Rugby - Who? Me, Sir? Offside?

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
Even Austin can be self-depreciating if caught in the correct mood.

I forgot to tell you! Austin is currently appearing here in some TV ads for a hair replacement place! Watch the arse fall out of their business!

I’ve got no feel for our chaps IQ, but it is true Union is the thinking mans code. Put that in your pipe (as usually hidden under your flat cap) and smoke it pseudo-rugby fans.

That's one of the fundamental differences between rugby and L*****. Rugby requires thought. It's not cross-country wrestling.

Mind you we led right up to the end last time so no chicken counting from me.

The singles will be the problem for Europe, methinks. As always. The Yanks are mighty good head-to-head. One of the nicest things I heard the commentator say tonight was that Sam Torrance had drawn up his pairings today based on personality. He paired Monty with Bernard Langer. Talk about a pair of personality black holes!

Now then are you trying to get me to say it will be a good Saturday because of this? Wicked Finbar. And not very likely of me as she has access to my home PCs, the most perfect woman in the world that she is.

Mrs finbar has had a week off from work this week. It has fair driven me mad! I have my routine here at home, I have the dogs, they know the routine, they're quiet most of the time ...

... enough said.

[Havak]

I think Canterbury-N.harbour is on Sky tomorrow morning, I will try to catch the second showing in the afternoon (which happens directly before the Zurich live televised game here).

Trust me Caligastia and cheer for Bath tomorrow.

I just discovered Tigers game is Sunday - needing to spend Sunday afternoon with rugger as well as Saturday may cause domestic friction this weekend.

When Finbar returns tomorrow tell him Grewcocks ban was overturned on appeal so he can take part against Gloucester now.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Havak
I think Canterbury-N.harbour is on Sky tomorrow morning, I will try to catch the second showing in the afternoon (which happens directly before the Zurich live televised game here).

I wont get to see that one, but I would go for N. Harbour. They are the underdogs though.

Trust me Caligastia and cheer for Bath tomorrow.

No worries

I just discovered Tigers game is Sunday - needing to spend Sunday afternoon with rugger as well as Saturday may cause domestic friction this weekend.

Whenever my wife complains about rugby I tell her not to deny me my NZ culture.

When Finbar returns tomorrow tell him Grewcocks ban was overturned on appeal so he can take part against Gloucester now.

Im sure he will love that.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
When Finbar returns tomorrow tell him Grewcocks ban was overturned on appeal so he can take part against Gloucester now.

Rort rort rort!

[finbar]

Originally posted by Caligastia
Whenever my wife complains about rugby I tell her not to deny me my NZ culture.

Thanks, Cal, you know I love a good oxymoron!

[finbar]

So there is a hoodoo after all

Gloucester and Bath drew 21-all. Obviously black magic at work. Havak, his Gloucester doll and his pins.

I knew Havak had been hard at it with his pins as soon as I accessed the radio broadcast of the game and the audio wouldn't come through!

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by finbar


Thanks, Cal, you know I love a good oxymoron!

Heres another one: classy australian

[finbar]

So voodoo does work after all!

Anyway, I asked Mrs finbar to run me up a Leicester doll, borrowed some of her pins -

Bristol 25 -d- Leicester 20! And Bristol did it with 14 players for just about the whole match!

I think this black magic thing has a future.

[Havak]

They are the underdogs though.

They got so thoroughly blown away I stopped watching it in the end.

No worries

Your cheering worked – thanks!

Whenever my wife complains about rugby I tell her not to deny me my NZ culture.

I’m less diplomatic I think.

Someone has been talking indiscreetly. How did you find out about the dolls?

Okay. So Sky for some reason showed Saracens-Saints not the west country derby. What I can tell you from that is that Connors had a good solid game, but that neither of those sides is a championship winning side. In fact they will struggle as much as Tigers this year I think.

Nice to see Bath stick one up the tractor boys – just a shame they couldn’t take all the points.

And us? Is it too early to talk crisis point? Not really. Our worst ever start in the Professional era – three games lost by end of September. Last season we lost four games period. As Finbar pointed out we had a man advantage for 77 minutes and failed to make it tell (despite scoring more tries). The turnover rate was simply scary. Personally I would have kept the ball tight in the forwards once they went a man down and just hammered at them through the direct channel until they were totally knackered. Tigers spun it wide to a back line that just didn’t know what to do with it.

It was just a totally different team to the one I saw last weekend despite there being only one change!

I am worried I have to admit. A good team should not become a bad one over night? Third is a realistic goal for us now – and I have no doubt if we make the play off final we will beat Gloucester. We are a hard team to beat in finals. The problem will be in getting there first.

