Six Nations have announced that they are ringing the changes for next year’s tournament. OvallyBalls had an exclusive mole in the decision room.
Six Nations Clown Five: Listen, chaps, I’m awfully sorry we failed to get the Six Nations behind a paywall so that we could destroy the popularity of the only tournament that is broadly watched, but we’ll try again in a couple of years.
SNC2: I’m not a fookin’ chap.
SNC4: Ah, bellissima! Like me, you are wearing a molto clever disguise to our top-secret meeting in this luxury ristorante.
SNC2: Catch yerself on. I’m wearing what the boss told me to wear: blue.
SNC5: Can we just get back to our onions? We have a tournament to ruin here.
SNC6: Onions? Oignons? En France, we return to our moutons.
SNC3: We quite like our lovely sheep as well.
SNC1: Ach, can we knock the tired wee 70s jokes on the heid? We’ve two major things to discuss here: playing matches on a Thursday (a THURS-DEE!), and deep-sixing one rest weekend.
SNC3: Thursday matches! It was bad enough, look you, when the Friday ones started. Working people are not going to be able to get to these matches, or maybe even watch them on the telly.
SNC5: Surely they will just have their servants do anything necessary on those particular evenings?
SNC6: Bah, the British do not know how to live. They eat their dinner – and quelle horreur d’un repas – at a silly time. They are weaklings who cannot stay up to a reasonable hour.
SNC4: Sono d’accordo.
SNC1: I dinna like the Thursday match, but I’m a wee bit more concerned about losing the rest weekend. That’s 5 Test matches in six weeks. Do we not have a small concern about player welfare there?
SNC3: We’ve not got a huge squad to field from the valleys.
SNC4: È vero, this also concerns us.
SNC2: Agh, it’s all right, we’ll just call on Leinster’s academy if half the squad end up in the hospital.
SNC6: Eh ben oui, we have many teams in the Top14, and perhaps we can bend the rules on players being called up.
SNC5: No worries here either, chaps … heh, heh: and chapesses. So is it all settled, then?
SNCs 1, 3 and 4 (simultaneously): Fuck off / vaffanculo.
SNC5: Perhaps I have not yet properly explained the emoluments available to those who agree to these proposals.
[whispers]
All: Crack on!
Ovally Balls 
Incredible that that match ended in a draw.
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Hopefully the Bristol match will be less ‘exciting’ than the last one.
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Manny Feyi-Waboso can still run quicker with cramp than most people without cramp…
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That was a really good try by Tigers.
Bastards.
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Awesome, MacGinty’s knackered his ankle after 12 mins.
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And then Radwan steps Ibitoye and fends the fullback to score. 3-12.
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Bristol try! Fitzharding from short range after a few attempts. 8-12
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Wonder why Borthwick seems to have a whole stand to himself?
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Maybe he smells?
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Cor, Radwan’s quite good. Dive into the corner for his 2nd try, just the perfect distance to get it over the line. 10-17
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Magic, now Randall’s pulled his hamstring. Both half-backs replaced in the first half.
Then Fitzharding cuts a lovely line and the ball is passed out to Ibitoye who scores. 17-all.
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And Ibitoye’s done his ankle too.
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Quick Refit, get yourself down to Bristol! Players falling like flies, you might end up getting a game.
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Luke Harding (7) is replaced by Harry Thacker (2). We aren’t going to finish with 15 – and not due to cards.
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Some really impressive defence from Bristol on their own line, keeps Tigers from scoring. Tigers have now conceded 14 penalties (to Bristol’s 8), which really hasn’t helped them.
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Another Bristol pen, just inside the Tiger’s 22, right in front of the posts. Lead is now 11 (35-24) with ~1min to play.
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Tiger’s gather the restart, but Bristol manage to turn it over and it goes to L R-Z. He has an 80m sprint and scores on his day-boo.
Final score 42-24.
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Bristol win! In an almost un-Bristol like way. Great defence at the end and a wee jog in for LRZ.
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Tom Jordan did a hell of a job, moving from 15 to 10 for the majority of the match.
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Leinster looking for a new social media manager?
