Onna telly forra next two weeks
Friday 21st April
| Cheetahs v Sharks | 13:30 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Pumas v Western Province | 15:30 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Stormers v Treviso | 17:30 | Viaplay Xtra / TG4 |
| Ulster v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Newcastle v Northampton | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 22nd April
| Lions v Zebre | 13:00 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Ireland v England (women) | 14:15 | BBC2 / RTÉ2 |
| Dragons v Scarlets | 15:00 | BBC1 Wales / Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Harlequins v Bath | 15:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bulls v Leinster | 15:05 | Viaplay Sports 1 / TG4 |
| Scotland v Italy (women) | 16:45 | BBC iPlayer |
| Ospreys v Cardiff | 17:15 | BBC iPlayer / S4C / Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Sharks v Munster | 17:15 | TG4 / Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Gloucester v Sale | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Glasgow v Connacht | 19:35 | TG4 / Viaplay Sports 1 |
Sunday 23rd April
| Saracens v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| France v Wales (women) | 15:15 | BBC1 Wales / iPlayer |
Saturday 29th April
| England v France (women) | 13:00 | BBC2 |
| Leinster v Toulouse | 15:00 | ITV1 / RTÉ2 / BT Sport 3 |
| Italy v Wales (women) | 15:30 | iPlayer / S4C |
| Scarlets v Glasgow | 17:30 | S4C / BT Sport 3 |
| Scotland v Ireland (women) | 19:30 | iPlayer |
Sunday 30th April
| Toulon v Treviso | 12:30 | BT Sport 1 |
| La Rochelle v Exeter | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
For people in the UK. Just a reminder that they’re testing the emergency alert system today
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Buggers sent it early!
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A resounding success
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Nothing on mine. Does the UK government not care about citizens abroad?
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Bugger, Man Utd beat Brighton 7-6 on penalties after extra time in the FA Cup semi final.
Not that I follow it, but there is a good buzz around the city when Brighton go well.
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Should’ve been a buzz around the city for most of this season Ticht. Brighton lose their manager, his assistants (and a left back) to Chelsea, replace him with Roberto de Zerbi and haven’t looked back. He’s taken Brighton to an FA Cup semi final and they could get into European competition next year. The guy that went to Chelsea? He’s been sacked.
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Craigs missing in action . must be squash club business. Unusual for the Mothership to actually have something i remotely agree with or like and I have always been more your Monbiot Than your Ronson, but his suggestion on this, oh my. Right up your street brother.
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Got the alert in Welsh. Translated, I think it meant ‘go left!’
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Jamie Ritchie carries the ball, he is hit in the tackle and the ball goes in the air, he pats it back to another Ed player who scores, the try is chalked off.
Law on knock forward says something about having to be regathered before hitting ground or another player – technically, probably correct but a bit strict. (Meanwhile, crooked feeds to scrums go unremarked)
Recall, that try that Wales scored vs England in 2021 – Rees Zammit drops ball, then kicks it forward – Reynal was ok it with – I’d have said it was never regathered from original knock forward.
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Have Leinster sent their schoolboy team over?
@BB
Yes – but they were boasting not long backl that their Bs or Cs could win the URC…..strength in depth is one thing – but sending over the academy to get hammered doesn’t look great
Then again – Toulouse this weekend …so the attention is elsewhere (coaches didn’t travel – Sean O’Brien was in charge in SA)
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Trisk, from memory the ball didn’t hit the ground or another player, Ritchie juggled it a couple of times before patting it back to whoever it was that scored. Didn’t have sound on my feed, so no idea what was discussed. I do remember when playing at school, I sent a perfect pass to our 10, who fumbled it a few times, knocking it up in the air and going on for about 10m before being called back for a knock on, with the ref saying that it prevented the defence from tackling because he wasn’t carrying the ball. Maybe something similar?
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It would be quite amusing if the Leinster ‘proper’ team got hammered this weekend because they’re shy of match time, having spent three weeks twiddling their thumbs.
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I think Connacht have to win in Glasgow this evening to make the Big Cup next season
If Benneton or Scarlets win the Challenge Cup – they go into the Heino…. so along with Welsh shield winners – that means only top 6 from URC go into the Heino….. that woudlk displace Connacht. Cardiff already displaced Sharks…..
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Bugger, Man Utd beat Brighton 7-6 on penalties
Bit unlucky – probably as good a set of pens as I’ve seen – Sanchez got a hand to one ..maybe could have saved it.
On what I saw, Brighton will probably think they should have won – tendency to take another touch was fatal…. Arsenal were similarly guilty on Friday – I sometimes think shoot on sight is best before defenders can react or goalkeeper get set.
