Rugby - RIP Jonah Lomu.

[ljkeane]

Heh, a few minutes in an Ulster Saracens game and someone gets smashed in the air. We've seen that before but this time it's a yellow for Rhodes. It kind of looks like a red to me though.

[Which Tyler]

Just watching now, and yep - straight red. Not malicious, but he took him in the air and took him beyond horizontal.

[The Anti-Targ]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/74644469/jonah-lomu-honoured-by-irish-schoolkids-performing-gaelic-haka

Wow! Most of these kids would not have been born when Lomu was playing Rugby.

A Chilean colleague of mine said lots of people in Chile watched Lomu's funeral. Apparently rugby is quite a popular spectator sport in Chile, just not a very popular sport for playing.

Seems like Lomu was more famous outside of New Zealand than in New Zealand.

[Which Tyler]

In further terrible news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-35040216

RIP young lady.

[The Anti-Targ]

Concussion is a serious thing, which a lot of people still don't take seriously enough. I dunno if it's things like movies where you see the hero get knocked out cold only to recover and completely kick arse 5 minutes later that makes people think concussions are things you can just shake off.

A real shame that this young and amazing sounding woman apparently did all the right things yet still succumbed to concussion in the end. I think there have been a few pros who have cut their careers short because they have been concussed too many times and the risk of death from one more concussion has been very high. I wonder if Lily didn't quite receive the right medical advice given she had been concussed a few times in the past. Taking a year or two off rugby would have been better than dying. So sad.

[The Anti-Targ]

So Jonah Lomu apparently died broke and left his family nothing. A combination of having a rather expensive tastes in things, employing managers who didn't really look after Lomu's total interests, his medical costs and being overly generous. There's a trust being established to try to raise money for his kids, and talk of some benefit matches helping to fill the trusts coffers.

A shame that every child who's main bread-winning parent dies at 40 doesn't get the same sort of treatment. Perhaps they should use Lomu's apparent generosity to create a trust to give financial aid to kids who lose a parent / parents and have Lomu's kids be 2 of many present and future beneficiaries. Lomu's death is a tragedy for his family and very sad, and he was very important to the game of Rugby. But it doesn't mean his kids are more deserving of charity than the average orphan. 30% of New Zealand children live in poverty. That's a bigger tragedy IMO. 

[ljkeane]

The new England set up under Jones is starting to take shape.

Borthwick is the forwards coach and Paul Gustard looks very likely to be the defence coach. I don't have any problems with either of those appointments, Borthwick's not massively experienced but he did pretty well with Japan under Jones and, while there were a few criticisms of him as a player, he always had the reputation of a guy who knew his stuff. As for Gustard people may not like how Saracens play at time but you can't argue with how good their defence has been with him running it. I'm a little less convinced with talk of Alex King as attack coach given how shit Saints have been on that front but he was apparently good at Clermont and that's were Jones is supposed to contribute the most anyway so we'll have to see how it goes.

A little more controversially he's apparently going to go with Hartley as captain. I'm not sure he'd be my first choice, I'm not sure he should be in the side long term and he's obviously had a few disciplinary issues, although largely not for England to be fair, but there aren't a lot of clear cut candidates available. I think he probably should be back in the side while they develop Jamie George, and if he is in the side he's one of the few with leadership credentials, but I'd hope it's clear cut he's not nailed on for the long term.

[Which Tyler]

So, EPS squad announced tomorrow - anyone know what time? match-day squads are generally 1.00pm; so if no-one knows, I'll assume the same again.

Who would you guys pick? 11 changes, but no-one's quite sure from what (33 man EPS; 31 went to the RWC, RFU list 29 man current squad).

 

I'll come back with mine once I've done some work

[ljkeane]

Aren't injury swaps essentially 'free'? Plus presumably Burgess' spot is vacant so it might not count as a change so they may have more than 11 changes if they want to go that way. Having said that I'm not sure they'll want to go with too many. 

Off the top of my head so I might be missing people out but based on the squad on the RFU website I'd probably go with something like:

Props: Cole, Thomas, Cooper-Wooley, Vunipola, Marler and Mullan. Wilson out and Brookes out injured.

Hookers: George, Hartley and Youngs. Webber out.

Locks: Launchbury, Kruis, Itoje and Kitchener. Parling and Lawes out. I would have had Attwood in but he's injured so Kitchener's my new big lump who's still useful in the lineout.

Flankers: Robshaw, Kvesic and Clifford. Wood and Haskell out.

