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 
Menoncello scores off a forward pass that the officials don’t seem to have noticed
It was the other way around when he was playing vs Ireland
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It’s a lovely evening in Belfast.
No, it’s not, it’s the other thing. Gale-force winds, driving rain, etc. But Zac Ward has scored, and Doak’s conversion managed to pass the posts before the wind grabbed it and threw it wildly!
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Bath and Saints are both playing at 1000mph. Saints 7-21 up, helped by Reid getting a really dumb yellow 2mins into the match.
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This is a much better match than you’d expect under the conditions. We are 10-0 up, so of course I like it!
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And TRY TOT!
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Zac Ward in the bin (quite rightly) for lifting a player by the legs.
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Ulster leading, McIlroy leading, not sure about the darts and snooker, but in the minor sports Norn Ireland doing okay!
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What do you mean, minor sports? You’ve just named two of most important ones! (Rugby and snooker, to be clear.)
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At the moment, in snooker, there are only qualifying matches for the World Championship, and several Northern Irish are already qualified, including Mark Allen, former world number one.
The tournament starts in earnest next week, I think.
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TRY Izzy on his 50th cap!
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Pollock gets picked up, past the horizontal by Barbeary and Lawrence and then dropped on his shoulder. Andrew Brace goes “just a pen”.
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La Rochelle score in the 41st minute. Damn.
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24-10 at HT.
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9 tries in the first half at The Rec. Bath fighting back from 14-35 down to 26-35 at the whistle.
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