Expect less mud than last week’s Welsh derby in Brigend
Worn out after typing all the Saturday fixtures, so I’ll just say: we have Hume and McCloskey in the centre. Antoine who?
Onna telly this weekend
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Decent win by Munster at the weekend – 10-0 down it was looking iffy…..
Surprising what getting a few fit players back can do – Scannell stabilised scrum and lineout, O’Mahony did his usual thing and allowed Aherne back to 2nd row and Coombes back to 8 . Not that Aherne did much different to when he wore 6….. m
Zebo has been playing way ahead of last season. And Nankivell looks like find of the season….
Big game at Thomond vs Saints on Sat – apart fr om the 2000 final they’ve usually ended up sufffering at Munster’s hands (O’Gara DG in stoppage time after 40+ phases, Howlett packing at 7 after O’Connell was carded, beat them home and away last season) – so they might have a poinnt to prove……
Wasn’t mourning Saracens, but certainly enjoyed the pace Bordeaux brought to the game. But then, Sarries backline was quite geriatric. Not sure I’d move to T14, were I Farrell.
LaR’s power was frightening, almost unfair.
But they (and France) lost two of their major weapons, Bourgarit and Danty.
As good as were Bx and LaR, it’s hard to see past Toulouse for the final gong, they were just unplayable vs Ulster. They combine the power of LaR with the speed of thought and execution of Bordeaux.
Exeter’s loose-head Alec Hepburn named in the Scotland squad – his dad is/was Scottish.
Not the greatest loosie but a real handful in open play and a ferocious tackler.
Danty hurt himself while tackling an opponent, getting a YC in the process. Didn’t pass the first HIA. Doubt he’ll play vs Ireland. Should be replaced by Moefana who’s back to his best level.
Bourgarit out for several months ( shoulder).
Hi All, been lurking but not posting due to sign in difficulties, ( new ipad thing ) . Good to catch up on roundups tho.
In UK briefly and caught up with long lost cuz. Funnily enough, she has just sent me an email about the RFU hosting arms fairs at Twickers. Good grief
.https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/NoTwickenhamArmsFair
Just in case anyone is interested.
Interesting really, nephews wife worked for rfu for years, now very part time and offices been let go, so apparently probably to provide room for people who set up arms fairs.
Good luck to Zammo, worth a punt cos way more money, hope they don’t break him.
If he can still run as fast while wearing all the pads and stuff (albeit they probably very lighweight) and being able to look over his shoulder while wearing a helmet for a small brown ball being thrown against the backdrop of thousands of people in a stadium and waiting to be hammered by (at least) 3 guys who want to bury him, he should be fine…
Irishg squad to be named today – expectation is that it will be business as usual – no major changes. 6N pays the bills – so no room for experimentation – we’ll go fully loaded throughout – with some exception for Italy.
Areas to look out for
– back up 10 to Crowley – my guess Frawley and Burns (maybe),
– wingers – Hansen out for a spell and Lowe just back from injury
– new captain
Galthié just announced his 6N squad. Few surprises, Alldritt captain, six rookies including Gibert at FH (that’s a surprise) Meafou -2nd row, and Abadie -flanker.
No Dupont of course but no Hastoy, Couilloud , Villière or Macalou either.
Strong team. If they’ve overcome their disappointment over the WC, they should do well in the 6N, even without the maestro.
BTW – and you’ll all hate this… saw a screenshot referencing Ryan as bookies favourite to be Lions captain in 2025….
Gee… he’s not Leinster captain on his own and based on 2021 hardly guaranteed to be in the squad. You could see Beirne, Itoje, Beard ahead of him (like 2021) and maybe even McCarthy – can captain not be guaranteed starter?
England squad announced, with Jamie George as the new skipper. 6 uncapped players in the squad. Easy start to the 6N with Italy and Wales before the competition steps up a notch in Scotland, then Ireland and a finale against France. Will it be a Grand Slam Showdown?
@Flair – it looks like Sharks drop-a-lot Rohan Janse van Rensburg is off to Bordeaux soon. He’s 29, has been awful this for the Sharks, making no metres at all (largely because he can’t keep the ball in contact, or without contact) and looks disinterested. Strange signing.