Number 8's: Vunipola and Beaumont. Morgan might be out injured.

Scrumhalves: Youngs, Care and Simpson

Flyhalves: Ford, Farrell and Cipriani.

Centres: Joseph, Daly, Hill and Tuilagi. Barritt out, Slade out injured. 

Wingers: Nowell, Watson and Yarde. May out injured.

Fullbacks: Brown and Haley. Goode out.  

That's more than 11 changes but they do have free spots through injury etc.

[Which Tyler]

Yeah, it's 10 changes + Burgess.

And yes, injury swaps are essentially free; but have to be named in the squad to start with, and then swapped out for someone else closer to the time. Normally that means you'd want to keep every injured player from the existing EPS; but that might present issues if you don't want them and they recover during the 6N; and may also cause issues when it comes to the tour to hell.

Anyway; my squad:

1. Vunipola
2. George
3. Cole*
4. Launchbury
5. Kruis
6. Robshaw
7. Kvesic
8. Vunipola

09. Simpson
10. Ford**
11. Watson
12. Devoto/Williams***
13. Daly
14. Rokoduguni
15. Brown

16. TYoungs; 17. Marler; 18. Thomas*; 19. Itoje****; 20. Clifford
21. BYoungs; 22. Farrell; 23. Joseph

Wider EPS:

Haywood; Auterac/Waller; Brookes (Wilson*); Lawes; Beaumont; Care; Slade (Tuilagi); Nowell

 

* Well, who else is there?

** I know Farrell's in better form, but Ford's still the better player; his problems seem mostly mental/confidence; and any coach worth his salt should back himself to sort that. The Toulon game will also have helped that.

*** Closest like-for-like to Slade we have, and time has simply run out on Manu's fitness; has the advantage of not being Barritt/Burgess/Burrell/Billy. Ford/Eastmond just about works at Prem level, I'm still loather to try them together in a test; Kyle also still goes missing too often. Were we not starting Scotland => Italy then I'd probably play safer; but we are. Of course, if it doesn't work in those first 2 matches, they'll be Manu/Fazlet waiting in the wings.

**** Whilst I see Itoje's best position as BSF, that's not where he's playing.

[ljkeane]

Right so England's Six Nations squad has been announced.

A few surprises in there. There was quite of lot of talk yesterday Kvesic was going to miss out so I'm relieved he's in there. I'd have liked to have seen Fraser in as well for some competition but with his injury history I can understand why he's not made the cut. The big shock I suppose is Tom Youngs not even making the squad. I'm not a huge fan of Cipriani missing out/Ashton getting in and I'd have liked to see Simpson involved but overall not bad.

[Which Tyler]

IIRC Ashton was in the EPS (33), just not going tot he RWC (31); along with Clarke apparently (I'd thought Easter, but that's probably because he was called up during the tournie.

 

As far as I can tell, here are the 11 changes. If anyone wants to suggest different changes, you'll have to un-make one of these:

1. Rob Webber <=> Luke Cowan-Dickie
2. Tom Youngs <=> Dylan Hartley
3. Richard Wigglesworth <=> Matt Mullan
4. Davey Wilson <=> Paul Hill
5. Geoff Parling <=> Maro Itoje
6. Tom Wood <=> Dave Ewers
7. Callum Clarke <=> Jack Clifford
8. Ben Morgan <=> Josh Beaumont
9. Brad Barritt <=> Manu Tuilagi
10. You Know Who <=> Elliot Daly
11. Jonny May <=> Marlon Yarde

[ljkeane]

Sam Underhill got talked up quite a lot after his first two games for the Ospreys as potentially not being too far away from the EPS, assuming he comes back to an English club. It's probably a little too soon to get overexcited but, you know what, after seeing him for the first time in the Clermont game tonight he does genuinely look the business. He has an excellent body height into contact and he hits everything hard. I can see why he's getting noticed 3 games into his professional career.

[The Anti-Targ]

So Super Rugby is adopting the French bonus point system? Bonus point if you have scored at least 3 tries more than your opposition. Sounds like a better incentive for both teams to try to score tries throughout the match. Even if you are losing by a huge margin, if the leading team is only up on you by 3 tries you have a big attacking incentive right to the final whistle.

[The BlackBear]

Heard briefly on the radio about Toulon wanting to join the English Premiership. Thoughts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35373615

[ljkeane]

On 1/22/2016 at 1:25 AM, The Anti-Targ said:

So Super Rugby is adopting the French bonus point system? Bonus point if you have scored at least 3 tries more than your opposition. Sounds like a better incentive for both teams to try to score tries throughout the match. Even if you are losing by a huge margin, if the leading team is only up on you by 3 tries you have a big attacking incentive right to the final whistle.

