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 
26-12 at HT. Seems like Glasgow should be many miles more ahead.
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Final score: 38-17. Still very much flatters Leinster.
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But… but… but… Leinster have the bestest and deepestest squad in the the URC, if not the world!
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Stormers making hard work of it against the Dragons. Got off to a great start, but it’s been pretty sloppy since then 24-14 in the 3rd quarter.
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Stormers get over the line, 29-21 with a pretty scrappy performance. Dragons looked more polished on attack.
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Tigers vs Bristol is being played at 100mph. Leicester a try ahead at half time, 17-12.
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Hadn’t realised that The Mish had moved to the Tiggers. Apparently he played the whole game today.
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ongoing thing on the notablog about Foxy throwing passes into the stand
My recollection he was fine off one side – but could be shaky off the other.
Maybe it’s just urban legend….
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Well, Munster – what’s to say. Awful performance.
Pull backs to nobody… big ball carriers giving tip ons to smaller players and running them into a set defence … going wide without in the least forcing any compression in the opposition defence.
You could go on for a week…. nothing really to point at and say “well, that went well”
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Edinburgh are having a complete clear out of the coaching staff, except for the one with whom the buck is supposed to stop.
All the others are being punted, I can’t for the life of me think what Everitt has done to warrant a two year extension of his contract. His remit was to make Edinburgh a top half team, competing in the playoff, not just as cannon fodder, but as an equal to Glasgow.
The other part of his remit was to develop young players for Scotland. He’s been lucky in that he’s had a couple of generational talents come though – Douglas and McConnell in the back row, it looks like we could have another two props in Byth-Lafferty and Stewart. There are two or three young guys in the Scotland U20s team who look promising, but I’d be loathed to put them through what Edinburgh are doing, to be honest.
Everitt is supposedly a lovely guy, very popular with the players, but so bloody what? This is professional sport and his record is appalling. Elsewhere I read form Sharks supporters that they were glad to see the back of him, as nice a guy as he is, with the budget they had (they were called $hark$ on the other board) they should have been far more successful.
I haven’t watched any more than the tries from Saturday’s hiding by the Lions, and I have no intention of doing so. I read that Edinburgh had no structure in either defence or attack, it certainly looked that was from the highlights. When the coaches are not doing their jobs you see players doing silly things, going for Hail Marys, handling going awol due to panic or huge gaps appearing in defence – that is exactly what happened.
I watched my hometown club win away at Murrayfield Wanderers instead and they have far more structure than Edinburgh do, both sides of the ball. (we have a five week gap from now to our last fixture, I’ll do a Real Rugby update then)
I’ve seen lots of fans on FB say they are not renewing season tickets for next year, it’s just completely unacceptable. This is not a sense of entitlement, Glasgow have the same budget as Edinburgh and it’s chalk and cheese – Franco Smith has them all playing for each other and understanding what is expected of them. There is a structure there and when players come in who might not be first choice, they know what to do.
Glasgow’s pack on Saturday had one player who might be a starter in a first choice team, Samuel. Rowe and McKay would start, Horne maybe, but he’s used more off the bench with Dobie (currently injured)starting.
Of the eight bench player, three of them would still be there on the pine in a first choice team, possibly two.
They beat Leinster, I Cann’t remember when Edinburgh last beat Leinster – Blair Kinghorn said after he beaten them with Toulouse that was his first time and he was at Edinburgh for eight years.
This can’t go on. And neither can I, so I’ll stop here.
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Ticht, the Sharks got rid of Everitt and rehired Plumtree for a second dig. He was useless, so they fired him and gave the reins to his assistant, ex-Bok winger JP Pietersen, whose had mixed results, it’s fair to say. The most telling thing about the Sharks, is when Pietersen asked the players what the Sharks stood for, what their ethos was, nobody could tell him. Just a bunch of expensively assembled players with no feeling for what the club represents. I’m not sure ‘shareholder value’ is what he was after.
