Now that the anguish of the World Cup is behind us, we can all* pretend that it was all a horrific nightmare and concentrate on the leagues. Ulster have got their international players back at last, although very (very, very) sadly, Munster don’t have Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Tadhg Beirne or Dave Kilcoyne back yet.
*Except Deebee, obvs. I expect he’ll mention once or twice over the next four years that the Boks have won it twice in a row.
So sit back, pour yourself the beverage of your choice, and relax with a nice friendly match.
Onna telly this week
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates free-to-view.
Friday 10th November
| Zebre v Sharks | 17:30 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Cardiff v Bulls | 19:35 | BBC2 Wales / iPlayer / Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Ulster v Munster | 19:35 | BBC2 NI / iPlayer / Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Gloucester v Bath | 19:45 | TNT Sports 1 |
Saturday 11th November
| Toulouse v Perpignan | 14:00 | Viaplay |
| Treviso v Stormers | 15:00 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Leicester v Harlequins | 15:05 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Lyon v Stade Français | 16:00 | Viaplay |
| Ospreys v Glasgow | 17:15 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Scarlets v Lions | 17:15 | S4C / iPlayer / Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Edinburgh v Connacht | 19:35 | TG4 / Viaplay Sports 2 |
| La Rochelle v Bayonne | 20:00 | Viaplay |
Sunday 12th November
| Dragons v Leinster | 13:15 | S4C / RTÉ2 / iPlayer / Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Northampton v Exeter | 15:00 | ITV1 / STV / TNT Sports 1 |
| Toulon v Racing 92 | 20:00 | Viaplay |
Ovally Balls 
Just back from a long weekend in Cape Town for a mate’s 50th. Slightly weird weekend in that she is in complete denial about it, but still managed to drag her out for a couple of wine tastings and lunches overlooking False Bay. Were hoping to see whales, but alas, none pitched. Was delighted with the rugby even if I didn’t see any of it, and after my rant last week (whine) there is talk of four or five Lions players being on the cusp of Bok selection next year. We’ll see. If they wore Stormers jerseys they’d probably be there already.
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I’d maybe think about giving True Bay a try, can imagine you might have more luck there.
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Wasn’t all fun in the sun. I managed to pick up a terrible stomach bug along the way, which I’m still battling, so the fabulous tapas bar overlooking False Bay, with a lovely rock pool for the kids to splash around in, saw me sipping gingerly on a smoothie yesterday, whilst everyone else indulged in wonderful fresh tapas. Bastards. And now I’m at work. Stupid bastard.
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@ticht
Healy has been very good this half, he is far more than a good boot
Very good fast flat pass as well – he’s realy pushed on since the wretched start to last season,
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@Thaum
Profoundly disagree about Crowley. Prendergast is being talked up too much – yes, he was a good 10 in the U20s, so was Crowley…. At the minute he needs 2 years of S&C – he’s really unathletic and uncoordinated
Of course, the fact that Sexton is gone and neither Byrne is up to it (Ross makes the best of his abilities but he’s below the level required for an international 10) – so Dubln press are getting agitated…..
When Murray moves on – maybe Doak can assume that role. But while Farrell is in charge the requirement at 9 is speed – so Gibson-Park, Casey, then Blade for that role.
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On Munster/Leinster, I think we can say we could have and maybe should have won it. Leinster were fully loaded for this – Munster less so.
Gifted 7 points when 10-0 up…. had a good chance to score a 2nd try before Leinster scored and fluffed it…. generally handled Leinster’s forward oriented attack quite well.
Leinster are to a great degree like Exeter (of old) – aiming to get lineouts in 22 and pummell their way over from there.
Disappointingly, let Larmour in for a try – doubly disappointing in that with Earls and Conway retired there will be clamour to have him back in green – every team with a decent kicker will unload high ball on top of him and wait for the payout….
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Trisk – you’ll have watched Crowley a lot more than I have, so I’ll take your word for it!
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Not sure what’s going on with the site? I’ve now got a one line space to type in. Did I really gloat that much about the Boks winning their 4th World Cup in only 8 attempts?
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It appears my WordPress has gone all fancy and has lots of functions added to it. Which my fingers are too un-coordinated to use and my eyesight too crap to manage. But fun anyway!
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Yes, I had no control over that. It’s poorly done!
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The WP update has completely fucked tweet embedding. It’s just the best.
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There’s a thread on the official WP blog, about the update to the comments box. I’ve added my 2p to it. https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/comments-form-woes/
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Cheers, Refit, me too!
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This is a test.
https://twitter.com/ByDonkeys/status/1726277386658890110
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Not only does it not embed, but I had trouble even pasting it into the comment box; it wouldn’t paste on a new line, so I had to put it on the end of the previous line and then put a hard return to get it on a new one.
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@Thaum – if you edit your post, you’ll see it’s added a load of HTML tags to make it a clickable link. If you strip all that out, it then embeds properly.
I’m also loving how I have to click on the comment box twice, to actually start typing. Truly the work of geniuses.
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Good lord, has wordpress been taken over by Euan Blair ?
Euan Blair’s apprenticeship company Multiverse has reported a near-tripling of pre-tax annual losses to £40.5m – its seventh straight year of losses since the son of the former prime minister Tony Blair set it up in 2016.
That is quite an achievement for a company worth an alleged 1.4 billion, real chip off the old block.
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Test
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Yup, I’ve found that when I press the blue reply button nothing happens other than the button turning gray. I have to reload the page to see my post load
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I get a message under my post – “Comment sent successfully” but that’s all.
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Thaum, Refit. I don’t know if this is of any interest, but the Not Planet Rugby forum (note the Not there) runs on this https://www.phpbb.com
Tweets and YouTube vids embed, but to be honest it’s probably far more than is needed for the notablog.
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Looks like WP have reverted the comment box.
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Ah – that’s running off PHP – which all “hardcore” techies deride, but which supports huge chunks of the web – mainly ‘cos it’s simple to get running. IIRC FB runs on php
…. interesting…. I’m back to a plain text box for text entry…the rich text app seems to have disappeared (for now)
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Many years ago I worked on an app that used php. It’s not very secure!
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Do I still have to reload the page?
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Yup
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The Lions have preserved their bounteous riches for two seasons! 20 players have resigned! Glory days ahead! In all seriousness, if the core of the squad have signed up for another two years, it’s obviously a pretty happy camp, with everyone pulling in the same direction (not Karl!) for a change at Ellis Park. Echoes of 2015-2018, when having lost out on Super Rugby, the Lions built a squad of discards and misfits into a title-challenging side playing great rugby.
https://twitter.com/LionsRugbyCo/status/1729475284502511698/photo/1?
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Players to have resigned aren’t exactly the who’s who of SA rugby, but there are some promising guys, perhaps not too far from the Bok squad, as well as a few very good URC level players, and a few honest triers, who’ll hopefully hold the fort until we get something a bit better in the stable.
I see RG Snyman has had his contract terminated (not renewed) by Munster as well. Can’t really blame Munster, as he’s had an awful run of luck with them, but speculation down here is that all the URC clubs (bar the Lions) are flexing their cheque books for him. He’ll end up in Japan, I reckon. The fact that the Lions aren’t even in the picture tells you all you need to know about the relative attractiveness of the club and their buying power. We’re the Millwall of URC.
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Punctuation, Deebee! It took me ages to work out why you were happy about 20 players resigning. Then I added a hyphen.
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–
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Surprise new ATL on its way.
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Here it be.
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