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The English Election Results

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In the UK, we have a variety of local elections, for councillors and mayors, every year on a four yearly cycle, so roughly a quarter of the seats change every year. It so happens that this year in the cycle all the seats that were up for grabs were in England. In addition, there was a by-election because the former Labour MP for Runcorn had stepped down after being found guilty of assaulting a constituent. Not a good look for an MP. The big headline is that Reform UK won the Runcorn by-election. Labour losing is, perhaps, not a shock. Incumbent governments tend not to do well in by-elections, even in (formerly) safe seats like Runcorn. Turnouts are low, indeed the total votes in the by-election were lower than the votes the now disgraced MP got last year. There’s always a protest against those in power - every government has to make hard decisions and those upset people. Labour are doing that really spectacularly “well”. Removing the winter fuel allowance and the welfare reforms may ...
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Women's Six Nations 2025, Week 5

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Final places will be determined this weekend but the normal procession of matches on Super Saturday has been disrupted by outside events. Italy were meant to host Wales in Rome but a slightly more important event, the funeral of Pope Francis, was also taking place so the rugby was pushed back 23 hours. The part of me that is an atheist rugby tragic might want to grumble, but the part of me that avidly consumes the news every day thinks that the pope’s funeral is just a bit more important. Anyway, on the reviews. The Matches Scotland v Ireland I wanted to like this game, but for large periods it seemed to promise much and not really deliver. That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of effort but it felt like a game where both sides were well matched and, rather than producing an interesting tussle, they largely nullified each other. Even when one side or another crossed the try line, the ball was held up several times. I can enjoy a good defensive tussle, but this didn’t feel like that ...
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Women's Six Nations 2025, Week Four

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This should be a weekend of buildup for the big showdown and jockeying for final positions. But the rugby gods are fickle, and several of these matches have wider ramifications, France and Italy face each other again in Pool D of the RWC for example, in August, so there are a lot of subplots. The Matches Italy v France Sometimes clichés exist for a reason. “It was a game of two halves,” may be a cliché, but sometimes it’s just accurate. In the first half we saw 33 points, in the second half only 8 until the last five minutes when the Italians were chasing the game and conceded two soft tries. In the whole first half Italy conceded only two penalties, they’d conceded twice as many in the first ten minutes of the second half, and whilst you wouldn’t say that they were profligate, there was a steady trickle of Italian penalties throughout the half, I think 10 in total. In the first half Italy had a million lineouts (I think it was 16), won them all, routinely took that into a driving mau...
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Women's Six Nations 2025, Week Two

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This week Scotland and Wales are the sacrificial lambs, Ireland visit Italy for the competitive match of the weekend. The Matches France v Scotland If you only look at the final score you might think ☑️ job done by France, next please. And, at the very highest level, that’s fair. France scored four tries, kept Scotland to two, one after the clock had gone red, and kept the scoreboard moving with penalties and a drop goal as well. But the French coaches will not be completely happy. Les Bleues dropped try-scoring chances like a drunk trying to pick up a €1 coin when they can’t stand unaided. Three of their tries came in a ten minute period when everything clicked for them and the Scots just couldn’t live with them. For the rest of the match, the Scots might have been hanging on by their fingertips, but they essentially denied the French attempts to score tries, or forced them into silly mistakes. On the plus side, the French continued to dominate territory and possession and were tak...
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Women's Six Nations 2025, Week 1

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The biggest question, the perennial question of recent times, is can anyone beat England? But, that’s not the only question. At last year’s WXV Ireland were the surprise package. Did they flatter to deceive as other teams blooded new combinations before the World Cup later this year or was it a real improvement? Whilst I have a lot of sympathy for Cunningham, who paid the price for some terrible off-field behaviour by the WRU and the uncertainty that sewed throughout the squad, we have a new Welsh coach, literally hot off last week's PWR victory, and a fresh team. How will the Welsh Women go? The Italians also have a new coach, although not quite as minty fresh as Sean Lynn. The Matches Ireland v France This was a game with a lot of effort and good moments, but a lot of inaccuracies. France will rue the penalties, and particularly the red card, that they gave away. These conspired to keep the Irish close for longer than they probably deserved. Equally, the Irish will look at the...
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Men's Six Nations, 2025, Team of the Tournament

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With no Grand Slam this year I’m not constrained to think of reasons not to pick a XV from a single country. Normally I pick by units, front row, second row etc, but in some places combinations of injuries, suspensions and tactical changes are making that frankly impossible. For the most part I’m sticking to picking units from a single country still, but not always. Rather than picking 1-23, I’m going to pick in sections, and give honourable mentions in each section. Front Row Gros Mauvaka Atonio L'équipe de bombe, that is the French Bomb Squad, Baille, Marchand and Aldegheri all deserve a mention. I don’t think Sheehan is as good an all-round player as Mauvaka and Marchand, particularly in defence, but he is very good at what he does. Shoeman and Fagerson would make my Lions squad and round out this section. Porter would probably make a lot of teams but, for me, he was a) shown up by WillGriff John, and b) he still draws too many stupid penalties. I’m sure many people would ...
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Men's Six Nations, 2025. Week Five

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Super Saturday and everyone, except Scotland, has something more than pride to play for. Wales and Italy are scraping to avoid the wooden spoon. Although France are in pole position, in theory any of Ireland, England or France can win the tournament. That’s the order in which they play, so they each know what they have to do as they take the field. The Matches Italy v Ireland This was a frustrating match to watch, certainly as a neutral, I suspect even more if you support one of these teams. Ireland, for most of the game, were poor. They made a lot of handling errors, gave up a lot of penalties and were generally out of sorts. They did click, from time to time, and scored, but they often made hard work of it. That’s despite a red card and two yellow cards given up by Italy that had an impact, and a card right at the end of the game that’s probably going to be red. The resulting penalty was kicked up and then out to end the game, so it didn’t affect anything. But Italian ill-disciplin...
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