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Deebs, thing is, it can be done that way, Toulon did it. They had a real sense of being a club with a single purpose, according to Wilkinson.
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UBB vs Toulouse last night was a cracker in front of 40K people. Very fast and powerful rugby from both sides. Ntamack back from injury and lots of young ones vs Jalibert & Co. Find the highlights!
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In other news, a colleague of mine was at a schools match this weekend between Grey Bloemfontein and Monument. The Monnas flyhalf hit this 60m drop goal!
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“This can’t go on.”
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I believe Mick is on record somewhere saying that “It fucking did an’ all”, but whether that was with or without him in charge I don’t know…
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CMW, someone on another board posted that clip in relation to Edinburgh a good while ago.
It certainly can, and has gone on.
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@Ticht – There is a point where the only thing worse than it going on is it not going on. See The Ospreys…
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I see Mike Blair is to be the new All Blacks attack coach – at the risk of sounding like a broken record, that was another shot to its own foot from the SRU.
As head coach, Blair had Edinburgh playing brilliant attacking rugby, but he hated the man-management side of things. So instead of bringing in someone to work alongside Blair, the SRU let him go with a cheery wave .
Genius.
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Munster appear to have four sets of brothers in their touring forwards to South Africa. Is this correct? Or are surnames like Ryan, Wycherley, Barron and Edogbo common in Ireland?
Forwards: Michael Ala’alatoa, Jeremy Loughman, Michael Milne, John Ryan, Kieran Ryan, Josh Wycherley, Diarmuid Barron, Lee Barron, Niall Scannell, Tom Ahern, Edwin Edogbo, Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley, Gavin Coombes, SeĂ¡n Edogbo, Brian Gleeson, John Hodnett, Alex Kendellen.
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attention: typo – O’Edogbo
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@deebee
Munster appear to have four sets of brothers in their touring forwards to South Africa
The Edogbos (Edwin and Sean) and Wycherleys (Fineen and Josh) are brothers
The Ryans are not related as far as I know – but Ryan is a pretty common name in Ireland. In certain parts (Tipperary notably) families of Ryans will probably have second informal surname to differentiate them – either related to their locality, or line of work, or a long gone greatgrandparent.
In my locality, families named O’Shea or O’Sullivan will frequently have another name to distinguish them from others of the same name.
Barrons are not brothers either – not an especially common name but not rare either.
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he hated the man-management side of things
Having managed teams, it’s a problem – you’d have to do appraisals ranking ppl on six, seven, eight criteria – emphasis was always on where was development needed rather than how do we take what they’re good at and drive them to the next levels, and get someone else to cover for the weaker areas
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I spent a few year of my professional life being a boss. Hated it. Hated people coming to me with petty issues with other colleagues (wanting to say, ‘oh FFS, grow up!’), and also hated having to fire someone for very good reasons.
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Much happier just doing the behind-the-scenes donkey work! Especially when it can all be done from home and I don’t have to deal with an office.
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Thanks Trisk! I thought the Ryans may not be related, but the others not so sure. The second name to differentiate people with same name reminds me of a dingy bar I used to frequent as a student. Amongst the regular patrons there were six Ian’s and six (or maybe seven) Andre’s, so you’d get Pierre-Coetzer-Andre (he had a striking similarity to the boxer of that name), Debbie’s-Andre, Railway-Andre, Bullshitter-Ian (not usually to his face), Bulawayo-Ian, Salisbury-Ian (millions of guys from Rhodesia/Zimbabwe named after Ian Smith, the ex-PM) Chris-Ian and Ian-Chris (inseperable buddies and two Chris’s in hte pub too! Must have been quite challenging for newcomers!
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@thaum – I enjoyed the development side – what are you interested in? how can we get you into that area? then later ….will you mentor a new starter?
I was usually hiring fresh out of college / moving on from 1st or 2nd jobs- little experience but keen and enthusiastic
I had no love for the formal “appraisal” stuff.
