First a nod to the retirees. *Nods*
Tonight we have the Little Cup Final, Glasgow v Toulon. The French side are half-way down their league table while Glaes are fourth in the URC, and have home advantage … but I think it will be a close-fought affair all the same. The Home of the Big Yin by 4.
Then tomorrow there’s the Big Cup Gladitorialism of Leinster v La Rochelle. Ronan O’Gara will be rubbing his hands at the prospect, especially after his club side beat the Blue Meanies last weekend in the URC semi-final. But Leinster have made 12 changes to the B-team they put out last week – mostly to concentrate on this Cup, one assumes. BUT Sexton is still injured, which could be a big factor; one of they Byrne brothers is in instead.
It’s a tough one to call too, but I think home advantage will tell again. The Home of Leopold Bloom by 5.
Onna telly this weekend
Friday 19th May
| Glasgow v Toulon | 20:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 20th May
| Leinster v La Rochelle | 16:45 | ITV1 / STV / BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Now come on Munster!
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Apparently the stadium is pecked to the reftas.
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Ulster-bound Kitshoff leading the oppo out.
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Dear oh dear. Libbok intercepts a (forward) pass and scores.
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But Munster come on er, storming back and get a line-out in the 22. Libbock offside, do again, and it’s a TRY!
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But Crowley misses the conversion, so it’s 7-5.
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But I think I’ll start every comment with But.
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Munster with a 5m penalty and Stormers with a yellow.
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Munster go for the corner, the maul gets shoved towards touch, then some pick-and-goes and a maybe try, being checked.
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No try for double movement.
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Disappointed at your lack of commitment to the ‘but’ bit Thaum.
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TRY Haley! Unless there was a forward pass?
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BUT yep, miles forward.
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But a lovely cross-kick from Crowley sends Nash in!
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POM seems to have been mashed in the head. Play stopped to attend to him.
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POM is off for an HIA – unlikely to return – and play resumes for Nash to kick it out on the full.
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But in case I needed any reminder why I want Munster to win, we’ve been treated to a shot of the fucking cheerleaders.
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And but the Stormers don’t manage to do anything with all their late possession at the end of the half, and Munster get it off the pitch. 7-12.
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Deebee must be sulking because he couldn’t go to Cape Town.
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Yellow for Munster after a stupid trip, but.
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Try Stormers. But the pompons make me gnash my teeth.
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But TRY Munster!!!
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And the conversion – with a heart-stopping moment of is-it-isn’t-it – is! 14-19 with 3 mins left.
But can Munster hang on?
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But Crowley gets a yellow for hitting a ball in the ruck, even though he couldn’t have seen what he was doing.
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But Munster give away another stupid penalty, but Stormers screw up the maul, and Munster win!!!
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I think that’s 7 wins away in a row for Munster to get there. Well done to them.
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Well done Munster.
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HA! POM has presented the MotM with the medal, and the first words out of MotM’s mouth are Look, fuck …. POM puts his head in his hands.
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Player of the match – “No look, fuck…”
Peter O’Mahony puts his head in his hands
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the old knee etc
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There have been games when I thought Libbok would be a shoe-in for the Boks, but not today
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Ticht – the beauty in that duplication was the near-identical phrasing.
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Anyone still happy to use Facebook, or indeed WhatsApp or Instagram?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/27/nhs-data-breach-trusts-shared-patient-details-with-facebook-meta-without-consent
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This also looks interesting: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/27/uk-ministers-engaged-in-bitter-fight-to-halt-release-of-covid-secrets
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Thaum, I’ve never hated the UK, I’ve always argued that we can and should make it better, but the last 13 years have made me detest what this country has become.
I want to move to Skye or Lewis or Shetland
Failing that Montpellier has a nice climate and a good rugby team, oh and good markets
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.. but we can’t move to Montpellier because that option has been taken from us by the fuckwits
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I’m so glad we got away in time………………..and well done Munster
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Great result for Munster! Thoroughly deserved win in a pretty tough match. Will try and watch it properly today as I was braaiing whilst the match was on yesterday. Although truth be told it was more the red wine that got in the way!