Trisk, it’ll be Owen Farrell as captain. Andy Farrell as head coach. Colleen Farrell as logistics manager. Elleshia and Gracie Farrell as media liaison, and Gabriel Farrell as bag carrier. All will be appointed on merit.
Yes, you are (potentially). Sinckler and Billy V axed as well. Never really rated Sinckler as a proper prop, but Billy’s fall from grace has been a bit sad. A machine in his pomp.
Deeb, if true, one could imagine Bordeaux signing him because they provide most of the backs who will start for France: Lucu, Jalibert, Moefana, Depoortere, Penaud and Bielle Barrey.
Even the FB, Buros, isn’t far from the squad. France will play 10 international games in 2024. So a decent centre, even if not that great, would be welcome.
Presenting your Ireland squad for the 2024 Guinness Men's Six Nations, captained by Peter O'Mahony! 🟢#TeamOfUs— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) January 17, 2024
Anyway, O’Mahony as captain – no real surprise – no one at Leinster could grow in the shade, and they need an interim captain while potential candidates emerge.
Very same old, same old – while there’s no point in trying to name the RWC 2027 squad here, you’d like to see some semblance that issues from RWC2023 are to be addressed (quick reminder – we lost at QF to a team we’d beaten 3 times in last 4)
You can effectively expect that the starting XV vs France will be same as vs NZ with Crowley for Sexton and Stockdale for Hansen.
Good selection. We haven’t seen enough of him yet to know that he isn’t up to it. This probably is just about the best basis for selecting players for the Wales squad just now, some of them are on shakier ground.
He does actually look like he might be very good, but there’s no way he would be anywhere near getting selected for any of the serious teams until he’s played more.
Same could be said of Prendergast in the Irish squad – added as “training panellist” – just out of U20s. Played no significant rugby as a senior player but apparently on a par with Aherne and Jager…… and ahead of half a dozen Munster players (never mind Ulster or Connacht)
Few ppl here (in Ireland) saying experimentation will wait till summer – that’s a tour of SA – no way we go there less than ‘locked and loaded’. Farrell will know that a series win down there cements his status and he won’t want to head into a Lions year off a defeat from taking the “kids”
Trisk, the Ireland tour down here will be interesting. Ireland will have come off the 6N and be fairly settled and know where they’re at. Boks have had a few retirements and we still need to see if Rassie starts a rebuild now or on the end of year tour – we’re definitely targeting the 4N this year with NZ in transition and Aus in disarray. Kiwis will be hurting after the World Cup and would love to win over here (2 Tests in SA), so I expect the side to be largely the same as in France with a couple of capped fringe players in the mix.
@Trisk – I accept that Prendergast is somewhere near the squad (he isn’t in the main squad as I understand it) so OK perhaps I exaggerate. There is a world of difference between the situations though. He’s not quite in a squad that if he was in he might get some minutes against Italy (who you will beat by miles) or even Wales (let’s face it, ditto). Winnett is probably as likely to play (and that includes playing against the best teams, maybe starting etc) as many of the other players in the Wales squad. Should he do so it will be in a team massively up against it rather than one that will be dishing out the hidings. I doubt if Ireland have gone into the Championship with a squad in any way resembling this Wales one for about 25 years.
On the positive side it’s exciting to see some new players getting a chance, it’s just an obvious worry that the situation they’re going into is going to make it hard to impress.
The bolter in the Scotland squad is Harry Paterson – Edinburgh fullback/winger, he’s only played a handful of games for Embra and of course he got injured last weekend and is out this week.
I’d have liked to have seen Matt Currie (centre) in the squad, just for the experience, perhaps he’ll get called up to train with them. I have hopes for him.
Edinburgh are struggling in the backs for tomorrow’s game against Scarlets. Four of the backs who would be in the first choice 23 are injured and we haven’t replaced Kinghorn, so we start with centre Chris Dean on the wing. He was a number 8 at school. He runs good lines but isn’t the quickest winger you’ll see this weekend.
Elton Jantjies banned for four years for doping. What a tragic collapse for a guy who was pushing Pollard for the starting 10 berth at one stage. Doing great in Japan, then got suspended for ‘disorderly conduct’ on a plane back to SA (allegedly drunk, punched a toilet door in and harassed a flight attendant), followed by allegedly having an affair with the physio (whilst on Bok duty) and now this. He’s asked for the B sample to be tested, but doesn’t look good.
