Rugby Union

[fgwrich]

As this hasn't been updated for a while, and the Aviva Premiership & Premiership Rugby season is sadly drawing to a close (Ours has just finished )

Sorry Hadders & Peter.

London Irish - 25 - 23 Sale Sharks

The mighty Exeter Chiefs - 21 - 10 Northampton Saints.

A few missed opportunities on either side - The Sandy Park wild winds didn't help either side, but discipline cost Saints a few times. But look on the bright side, The top 4 has no Leicester Tigers for now, and hopefully we intend to keep it this way!

 

[Hadders]

As this hasn't been updated for a while, and the Aviva Premiership & Premiership Rugby season is sadly drawing to a close (Ours has just finished )

Sorry Hadders & Peter.

London Irish - 25 - 23 Sale Sharks

The mighty Exeter Chiefs - 21 - 10 Northampton Saints.

A few missed opportunities on either side - The Sandy Park wild winds didn't help either side, but discipline cost Saints a few times. But look on the bright side, The top 4 has no Leicester Tigers for now, and hopefully we intend to keep it this way!

I think Saints losing is all part of the plan to make sure Leicester don't make the top 4

Seriously, I enjoyed my trip to Sandy Park if not the result. Playing into the wind in the first half and containing the score to 8-5 at half time meant there was a good chance in the second half.

Unfortunately you're never going to win (even with the wind) if you get 3 yellow cards at a place like Sandy Park. That cost us in the end.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Swalec National Championship

Pontypool 112...Blackwood 10

When I saw this result, that does nothing for bottom-of-the-table Blackwood, it brought to mind another rock-bottom side and wonder if London Welsh could arrange to play Blackwood in a friendly match, in order to raise their confidence.

 

[Hadders]

Good work by GBRF and Northampton Saints

http://www.northamptonsaints.co.uk/News/TabId/90/ArtMID/526/ArticleID/5810/Saints-name-to-be-carried-far-and-wide-by-GB-Railfreight.aspx

The Northampton Saints name will be a familiar sight on the nation’s railways, after a GB Railfreight locomotive has become the first to be named after an Aviva Premiership rugby club.
Director of rugby Jim Mallinder, coaches Alex King and Dorian West, club captain Dylan Hartley and British and Irish Lions winger George North joined John Smith, managing director of GB Railfreight, Martin Hill, chairman of long-standing club supporters GRS Roadstone, and other invited guests at Wellingborough Railhead for the naming ceremony.

The newly named locomotive ‘Northampton Saints’ will be part of GB Railfreight’s fleet that will be used throughout the UK on a whole range of different freight services, and Mallinder thanked all of the companies involved for their support of the club and the team.

“We’re honoured that GB Railfreight and GRS Roadstone have made the decision to name a locomotive after Northampton Saints,” he said. “It is not something that happens all that often, especially for a rugby club, and is something that we can be proud of.”

GB Railfreight managing director John Smith, who himself lives in the Northampton area, said that he was delighted that one of his locomotives will be carrying the Saints’ name.

“It’s very special for us to have the privilege of naming the locomotive after Northampton Saints,” he said. “It’s unique to have a rugby club name on the side of a locomotive, although we do have some football clubs. Having done those, and living in the Northampton area myself, we thought that it would be nice to celebrate the recent successes of Northampton Saints in this way.”

Martin Hill, chairman of GRS Roadstone, said that seeing the Saints become the first Aviva Premiership club to have its name be carried by a locomotive was special.

“I’m so proud of where the club has come from, from being relegated to where they are now, which is why I’ve worked with GB Railfreight to get this locomotive named after the Saints,” he said. “It’s unusual, and instead of doing something that’s the norm we’ve done something slightly different. Naming a train means that the Saints’ name will be seen up and down the country.”

 

[Greenback]

It's Judgement Day III tomorrow in Wales with back to back matches featuring all four regions at the Millennium Stadium.

I didn't like the idea when it was launched, but it seems to be popular enough, at least with the Scarlets fans I've spoken to, and ticket sales seem to be pretty good as well.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Aviva Premiership

Sale Sharks 34...Newcastle Falcons 28

Sale outscored Newcastle by five tries to three, one of which was scored by Mark Cueto who is shortly to retire. Newcastle came back well in the second half, but Sale had already built up a sizable lead in the first half. Sale are still in seventh place in the league table.

 

[Hadders]

Aviva Premiership:

Northampton Saints 46 London Welsh 0

This result was far from a surprise, London Welsh haven't won a single match all season and were relegated weeks ago.

The result does confirm Saints as table toppers for the regular season, a feat never before achieved by the the club.

Of course, you don't win anything these days for finishing top. You only win the pot by winning the play off final.

 

[fgwrich]

Aviva Premiership:

Northampton Saints 46 London Welsh 0

This result was far from a surprise, London Welsh haven't won a single match all season and were relegated weeks ago.

The result does confirm Saints as table toppers for the regular season, a feat never before achieved by the the club.

Of course, you don't win anything these days for finishing top. You only win the pot by winning the play off final.

Exeter Chiefs 24:20 Saracens.

