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 
@ticht
The difference in the demographic was startling
Interesting – I was in London to visit my sister / meet up with old school pals and emerged from tube at Arsenal in evening of a Europa Lge game – I was taken aback at how old the crowd walking against me was – very few kids or teenagers or younger men. Maybe a workday evening fed into that.
Maybe it’s a London/Arsenal thing (you need big money to be attending matches) or maybe Brighton – with a less storied past – have recruited a new following that wasn’t there before, so not crowded out by “old lads”
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@Trisk – I would think that Brighton with a more recent history of lower division football will still have retained a bit of the culture of local younger people attending. So while the youngest individuals (other than actual children) may be ‘new’ it would only be in the normal way for a 2nd/3rd division type club. I’d imagine they’ll be priced out in the long run if their team stays up a few more years though.
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The Albion, as I like to call them :-), made a big effort when the new ground was opened that they would be a family club, though I think there is one stand for the old lags. All of my mates who are season ticket holders have taken their children since they were young.
A single season ticket for The Arse, ahem, is £1839, whereas for BHA it’s £860
https://www.givemesport.com/88015355-man-utd-arsenal-chelsea-every-premier-league-clubs-2022-23-season-ticket-prices/
Early this season Chelsea were not doing well and they came in and offered a wheelbarrow full of money to Brighton’s manager.
Brighton are still a few places ahead of them, I don’t follow it but I quite like that.
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Apparently you still get away supporters shouting homophobic abuse at the Albion fans.
Some people never leave the playground.
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@Craigs – not nearly the same amount of game as in the ‘natural habitat’ of, er, Kent.
@Thauma – nothing below 30 once the sun was up (sunrise and sunset both spectacular!). Don’t think Scotland will knock us out, but it is their best chance, given that the last pool game is against Ireland.
@CMW – I probably shouldn’t have had a glass of good red wine in my other hand when checking on the elephants at close range. But rather get steamrolled by an elephant and die than drink shit red wine and live.
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Deebs – that is true. We have some unique specimens in the Garden of England.
*preens*
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Scousers are indeed unique.
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Very clever!
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If the rugby world cup was seeded now, as opposed to where the teams stood three years and four months ago the top seed pool would be
Top tier (current rankings in brackets)
Ireland (1), France(2), New Zealand(3), South Africa(4)
Second tier
Scotland(5), England(6), Australia(7), Argentina(8)
Third tier
Wales(9), Japan(10), Georgia(11), Samoa(12)
Then I think it’s regional qualifiers after that.
The Rugby Championship won’t affect the rankings as they stand, not in terms of which team would go into which seeded tier anyway, with the possible exception that Argentina and Wales could change places if Argentina lose nearly three whole ranking points.
As it is we have
2 & 3 ranked reams in pool A
1,4 & 5 ranked teams in pool B
9 & 7 as top seeds in pool C
6 & 10 as top seeds plus 8
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I just exchanged a hello and a comment with dermott on the Breakdown btl
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Yeah – spotted the OES on a Spurs-related blog y’day
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In BB pleasing news, last night Selkirk won the Border league for the seventh time since its inception in 1901, beating Melrose 12 – 6.
The match itself was described as “one for the purists”
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Ticht, which sides are the major winners? I’m assuming Melrose ***spits for BB**J but who else? Ashamedly, know too little about regional rugby up north.
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Probably Gala (spits) and Hawick (double spits). Also see that Hawick (double spits again to be sure) won the Scottish Premiership this season.
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Report on the ‘rivetting’ match below:
https://www.theoffsideline.com/border-league-final-selkirk-battle-past-melrose-to-claim-the-spoils/
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From reading that Scottish Borders rugby book that was out a few years ago I seem to remember it was historically Hawick by some distance then Gala, but from the 90s Melrose onwards have done a lot of winning things.
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Pfft, as someone once of this parish would have said. It’s not quantity but quality that counts.
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Found a table of previous winners and Jedforest are actually one of the more successful teams, but it’s mainly from winning a lot when it first started.
Not sure if Hawick have clocked up their 50th title yet or not, think they’re on 49 where the table stops a few years ago. It’s a lot of quantity.
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Melrose must have had some good recruitment strategies over the years.
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Least surprising news of the day.
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Hmm. In that case, take Ireland’s points away from them and give the 6N to France. It’s the right thing to do.
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Can’t get along with that ruling – I think it should either be seen as an accident in which case no card or he’s at fault for being upright, turning his shoulder etc and then it’s based on outcome which was dangerous head contact and red.
I’d be in the first camp, but can see the case for the other. If it’s a yellow then I think I’ve seen quite a few that should have been yellow.
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Well, well, well.
Now if we add in the two reds that should have been given to Ireland, that is a stunning moral victory for England!
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That’s a shocker of a decision.
At the time the ball left Hansen’s hands Keenan and Steward are at least 10m apart, going by the grain of the grass being cut in 5m sections. When Keenan is about to play the ball the players are 5m apart and Steward starts bracing himself.
He had time to do that, but not time to move into a tackle position or out of the way or anything other than contravene law 19.11 ?
“Players must not do anything that is reckless or dangerous to others including leading with the elbow or forearm, or jumping into, or over, a tackler”
There is a low entry level of two weeks which can be reduced to one week on presentation of a good record.