Misery piled on misery – Vesty came off with what looked a bad injury so our current Fly half solution is… Rod Kafer. That’s how serious it is.

And the Bristol crowd worried me – a very soccer like quality to them, endless booing and even cheering as Vesty was carried off clearly badly hurt. I really hate that and hope they get a grip on it quickly.

btw have you noticed the total absence of "USA, USA, USA" posts in Ryder cup threads?

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
Someone has been talking indiscreetly. How did you find out about the dolls?

I just typed "Havak" and "dolls" into Google and up it came.

I am worried I have to admit. A good team should not become a bad one over night?

You're right, they shouldn't, so they probably haven't. Is there an ageing problem? Have other teams worked out the patterns? Is there complacency? They seem to be the usual reasons for eras to come to an end. OTOH, form's such an intangible thing, and the even more intangible thing called confidence is such a major contributor to form.

Tigers spun it wide to a back line that just didn’t know what to do with it.

Mmm. I always thought the way to play against an extra man was to avoid letting the oppo exploit the extra man. Minimise all risk and hang onto the pill.

btw have you noticed the total absence of "USA, USA, USA" posts in Ryder cup threads?

I sat up till 2.30am watching it. Blissful! Even if the fat, surly, whingeing Scot did lead the way. It really looked to me like several of the Americans who played every day simply ran out of puff. How often does Phil Michelson miss two putts inside 4 feet within a couple of holes? It's also totally beyond me why Curtis Strange let Tiger Woods and Jesper Parnevik play the last hole when it was meaningless. Davis Love III did the sensible and courteous thing and conceded the last hole without playing it to finish all square with his opponent. I can only think that Tiger wanted to do it his way and wouldn't be told.

I imagine Sam Torrance will now be knighted. I've always had a soft spot for Sam.

[Havak]

I just typed "Havak" and "dolls" into Google and up it came.

Try “Havak” and “Lions”. I’m sure it will lead to something strange – the odd rant maybe.

Is there an ageing problem? Have other teams worked out the patterns? Is there complacency?

I would say all three are valid points. The pack is ageing, and the forwards average age is much older now than the backs. The other teams have improved massively in the last four years, and there is no doubt it is very easy for them to ‘psyche up’ for the clashes with Tigers. Complacency is trickier. I guess there must be, but that’s rather alien to the ‘Tigers way’, albeit a normal part of human nature.

I think we also need to recognise the back line is unsettled due to injury – Smith, Lloyd and Murphy missing puts a big dent in our firepower there.

But I think you hit the nail on the head – I think the Leeds game shook their confidence and they are finding it hard to re-discover it away from the safety blanket of Welford Road. I still wouldn’t like to be Bath this weekend as I suspect the boys will come out alls guns blazing.

Still I am a ‘die-hard’ fan who has been there since the previous bad times, and I’ll be there through these if they are prolonged too. I don’t mind losing in the final analysis as long as we have played well – and it was the lack of that yesterday that worried me so much.

Mmm. I always thought the way to play against an extra man was to avoid letting the oppo exploit the extra man. Minimise all risk and hang onto the pill

And you are right. But it can work for the team with the man advantage in the pack to grind the opposing forwards for half the game then unleash the backs at them when tired. Boring rugby that it is.

Still our right wing yesterday was Harry Ellis – a scrummy by trade and picked by me to make England in that position some day. That’s the level of problem we have behind the pack right now. Having said that he scored a cracking try.

Yes the golf truly was great to watch at times. But I guess we have to accept home advantage is a big help.

Arise Sir Sam – yes I can see that happening.

[Tamerlin]

Pau 20 - Stade Toulousain 20...

Once again the Stade Toulousain has produced a rather poor performance, many handling errors, bad tactic choices, etc.

Even if this game was played away from home at the "Stade du Hameau", Pau is a rather weak team the Stade Toulousain should beat. At least the Stade I knew...

[Havak]

It would seem Tamerlin that both our teams are struggling to live up to their reputations.

It cannot last - can it?

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by Havak
Still I am a ‘die-hard’ fan who has been there since the previous bad times, and I’ll be there through these if they are prolonged too. I don’t mind losing in the final analysis as long as we have played well – and it was the lack of that yesterday that worried me so much.

for the two sentences.

As we say in France when we share the same spirit and/or opinion : "nous sommes sur la même longueur d'onde (we are tuned to the same wavelength)".

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by Havak
It would seem Tamerlin that both our teams are struggling to live up to their reputations.

It cannot last - can it?

I just can say It should not.

I'am more confident in the Tigers than in the Stade Toulousain. In spite of a French Championship semi-final, last year's season was a disaster and I think we are up for a catastrophic one again. I fear the problem is much deeper than it seems.