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 
Could do without the Arnold Clark advert imposed onto the pitch, though.
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Fiji score at last! See what happens when you have 15 on the pitch.
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Scotland need half time. We’re getting battered here. Glad we’re so far in front.
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Imagine getting stepped by a hooker.
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Thought Scotland were going to do an Ulster and not score in the second half, but no…!
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Munster 24 – 26 NZ B. 72 mins
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Worrying reminders of the Wales game here. Build a big lead then go to sleep before hanging on to win at the end.
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Darcy gets his fourth and now level with McDuhan at the top of the try scoring charts! McDuhan won’t be happy with that. 43-17 now. Should (!) be ok for the win now.
Play like this against the Boks and we’ll get battered.
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Our back row have been immense today.
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Although they don’t quite have the Winning A Penalty Celebration down yet like the England back row.
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Final score at Thomond Park, Munster 24 – 38 NZ B.
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McDuhan goes back in the lead! Wonderful offload from Hastings!
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McDuhan had to score another….
Thanks for the update, Refit, but boo to the result!
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That was nearly Dupont-like!
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Utter filth from Hastings.
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A brilliant try to finish things off but Huw Jones’s foot in touch before the pass.
Weird game. Scotland ran out to a 26 point lead, then fell asleep, then woke up again. Fiji always had too much to do to make up the score.
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Well done Scotland, made the most of it, and good to see young Hastings have a chance at a run out, and do really well. Thought Fiji were hideously unlucky with the yellow cards, particularly Lomani, it almost landed in his lap, ahrd to see that as an intentional knock on, on another day neither would have gone, and Scotland were lucky not to lose another player for 10 mins in the spell Fiji cae back/ were on top.
The England game, I’m not sure I can do a watch back to pick it over, but initial impressions were that Curry one, Slade, and Fordy were all undercooked. Tom.C and Slade did reasonably well, but not exceptional, Curry 2 looked a livelier animal when he came on, and I think that Earl is a luxury at 8, last years form was impressive, but since the 6 Nations he has been if not mediocre, not stellar. To beat NZ everyone needs to be at 100%, just being good is not enough. Front row going to be a problem against Boks too.
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I think you were right not to go for the Munster live stream Thaum
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Ooh, how piss-offing would that have been!
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Basically, Munster supporters DDOS’ed their own server.
Apparently, it did settle down (afaik) but numbers trying to log in simultaneously seemed to overwhelm the systems (for a bit, anyway)
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On England/NZ, not sure England can complain much at 3 tries to 1 – and the 1 coming from an intercept (well taken as it was – Furbank was smart to shift the ball directly to Feyi-Waboso)
Everyone was talking up the England defence but NZ made enough breaks and half breaks that I’m not sold. What else do we know? That Telea is deadly one on one and Genge shouldn’t be the last defender vs either Telea or Jordan. Also Sititi is “fairly handy”.
England were a bit disappointing attack wise – didn’t really create much. Seemed to panic a bit at the end with the dg – bad pass and no clear channel, almost as if they were waiting for penalty advantage before taking the shot…
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Sititi is named Wallace Sititi after, checks notes, William Wallace because his parents loved the Braveheart film so much.
Although his Wiki page says he was born in Samoa, I’ve read elsewhere that he was actually born at the Borders General Hospital near Melrose as his dad was playing for the old Border Reivers, which amalgamated with Edinburgh, as the old Caledonian Reds merged with Glasgow.
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I suppose it’s marginally better than being named after the Wallace as in Gromit
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Are you sure, Ticht?
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Ireland fans, this is what you could have won
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Given our patterns of emigration, you could probably make a decent all stars team from guys who had – some – irish descent…..surnames give them away mainly (although Frisch tests that rule)
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Fuck Stuart Hogg and I hope I never see him appear as a pundit again.
BBC News – Rugby star Stuart Hogg admits domestic abuse of wife
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yrgvnxde4o
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Refit – it pisses me off no end that Premier Sports have Craig Gilroy.
He’s also a terrible pundit.
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Squidge on the England match
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Shouldn’t that be How did England help New Zealand overcome England ?
Very quiet here on election night, hope everyone isn’t home oiling the hardware.
Getting moving now, Refit ?
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Well, now that is a thing. Looking like Donzo. Will there be a last minute twist? A chance of a Kamala drop goal to win it ?
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So, on reflection, could be a win-win. Half of America has been pissing and moaning about Biden and Harris for 4 years, so will be ecstatic, and the other half have been frothing at the mouth about Donald, and can continue to do so for anther four. Everybody is happy.
What could possibly go wrong ?
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I hope that’s the last wse ever hear of Stuart Hogg. A great rugby player, maybe, but spousal abuse simply isn’t acceptable.
Darcy Graham out for the Bok match – gives my boys a sniff.
Finn Russell back in the mix – Scotland by millions. Or just plenty, depending on which Russell pitches up.