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Ticht, I think half the world is fraying at the edges – or worse. The UK remains an absolute paradise compared to many countries, even if it has been backsliding for a while now. Here in SA, we now have power cuts (euphemistically called ‘loadshedding’ by our parasitic government) for 8 to 12 hours a day, most water – once a symbol of pride that you could drink from any tap – is not drinkable without boiling it first (24 cholera deaths and counting this week), our roads have collapsed under the wight of trucks transporting tens of millions of tons of minerals and containers because the rail system has collapsed, with our ports not far behind.
30 years into democracy and 80% of 10 year olds are functionally illiterate (something Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid must be beaming about) and public education and Healthcare have all but collapsed in large swathes of the country, mostly in the poorest, most vulnerable communities. Crime is out of control and corruption is at its highest levels ever. Unemployment is around 40% of the working population and over 60% for those under 25.
So concerned is our government about this, that they continue to enforce legislation that effectively prevents independent power generation, mining exploration, downstream manufacturing or pretty much anything else. Moreover, just when you thought they’d hit rock bottom, they’ve jumped headlong into supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, putting billions of dollars of exports to the US at risk under the AGOA agreement we benefit from. It could cause tens of thousands of job losses across value chains from fruit and wine to automotive and chemicals. Do they care? Not one bit.
I appreciate that the UK is going through a horrible patch at present, but its unlikely to last for as long as our fuckwits will be able to plunge South Africa into the abyss. Which is cold comfort, I know.
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Deebee, yeah I was reading about the power cuts elsewhere, terrible stuff and yes we in the UK do take a lot for granted, but the last 13 years have seen us lose our rights to work and study abroad freely, you can still do it of course but it’s now the same as us going to the US for those purposes as opposed to another part of the one union.
We’ve got raw sewage being pumped into our rivers and seas – 30 water treatment companies released 11Bn litres of shit into our waters in a year.
The government has criminalised protest and used its attack dogs in the press to go after the judiciary when it doesn’t like particular judgements. They are going after universities and lefty academics under the guise of “Wokery” now.
We had a decade of austerity which brought public services to their knees through savage cuts (still ongoing btw) all while public sector borrowing rose – that money went somewhere.
We’ve had deregulation and enrichment of personal friends of the government, outright corruption and misuse of public funds – see the PPE scandal in which the government didn’t renew supplies pre-pandemic then spend hundreds of millions on useless crap, but some of the friends made tens of millions out of it, including at least one Tory peer.
We’ve got a government which goes after trans people and other minorities in the hope of garnering votes because they sure as hell can’t campaign on their record on any topic.
Some of the most desperate humans on earth, the ones paying to risk their lives on a rubber ring crossing the channel are being vilified, and the tax payer is paying millions to ship half a dozen of them at a time to Rwanda.
We’ve cut legal aid to poorer people but Boris bastarding Johnson has used public funds to hire lawyers to defend him against charges that he’s already admitted and paid fines for. The dick sacked his lawyers when they handed over evidence of his wrong doing, but there will be another bill for the next lot he hires.
We’ve got a looming catastrophe in the biosphere here, the insects and bees are under threat and whilst that might seem insignificant these little things underpin the entire ecosystem.
We’ve got an economy built on rising house prices and it will collapse at some point, I could rant on and on about houses being built in the wrong places and for the wrong price bracket, but I’ve said enough for now and I’ve only really scraped the surface.
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Baa-Baas vs World XV on now (fuck Steve Hansen for including Folau) and the World have just tried a screen play TWICE for a penalty on the Baa-Baas line.
Also, didn’t realise Nick Phipps was still playing.
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Slightly bonkers that 3 Bristol players are playing in this match (Luatua for Baa-Baas, Smi & Piutau for World), albeit two of them will be elsewhere next season.
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And now Harry Thacker’s on.
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After the European finals and the URC and Prem matches yesterday, this is so wonderfully unserious a game of rugby.
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Everyone’s carrying the ball in one hand. Pretty sure AWJ tried to side-step someone earlier. It’s just glorious.
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AWJ missed two conversions. Clearly he’s rubbish.
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Who won? And how does it enhance their World Cup prospects?
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The Baa-Baas won 48-42, which was nice because it meant that Folau lost.
As for WC prospects – I think the only thing that will be taken away from this game, is national coaches saying “don’t do that!”.
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