You see it in GAA all the time – ball running on the ground near goal – instead of pulling on thing before goalie can get ready, lad picks it up (cause he can) , takes a stride, drops it onto his foot and then buries it into the goalie’s midriff …. a nasty , bobbling daisy cutter is way more effective…
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@Deebee – I’m assuming Ritchie was regarded as never having “regathered” it before the other Edinburgh player caught it and scored – bit tough.
I recall O’Driscoll got away with some contrivance vs Ulster a way back – batted it forward and caught it. Probably should have been seen as forward pass – albeit to himself.
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having spent three weeks twiddling their thumbs
Home advantage is worth something – but history tells us Leinster don’t handle big packs well (LaR x2, Bulls, Saracens)
Now, they know this well – hence the move for Jenkins over the summer. Toulouse will know this too…. Leinster have a rep as an “all singing-all dancing team” but Sheehan is top try scorer mainly off lineout mauls. They kick often, kick long and wait till they get a poor kick return.
Toulouse aren’t hugely different – we’ll see who’s best at it….
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I recall O’Driscoll got away with some
Coulda just left it at that.
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Didn’t get the alert. Must mean the chem trails can’t get me.
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Jamie Ritchie had a valid point in that if he was considered to be not in possession of the ball, then he shouldn’t be tackled.
Here is the knock on law on the WR site https://www.world.rugby/the-game/laws/law/11/?highlight=knock
There is nothing there to cover the situation as it arose.
The closest I can find is from the SA referees site, which states
Knock-on: When a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it.
The ref said that because Ritchie didn’t catch the ball, he batted it back to an Edinburgh player, it was a knock on.
That’s really stretching it, imo the try should have stood. Believe it or not I would think the same if it had been Ulsters players involved instead of Edinburgh.
The “catch it” in the SA ref’s piece is similar to the “Downward pressure” you hear about in the act of scoring, there is nothing in the laws about downward pressure, not a sausage.
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Ticht, based on that piece from the SA refs, I think the ref did get it right – technically. Otherwise you end up with players doing reverse basketball all afternoon by not catching the ball so they can’t be tackled and batting it back to someone else in a better position to score? A bit like the hands up jumpers thing? Still as clear as mud, but there you go.
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Deebs, you can’t deliberately throw the ball forward, that much is covered in the laws as per my link =
“A player must not intentionally throw or pass the ball forward. Sanction: Penalty.”
but there are instances where players re-gather or play the ball whilst it’s still in the air, and that is not regarded as a knock on if it comes from a fumbled catch or a dislodged ball from a tackle.
The point the ref made was the Ritchie didn’t catch the ball, rather he patted it back to another player, so if he had caught the ball in the one hand and then moved it on to the other player he would have been fine – how long would the catch have to last for? Half a second? One tenth of a second?
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Further, if a ball is in the air and a player jumps for it and pats it back, you will hear the ref shout “back off blue”*
*insert colour of choice.
I’m really struggling to see what Ritchie did as a knock on.
I don’t have the full replay and the all of the highlights packages have that passage cut out.
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I don’t have much else to do right now, os thankfully someone has posted the full match on YouTube
The Ulster scrum half tackles Ritchie before he has the ball, this causes Ritchie to knock the ball up into the air and forwards, before he touches it again
btw, the play immediately before this is the one where the Ulster hooker kicks van der Merwe’s legs as he goes over for the attempt at grounding the ball
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The Sharks were royally shafted by the ref against Munster – no such thing as homer refs down here – when the Munster wing was in touch and in contact with the ball prior to grounding it. Absolutely appalling! If there fans weren’t the most arrogant in SA, I may even have sympathy for them!
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Deebee, I’ve been playing and watching rugby for forty seven years and I had no idea of that law. I just thought that the foot was in touch so it shouldn’t have been awarded, I didn’t know that you can score if the ball is stationary on the ground, even if your feet are in touch.
It’s an arcane set of laws, but you’d expect professional match officials to be aware of all of them
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btw, on another forum I keep seeing the team referred to as $hark$ due to them buying up players from other sides.
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@deebee
Read a lot of to and fro on Nash’s try
Law 8.2.e says
A try is scored when an attacking player:
Who is in touch or touch-in-goal, grounds the ball in the opponents’ in-goal provided the player is not holding the ball
Nash isn’t holding the ball and he grounds it. I suspect rule was designed to cover a loose ball on the ground – not one bouncing around, but doesn’t explicitly state that.
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…on further investigation (yes, I’m at a loose end) I think the tv peeps there might be referring to older versions of the laws, the numbers are different not and the current law number 8, on scoring just says that you can score whilst having a foot in touch provided you are not carrying the ball.