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Munster appear to have four sets of brothers
Last year, we’d also have had the Scannells – Rory and Niall. Rory gone to Ealing and Niall retires (I think) at the end of the season
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Ulster has the brilliant Ward brothers, Zack and Bryn! And of course Nathan Doak is the son of Neil Doak, another Ulster scrum-half. Also a cricket player, I found out on research! And a coach.
Trisk – it’s clear that you have the kind of personality that makes an excellent coach, be that rugby or work. Me, I’m a bit of a misanthrope. ;-)
Everyone hates appraisals except apparently HR weirdos.
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There is a story about Malcom Offord going around. He’s the leader of Reform in Scotland. He told a “joke” at a London Scottish dinner about George Michael, who had died by this time, and his partner.
It was one of the most disgusting things I’ve read, it has been published online.
Of course there are those apologists typing furiously, saying it was a long time ago, “You can’t say anything nowadays”, only you can, just be a decent human being whilst speaking, it’s not difficult.
London Scottish made him an inductee to their “Hall of Fame” recently.
Fuck London Scottish.
Until they retract that status, that club can go to the wall as far as I’m concerned. It is a “Football Club” in that it predates codification, it has a storied history, but they should not be standing with this man.
They should reject him, and own the fact they made a mistake in honouring him.
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Thauma, I’m assuming the Ward brothers aren’t related to Tony Ward, the Ireland 10 from the 80s? I remember him as an outstanding stand-off back then. Competed for the Irish jersey with Ollie Campbell, from memory?
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Their father is Andy Ward, who did play for Ireland.
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He’s a Kiwi, though, which I hadn’t realised!
And a flanker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Ward_(rugby_union)
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Terrible night for British and Irish football. Bloody hell!
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hmm….. perhaps a dose of reality
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But… but… but nobody sang “it’s coming home” at the matches did they?
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Guess we have to rely on Scotland to bring glory to the UK!
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Apologies, I’m at our happy spot in Clarens drinking bubbles with soft rain falling over the mountains, so feel a little ribbing of the English is quite in order.
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Sharks and Cardiff having a ding-dong battle at Kings Park. 30 minutes in the Sharks replace their entire front row, with Ox Nche and Vincent Koch coming on. Makes an immediate difference in the scrums. 21-12 Sharks in the final minute of the first half but the Diff have a penalty in the red zone. And knock it on. Not a great half
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Both sides flinging the ball around, but not making much impression. Commentators are blaming the humid conditions, but when you make a break and have no support, it’s just bad rugby. Faletau off, injured, Basham on.
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Don’t think either of these sides will trouble the trophy engravers. Even if there’s awards for semifinals!
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Great break by Cardiff, but Esterhuizen clobbers thr carrier. From the scrum the Sharks get a penalty advantage and then there’s a bit of petty handbags. Sharks end up with the penalty. And then another, taking them into the Cardiff 22. Sharks go through the phases, but great Cardiff defence gets them the turnover penalty!
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Sharks take a man out on the fringes of the ruck and get penalised. This should happen more often!
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In other news, red wine remains a beautiful thing.
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Sharks overdoing the 50-50 passes and keeping Cardiff in the match. The Diff, to be fair, are not going away. Still 21-12 with 12 to go.
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Sharks win a lineout against the throw, but Cardiff gather the loose ball and burst through! Can’t quite get through and the cross kick is straight into touch. Or knocked into touch. Sharks scrum. Not sure what happened but a few phases later and Cardiff have the penalty! Taking the shot from in front. 21-15 with six to go!
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Cardiff are hunting down the Sharks! Only one side in it in the last two or so. Time running out, but Cardiff could snatch it here!
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*Last ten or so.
Sharks get the scrum penalty and belt it into the Cardiff half. Win the lineout, maul it a couple of times and game over. A bit of handbags after the final whistle, but about as lame as the match, to be fair.
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‘Mon ra Weedge! We’ve often found Benetton to be awkward buggers, so need to keep up the good work from last week. Hopefully, no one from Benetton will spit the dummy if Adam ruffles their hair….
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