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 
Well, if no-one else was going to do it….
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Crusaders pack weighing in at 929kg! I remember it vividly when the Sharks (SA version) had the first 900kg pack in the mid-nineties, featuring an Aussie prop at hooker. It was considered a monster scrum at the time, 40kg+ heavier than anyone else.
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What’s the panic about? Me missing the Crusaders scoring a try whilst I typed the last message?
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Blackadder the Younger making a nuisance of himself on the floor.
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Bloody ABs, yet again allowed to play on the floor.
Plus ça change…
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Speaking of panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham, I’ve been reading about the riots across France, in town and cities people are taking to the streets.
I gather it’s about raising the pension age from 62 to 64. Ours is 66 and it’s going up to 67 in a couple of years with a further raise to 68 planned for 20 years time.
The French are setting fire to City Hall in Bordeaux and we just sit here and take it.
To be fair we had a massive march in London recently against the migrant bill, the language being used by our Home Secretary, the Tories in general and their lapdogs in the press does indeed recall that used in Germany in the 30s, Lineker was actually correct in what he said.
Anyway, my main point is that you’d never know there was a march against the bill and certainly not the size of the protest, however you did see a lot of coverage of Farage when he staged his photo opportunity along with a coupe of dozen misguided souls.
The reason that springs to mind is that this morning a friend sent me a copy of the lyrics to a song that was penned about the Farage walk for Brexit a couple of years ago.
To the tune of Blaydon Races
Oh me lads, you should have seen the Gammon
We passed the Mackems on the road just as they were stannin
Thor was lots o midde-age white men there
All with angry faces
Gannin along the Jarrow Road
To see the blatant racist.
For non-UK readers, Mackems are people from Sunderland, where the Brexit march was staged, to echo the Jarrow march from the 1930s which was anti poverty and anti unemployment, Brexit is going so well on those fronts right enough
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Ticht, the reporting you mention isn’t accurate.
There are no riots in the streets here, just peaceful demonstrations opposed to the pension reform. The “French” did not set fire to the city hall in Bordeaux. But as usual after the demonstrations, the usual asinine pricks burnt a few garbage disposals and the door of the Bordeaux city hall, not the city hall itself. You’re talking about a few hundred individuals, unrelated to the opposition to the government, who in other days would take the fight to football fans or disturb concerts.
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Flair, my ire was aimed at what I see as our supine complacency/compliance here in the UK, the Guardian did say that the fire in Bordeaux City Hall was in the doorway, I exaggerated for effect – mea culpa.
People in France do seem to be more willing to stand up against what is perceived to be wrong, we in the UK prefer to keep our heads down. A sideways turn of the head and an intake of breath is the extent of our disapproval.
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I don’t know why I keep capitalising City Hall, it just happens
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I can’t say I know much about the Connacht lineup
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@Ticht
Flair will correct me but it is an error to assume the protest process in France is the same as in England. The culture and process is different.
100s of 1000s of people have protested peacefully across France.
Macron has an objective (raising of pension age) that whilst everyone has known it is coming, has not been at all well presented to the populace.
‘Traditionally’ the French will protest first and negotiate afterwards. That starts next week, I think.
What has been remarkable has been the overall behavior of the crowds – proud to conduct their protests in a civilised manner, in comparison with the lower House in Parliament, where Macron and his PM have eventually guillotined debate to the righteous and staged fury of opponents.
Totally lacking so far has been a detailed presentation of the Government’s proposals and opponents alternatives.
The pension system doesn’t work the same here as it does in the UK and there are relatively severe financial penalties if you don’t clock up your 40 years.
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I saw mention of Hogg and his future with Scotland further back. I don’t think he has it any more and Kinghorn is now your better option – he offers more variety and accuracy.
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‘Your’ Exeter team to face Bath on Sunday (5 points essential):
Hodge, Nowell, Slade, Kata, Woodburn
Skinner, Maunder
Sio, Frost, Street
Dunne, Jenkins
Ewers, Tschiunza, Simmonds
Yeandle, Hepburn, Schickerling, Williams, Davis, Maunder, Simmonds, Devoto
Ewers’ 200th appearance for Exeter (you lucky Ulster people)
Big mention for Ollie Devoto returning after operations on both hips
Backs look ok; don’t know about the forwards as Bath’s are quite good. There will be lots of points in it, I think.
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Looks who’s back pt. II:
Ulster: Lowry; Balocoune, Hume, Moore, Stockdale; Burns, Doak; Warwick, Stewart, Toomaga-Allen; Treadwell, Carter; McCann, Timoney, Vermeulen (capt).
Replacements: Andrew, O’Sullivan, Milasinovich, O’Connor, Sheridan, Marcus Rea, Cooney, Postlethwaite.
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Mike Ford is now co-owner of Oldham Roughyeds. I expect next coach to be either Jacob or Joe Ford.
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@OurTerry
I hope this works – Stalybridge, Railways and Smog (with echoes of Turner):
https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p265322570
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ach. no!
Anyway, if you follow the link, I found the last photo on page 2 – lovely!
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I went to Stalybridge railway station for a friend’s fortieth birthday some years ago. It had changed.
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Ticht – our state pension age is 67 (both me and Mrs BB), so just over 7 years away. But we’re both retiring this year as we’ve bloody had enough.
