wales
France, France, France. Until last weekend many people said they had been underwhelming despite only losing in Dublin. That all changed when they swaggered into Twickenham and put 50 on some boys Borthwick had found. They said they could play rugby, double promise, cross their hearts – but they couldn’t.
To be fair, that was the best performance I’ve seen from a team against the English since the dastardly Saffas won the 2019 RWC. Maybe even better. Every time Dupont kicked the ball into space it opened up the back line and a French player waltzed over the line about 10 seconds later. Their defence was aggressive, their ruck speed brutal and every carry seemed to gain at least 3 Robshaws. But most impressive was how clinical they were. I can’t remember a scoring chance being wasted.
Wales on the other hand were solid last weekend but otherwise haven’t set this tournament on fire. They still drag around the reanimated corpse of AWJ but have some new talent including a footballer on the wing. How there isn’t a better 13 in Wales than George North I’ll never know.
There is a ‘last hurrah’ feel to this team but rather a white orc filled Dad’s army willing its way to victory, this feels like a Clive Woodward selected Lions team. If Clive Woodward had coached Wa…. You know what I mean! France to make it 5 in a row against the men in red.
50 – 12 to France
Ireland vs England
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
60 – 8 to Ireland (*starts crying*)
Laughing and crying by Craigsman
Onna telly this week
Friday 17th March
| Bulls v Western Province | 17:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
Saturday 18th March
| Scotland v Italy | 12:30 | BBC1 / RTÉ2 |
| France v Wales | 14:45 | ITV1 / S4C |
| Ireland v England | 17:00 | ITV1 |
Sunday 19th March
| Scotland v Italy (U20s) | 14:00 | BBC iPlayer |
| London Irish v Exeter | 14:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Ireland v England (U20s) | 17:00 | BBC iPlayer |
| France v Wales (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC iPlayer / S4C |
Ovally Balls 
Hmm………BBC Sport Wales -not my usual ‘go-to’ for sporting facts
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“man denies commercially secret negotiations until public statement can be made” is hardly scandalous news. I reckon that twitterer needs to get out more
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The wording in that tweet seems way over the top, to be honest.
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He’s not really Irish though
Lives in Dublin (afaik) and has an Irish wife – so is going a long way to assimilate….
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Just double checked all that on Wiki…. I’m correct but it did throw up the unusual snippet
newspaper published an exposé revealing he had spent the night with an escort girl he had met at a religious youth group
An alternative method of filling the pews, I guess….
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Trisk – filling the pews with what, though? Ewwww…!
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Disaster, no rugby until the NRL game on Thursday, and all highlights packages watched, and Donald on the news. Finished Blue Lights, anyone got a good oddball series to watch worth recommending ?
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The Tourist?
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@slade
We started that – then got distracted by TLOU and Night Agent, Drive to Survive, We’ve always about 4 or 5 on the go … usually have to loop back to understand where we were at….
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@sbt
IPL is on. Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings at 3pm BST. Chance to see Root, Buttler, Curran S and Livingstone do their stuff.
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Thanks guys. Seen the Tourist, enjoyed. Will check out Trisks options. have a liking for subtitled stuff, french and Scandi particularly, but have seen some good Spanish and German stuff too.
Sorry OT, can’t do 20/20, it annoys me, can’t help feeling that it has more in common with the Sunday beer team club cricket I used to play than county or test cricket. More likely to watch kabadi, or whatever.
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@sbt
T20 is a very different game now to when it started. These days it tends to be the better bowling team that wins, and some of the tactical battles are fascinating.
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SBT – if you like Scandi noir, I recommend Black Lake. It’s quite slow, but the horror builds nicely.
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Or Blackport – Icelandic – pretty good!
