Mason Grady is apparently going to be a very busy lad on Saturday as he’s playing both wings against Bath. We knew Cardiff were having some financial difficulties, but this may be an economy too far. Either that, or someone at Cardiff’s been tipping their Brains a bit too much. Of course they feel under pressure: these are the days it never rains but it pours.
In other European Cup news, whichever eejit is in charge of the scheduling has joined the bizarre and troubling vendetta of the URC against households having one Cardiff and one Ulster fan. Yes, for the second week in a row, the matches are scheduled at the same time.
Let’s hope this weekend’s rugby is better than last week’s, where – except for Quins v Racing 92 – the most entertaining bit was the dust-ups between Leinster and La Rochelle.
*Maybe that should be burning down both sides.
Onna telly this week
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates free-to-view. Times are in the UK zone, so adjust as necessary.
Friday 15th December
| Northampton v Toulon | 20:00 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Bayonne v Glasgow | 20:00 | TNT Sports 2 |
| Gloucester v Clermont | 20:00 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Scarlets v Black Lion | 20:00 | iPlayer / S4C / epcrugby.com |
Saturday 16th December
| Saracens v Connacht | 13:00 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Stormers v La Rochelle | 13:00 | TNT Sports 4 |
| Edinburgh v Castres | 13:00 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Bordeaux v Bristol | 15:15 | TNT Sports 1 |
| LIons v Newcastle | 15:15 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Treviso v Perpignan | 15:15 | epcrugby.com |
| Lyon v Bulls | 17:30 | TNT Sports |
| Leinster v Sale | 17:30 | RTÉ2 / TNT Sports 1 |
| Pau v Dragons | 17:30 | epcrugby.com |
| Cardiff v Bath | 20:00 | S4C / iPlayer / TNT Sports 1 |
| Ulster v Racing 92 | 20:00 | TNT Sports 3 |
Sunday 17th December
| Exeter v Munster | 13:00 | ITV1 / STV / TNT Sports 1 |
| Montpellier v Ospreys | 13:00 | Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Harlequins v Toulouse | 15:15 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Stade Français v Leicester | 17:30 | TNT Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
TRY Timoney!
LikeLike
Damn! Herring going off for an HIA. Got his head on the wrong side.
LikeLike
Racing looked to have scored through 9 and 10, but there was obstruction. Whew!
Both teams dangerous with ball in hand. Good match.
LikeLike
Cardiff and Bath have scored 5 tries in 20 minutes. Bath scored 3, Cardiff 2. 17 all so far.
LikeLike
Herring’s passed his HIA and come back on. Aaaaand – TRY McCloskey!
LikeLike
Cooney bounces the conversion off the post. :-/
LikeLike
Oh, it must have then gone in, cos it’s 14-0!
LikeLike
Bath get their bonus point try.
LikeLike
Racing 9 scores.
LikeLike
Worst conversion attempt ever! Think the ball fell off the tee just as he went to kick it.
LikeLike
That’s just the 7 tries in this first half. 25-24 to Cardiff.
LikeLike
Cardiff Bath is a ripper of a game
Earlier the mighty mighty Edinburgh (ahem) saw off Castres 34-21.
The wind was a big factor in the game, satisfactory performance from Edinburgh, there is some nice rugby there and the defence was sorely tested with Castres battering away on the Embra line for about half an hour in the second half with that wind at their backs
LikeLiked by 1 person
TRY Rea!
LikeLike
And Cardiff are one point ahead of Bath at HT.
And it’s 21-5 at Ravenhill at HT. Much improved Ulster side.
LikeLike
Tom Stewart had an absolute nightmare with the line-out while he was on. He’s only a youngster, and he’s great at other things (like scoring tries, usually from a maul), but that part of his game really needs work.
My heart went out to him when he was replaced and I saw his face. He knew.
LikeLike
Cardiff score again!
LikeLike
Bonus point TRY Timoney (again)!
LikeLike
Herring’s just won a fabulous turnover, but seems to have hurt himself in the process. Back to line-out nightmares?
LikeLike
Nah, he’s grand, and going for a throw-in.
LikeLike
Ulster have just given away their second (dubious) penalty in the 52nd minute. The shame.
LikeLike
It was a bad one as our line was under serious attack, but we managed to get a ‘held up’ result. Yay!
LikeLike
Unfortunately the bastards manage to score on the next phase of play.
LikeLike
But Le Garrec misses the conversion. :-)
LikeLike
Kolisi (who’s been relatively anonymous) and Burns are both off.