He’s a bit painful and has been known to get into to-and-fro with trolls, mocker and those who simply take a different view from his own account
Famously, he tried this “12 days of Leinstermas” meme in 2024 announcing new/extended contracts but tripped himself by doing 2 in one day, then announcing a contract extension that had previously been announced – all greeted with a great deal of derision from the Munster online contingent, so the 12 days were cut short after 8… cue much crowing and general amusement from the Munster direction*
*supporters – the club itself are pretty plain vanilla in terms of online presence
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@refit
Piardi and his entire touchline crew could have done with that last season vs Bulls
Instead, Munster played 15-20 mins a man down and lost by 3 points, and spent the best part of that time pointing at that very checklist to get touchline officials to listen
Along with Busby vs Leinster earlier in the season – Munster were “hampered” in the same way twice
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Bok side to face Argentina in the humid, turbulent Latin cauldron of, er, Twickers, on Saturday. The Boks have to win if they want to win the RC. I think the Kiwis will do the job against Australia, going to 18 or 19 points, so we need a bare minimum of a win and hoping that the Kiwis dont win by 65+ points. If the Aussies do win, but without a bonus point, we probably don’t need anything from the match, as we’ve got a much better points difference. Anyway, we’ll know all the permutations before kick off.
Starting XV: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche.
Bench: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Grant Williams, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Jesse Kriel.
Very few changes to last Saturday, so it’ll be interesting to see if this side can keep playing the kind of rugby they have for the last two matches. Starting backs are the same, only Ox Nche coming back in to the forwards, with Bongi, Grant Williams and Jesse Kriel onto the bench.
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Trisk will be happy that Piardio is the ref.
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Trisk will be happy that Piardio is the ref.
I’m happy when he doesn’t ref Munster – he lurches all over the place. No consistency.
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Shirley Bassey apparently got it wrong!
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Some may actually say Diamond is a bit of a bliúcán for only lasting one game. Thank you, Una Mullally!
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:-)
Just came here to post the link for Trisk!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/03/the-irish-language-is-a-joy-not-a-burden-in-what-other-tongue-is-a-penis-a-wild-carrot
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See that Edinburgh’s unexpected win over Ulster has been postponed ‘cos of the weather.
OR
See that Ulster’s unexpected win over Edinburgh has been postponed ‘cos of the weather.
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I was in Embra this afternoon, BB. We made good our escape around three o’clock and the weather followed us along the A1, it’s blawin a hoolie, as they say.
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The Lions players are being given another week off, so no Finn tonight :-(
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Funny how that changes from elsewhere – Sione is back for Glasgow, and Scotty Cummings has been on the bench the last couple of weeks. Maybe because they weren’t in the last test team?
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BB, I think it’s a Premiership thing rather than a team decision
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Finn in the Bath coaching box. Ready for the next step in his career?
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If there is one thing that Finn can’t do, it’s score a drop goal like George’s Ford’s there, given the conditions that was a beauty
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George’s Ford?
George’s Ford Capri?
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Ford bounces a penalty off the post. But when Bath drop-out the restart, he catches it and hits another sweet drop-goal from in his own half.
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That was a beauty, Refit.
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Not sure what the hell Willgriff John was up to at the end there. Could/should have been sent off a couple of times. In the immortal words of Andrew Cotter, “Willgriff gone…”
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Why does Australia never kick off rugby games when they say they will? 10.45am kick-off (UK time), and the teams are still in their changing rooms!
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BB, I spent ages going through all the channels because I thought Sky had stuffed up and was showing Rugby League highlights on the advertised channels instead.
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Aussies take the lead through a penalty!
ABs go, “Nah, we’ll just score a try then”
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I’m quite thankful of the delay. Went out at 9:30 to get my nails done and only got finished at 10:45. Did a little shopping and only missed the first 5mins.
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Great Aussie try, only spoiled by the little matter of a croc roll by Hooper.
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Jordie ‘Heid The Baw’ Barrett sets up a ABs try!
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I see NZ have gone “fuck it, we’ll start playing now”.
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Just noticed that NZ appear to all be wearing yellow boots. So, All Blacks (With A Touch Of Yellow) doesn’t sound quite so good.
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That ending was a bit of a kick inna baws to Aus. Losing a player to a nasty (self-inflicted) head knock, then conceding a try with the clock in the red.
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Oof, yellow & review for Moody inside 2mins. Can Arg take advantage?
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Jeez, the SA scrum has rolled over Argentina twice now.
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