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 
Gwan the Wesht
Stormers 24 – 33 Connacht
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Weedge being mauled by Lions.
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Ticht
Was Don Chuffo the guy who did some work for the Guardian?
Yep.
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Absolute battering for us today.
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It’s mebbe not right to talk about women being battered.
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Talking about the Glasgow score, Thaum.
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I know. ;-) But that was less of a deep-fried Mars bar.
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5-7 at Parc y Scarlets at HT.
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It’s all gone wrong now for Cardiff, Scarlets having scored their BP try, and them having progressed no further.
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Apparently Quins have something like 30 players out through injury, including another 3 backs today. Dombrandt is now playing in the centre. Bath pretty much in control.
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But hang on! Scarlets have just picked up their second simultaneous yellow, and Cardiff have just scored a third try. 24-21 with 4 mins to go.
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YES! Cardiff score their 4th in the 78th minute.
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24-28 at FT!
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Some very silly scores in the Prem this weekend.
Bristol 53 – 12 Glaws
Tigers 62 – 3 Newastle
Exeter 28 – 35 Saints
Bath 48 – 15 Quins
I wonder what Sale will do to Saracens tomorrow?
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Absolutely over the moon with the Lions performance yesterday! I really hope we can keep the core of this side for a few years. They’re playing great rugby – similar to the side from a decade or so ago that made three Super Rugby finals in a row. Maybe not quite the same household names as Faf, Kwagga, Marx, Mostert et al, but there are some Bok gems in the making. Connacht next week, which will in some ways be tougher than Glasgow this last weekend, but a win before two tour matches will set us up nicely!
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Seems like Saracens are doing a number on Sale. 0-19 with half an hour played.
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Carre on a crash ball and he scores! The try machine! 0-26
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And an amazing solo try from the Sarries 10, picking up a loose ball, breaking a tackle, chipping over the defence and then having enough gas to get away from the defenders. 0-33.
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Sale are falling to pieces. Caluori in the corner after some lovely passes across the Saracens line. 0-38
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Buggrit, missed the start of the second half. Sale have finally done something and scored a try. Unfortunately, so have Saracens. 5-45.
As I’m typing, Caluori gets an intercept and runs in from 60m. 5-52. 50mins played.
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Fergus Burke breaks the Sale line and passes to Caluori, who scores his 8th try against Sale in 2 games. 5-59
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It’s a very, very silly weekend in the Prem.
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Caluori has now scored 5, going aerial into the corner. 5-66 and there’s still over 20mins left to play.
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11 tries for Saracens now. Scrum on the Sale line, Malins runs over Ford and Michelow drives under and around some defenders. Faz shanks the conversion horribly. 5-71.
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Comically bad try for Sale to concede. Tompkins strips du Preez in mid-field and just hoofs the ball down field. O-Flaherty is the only Sale player back, picks up the ball and runs over the try line. He tries to kick it, misses and Malins dives on it. 12 tries, 5-78. 10 mins still to play.
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The comeback is on! O’Flaherty skips through the Sarries defence to score. Only 12-78 now.
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Earl runs in from 25m and has the good grace not to celebrate too much. 12-85
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Sale did score another try and the final score is 19-85.
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Scotland’s women conceded 80+ against a far superior team. What’s Sale’s excuse?
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Bl++dy Heck – It’s not as though Saracens are all that good
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Slade – that was my thought too. After some of Saracens recent performances, I thought Sale would put up something more of a fight than that.
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