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Thanks Slade, will check em out. love a bit of Scandi, particularly FInnish and Icelandic as they always have a really odd angle somewhere in them. A lot of TV stuff is just a bit too band and formulaic for me, but almost anything that has quality writing and acting in any language can be thoroughly enjoyable. Subtitles add to flavour. Spiral and call my agent were exceptional tv, Borgen obviously brilliant, but Bordertown is a favourite as well, and there are some good Spanish shows around to, one with a female Guardia Civil in Galicia or similar was particularly engaging , no second series yet tho.
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SBT – I also loved Spiral.
Black Lake appears to be a joint Swedish/Danish production, but involves the Sámi, ie Laplanders, but apparently that term is disliked by Sámi.
Seems there was a second series made as a prequel, but somehow I missed that!
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I enjoyed Braquo – more French police drama. It’s on Prime I think.
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@OT -I thought that was always the case at least to some extent with Malinga and various legspinners or ‘mystery’ spinners being among the most important players. There was certainly a lot of cashing in on weak bowling from the non-international Indian players in the early days and I gather the standard has improved enormously on that front which will have been a big change, but I would always fancy the better bowling side.
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I don’t watch much T20 at all, but what I have seen I would agree has got much more tactical with all the analysis that has gone on. I’m not convinced it’s benefitted from that though, it’s certainly slowed it down and while I’m quite happy with slow cricket I don’t really feel the format has enough weight to justify it.
I’m not a great believer that people having got better at something necessarily makes it better to watch, see also Rugby Union.
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“I’m not a great believer that people having got better at something necessarily makes it better to watch, see also Rugby Union.”
This was an argument often posited on the previous iterations of this notable, particularly by Larry, or rather the counter was, ie rugby is so much better now because professionalism.
I think rugby at the top level is certainly more skilful and more athletic in that it takes more out of the players, is it a better watch now compared to say 1980? (date picked at random)
I don’t think it is, it’s different, but not necessarily better.
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notable/notablog
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@Ticht – Yes, I absolutely accept Larry’s argument that the players are better both physically and in terms of skills. I also accept that there is more action in terms of the ball being in play more etc. But a more enjoyable watch? Not convinced. I didn’t play beyond mid-teens so can’t say if it’s more enjoyable to play – for those who go to higher levels even pretty young it’s clearly more dangerous with them all being so trained up
All that said the only game I’ve watched since the 6N was the O’s game against Sarries the other day and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though my team lost and the ref was an out and out homer. Good effort from the O’s who took their chances very well and defended superbly in the first hour, but Sarries were the dominant side above and beyond the bonus penalties they got and are more likely to trouble opponents in the next round so fair play to them.
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My rugby watching really dates from about 1987 onwards. For about the first half of that Wales were generally a losing team with results being utter shite even if they were fairly watchable for the bits that went well. Results have been a lot better since (though not just right now of course), but given that imbalance if I can even consider the notion that ‘old’ rugby was more fun then it’s maybe quite revealing. If anything especially having watched the odd full game or very extended highlights from before my time I’m almost tempted to say the best version of the game for spectators might even have been late 90s-early 2000s despite all sorts of terrible things happening in that period. Last great hurrah being the 2005 Wales GS of course so at least it all ended well!
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Good choice,Ticht. 1980 was a great Five Nations. Check out some of the players on show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Five_Nations_Championship_squads
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@SBT – I think Ticht could have taken a little more care in picking a date tbh.
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Absolute scenes in Scotland. Looks like they might start retrieving bodies from the garden at this rate.
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Anyone know much about what it is they’re supposed to have done? Is it spending money raised for independence campaigning or party campaigning (if so I can’t see that being a big deal to a lot of their supporters) or is there a more personal corruption angle to it?
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There are some names in those squads, SBT.
Fran Cotton, the face in that famous Mudman photo. Real Eddie is there. Terry Holmes made me want to play scrum half. Moss Keane, Fergus Slattery.
That French front row was fearsome, plus J-P Rives ya bass.
My all time personal rugby hero is there too, Iain The Bear Milne.
Mudman
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As far as I can gather Murrell lent the part some money to tide them over and it wasn’t declared properly.