Still looking forward to re-meeting you in the finals Hadders

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Some people with an anger management problem do not appear to learn from their past experiences. The Leicester Tigers centre, Manu Tuilagi, who was hoping to have recovered in time to be selected as a member of the England World Cup squad, has now received a four figure fine after admitting charges of battery and assault in a case that started with his actions towards a taxi driver then subsequently to two female police officers who then sought to handcuff him in that incident.

He has had past iniquities on his sporting record.

 

[Hadders]

Some people with an anger management problem do not appear to learn from their past experiences. The Leicester Tigers centre, Manu Tuilagi, who was hoping to have recovered in time to be selected as a member of the England World Cup squad, has now received a four figure fine after admitting charges of battery and assault in a case that started with his actions towards a taxi driver then subsequently to two female police officers who then sought to handcuff him in that incident.

He has had past iniquities on his sporting record.

Very poor judgement from Manu. I'm pleased that the RFU have taken decisive action and said they won't consider him for England until 2016 thus ruling him out of the World Cup.

Can you imagine this happening in certain other sports...

 

[40129]

Greene King Championship Final (1st leg)

Bristol 28 Warriors 29

Good entertaining game throughout which could have gone either way. Bristol had 2 players sin binned in the first half and both goal kickers missed points. Game won by Warriors with final kick (conversion) in overtime.

 

[Hadders]

Premiership Semi Final:

Saints 24 Saracens 29

A tight match decided by small margins (as they always are when Saints play Saracens).

It's been a wonderful year being defending champions.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Sale Sharks, in an attempt to strengthen their forwards pool, have signed the former All Blacks forward Bryn Evans from Biarritz on a two-year contract.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I was interested to see London Welsh being used as an example as to why ring fencing the Aviva would be a good thing. I

Whilst we are on the subject of London Welsh and the totally and utterly demoralising season now ended with the expected relegation, I now see that whilst the club still has two years left on the contract with the owners of the Kassam Stadium in Oxford, there have been recent undertones of disquiet with the contract.

There have been reports in some quarters made that London Welsh, in the hope of putting their supporters mind's to rest, that in the not too distant future, a statement will be made by the club as to where their 2015/6 season home fixtures will be played.

 

[Greenback]

There have also been rumours of London Welsh and London Scottish replacing the Italian teams in the Pro12. I don't know whether there is any real substance to the ground or league stuff that's floating about.

We'll just have to wait and see, I think!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In a cross-code matter, Sale Sharks have approached Paul Deacon, the assistant coach of Wigan Warriors RL club, to become their new attack and kicking coach.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Rugby Championship

South Africa 25...Argentina 37

This match played at Durban was the very first time that Argentina had beaten South Africa and not just on kicked points alone, as they outscored them by four tries to three.

 

[Kite159]

Less than a week to go before the world cup kicks off. Come on England

 

[Greenback]

I expect England to do very well in the tournament. I shan't be supporting them, though, even after Wales get knocked out in the group stages. After that I shall merely be an interested neutral observer.

 

[Hadders]

England need to make home advantage count. I do hope they (and the other home nations) have a successful tournament as it will help to grow the game.

 

[Butts]

I expect England to do very well in the tournament. I shan't be supporting them, though, even after Wales get knocked out in the group stages. After that I shall merely be an interested neutral observer.

I fully expect Scotland to carry the trophy back to Edinburgh at the end of the tournament. I also think Jeremy Corbyn will win more General Elections than Tony Blair did.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Less than a week to go before the world cup kicks off. Come on England

Yes, I am looking forward to the Rugby World Cup too.

 

[Hornet]

Even though i'm an Englishman, I shall be cheering on the team who have got more than 50% of my adopted club side's, (a side i've supported for thirteen years), players in their national squad.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

England are indeed fortunate to have a full-back such as Brown with a noted try-scoring record to his name. Another two against Fiji last night to add to his total.

 

[backontrack]

Day 2 and we've already had our first upset of the Cup with Georgia beating Tonga 17-10 in Gloucester. Ireland vs Canada playing now at the Millennium Stadium.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
BREAKING - Ireland 10 0 Canada. Sexton penalty as well as a conversion from an O'Brien try.

 

[richw]

Day 2 and we've already had our first upset of the Cup with Georgia beating Tonga 17-10 in Gloucester. Ireland vs Canada playing now at the Millennium Stadium.
.

Upset according to who? Any knowledgable rugby fan I'd hope would know Georgia's a fairly strong nation these days.

They've won the second tier 6 nations 4 or 5 years in a row. There is talk of them coming up to the first tier 6 nations in place of Italy, or by promotion/relegation system as they are too strong for tier 2 now.

Tonga are only a tier 2 team.

Georgia have had a lot of funding from world rugby for development, and the majority of their players play in top European leagues now I believe.

 

[backontrack]

Oh. My mistake.

Looking forward to France vs Italy tonight...

 

[richw]

We've just seen quite possibly the biggest upset in world cup history

Japan beat South Africa. Japan haven't won a world cup match since 1991

 

[backontrack]

Wow. What did I just watch?

One of the best matches I've seen in a while.

EDIT: RichW beat me too it, argh!

 

[richw]

I had it down as South Africa to win 40 points. Unbelievable.