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Summer Internationals 2025, Week 3

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Of the matches on offer this weekend I did not watch SA v Georgia, although I intended to, nor Argentina v Uruguay, again I intended to. The first match coincided with a thunderstorm and a cracking headache. The result was spoiled and I had little desire to watch it. Argentina v Uruguay failed to record for some reason, and while I could probably find it, I’ve seen the result (I didn’t look until I realised I couldn’t watch and the SA result had been spoiled) so I’m not going to make an effort. I think it’s good that these games are being played and I want to support them in general. Samoa v Scotland When you fall back on the cliché “men against boys” it’s usually a description of a disparity in experience, such as the full strength SA side against a Welsh team with fewer caps than their front row on its own, or a David v Goliath matchup like Portugal v Ireland. In this match the first impression, and one that remained as the match progressed, was much more literal. The Samoan blinds...
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Summer Internationals 2025, Week 2

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Another week, another crazy day of rugby. Fiji v Scotland This was a game of contrasting styles, luck and one where Scotland will be thankful that things didn’t click for Fiji much more consistently or this could have been a cricket score. It started well for Scotland, they got the ball, applied phase pressure and scored a nice try after about five minutes. In the rest of the first half there might have been 30s when the ball was anywhere near the Fijian 22. However, offloaded inaccurately, dropped the ball uncharacteristically and generally blew chances galore until the 35th minute when they scored a try from a driving maul (yes, Fiji pushed Scotland over) and then a lovely wide move to score in the corner as they suddenly regained confidence. Scotland were missing a cluster of stars on Lions duty, but still had a number of familiar names. From about the half hour mark they all looked gassed. Suva having its effect on visitors again. Wales managed the conditions in Japan better tho...
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Summer Internationals 2025, Week 1

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I am going to briefly touch on the two friendlies that happened before this weekend as well, then dive into the main matches of the weekend. What I won’t. Be reviewing is the Lions matches against the Australian SR sides. They’re build up matches as Farrell and co look for combinations and try to work out how their charges are gelling, against SR teams weakened by having their stars taken out to the Wallabies and then some released back to them. It’s an important part of the build up, but shouldn’t be a challenge. Nor will I be reviewing the Ireland games, I can’t get to see them. BIL v Argentina This was a friendly, officially, and marked the centennial of the first match between the two teams. Argentina came to visit, weakened by having a batch of players still playing in France, but still with the core of the team together. The Lions were playing their first match and also playing a side weakened by choosing not to play anyone who had been involved for Leinster, Leicester or Northa...
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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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