williamjm

England did seem like the better side overall, but it's always risky trying to win games without scoring tries. It can work, but it does mean that any lead is likely to be precarious and vulnerable to a late comeback.

Yes, they are bold.

It is weird that England are now the only unbeaten team left in the tournament. Normally that might suggest they were the favourites, but it does say more about the draw than the quality of the team. Even mediocre England teams tend to be difficult to beat so one upset might not be impossible but I don't see two consecutive upsets happening.

They also had to come through the qualifying tournament because they hadn't been in the top 8. Go back 20 years and tell people that Sri Lanka and West Indies would be in a qualifying tournament for the world cup while Afghanistan and Bangladesh qualified automatically and they would have thought you were crazy. In other news, cricket is apparently going to be in the 2028 Olympics. It feels a bit unnecessary for the men's game, I'm not sure the sport really needs another global tournament and I'm generally not keen on most of the big team sports being in the Olympics. I guess it might be more beneficial for the women's game?

I wouldn't say Ember Blade is really 'grimdark'. At the time I think Wooding said that he wanted to write something more akin to the epic fantasies of the 80s and 90s than most modern series although I think the series does have more cynicism than a lot of those did. I did enjoy it, although I don't think it's Wooding's best work.

I did wonder when Verstappen got up to second if he would be able to hunt down Piastri but he didn't make much impression on him. It was a great victory for Piastri. I think it's fair to say that starting on the soft tyres was not a good decision for anyone who tried it.

I think Ireland have just reinforced their position as favourites with that comprehensive victory. In the earlier game Samoa will probably feel they should have beaten England because they looked like the superior team for most of the game. I'm sure Fiji will have been taking notes.

Netherlands almost threatened to cause an upset against Pakistan with a good bowling performance but they needed more than a couple of their batsmen to contribute in the run chase.

I think Nona is a lot easier to read than Harrow, although there's still plenty of weird inexplicable stuff going on. I did enjoy it more as well, although Harrow does have some great scenes in it (the dinner party is very memorable).

That was a very comprehensive victory for New Zealand and I'm sure they took particular satisfaction from it being England that were their opponents. It always looked likely to be an under-par total but Conway and Ravindra looked like they could have chased down a much larger one. New Zealand always seem to be able to lift themselves when it comes to a tournament. I think it doesn't help that it's such a long tournament with an interminable group stage. Clashing with the rugby world cup is also likely to distract some attention.

For a large portion it is a very confusing book to read. I think it does start to make some sort of sense towards the final section (at least by the standards of the series).

We are now somehow 3/4 of the way through the year. I'm not sure how that happened. I finished Ann Leckie's Translation State. It's loosely connected to her Ancillary trilogy but mostly focusing on new characters. In the previous trilogy the Translators, humans bred to be able to be intermediaries between the largely incomprehensible alien Presger and humanity (and other alien races), had played a significant role in some parts of the story but we did not learn much about them. The two main plot threads here both involve Translators, one focusing on a juvenile intimidated by the thought of following the path its elders have laid out for it and another focusing on a seemingly hopeless search to track down a Translator who went AWOL decades previously. The portrayal of how the Translators grow up is memorably unusual. This is a book in which there are potentially huge events happening in the background but most of the focus is on the characters and their efforts to try and live their lives they way they want (if they can figure out what it is they want). Overall, the plot is perhaps a bit less compelling than in Ancillary Justice and occasionally seems to rely on some pretty huge coincidences but the characters are engaging and it does come to a satisfying ending. I have now started Neil Gaiman's Death : The High Cost of Living.

Scotland's big win over Tonga keeps alive their chances, but they are going to have play better if they want to upset Ireland in the final group match. There were still too many malfunctioning lineouts and while they did score 7 tries it felt like they missed a few more opportunities they should have taken. I do feel a bit sorry for Tonga having been drawn in a group with the teams ranked 1, 2 and 5 in the world. They must be looking enviously at Fiji's draw. It was a great victory for Wales. Out of the three big teams to change their coach in the year before the World Cup it seems to be working best for them, although given Gatland's long history with coaching Wales it was a fairly safe choice. Australia must be embarrassed by what happened.

