The Rugby Thread

[pharvey]

^ Not to mention the Pro 12 final - Ulster vs Leinster (Sat) and also England vs BaaBaas on Sunday

[arcadianagain]

I regularly receive online offers from "Wowcher" for all sorts of things. Today`s offer is £15 adult and £12.50 child`s ticket to see the Barbarians v Fifi 30th November at Twickenham.

[redzonerocker]

Today`s offer is £15 adult and £12.50 child`s ticket to see the Barbarians v Fifi 30th November at Twickenham.

I imagine she'll take a bit of a battering

[pharvey]

Today`s offer is £15 adult and £12.50 child`s ticket to see the Barbarians v Fifi 30th November at Twickenham.

I imagine she'll take a bit of a battering

I'd missed that one ..... must get on this "Wowcher" site!!

Congrats to both Leinster and Leicester who both won finals against Ulster and Northampton respectively.

The Premiership final of Leicester vs Northampton will unfortunately, likely be remembered more for the antics of the Northampton Hooker and captain, Dylan Hartley...... once again . Hartley was shown a straight red card for allegedly calling referee Wayne Barnes a "f****** cheat" - he had earlier been warned for back-chat. Although Saints came out strongly after the break, the sending off realistically ended the final as a competition.

Hartley vehemently denies swearing at referee Barnes, instead insisting his comments were aimed at opposite number Tom Youngs....... the guy however is a first class tw@t and has plenty of previous. To mention a few, 2 week ban for punching, 8 week ban for biting, 26 week ban for gouging. Supposedly, the minimum ban for abusing/swearing at a referee is 6 weeks - any ban however would likely mean Hartley will be replaced in the Lions squad...... By no means a bad outcome IMHO as the Irish lad Rory Best should have been there from the start. Anywho, Hartley's disciplinary meeting will be held today, so the outcome will soon be known....

Here's looking forward to England vs Baabaas later today, with James Hook hopefully proving a point at fly-half for the Baabaas

[pharvey]

Well, as expected Hartley will miss the British Lions tour with his replacement expected to be announced early next week....... pack your bags Rory!!

Hartley pleading his innocence, was found guilty of abusing referee Barnes and receives an 11 week ban and will not be eligible to play again until September.

As for the Baabaas game, very disappointing - had enough by half-time...... unfortunately, literally zero time together prior to the game which showed.

[arcadianagain]

Hartley should not only have his arsed kicked he should have his Northampton contract cancelled. Would the Saints have won with 15, who knows, but they were guaranteed to lose with 14. He has history. He claims not to have heard the referee tell the kicker in the final minute of half time not to kick out on the full, total b/s, I heard him say it several times via his mike. He then claimed his swearing was directed to a Leicester player, that`s all right then. How many times have we, and the rest of the country, said that football could learn a lot from rugby`s diciplinary code.

[dtaai-maai]

Lions v BaaBaas.

Pretty dire stuff - not sure I'll bother with the 2nd half. A few haircuts might help.

[pharvey]

Lions v BaaBaas.

Pretty dire stuff - not sure I'll bother with the 2nd half. A few haircuts might help.

Far better than last week's game, but not exactly high paced - although, at 30+ degrees C and 90% humidity, you've got to have some sympathy, it's still been bloody physical!

Guys were complaining of losing 3-4Kg in the last 1hr training session, so a full game will obviously hit a lot harder.

Here's to the 2nd half !!

[pharvey]

Lions team to face Western Force named: -

Leigh Halfpenny, Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll (captain), Manu Tuilagi, George North, Jonny Sexton; Conor Murray; Cian Healy, Rory Best, Dan Cole, Alun Wyn Jones, Ian Evans, Tom Croft, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip.

Replacements: Tom Youngs, Mako Vunipola, Matt Stevens, Geoff Parling, Toby Faletau, Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell, Sean Maitland.

Certainly a strong looking side on paper - will be interesting to see the Tuilagi/BOD partnership in the center. Whilst Tuilagi can certainly make some holes in defenses, bringing those outside him into the game can be sometimes wanting.... not something you want with the likes of BOD, North, Bowe and Halfpenny there in this back-line.

The first real opportunity to stake a claim for a test place......

K.O. 6pm (local) 5pm (Thai) 11am (UK)

For those in the prediction league, don't forget to make your picks!!

[pharvey]

AND IT BEGINS!!!
The British Lions tour kicks off in Australia against Western Force....

[JimmyGreaves]

Went very well 'Tuilagi/BOD partnership in the center; Halfpennys kicking was exceptional! However not much force. Next up the Reds.

[dtaai-maai]

Where did you see it, JG? - I couldn't find it on Astro. Did you sell out and get Truevision?

[JimmyGreaves]

Where did you see it, JG? - I couldn't find it on Astro. Did you sell out and get Truevision?

No I couldn't find it on Astro but got a good feed online. First one in Hong Kong was on Astro, lets hope the tests are!

Anyway just clicked the feed again and still Sky Sports 1 with the cricket (Let it load no clicking around):

http://www.day.to/watch/live/streaming/ ... union.html

[pharvey]

Apologies guys, should have provided the link(s).....

Online: -

Whilst Sky 1 is a fairly decent stream, it can be a bit jerky and subject to deletion when the bods in Sky find out...... How dare they??!!

Setanta Sports is a very good stream - I watched the game today on Setanta Canada who it seems will be showing the entire tour: -

http://cricfree.tv/setanta-canada-live-streaming.php

TV-wise, if you have access to SuperSports (South Africa) in HH, which I used to have..... then matches are televised on that channel.



As to today's game: -

A win is a win, and some good displays. Halfpenny, Bowe, Heaslip and Sexton certainly put down very solid markers for their test team places.

A little disappointed with the forwards performance, but it's a first outing for most. It also doesn't help that the Australian RFU have pulled their "star players" from all matches prior to the test series - absolute tossers IMHO, and shows complete disrespect to a famous touring side..... who I might add are also putting a fair few coffers in the ARFU's pockets !

Let's hope it's a 3-0 series win for the Lions and they give a BIG F U to the A R U!!

Roll on the Red's on Saturday!!

[Big Boy]

Let's hope it's a 3-0 series win for the Lions and they give a BIG F U to the A R U!!

Coming from a man who thought a little bit of Australia would beat the combined might of the UK