Actually, Scotland should be looking at this match as one they can win: at home, with a world class attack, that starts with with the loose trio and extends to number 15. Get on the front foot early and they could have the Boks under the cosh. The big question is whether they’re able to match the bomb squad in the last 25 minutes or so.
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Blair Kinghorn in ?
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SBT – getting a lot of movement back, the physio therapists have done amazing work with my shoulders.
I’ve got my follow up appointment with the surgeon today and fingers crossed, they will let me out of my slings. That would mean the range of rehab exercises I could do, would increase.
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England starting XV to face the mighty Wallabies is unchanged from the side that led the ABs going into the final furlong (other than swapping 12 and 13 around, giving a nod to the eternal England centres debate). 5-3 split on the bench suggests they’re not worried about an Aussie onslaught in the forward exchanges late on.
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What the hell is wrong with the Yanks?
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Thaum – misogyny.
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Refit – well, yes. Combined with racism.
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Thaum, been calling it for best part of two years tbh, was over at godsons wedding in UK for a visit then and noone would believe me. As soon as all the court cases started firing in, people over here began hardening their opinions and drawing lines in the sand.Would have been far better off letting him just go golfing. Like poking a nest of rattlers with a sharp stick. Democrats have done just about everything they could to throw it away. Second biggest mistake was not firing Sleepy Joe into the sun way back, it was obvious to almost everyone that he was having age related difficulties, and just point blank denying it for 18 months did noone any favours and created a huge mistrust issue with anything the government said or did. It basically made the choice between a cognisant lunatic and a one with age related issues. No way was there enough time for Kamala to build a brand. Issues like aid for Ukraine are surprisingly topical, my usual argument that not only does most of the money go to US arms companies, but also helps hold Vlad in check, preventing him rolling up the former Soviet republics, cuts absolutely no ice with most people, for whom Europe is just a potential tourist destination where maybe granpa and granma came from, and nothing to do with everyday life, so why spend taxpayers money doing it. ( Altho strangely, same argument is reversed when it comes down to sending arms to kill Palestinian babies). And then there’s guns, and the thought that Kamala would take them away. Not forgetting that this is a country that has reelected Marjorie Taylor Greene to Congress, make of that what you will.
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There’s also the perennial centrist problem. Why target the huge number of people no-one is talking to, on the left, when we can try and steal a few % points from our opponents on the right.
Instead, they’ll waste time ignoring and attacking the left – but assuming they’ll get their votes anyway.
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I can all but guarantee that the ONLY lesson the Dems will take from this, is they need to tack further right, to take more votes off the Republicans.
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Dread.
For the past century the US, with the exception of South America, mostly supported the good guys abroad. For the foreseeable future, they’ll support the bad ones with an unusual concentration of power ( Potus, Senate, Congress, US Supreme Court and many State Supreme courts) in the hands of the trumpists.
Shivers…
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Dread.
For the past century the US, with the exception of South America, mostly supported the good guys abroad. For the foreseeable future, they’ll support the bad ones with an unusual concentration of power ( Potus, Senate, Congress, US Supreme Court and many State Supreme courts) in the hands of the trumpists.
Shivers…
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Worth saying twice obviously. Don’t ask me how I managed it.
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SBT
not firing Sleepy Joe into the sun way back
It was incredibly selfish of him not to stand aside. The Democrats are fucked up – it was really obvious that Hillary Clinton was the worst possible choice they could have made, and Biden wasn’t a lot better.
What actually scares me more than Trump is Vance who will surely take over. And Musk.
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Has anyone seen the ‘new’ mascot, that Ireland have had since March?
https://www.checkout.ie/retail/aldi-ireland-teams-up-with-irfu-to-extend-partnership-until-2028-209283
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What’s the Irish for ‘phallic vegetable’?
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I didn’t call it as early as SBT, but after the initial Kamalaphoria ebbed away, I became increasingly frustrated with the campaign, especially in the last few, crucial weeks: every public appearance seemed to be a self-indulgent photo-op with a sleb, mutual back-slapping and denigrating of Trump (not tricky, but why play his game?), which his fanboys (and girls, seemingly a helluva lot of them) take personally. A last-minute scramble to try and get Arab-American, Puerto Rican and other votes looked pretty insincere to me.
All the while, Trump was doing Trump stuff: lies, boasting, more lies, mentioning the economy and how great it was under him, lies, how he’ll make the economy great again, lies, boasting, getting rid of immigrants and imports to make the economy great again – and so on. The bottom line for me is that the Dems were played like a fiddle by Trump who sucked them into his game and then changed games.
But more importantly, as Flair says, it’s the untrammelled power the Republicans now have in the US that is the most concerning thing.
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What’s the Irish for ‘phallic vegetable’?
I was going to say Johnny Sexton, but that may upset some people. So I won’t post that. Not at all.
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