The Stade de France definitely sounded like it was in Dublin. It's not going to matter for South Africa in most games but in tight matches like this it can be decisive.

Or maybe he could take inspiration from the Scandinavian part of LLotS and do his take on the Icelandic sagas. That might suit his recent fondness for doing lots of side stories.

Nature documentaries: David Attenborough.

I watched Equalizer 3. Compared to the second film I think this went back to a more natural plot for the franchise with McCall trying to help protect people from a criminal gang. I liked the Italian setting, even if it is determined to leave no cliche unused in its portrayal of the Camora villains. There's nothing particularly original here but it is well executed for the sort of film that it is and Denzel's performance lifts it above most similar films. I also watched Black Adam, the trailers for it hadn't tempted me to watch it at the cinema when it was out last year but now I can watch it for free I gave it a try. It does at least have a coherent plot and the effects don't look terrible, which puts it above half of the other DC films, but I think it's hard to give it any more than faint praise. It does give a better reason for the (anti-)heroes to be fighting each other in it and does acknowledge that a bunch of Americans showing up in the Middle East declaring that they will restore peace and will fight anyone who gets in their way is problematic. However, the plot is lumbered with a lot of clunky exposition and the characterisation is shallow, particularly for the Justice Society. I think Pierce Brosnan is the highlight and he does at least seem to be enjoying himself.

I'm not sure anyone really does. The US failing to qualify for this year's tournament can't help, they usually at least manage to do that even if they don't win many matches when they get there.

Could we finally end up having a winner this year who isn't driving a Red Bull? Is that even allowed? I think one of the more surprising things is having both Red Bulls out-qualified by an Alpha Tauri driven by someone in their third race. Liam Lawson must be making a good argument for a permanent race seat next year.

Houdini? How many other escape artists could we name almost 100 years after their death.

I know some people who were big fans of his (presumably not any more), and I always found that a bit puzzling because there always seemed something very creepy about him.

Are you suggesting that the unidentified sitting MP who is going to be at the meeting could be Starmer?

Out of the Marvel shows I think Wandavision, Loki and Moon Knight were my favourites. I really enjoy Only Murders in the Building as well. Andor I think is the best thing Star Wars has done since probably Empire Strikes Back. The Mandalorian is good fun, although I think the first season is the best.

Whoever is responsible for the anthems should be arrested for crimes against music. Out of the three matches I've seen, I would say as a neutral France/New Zealand was very good but Australia/Georgia and England/Argentina were turgid, Georgia and Argentina barely turned up. However, I'm sure England fans won't be complaining too much after a clinical performance. I did like the return of the often-overlooked drop goal as a scoring option. Hopefully tomorrow's matches will be more entertaining. Probably the best Scotland side ever to show up to a World Cup run headlong into the formidable South Africa. South Africa could well dominate in the set-piece and smother the Scots, if the game is a bit more free-flowing it could be a more interesting contest although the South African backs are also dangerous. Wales/Fiji will hopefully be a good contest as well.

I read Shannon Chakraborty's The River of Silver, a short story collection in the world of her Daevabad trilogy. I thought this was a bit different to some other spin-off short story collections I've read. Earlier this year I read James S.A. Corey's Expanse spin-off Memory's Legion, and although the target audience was clearly fans of the main series I think the stories would also stand on their own. The stories here on the other hand feel more like vignettes, many of them apparently originating as material cut out of the trilogy. I think fans of the trilogy should enjoy these, there are a lot of good character moments in them that perhaps wouldn't have fit in the main narrative but which do provide a bit of extra depth. Getting to meet a couple of characters who died before the books began but who had a big influence on the plot is particularly welcome. I really enjoyed Dogs of War and the sequel is also good.