Entertaining. Indefatigable. Bloody-minded, hard as nails (well, obviously there is an obstructed view).
When Mark Williams (pictured) won the World Snooker Championship in 2018, he stripped off for the ensuing press conference, as he had promised to do.
This year, he has promised to run naked down the M4 if he wins.
Given that he’s 51, perhaps he should borrow Andy Powell’s golf buggy instead.
But this is why Welsh rugby can and will rise above their current crisis, and hopefully with all four regions somehow surviving the mess. Welsh sides are currently Irish teams’ banana peels in the URC.
While full houses at Welsh stadia have been a rarity in recent years, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau sung with full heart at the Millenium Stadium still manages to bring a bit of unexplained grit to the eyes of this non-Welsh person (well, full disclosure: I had a half-Welsh granny).
And, to add the icing to the cake, the Welsh don’t vote for Tories. Hopefully they won’t vote for the even more repulsive Reform in May either.
Edinburgh had a try knocked off a couple of years ago for exactly the same knock on – Jamie Ritchie bobbled the ball before batting in on in a pass for the “score”, which was subsequently chalked off
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I was given this bottle of wine last year, I’ve only just opened it – if you get the chance, I’d recommend it https://www.whitmoreandwhite.co.uk/products/alo-jais-noir-carignan
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By hook or by crook, Munster’s maul defence has been outstanding
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As things stand it’s Munster, Cardiff, Connacht, Lions in positions 5 to 8, with Ulster in 9th
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Hlekani is outrageously good, he’s only just turned 21.
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Munster accuse a Lion of spitting in their 16’s face, but no evidence forthcoming.
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Fair play to Lions: they was some doubt about whether a player might have scored a try, but he said he didn’t and avoided endless TMO replays.
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For Ulster to stay in the top 8, Lions have to score two converted tries and AN Other score in the next two minutes.
Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to happen.
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It didn’t.
And actually, it’s Connacht we’ll knock out if we win on Friday due to the Lions having a LBP.
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My sister and her wife are at the Wales match, pints in hand.
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Lions through to the playoffs is brilliant! They won’t beat Leinster, but given the squad they’ve got, it’s a pretty good achievement. Playing in the Big Cup next season will hopefully also see them keep their best players and also recruit a few more. Next season will be even more challenging than this one.
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What time is the 6N on? I can’t find any bloody reference to it on our sites down here.
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Deebee – Wales v Italy kicked off at 12:30. Ireland v Scotland is 30mins in now. England v France is at 16:45.
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Thanks Refit, I see Italy gave Wales a hammering and Ireland are doing a number on Scotland. Hopefully France-England is less one sided.
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Sad news
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“Hopefully France-England is less one sided.”
Well I guess it was and France certainly scored a wonderful try at the start. Nevertheless the 6N ended up being a tournament of fifteen matches in which only one of them was genuinely close and that was the one between the bottom two. Kind of rubbish as a sporting contest which is a shame.
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The Hastings family have suffered more than many. Scott was apparently a very dedicated club man, doing a lot of work with Watsonians, from high profile fundraising to selling raffle tickets at home games.
I can’t say I knew him as such, but those that did speak very high of him as a person as well as a player.
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I can’t believe Stephen Jones (the bad one) was wrong about something.
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But wait! I notice that Leslie’s post still has nearly an hour and a half to go!
Quickly checks health of URC
Ah, no, as you were. Pulse, respiration, etc normal.
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Lions 9 van den Bergh is out of the QF in Dublin. A massive blow to our hopes (slim as they are in any case), as he sets the tempo on attack and is very sound with his defensive exits and box kicking. It may open the door for Hashim Pead, the star of the Junior Bok side from last year, who apparently broke all of a certain Dupont’s records. Either way, pretty gutted, as we could be without both skipper Frankie Horn (number 8) and Henco van Wyk (13), who’ve also been pivotal to the Lions cause this season.
Champions Cup Winners Leinster by 35.
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Missed Munster vs Lions as I was in UK – Bristol in fact. Old schoolfriends reunion. none of us live there we just bat about UK and Ireland twice a year…
A lot of chatter how Munster should have taken 3 with the last pen – deprived Lions of the LBP, and guaranteed Connacht Champions Cup rugby…..not showing solidarity with fellow province.