Deeb, he said he would ask for the B sample. But there was a deadline for that. He just let the day go by without asking for it which is simply an admission of his guilt.
I can’t remember the details, but before the RWC, SA was blamed for not signing on time the antidoping agreement other unions had agreed on and some suggested SA could even be disqualified. It may have been a simple administrative glitch but it all sounded a bit weird. Any idea what really happened?
BTW, Claw started a 6N bru thing. Get involved!
Thauma, yip, but there was no indication of it previously – all seemed to unravel very quickly from happily married and at the top of his game, to arsehole in the space of a few months. Of course it could have been going on for much longer, but just never came to light..
Flair, as usual it was sheer government incompetence that led to SA missing the WADA deadline. They sat on it for 2 years, did fuck all, then screamed blue murder, victimhood and claimed that they were still going through a ‘consultation process’ with ‘key stakeholders’. It was just incompetence.
Laughably, the same minister is now swanning around Cote d’Ivoire giving tactical football advice to our team at the Africa Cup of Nations. From 0-0 at half-time against Mali, we lost 2-0 after his half-time tactical talk!
Ovally Balls 
The second (or third) thing.
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Decent win by Munster at the weekend – 10-0 down it was looking iffy…..
Surprising what getting a few fit players back can do – Scannell stabilised scrum and lineout, O’Mahony did his usual thing and allowed Aherne back to 2nd row and Coombes back to 8 . Not that Aherne did much different to when he wore 6….. m
Zebo has been playing way ahead of last season. And Nankivell looks like find of the season….
Big game at Thomond vs Saints on Sat – apart fr om the 2000 final they’ve usually ended up sufffering at Munster’s hands (O’Gara DG in stoppage time after 40+ phases, Howlett packing at 7 after O’Connell was carded, beat them home and away last season) – so they might have a poinnt to prove……
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The Saints have been poor in recent years … but not this season. They’re playing out of their skins.
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Wasn’t mourning Saracens, but certainly enjoyed the pace Bordeaux brought to the game. But then, Sarries backline was quite geriatric. Not sure I’d move to T14, were I Farrell.
LaR’s power was frightening, almost unfair.
But they (and France) lost two of their major weapons, Bourgarit and Danty.
As good as were Bx and LaR, it’s hard to see past Toulouse for the final gong, they were just unplayable vs Ulster. They combine the power of LaR with the speed of thought and execution of Bordeaux.
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Can’t disagree with that, Flair!
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R-Zammit off to the NFL…………….good luck to him.
And it’s the modern equivalent of / makes a change from, moving óop North’ to join an RL club
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Exeter’s loose-head Alec Hepburn named in the Scotland squad – his dad is/was Scottish.
Not the greatest loosie but a real handful in open play and a ferocious tackler.
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Exeter’s Dafyd Jenkins named as Wales captain……………..
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Is Danty injured again? That’s a real shame, he’s a big favourite.
No Hamish Watson in the Scotland squad this year.
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Danty hurt himself while tackling an opponent, getting a YC in the process. Didn’t pass the first HIA. Doubt he’ll play vs Ireland. Should be replaced by Moefana who’s back to his best level.
Bourgarit out for several months ( shoulder).
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Hi All, been lurking but not posting due to sign in difficulties, ( new ipad thing ) . Good to catch up on roundups tho.
In UK briefly and caught up with long lost cuz. Funnily enough, she has just sent me an email about the RFU hosting arms fairs at Twickers. Good grief
.https://palestinecampaign.eaction.online/NoTwickenhamArmsFair
Just in case anyone is interested.
Interesting really, nephews wife worked for rfu for years, now very part time and offices been let go, so apparently probably to provide room for people who set up arms fairs.
Good luck to Zammo, worth a punt cos way more money, hope they don’t break him.