I don't know about that. It encourages the winning side to keep playing but the losing side can't get two bonus points anymore so while they can deny the opposition points they've got less to gain themselves. I'm not drastically opposed to it but I;m not convinced it'll be a signifivant improvement either. We'll have to see how it goes I suppose.

On 1/22/2016 at 1:41 AM, The BlackBear said:

Heard briefly on the radio about Toulon wanting to join the English Premiership. Thoughts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/35373615

Apparently Boudjellal has written to the Premiership asking to join but I can't see it happening. It'd mess with their agreement with the RFU, cause problems with the French league and while the salary cap has become less of a hard line than ever recently it'd totally blow it up having Toulon in the league.

Anyway, crazy finish to the ECC group stage this weekend. I thought Exeter had conceded their chances of getting into the knockouts with sending a weakened side to Bordeaux last week but off the back of a really good win against the Ospreys, Bordeaux beating Clermont and Morgan Parra apparently not knowing they only needed a losing bonus point when given a penalty right under the posts they scrape in on points difference. 

So that gives us:

Saracens-Northampton

Leicester-Stade Francais 

Racing-Toulon 

Wasps-Exeter

Really good year for the English sides so far.

Also Hartley has been confirmed as the England captain for the Six Nations. I'm not too unhappy, there aren't many clear cut options and we need a hooker who's solid at the set piece first and foremost, and Hartley is that. In an England shirt his disciplinary problems haven't really been that bad either to be fair. On the other hand it's hard to argue he actually deserves to start ahead of George on form at this point. 

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, ljkeane said:

I don't know about that. It encourages the winning side to keep playing but the losing side can't get two bonus points anymore so while they can deny the opposition points they've got less to gain themselves. I'm not drastically opposed to it but I;m not convinced it'll be a signifivant improvement either. We'll have to see how it goes I suppose.

 

Yes, that's true. Chopping down a 3 try deficit to 2 tries is unlikely to get you to a within 7 point losing BP unless you've been scoring a lot of penalties and despite a 3 try deficit you are still less than 14 points behind. Then again 3 unconverted tries is only worth 15 points, so a converted try and a penalty gets you inside that 7 point margin. Kind of makes changing tries to 6 points and conversions to 1 point really favour the winning team in this BP scenario and so significantly disincentivises the losing team to step up its efforts.

[Valandil]

17 hours ago, ljkeane said:

I don't know about that. It encourages the winning side to keep playing but the losing side can't get two bonus points anymore so while they can deny the opposition points they've got less to gain themselves. I'm not drastically opposed to it but I;m not convinced it'll be a signifivant improvement either. We'll have to see how it goes I suppose.

Apparently Boudjellal has written to the Premiership asking to join but I can't see it happening. It'd mess with their agreement with the RFU, cause problems with the French league and while the salary cap has become less of a hard line than ever recently it'd totally blow it up having Toulon in the league.

Anyway, crazy finish to the ECC group stage this weekend. I thought Exeter had conceded their chances of getting into the knockouts with sending a weakened side to Bordeaux last week but off the back of a really good win against the Ospreys, Bordeaux beating Clermont and Morgan Parra apparently not knowing they only needed a losing bonus point when given a penalty right under the posts they scrape in on points difference. 

So that gives us:

Saracens-Northampton

Leicester-Stade Francais 

Racing-Toulon 

Wasps-Exeter

Really good year for the English sides so far.

Also Hartley has been confirmed as the England captain for the Six Nations. I'm not too unhappy, there aren't many clear cut options and we need a hooker who's solid at the set piece first and foremost, and Hartley is that. In an England shirt his disciplinary problems haven't really been that bad either to be fair. On the other hand it's hard to argue he actually deserves to start ahead of George on form at this point. 

First year since 98 no Irish teams in the qtr finals, no Celtic teams at all. In fairness to the billionaire douchebags running English and French club rugby they're getting their way

[Which Tyler]

Not sure you can accuse Saints, Leicester or Exeter of being "Billionaire douchebags" there.

The other 5, absolutely (along with the failed Bath season)

[Which Tyler]

The Bath pack take on a Red Bull F1 car

http://www.redbull.com/uk/en/motorsports/f1/stories/1331774023778/f1-scrum-video-with-daniel-ricciardo-red-bull