Last night I was ‘forced’ (Mothership usage of term, meaning doing it quite voluntarily) to watch a Peter Green tribute show led by Mick Fleetwood.
There is a star-studded cast of musicians, mostly playing very well, but they insist on playing twelve-bar blues, which must be the most rigid and repetitive form of music in existence, except for the even more terrible ones.
It’s like watching endless pick-and-goes, only there might be a chance of something exciting and different happening as a result of those pick-and-goes. A try might be created, or a horrible mistake might occur that leads to an end-to-end score by the opposition.
No chance of anything like that with twelve-bar blues, even as played by expert musicians. It is going to have exactly the same key and rhythm, the same clichéd lyrical and musical tropes, everything completely predictable and boring. The musical ball gets recycled, stuffed up the jumper, and goes again. And again. And again.
It’s also like watching scrums being reset for what feels like hours, but is probably only about three or four minutes. And the same thing happens in every scrum, but the referee just calls for a reset again. And again. And again. A dystopian nightmare.
But rejoice! There is some rugby available to watch in the near future, and hopefully it will be much more exciting than that.
Onna telly in the next week or so
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates that it’s on a free to view channel. Times are in the UK zone, so adjust as necessary.
Friday 6th September
| Tonga v Fiji | 04:00 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Japan v USA | 11:05 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Scotland v Wales (women) | 19:35 | iPlayer |
Saturday 7th September
| Bayonne v Perpignan | 13:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
| England v France (women) | 15:30 | BBC1 |
| South Africa v New Zealand | 16:00 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Argentina v Australia | 20:00 | Sky Sports + |
| Bordeaux v Stade Français | 20:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 8th September
| La Rochelle v Toulon | 16:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Vannes v Toulouse | 20:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Hmph! No Irish rugby on this weekend at all, at all.
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Munster playing the All Black XV
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Tonight I think.
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Oh, the BBC hasn’t listed it! Yes, but it’s tomorrow at 17.30. On ‘Club stream’; not sure if that means that Munster is streaming it, or this is a new site I’ve not heard of before.
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Ah.
https://www.balls.ie/rugby/munster-v-all-blacks-xv-tv-614589
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Hmm. If Munster had a decent challenge I’d think about it.
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They do seem to be determined, to make all these November matches as difficult as possible to actually watch.
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Wonder why…..
£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£
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Frank has got the door for Janey Godley, she didn’t half make me laugh and I respected her stance on transphobia.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/nov/02/scottish-comedian-janey-godley-dies
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Watching the rugby might be possible, if the hospital WiFi wasn’t utter garbage. It’s literally dialup speed (200kbps) if I’m lucky and it doesn’t decide to randomly drop to 1/10 that 🤬🤬.
It might have to be radio & updates here, then a very low bitrate YouTube highlights later.
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I’m still completely baffled by no highlights on terrestrial TV. Way to grow the game guys. I guess the non BT public will just have to make do with the two live League matches on today 🤷♂️
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Refit, your wifi speed sounds like a traditional English pack. Just with a change of pace.
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Probably good for your recovery to be unable to scream at the screen and wave your arms about anyway. Hospital’s got your back on this one.
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This is one of the best sites on t’internet.
Click to access AFBI-Potato-Varieties-2013-14.pdf
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@Thaum – where’s Claw when you need him?
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Breaking news for Refit!
The Haka has finished!
At last…
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Sod it. I’ve upgraded my phone contract, so I’ve got more data. Watching it on the TNT app.
Already annoyed by them having the forwards arranged one way and the backs another, for the team lineups.
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That didn’t take long. NZ in for the first try.
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Refit – so mad, you had to say it twice.
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The Blackness score again – another gap opened up!
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England with lots of pressure, but NZ with 2 tries. They’s just been upping their game a bit, with the last passes not quite clicking. When they did they get 2 tries.
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This guy Sititi’s pretty good, isn’t he?
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That step by Sititi was ridiculous.
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That was a fun first half.
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Brilliant breakaway try from England – NZ would have been in too.
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Gardner is an arse when it comes to head contact
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Hope my 5pm dinner is a bit late, so I can see the end of the match.
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5 pm dinner?! Cruel and unusual!
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How the hell did Telea score there?
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THAT’s how to do a touch-line conversion while the crowd boos and whistles.
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I think both those players should stay in the bin.
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Thaum- it’s the same player.
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:-D
Didn’t realise that – he was busy for a couple of seconds there!
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They’ve just started bringing the food out, as Ford put it wide.
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Wow. If there was an England player you thought would score either a winning penalty or a winning drop goal it would be Ford. He got neither! NZ maybe JUST about deserved to win, but so close.
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NZ were dirty. Mind you, the ref missed plenty of foul play by England too.
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Refit – good timing!
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Excellent game, very enjoyable. The ABs may not be at their best but it’s still hard to win against them. Fantastic defence by England. Bench the big difference. Once England find better front rowers, and a better sub for Smith, they’ll be hard to beat too.
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It would have been nice for at least one of the squint lineouts to have been pinged.
On the other hand, the ref could have been Andrew Brace.
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Right, that’s the starter done, now for the main course.
‘Mon Scotland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mind you, I’m a bit worried by all these predictions that we’re going to win by 20+ points. It would be good, but then this IS Scotland. It would be the most Scottish thing to lose today and win next week.
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Ouch, Bristol hammered Bedford 67-19 in the Prem Cup.
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Shame TNT couldn’t have seconded Andrew Cotter for this game. Maybe he didn’t want to leave Olive and Mabel.
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“Stepping like a caffeinated octopus” is a hell of a line.
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Fiji all over the place here. We could have had 5 tries already.
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That was the weirdest try I’ve ever seen!
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Darcy must be catching McDuhan up in the try scoring charts again.
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Bloody hell, an interception try now! If Fiji don’t get a grip soon, this could get (even more) embarrassing.
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