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If he can still run as fast while wearing all the pads and stuff (albeit they probably very lighweight) and being able to look over his shoulder while wearing a helmet for a small brown ball being thrown against the backdrop of thousands of people in a stadium and waiting to be hammered by (at least) 3 guys who want to bury him, he should be fine…
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Highlights of Wales new FB, Cam Winnett
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Irishg squad to be named today – expectation is that it will be business as usual – no major changes. 6N pays the bills – so no room for experimentation – we’ll go fully loaded throughout – with some exception for Italy.
Areas to look out for
– back up 10 to Crowley – my guess Frawley and Burns (maybe),
– wingers – Hansen out for a spell and Lowe just back from injury
– new captain
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Galthié just announced his 6N squad. Few surprises, Alldritt captain, six rookies including Gibert at FH (that’s a surprise) Meafou -2nd row, and Abadie -flanker.
No Dupont of course but no Hastoy, Couilloud , Villière or Macalou either.
Strong team. If they’ve overcome their disappointment over the WC, they should do well in the 6N, even without the maestro.
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BTW – and you’ll all hate this… saw a screenshot referencing Ryan as bookies favourite to be Lions captain in 2025….
Gee… he’s not Leinster captain on his own and based on 2021 hardly guaranteed to be in the squad. You could see Beirne, Itoje, Beard ahead of him (like 2021) and maybe even McCarthy – can captain not be guaranteed starter?
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England squad announced, with Jamie George as the new skipper. 6 uncapped players in the squad. Easy start to the 6N with Italy and Wales before the competition steps up a notch in Scotland, then Ireland and a finale against France. Will it be a Grand Slam Showdown?
@Flair – it looks like Sharks drop-a-lot Rohan Janse van Rensburg is off to Bordeaux soon. He’s 29, has been awful this for the Sharks, making no metres at all (largely because he can’t keep the ball in contact, or without contact) and looks disinterested. Strange signing.
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Trisk, it’ll be Owen Farrell as captain. Andy Farrell as head coach. Colleen Farrell as logistics manager. Elleshia and Gracie Farrell as media liaison, and Gabriel Farrell as bag carrier. All will be appointed on merit.
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I’m back ………………. (maybe)
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Yes, you are (potentially). Sinckler and Billy V axed as well. Never really rated Sinckler as a proper prop, but Billy’s fall from grace has been a bit sad. A machine in his pomp.
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Deeb, if true, one could imagine Bordeaux signing him because they provide most of the backs who will start for France: Lucu, Jalibert, Moefana, Depoortere, Penaud and Bielle Barrey.
Even the FB, Buros, isn’t far from the squad. France will play 10 international games in 2024. So a decent centre, even if not that great, would be welcome.
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https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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Well, I’m making a mess of that
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Anyway, O’Mahony as captain – no real surprise – no one at Leinster could grow in the shade, and they need an interim captain while potential candidates emerge.
Very same old, same old – while there’s no point in trying to name the RWC 2027 squad here, you’d like to see some semblance that issues from RWC2023 are to be addressed (quick reminder – we lost at QF to a team we’d beaten 3 times in last 4)
You can effectively expect that the starting XV vs France will be same as vs NZ with Crowley for Sexton and Stockdale for Hansen.
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It works if you click on it!
No real surprises there, and I’m glad to see Timoney on the squad; he’s been playing really well. Of course I’d like to see Cooney or Doak too.
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@Tris – I will never need that reminder. I think of that every time I need cheering up ;-)
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I think of that every time I need cheering up
Fair enough….
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“Highlights of Wales new FB, Cam Winnett”
Good selection. We haven’t seen enough of him yet to know that he isn’t up to it. This probably is just about the best basis for selecting players for the Wales squad just now, some of them are on shakier ground.
He does actually look like he might be very good, but there’s no way he would be anywhere near getting selected for any of the serious teams until he’s played more.
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We’d certainly be nailed on for fifth if there wasn’t such a good chance of us coming sixth.
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@cmw
Same could be said of Prendergast in the Irish squad – added as “training panellist” – just out of U20s. Played no significant rugby as a senior player but apparently on a par with Aherne and Jager…… and ahead of half a dozen Munster players (never mind Ulster or Connacht)
Few ppl here (in Ireland) saying experimentation will wait till summer – that’s a tour of SA – no way we go there less than ‘locked and loaded’. Farrell will know that a series win down there cements his status and he won’t want to head into a Lions year off a defeat from taking the “kids”
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Billy’s fall from grace has been a bit sad
Catastrophe theory – decline isn’t a steady downward slope, you drop off a cliff
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@Trisk – fixed your tweet above. Links to twitter need to be ‘twitter.com’, not ‘x.com’.