LikeLike
Racing looked like scoring again, but Stockdale nicked the ball and raced down the field. He passes it to Stewart (back on), who drops it. Poor lad. He thumped himself so we didn’t have to do it.
LikeLike
And again Racing look to have scored, but Baloucoune’s held it up.
LikeLike
But they score in the next phase.
LikeLike
Meanwhile, at the Arms Park, Bath have evened up the scores, but Finn misses the kick to go ahead.
LikeLike
And Cooney slots a penalty to put the score at 31-15.
LikeLike
Lost count of the number of tries at Cardiff. Think it’s something like 25 each…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Shit, Bath have scored and converted a try.
LikeLike
Our Stu is MotM.
LikeLike
And we manage to prevent Racing from getting a BP try and the final score is 31-15.
I did not expect this! I thought we’d lose. Well done to the boys.
LikeLike
Entertaining game in Cardiff. Much as I love Finn, not sure he was MOTM. Not sure anyone really stood out, maybe Barbeary?
LikeLike
Am hugely heartened by that performance, easily the best of this season so far. The only person who had a bad game was poor Tom Stewart, and he will improve; he’s very talented. Kitshoff finally looked like a not-bad choice.
The commentators made a couple of interesting remarks, one being that MacFarland had changed his strategy to one of creative attack from one of dominating the set-piece, and that everyone would sit up and take notice when it gelled. It looked like it was starting to gel quite nicely tonight.
The other one was when Cooney was lining up to take his kick to take Ulster to 31 points, and he said that Cooney’s mum was the one who’d convinced him to re-sign (not resign, Deebee) with Ulster instead of moving to Scotland. He said she was in the stand, probably watching through her fingers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thing about Cardiff is they are very entertaining, push the boat out a lot and so do some really good stuff. They also make loads of mistakes and even when they play well they find a way to lose. And obviously they’re hopelessly underpowered against the properly good teams. On top of that they might just now be the best we’ve got…
LikeLike
CMW – aye, don’t get the mister started on the subject. His commentary usually consists mostly of Why are you fucking kicking possession away again?
LikeLike
Maybe someone should tell the Observer headline writers that Berwick is not the same as North Berwick?
At least Dunbar gets a mention…
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/dec/17/beaches-and-coastal-walks-not-far-from-edinburgh
LikeLike
@Thaum – If anything I’d have thought the issue would be that sometimes they might need to kick a bit more, but the main things that would get to me are the basic errors and perhaps a mental thing at important times. Regardless they must be enormously frustrating at the moment to anyone that actually supports them (I’m in the ‘would like them to win against non-Welsh teams’ bracket, but no more than that).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not fancying Exeter’s chances today – Munster a little too pragmatic …………………..
LikeLike
10 – 19 so far, see?
LikeLike
ah!……..27 – 24 now
LikeLike
yes!! 32 – 24
LikeLike
Quins not quite clicking against Toulouse, and Smitty having an off day with the boot, so go in 21-12 at half time, a score which may have BB reaching for the vinyl. Toulouse looking dangerous, could easily have had 2 or 3 more but for some spirited rush defence, and a couple of knock ons. Both sides looking to play, second half could be a cracker. French 12 lucky to be on the pitch tho after a nasty head clash, yellow cos mitigating factors, not sure I could see what they were, and Quins player stretchered off immobile.
LikeLiked by 2 people
As SBT said, good game in London. Toulouse’s handling and defence made the difference. No niggles except hilariously between Smith and Ramos.
Not sure I agree with you SBT about Akhi being lucky. A YC sure, considering players safety but it was completely accidental, Akhi was low, he went backwards as he was “passive” in the tackle as the TMO said. Hope Lamb is fine.
LikeLike
Ooof. That was a real Toulouse performance of power and adventure in the second half so that Quins were well and truely thumped in the second half. Congrats to Toulouse who were very good
LikeLike
Proper nail-biter in the Stade/Tigers game. Tigers holding on to a 3 point lead in the 85th minute.
LikeLike
BB
Quins not quite clicking against Toulouse, and Smitty having an off day with the boot, so go in 21-12 at half time, a score which may have BB reaching for the vinyl. Toulouse looking dangerous, could easily have had 2 or 3 more but for some spirited rush defence
Niiiice one!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve seen Rush live, btw. Not particularly a fan of theirs, but not a hater either. Best drum solo ever, barring ones done by a local (then) band with a jazz drummer!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Seen Rush live 3 or 4 times, including their last tour. Think I prefer their stuff once Geddy’s voice started being able to be heard by humans and not dogs…
LikeLiked by 2 people