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Guardian did say that the fire in Bordeaux City Hall was in the doorway
@ticht – I recall during the “gilets jaunes” (have I got my adjectives agreeing) there was a notorious photo taken in such a way to imply some major conflagration – in fact it was -as Flair noted – some garbage and a couple of pallets.
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@Trisk, as per usual re the photos.
My “favourite” story like this was the guy I knew who was filmed throwing a stone over a fence during the miner’s strike. The footage cut to a policeman stumbling forward, hands clasped over his bleeding face.
The guy who threw the stone did so at a pit just outside of Edinburgh and the injured police officer was in Yorkshire – that’s a hell of an arm the miner had on him, he should have been in the Olympics, really.
@BB, good luck mucker, to you and Mrs BB.
(btw, the point of my post earlier wasn’t really about what was going on in (France, it was more exasperation at what is going on here and our apparent lack of giving a fuck, I mean we’ve voted these arseholes into power four times including 2010 and we voted for Brexit, we’ve gone through a cowardly PM who cut and ran at the first hint of trouble after the Brexit vote, his chancellor waged a deliberate austerity war on the poor, Theresa “Hostile environment” May juggled for a bit before being knifed in the back by the ultimate “ambition over talent” PM, Bojo The Lying Clown, who eventually tripped over this own underpants and gave way to the worst actual prime minister in actual history who, along with her “I’ve got a PhD in Economics” Chancellor tanked the economy and the pair of them were outlived by a fucking iceberg lettuce.
Then we got Richie Rich, who stood there last week and without a hint of ironing said that Norn Ireland was about to be in the fantastic position of having access to the UK and the EU markets without restriction, so the area will be hugely attractive to foreign investors … I mean for crying out fucking loud!)
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Anyway, which match do we think will be best tonight?
Leinster C v Stormers or The Toon v Glaws?
Zebre are usually good value for an hour before they get tonked, so I think it will be a routine win for Cardiff there
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“miner’s strike”
There was just the one
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Zebre have scored rather nicely!
Ticht, you might like this article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/24/rishi-sunak-authoritarian-technocrat-liz-truss-boris-johnson
There are stories about news crews being sent to Belfast on a slow news day in the 70s/80s and finding nothing to film, so paying people to pretend to riot.
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Ticht – what I always wonder about is how come the Tories are doing so badly in the polls, when they have the vast majority of the mainstream media (plus the BBC, some would say) in their favour. Yet the SNP are hammered daily by the MSM up here, yet are still well up in the polls (which I would link to, but my computer suddenly seems unable to open those pages. Hmm.) Not that I’m paranoid…
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BB, I laughed a hollow laugh last week, I read the Telegraph most days, (know your enemy) and there was an article there that blamed Nicola Sturgeon for lockdown and all problems faced by English schoolchildren.
The btl was an incredible pile-on.
These people vote and everything.
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the article was part of their “Lockdown Files” which is seeking to reinvent the history of the time.
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Right, I’ve plumped for Dublin, the Stormers have picked a very strong side
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Tipple of choice is Budweiser Budvar, the proper stuff, that might constitute my tea tonight as I’m on my Tod and can’t be arsed cooking
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Dweba is such a good ball carrier, he knocks the tackler on his backside almost every time
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After the heavy beef doing their thing Lubbok dances through for the try
10 – 0 Stormers
The weather is in their favour
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The ball is moving metres sideways in the air due the wind
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Went for a beer and missed a try
17 – 0 Stormer
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Stormers’ lineout malfunctions, not for the first time, and after several picks and goes on the line, Leinster get one back on half time
5 – 17 at the break
The weather is worth quite a few points so you’d think Leinster will come back strongly in the second half
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Leinster’s second comes within four minutes of the second half restart.
It’s only a matter of time really.
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Ticht – I watched the video at the top of Crace’s article yesterday (highlights of Sturgeon’s last FMQs) and it brought a small tear to the eye.
She’s not perfect, but she’s bloody good.
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Thaum, I genuinely think she was a public servant, and that is how she thought of herself, as opposed to fulfilling a personal ambition.
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Ticht, that’s my impression too.
There may be some dirt coming out, I suspect, but I hope not.
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Thaum, there was some stuff about her husband loaning the party money and it being declared late.
Also some money for a second indy referendum been used for some other purpose by the party, but there is no enriching of friends and lobbiers like there is in Westminster as far as I know
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I’m desperately hoping that Stormers can hold on and win this.
Leinster thirds shouldn’t be beating the full strength Champions, even at home
If this was the final I don’t think there would be many/any of this evening’s Leinster team being in the side
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Ah well, Leinster take the lead on the hour
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Cardiff just squeak it at 30-34.
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Ticht – yes, that’s the stuff I was alluding to. Maybe it’s not good to have such a close relationship between leader and chair.
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The jeering from the Leinster crowd at mistakes is not a good look
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Just switched over to Leinster. 22-17 and 4 tries to 2, so Leinster must have given away a fair number of penalties. And missed a conversion or two.
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And Stormers score!
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a conversion or two
or three!
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Quite happy for a draw here.
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The draw would be about fair over the course, both teams have been good in very difficult conditions
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