8.2.e (a try is scored when an attacking player):
Who is in touch or touch-in-goal, grounds the ball in the opponents’ in-goal provided the player is not holding the ball
– we are now in similar territory to the Jamie Ritchie case, though the opposite.
Was the Munster player holding the ball if it is in the air before he touched it?
If he is considered to not be holding the ball then the try is good.
Was Ritchie holding the ball in making the pass to Savala?
If he is considered to not be holding the ball then the try is disallowed.
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Trisk, the ball is definitely in the air as Nash plays it, he has his foot in touch in goal at the time.
the “holding” is the crux (there is a Karl to be made of holding his crux there)
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In the hypothetical case that the try is disallowed, then a whole load of other things would have have to have happened for the result to have made any difference to the league table.
If Munster had finished within 7 of the Sharks they would have still ended up in 5th place, though a BP win for Sharks, provided Munster didn’t get a try BP, would have changed things, the Bulls would have skipped over Munster and would be headed to Glasgow for the QF, Munster would be away to Stormers.
For the Sharks, they would have needed a BP win to overtake Connacht and go to Ulster for their play off, rather than to Dublin to face Leinster
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Ticht, the $hark$ bought Etzebeth, Kolisi and Mbonambi this season, must have cost a pretty penny, especially given that Etzebeth has been injured for a while and Kolisi is now touch and go for the World Cup – that’s a horrible blow for us. They also nicked a couple of very good players from the Lions and have a very intimidating side on paper. However, they lack depth, especially in the pack and the 2nd row in particular, although the back row is also a bit iffy at times. I suppose they could afford all those marquee players after the Sale version splashed the cash on their du Preez clan, Coenie Oosthuizen and Akker van der Merwe! And a few others, looking at the Sale squad.
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Ticht, yip, the permutations are quite something! Although I suppose the swings and roundabouts of the whole season mean that one try in the last game shouldn’t matter that much.
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@ticht
In my mind – I’d have assumed the law meant a ball rolling along that you put your hand on (first try I ever scored was like that ) rather than pushing a bouncing ball downwards to ground (while keeping contact).
But, law doesn’t differentiate here or doesn’t exclude a bouncing ball…. and doesn’t define “holding” as opposed to “grounding”
Anyway, sometimes you get the luck with ball and othertimes not….
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‘doesn’t define “holding” ‘
Yeah, that’s part of the point I was making, however, the ball was in the air, in order for it to be a legitimate grounding it will had to have contact with Nash’s hand from the moment he touched it to the moment it hit the ground (otherwise this is the “separation” TMOs and Refs are looking for in replays, any separation and the ball is knocked on)
Is that contact enough for it to be called “holding”?
This is where I think the South African tv guys have a point.
If you come at it from either team’s point of view I think you’d be disappointed or thankful depending which way it was adjudicated
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BTW, I thought I had said this already, but I see now that I didn’t.
The ref made a mistake, as did the TMO, it was a matter of a fraction of a second, but it was a mistake.
However, the defence from the Sharks was so poor in that passage of play that they pretty much deserve to lose a try there, that was the howler, rather than the decision.
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Glad to see the arcana being discussed.
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If you come at it from either team’s point of view I think you’d be disappointed or thankful depending which way it was adjudicated
Pfft! None of this balanced opinion sharing here. It was a bloody disgrace.
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Blog favourite Wee Greeg, Greig Laidlaw, is to finally hang up his playing boots at the age of 37. He is going into coaching, though it hasn’t been mentioned where yet.
I read something the other week, though I’m sorry that I can’t remember who it was, there was an international ref that said Laidlaw was the most fearsome captain he’d ever refereed.
He was always in the ref’s face, always nipping away :-)
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Well, that’s Mrs BB finished her last day of work (annual leave takes her up to the official retirement day next Friday).
She’s got about 8 weeks of freedom until I join her.
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Peter Martin RIP. Unfortunately I can’t find the clip of him singing “I will take you home again Kathleen” that ends with one of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen in a sitcom, so this will have to do
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The Royale Family was solid gold
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What were her last words Barbara?
Trevor McDonald.
Ohh Barbara! What a fitting tribute to the man.
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Jason Robinson’s lad has the best hair in his family
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This makes me happy
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Hmm. Quiet here. When does the rugby season start again?
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Deebs – today! And also, get a load of the Hasks fledgling dj career. Who’d have thunk it? I’m never going to watch him but I love that this is his trajectory.
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33 years ago today…..
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Leinster just battering Toulouse off the park.
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Denied by a whisker after 500 slomo’s, but then score from a farcical Toulouse cock up!
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