The worst thing is possibly some money that was supposedly ring-fenced for a second indy referendum was diverted and used elsewhere.
As far as I know there was no personal enrichment or other nefarious goings on and you have to ask why this is such a big deal if the likes of Michelle Mone and others aren’t being brought up before the beak.
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In that case I don’t see it mattering an awful lot electorally – people who want independence are still going to vote for them and I imagine most people who vote for them to keep someone else out will continue doing so too.
Don’t know how popular the new chap at the top is though which might be more of an issue I guess.
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Can’t see that there would have been that much wrong with any other year between say 1964 and 1990.
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I think Sturgeon stepping down leaves a huge gap in terms of quality of operators, she was very very good and probably has a future role on the international stage, that is certainly what some of the commentators were saying on Sunday.
You’re right though, Indy is far bigger than any or all individuals, though Sturgeon not leading any campaign is bound to have a detrimental effect.
To be honest I don’t think a vote could be won right now, it will have to wait another generation
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Ticht/CMW – the police presence does seem disproportionate to that. Which is why it seems like there is something else..
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Could that not just be a who they are rather than what they’ve done thing?
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Heading down to the Wild Coast for the Easter weekend. My soulfood spot, where you share the beach with the cows on your morning walk, listen to the Fish Eagles taking a wee chug up the Kei River with a beer in hand, and generally just chilling with stunning sunrises and sunsets. Very dodgy comms, so won’t be too active for the next few days. Good luck to all your teams, unless they’re playing one of mine!
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Scott Steele yesterday and now Ewan Ashman has signed for Edinburgh, Steele for one year (presumably to prove his fitness) and Ashman for four years.
That’s Bofelli re-signed, Duhan re-joined and those two.
If we can get a head coach and a defence coach we will be in a much better place for next season.
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To be clear, it’s us taking a little boat trip up the river, not the eagles. They tend to fly.
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They shouldn’t fly with a beer in hand, they’ll probably spill it.
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I think they’d just fly around in circles
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Some pretty fine Scottish players in there Ticht. Rutherford, Renwick, Robertson, Laidlaw, Beattie, Biggar, Hay, Deans, +++ blimey, how didn’t they win.
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Cmw – doesn’t take that many cops to remove computers and filing cabinets…
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It’s a show, isn’t it ? Like a purge. Making sure no comebacks. See Salmond. And the Bruce letting the other Lords try and stab Mel Gibson in the back in Braveheart. And Macbeth. ( I think, never read it).
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Ticht:
Flawed argument to conflate Nicola with Michelle Mone
The former is a wee wifey who done good in Scotland
The latter is a silicon=breasted tax dodger who let the side down and now the Conservatives hope we forget. She and her husband are completely unprincipled crooks in my humble…………………..
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‘Wee wifey’, Slade?
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WWS as I like to call him…
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While it is sort of irrelevant to this blog, and me really, not being much of a soccer chap, and certainly not much of a Chelsea chap, there is something sweet about Frank Lampard Jr returning to manage them. Almost like it was meant to be, and they would be much happier as a club bouncing around between the championship and the premier league, with a bunch of broken old warhorses and teenaged tyros gallantly defying the Galacticos from those northern Red clubs, Frank the Gaffer brooding over a pint of Fullers porter, a roll-up hanging off his lower lip.
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“the Galacticos from those northern Red clubs”
Does North London count as northern now?
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Could be a new thread for Dr. Claws.
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@CMW…………………..watch it!
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@Thaum………………………..Ticht will be able to correct me but, from my time living in Scotland, ‘wee wifey’ would suggest a typically ordinary, quiet woman. The younger Sturgeon would visually suggest that but, having met her once or twice, she also held strong beliefs and had a bit of backbone. She grew into a pretty good politician, I think, but I have no idea about the inner workings of the SNP. The current police investigation would suggest either re-directing funds away from their original, qualifying purpose or re-directing funds for personal benefit.
I sincerely hope that she is insulated and that her legacy is not corrupted or overshadowed.
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