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test
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Spit second pull out Ticht. Both players moving at speed, if not full speed. Both players going for the ball initially. Ball obviously forward, so Steward tries to pull out. Keenan continues, even tho the ball is 5 yards forward, stumbles and headbuts Stewards flat elbow. That has to be a rugby accident, there is literally no time to make a decision, let alone the three decisions he has to make, ( can I get the ball, should I tackle him, the ball was miles forward, might as well pull out). If Keenan had pulled out as well, there would have been no issue. If Keenan hadn’t stumbled, there would have been no issue. The only other option for Steward would have been to drop to his level preparing for a tackle ind hitting him full in the midriff. I guess that would be acceptable. I think yellow is correct if not harsh.
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@ticht
Yes, it was a reflex action. Voluntary reaction time is something like between 250 and 500ms, reflex reactions are much quicker. He didn’t have half a second to observe and react to the ball bouncing into Keenan’s hands.
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I tend to agree that bracing himself the way he did is a reflex thing. That said, the more I watch it the clumsier it looks and in terms of ‘what is he supposed to do?’ then I guess the answer is just tackle the player normally though it seems understandable that he didn’t. Keenan can’t be expected to pull out of gathering the ball as the rules of the game dictate that he needs to do just that or England could pick it up and carry on playing and I guess we don’t want people rushing in and when it becomes apparent they won’t get the ball flattening their opponents in this way. Find it very hard to know what the right call is.
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If Steward, on reflection, decided to go and tackle his opponent I do believe that that would have resulted in hitting Keenan’s head in a dangerous manner, given that Steward is 6ft 4ins and Keenan was already very low
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These “What’s he supposed to do?” arguments were very much in play when it came to refereeing the high ball situation and we’ve seen a change of behaviour there.
There are still incidents where that same argument could be made, but the fact that players and coaches have modified how they play shows that red cards work, one of the players involved often lets the other land and then tackles them, if they get it wrong they are penalised and if they make head contact or the opponent lands on their head or shoulder they expect a red card.
As CMW said earlier, if it was an accident or “rugby incident” then it shouldn’t even be a yellow card, but the panel have decided that Law 9.11 had been contravened.
How they can then talk themselves into downgrading the card to yellow should be beyond me, but we’ve all seen what a joke these panels are so nothing really surprises me now, whatever guff they come out with.
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The yellow card is just to save Peyper’s face. Let’s all just accept the red was a travesty and move on.
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@ticht
Yep it’s all a bit strange if you try and understand what they do rationally cos they aren’t rational. It’s either a red card or not even a penalty so they’ve obviously fudged it for unfathomable reasons they probably won’t even admit to themselves.
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You know, I’ve never noticed how little effort Russell seems to put into his long pass. It’s really impressive
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I think it’s a law that for every video or comment showing how good Finn is, there must be someone who says. “Ah but he’s flaky/makes mistakes/costs teams games” and so on.
(And yes, I know I’ve just done that).
But I’d still take Finn over any other 10 in either the Six Nations or from the Upside Down bits. Probably our best all round 10 since Rutherford, and possibly even better (although don’t say that in Selkirk).
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BB, I think he’s our best ever ten.
We currently have our best backline of the pro era, imo, with Darcy Graham to come in. He was one of the best players in the game in 2022, imo of course.
Right now the only paltry of concern is Hoggy of all people. He’s not hitting the heights of a few years ago and if he’s not firing by September I can see the arguemnt for starting Kinghorn at full back for the big games against South Africa and Ireland, though hopefully Hoggy will regain his form.
Graham’s highlights reel from last year
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the only paltry of concern, ffs.
the auto corrects on this laptop are something
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Finn can be great, but he can also be awful – thought he was very poor against Ireland. I’d take Sexton and Ntamack over him, thanks.
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Dab, for what it’s worth Russell made as many “Team of the Tournament “ selections as Sexton did. I’d like to see him play behind the pack that Sexton played with.
The thing with Russell is that he plays the very high risk high reward options and it’s just not possible for it to work every time.
When it does he’s untouchable, but the mistakes aren’t really mistakes, it’s more the law of averages getting a couple back.
Finn gets all sorts of labels and Maverick is used a lot, he’s really not that, he works incredibly hard, his coaches at Racing have talked about the extra time he puts in after training has finished and his Scotland team mates talk about the amount of time he spends on his laptop analysing opponents and their defences. It’s a bit like the thing attributed to Gary Player, the more Finn practices the luckier he gets.
He suits what Scotland are trying to do and he’ll be sorely missed when he stops playing
It’s funny you mention Ntamack, though, I’ve read French fans call him flaky and unreliable, picked because he plays at Toulouse.
I don’t hold that view of him, btw, not at all
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Oh btw, I don’t know what he’s on now but Finn was at around 93 percent success rates for goal kicking in the Top 14 when I checked a few weeks ago, I think it gets overlooked because of the sensational game breaking plays or the plays that don’t come off
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Bastard Tories, file #5984
Britain’s art institutions face death by a thousand cuts. Why are they just putting up with it?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/22/britain-arts-institutions-cuts
Btl is worth a read too
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This is a fun little thread
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Ticht – I had noticed him smirking, but didn’t realise it was Pannick until this morning!
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Ticht, that thread has some pearlers in it! Loved the one who said she was waiting for him to use the Peppa Pig Defence, as well as the one about the committee giving him an Ikea flatpack gallows, which he’s done a splendid job of assembling.
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Deebs, I liked the comment that the lawyer hadn’t been at the party, Pannick wasn’t at the disco.
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Very good!
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And I see Martina Hyde is back! Such timing, with a cornucopia of material prostrating itself before her mighty pen!
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Marina! ***Facepalm*** I was reading an article about Martina Navratilova beating cancer.
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