Instead, Casey had Hanrahan kick it dead. No reasonable person would think Casey would have a clue how Connacht and the Lions were fixed. Put the case that Hanrahan misses – the ball stays live and the Lions run the length. Munster would drop to 8th – but of course Ulster would do us a favour and lose the challenge cup…..
completely nuts how anyone would think this might have been even a small possibiity
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Have to admit to not having a clue how Champions Cup qualification works these days, whole format has seemed like a shambles for quite a few years. Is it possible for Connacht to win the URC (unlikely I realise) and not qualify for the big cup if Ulster win the little one? I get the impression that Ulster would have to win that for it to matter so presumably Montpellier already qualifying for the big cup anyway is immaterial?
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@cmw
If Ulster win the Challenge cup THEN
Ulster replace Connacht
ELSIF Connacht win the URC THEN
Ulster replace Lions
END IF
(I don’t think Montpellier already having qualified for EPRC affects Ulster – it’s not like the old days when if you did the Double – the cup runners up went into the ECWC)
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maybe that should be a nested CASE statement
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Thanks Trisk. I’m absolutely convinced it should be a nested CASE statement. 100% certain…
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ESAC
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Hmph, well I reckon Trisk will get that if no-one else does (CASE closed).
I think we need a new post for the weekend. Does anyone feels like making one up?
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I have no idea what this acronym war is all about, and even less knowledge of the sides battling it out this weekend (especially the French ones). Happy to do a preview of the URC QFs next week though.
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Yay! Thanks, Deebs!
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I reckon Trisk will get that if no-one else does (CASE closed).
Actually, not in any of the languages I’ve used or dabbled with
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It’s used in Linux shell scripting: https://linuxcommandlibrary.com/man/esac
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And Deebee, they’re not acronyms but commands. case is a useful shortcut to avoid long, nested if/then/else commands, and – in a bash shell, anyway – esac (case backwards) indicates completion of the command … or case closed.
It’s not funny when you have to explain it!
One of my favourite t-shirts I’ve ever seen was this. Back when I was doing user support.
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That’s such a nice, simple, beautiful query.
Thirty or so years ago, I used to write sql queries on a DB2 database. Talk about nested IF statements! I think my proudest one ran to 30 or 40 pages when printed off. No such thing as internal or external table joins then (JOINs were a thing of agony, much like my JOINTS now), and certainly no case-type statements. Very few debugging tools either, such as detecting where the stray parentheses were.
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I’m not saying I wish I hadn’t asked about the implications of Connacht winning the URC, but…
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Putting my mystification to one side and by way of strongly encouraging linguistic jokes to remain connected to the realm of real human language I’m pretty sure the whole creation of AoD and therefore Ovally Balls was some kind of ‘nested IF statement’. Or maybe the idea of it was and the reality became a ‘nested CASE statement’.
Haven’t looked at the comments on the Graun for a while now, they were bloody awful the last time I did.
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What happened to just simple zeroes and ones?
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A Dilbert comic strip (yes I know) I saw a while would probably raise a chuckle here. Dilbert and his sidekick are sitting in a meeting. The other bloke says “I have a stupid question.” Dilbert responds “there are no stupid questions.” So he asks, “when you delete software, where do all the zeroes and ones go?” Dilbert responds, “I stand corrected.”*
*would have posted the comic but I’m too thick to do that.
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Over 90 minutes away, and I’m already very, very nervous.
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Ooh, the matches are on ITV4/X. I can watch them on TV, not a laggy stream on my laptop.
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Werner Kok is pretty unlucky to miss out on tonight, he’s been terrific for Ulster
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Fuck’s sake, Andy Gooode (sic) on commentary.
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Ticht – yes, agree. I’m very sad he’s leaving us.
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TRY TIMONEEEEYYYY!
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This could be a cracker going by the first six minutes
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Damn! Montpellier also score and convert, so it’s evens.
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TRY Sheridan!
Oh no wait, it’s not. But I think we have an advantage.
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Shit, we don’t.
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That’s a try saving tackle right enough
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Both sides making silly errors. Ball must be greasy due to the awful heat.
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Shit, Postlethwaite looks hurt. Please no.
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