In the exciting battle for the wooden spoon between Ireland, Wales, Italy and England, coaches have not learninged much from their previous selection errors. To be fair to Italy, they don’t have a huge range of players from which to select, and they have played brilliantly; they could and possibly should have beaten Ireland, so we’ll let Quesada off.
As for Ireland, it seems that Farrell has at least learninged that the Prendergast experiment has woefully failed after watching him splash around in the shallow part of the pitch in the first match, and create his own wadi in the second. While Crowley, like his other possible replacements, is dubious with the kicking tee (and by the way, kicking points is only HALF YOUR FUCKING JOB as a fly-half), he’s clearly much more effective on the pitch.
The inclusion of more Ulster players made a clear difference in the second match with Player of the Match being narrowed down to a choice between McCloskey, Baloucoune, Fischetti and Zuliani: two Ulstermen, and two Italians. So of course Farrell drops Izuchukwu, who also performed well, and Timoney remains on the bench.
As for England, the inclusion of Stewart continues to please ABE supporters, and Genge is always on a hair trigger for a card. Maro is looking less saint-like these days. Boris Johnson’s illegitimate son, the Pillock, provides a figure one loves to hate, sadly also because, like most super-villains, he’s pretty effective.
On to Wales. Well. Their set-pieces are functioning well, and I reckon they can beat Ireland. Also first-week Scotland, but not brilliant second-week Scotland. Probably not Italy either, especially if they keep kicking possession away, although possession is often coughed up anyway.
France obviously don’t need any learnings*.
*Have I mentioned how much I hate this horrendous evisceration of the English language?
Ovally Balls 
The Ospreys’ kit is painful to look at.
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BB – it doesn’t actually mean anything as a word, as far as I’m aware. :-)
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Horrible-kit try.
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Thaum, maybe the Os think if they dress like Stade Francais, they’ll play like them too?
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We seem to have an awayer ref.
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Refit, they can go and play with their Barbies somewhere else.
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Bloody hell, they’ve scored again.
We can’t seem to beat Welsh sides.
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Great, now Herring’s gone off as well as Angus Bell earlier.
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Goode’s making my teeth itch. Gonna try Newcastle vs LAR, in French.
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Ulster scored while I was feeding the dog. 14-17.
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Newcastle really need to stop blasting music at every. single. break in play.
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Stockdale is really crap tonight.
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And having said that, he’s just scored a very necessary try!
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21-17.
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Not so crap now Thaum.
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Did Stockdale just trip himself up?
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Quins are currently getting humped 5-24 by Sale.
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TRY Timoney!
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Feeling able to braythe a bit now.
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I just glanced up at the TV and thought Timoney was Alan Quinlan for a second.
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The extra man will certainly help Ulster.
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Ouch. Newcastle hooker, McGuigan, just got upended in a tackle and landed right on his head. Pure accident from his momentum.
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‘You’ve more chance of getting down the Strait of Hormuz than getting down this channel.’
Very bad taste.
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It’s absolutely lashing it down in Newcastle now.
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Pissing it down now in Belfast as well as the wind. Thanks, Dave.
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Ospreys awarded a penalty try and a yellow for young Murphy.
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The goalposts are wandering around in the wind!
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You’re not kidding Thaum. That shot of the rain going sideways across the floodlights đŸ˜²
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LAR just pushed a Newcastle scrum so far backwards, it ended up as a lineout!
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Shit! Ospreys have scored.
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Whenever they go to the pitch-side cameras in Newcastle, you can’t see anything because the lenses are either covered in water, or steaming up.
Newcastle were tied until the last 5 mins, when they seemed to lose focus and LAR scored a penalty and a try from a Newcastle fumble on their own line. 18-26
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Phew! Forward pass!
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Forward pass to Hardie?
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28-24!!!
I was very worried for long portions of the match.
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Our Stu PotM.
Haven’t finished reading it yet, but this interview with him on the Torygraph seems quite good: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2026/03/31/stuart-mccloskey-interview-speech-inspired-twickenham-win
Was surprisingly able to read it for free by giving them a throwaway email address.
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