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Trisk, the Ireland tour down here will be interesting. Ireland will have come off the 6N and be fairly settled and know where they’re at. Boks have had a few retirements and we still need to see if Rassie starts a rebuild now or on the end of year tour – we’re definitely targeting the 4N this year with NZ in transition and Aus in disarray. Kiwis will be hurting after the World Cup and would love to win over here (2 Tests in SA), so I expect the side to be largely the same as in France with a couple of capped fringe players in the mix.
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The legacy of Boanova – I still sometimes read POM as O-Ma-Ho-ney.
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@Trisk – I accept that Prendergast is somewhere near the squad (he isn’t in the main squad as I understand it) so OK perhaps I exaggerate. There is a world of difference between the situations though. He’s not quite in a squad that if he was in he might get some minutes against Italy (who you will beat by miles) or even Wales (let’s face it, ditto). Winnett is probably as likely to play (and that includes playing against the best teams, maybe starting etc) as many of the other players in the Wales squad. Should he do so it will be in a team massively up against it rather than one that will be dishing out the hidings. I doubt if Ireland have gone into the Championship with a squad in any way resembling this Wales one for about 25 years.
On the positive side it’s exciting to see some new players getting a chance, it’s just an obvious worry that the situation they’re going into is going to make it hard to impress.
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The bolter in the Scotland squad is Harry Paterson – Edinburgh fullback/winger, he’s only played a handful of games for Embra and of course he got injured last weekend and is out this week.
I’d have liked to have seen Matt Currie (centre) in the squad, just for the experience, perhaps he’ll get called up to train with them. I have hopes for him.
Edinburgh are struggling in the backs for tomorrow’s game against Scarlets. Four of the backs who would be in the first choice 23 are injured and we haven’t replaced Kinghorn, so we start with centre Chris Dean on the wing. He was a number 8 at school. He runs good lines but isn’t the quickest winger you’ll see this weekend.
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Joe Schmitt to the Wobblies, apparently.
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Elton Jantjies banned for four years for doping. What a tragic collapse for a guy who was pushing Pollard for the starting 10 berth at one stage. Doing great in Japan, then got suspended for ‘disorderly conduct’ on a plane back to SA (allegedly drunk, punched a toilet door in and harassed a flight attendant), followed by allegedly having an affair with the physio (whilst on Bok duty) and now this. He’s asked for the B sample to be tested, but doesn’t look good.
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Sounds like an arsehole, frankly.
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Deeb, he said he would ask for the B sample. But there was a deadline for that. He just let the day go by without asking for it which is simply an admission of his guilt.
I can’t remember the details, but before the RWC, SA was blamed for not signing on time the antidoping agreement other unions had agreed on and some suggested SA could even be disqualified. It may have been a simple administrative glitch but it all sounded a bit weird. Any idea what really happened?
BTW, Claw started a 6N bru thing. Get involved!
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Thaum, am afraid another of my posts went missing (straight to the spam?). Anything I could do to avoid it, besides not posting again?
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Thauma, yip, but there was no indication of it previously – all seemed to unravel very quickly from happily married and at the top of his game, to arsehole in the space of a few months. Of course it could have been going on for much longer, but just never came to light..
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Flair – rescued your comment.
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Cheers, Refit!
Deebee – huh. Maybe something has happened, then.
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Flair, as usual it was sheer government incompetence that led to SA missing the WADA deadline. They sat on it for 2 years, did fuck all, then screamed blue murder, victimhood and claimed that they were still going through a ‘consultation process’ with ‘key stakeholders’. It was just incompetence.
Laughably, the same minister is now swanning around Cote d’Ivoire giving tactical football advice to our team at the Africa Cup of Nations. From 0-0 at half-time against Mali, we lost 2-0 after his half-time tactical talk!
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Thauma – he got caught?
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Deebs – yes, that is the other possibility!
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Deebee. There will be a new post soon.
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And here it is.
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