With the warm-up internationals for the World Cup getting into swing, the BTL underdoggers are out in force. Flair reckons that Scotland will beat France by 40 points; BorderBoy doesn’t seem very sure about getting out of the group in the Cup at all, whereas Deebee thinks South Africa shouldn’t even bother getting on the plane. And everyone is underdogging New Zealand. SBT just hopes there’ll be a chance to travel and party, and lots of turnstiles.
Me, I’m confident that Ireland will beat Italy this weekend as we have FIVE starting Ulstermen, including an Ulster captain, and another Ulsterman on the bench. But I am also not entirely sure we’ll make it out of the group, and very doubtful we’ll get any further than the QFs (again). There’ll be a serious and detrimental lack of Ulstermen on the WC sides, just you wait and see.
As for Wales, I’ve just asked the mister if he thinks they’ll beat England this weekend. Long pause. Scratching. “Yeeaaah … but I don’t think it’s gonna be a good game.” What an optimist!
Onna telly this weekend
Saturday 5th August
| New Zealand v Australia | 03:35 | Sky Sports Action |
| Scotland v France | 15:15 | Prime Video |
| Wales v England | 17:30 | Prime Video |
| Ireland v Italy | 20:00 | RTÉ2 / Prime Video |
| Argentina v South Africa | 20:10 | Sky Sports Action |
Ovally Balls 
Touch of rucksy-dropsy at the moment, from England.
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That’s unfortunate, Wales lose Elias after only 5 mins.
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Bit of a wobbly start by Wales, but they’ve found some fluency in the last 5 mins.
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Refit – ayup, their scrum is not going well, for one thing.
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No joy with usual vip streams, you got a working one refit ?
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Oh, that was a lovely line by LRZ.
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Wales starting to get back into it now, which probably means 15 points to England for my observations.
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LRZ unlucky to trip there – looked like he was in. Still, scores equal now.
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6-6! Neither side has looked much cop, but I suppose first match in a few months and first one in weeks at any level. Handling has been poor all round.
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SBT this works for me https://www.vipbox.lc/wales-vs-england-2-live
I use Brave browser for it, takes care of most of the popups.
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Wales clinging on by their fingernails at the moment. English profligacy keeping them in it.
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English line-outs are as good as Welsh scrums.
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Am I just getting old, or does Costello look about 5?
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still getting technical issue after ten seconds of transmission. Oh well, doesn’t sound much worth watching.
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Refit – nah, at least 10.
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Pretty frustrating so far. How close to full strength are both sides?
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SBT – both sides look entirely undercooked.
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6-9 to England at half time. Some bright spots by both teams, but mostly rucksy-dropsy.
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Well, that was certainly a half of rugby. Think both sides were even worse than Scotland’s first half performance.
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BB – excellent point, well made.
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Neither team received the memo: this is a warm-up GAME!
Scotland/France was ridden with errors but at least both teams kicked for touch, not for points, and tried to play. What are Wales and Englandt going to learn if they don’t play? This is so frustrating.
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I suppose it’s the difference between the sides ranked 5 & 3 in the world and those ranked 6 & 10 in the world….
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A TRY! Wow!
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Rugby breaks out and Wales score a great try! See what happens when you pass the ball?
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Nuts. My internet dropped out and I missed the try.
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Dancin’ Dan is literally not a number.
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TRY North!
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Nice try Wales. Bastards.
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The mister tells me that Borthwick said this was his first-choice team (really? No Itoje, eg?). If that’s the case, I don’t see them getting out of their pool.
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Imagine if England had a working lineout.
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Handling errors: Wales 2 (and I think they were both Costellow) and England 14.
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And a working scrum.
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George North packing down in the scrum, and … Wales win a scrum penalty.
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Slade is on. Can he make a difference?
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Someone needs to buy England a couple of cases of that spray-tack stuff. Maybe they’ll stop dropping the ball.
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NO WAY! I thought that was faaaar too long!
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Amazing by LRZ.
Bastard.
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Oh fuck off, ref.
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Booo! I think that was a try.
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It maybe should have been a try, but there was separation after he first touched it.
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It should have been a try for the sheer audacity of it.
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Jonny Hill screaming “fucking push” over the ref’s mic at the end.
And the game finishes with an England knock-on. Hopefully we won’t be so dire two weeks in a row.
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Well! I did not expect that. The mister called it exactly right.
I have never seen England play so poorly. They are often stodgy and unimaginative, but usually the set piece is very strong. Not so today.
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So, Top Pastries so far today:
Scottish second half
French first half
Welsh second half
Bloody awful
Scottish first half
French second half
Welsh first half
Unmentionable
England whole game
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Now come on Ireland!!
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TRY Kilcoyne!
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Italy got an early penalty, but Garbisi’s just sent the restart straight out. It’s 7-3.
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No scores after 13 mins in Argentina. Libbok missed a penalty early on
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Ireland creating lots of opportunities but not finishing them. Sloppy handling.
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Try Argentina. The 9 takes a quick tap on the SA line and dives over.
7-3 after 23 mins.
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