Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

The 2024 Local Elections are in, and they need a little bit of unpacking. The headline is clear: this is a catastrophe for the Conservatives. However, it’s worth remembering that the Tories had an unexpected high mark when these seats were last contested - it was just after the first vaccine rollout and they had a huge lift in the polls. Big losses were inevitable because they’re nowhere near that. That said, in most parts of the country, they’ve lost, and lost badly to Labour. In places where they were up against the LibDems, they’ve lost to them. This is pretty much business as usual for British politics. While it is tricky to generalise from local elections to general elections, it would be fair to say this pattern reflects the national opinion polls and while you couldn’t say “this means Labour will win seat X” or “the LibDems will win seat Y” with any confidence but you can suggest that the LibDems will be a threat in seats where they were second to the Tories in 2019, while Lab...

Super Saturday is here. There are quite a few questions this year. Can Wales win a game and do better than the men? Can they avoid the wooden spoon? Who will finish third and not only play in WX1 but guarantee a place at next year’s World Cup? (The other three teams can still make it, but the team that finishes third will qualify today.) The Matches Wales v Italy The match was played at The Principality Stadium as part of a huge day of Welsh rugby, four matches in total. While I think this is a great thing in general, the women’s fixtures have been packing out the Arm's Park and the same crowd (actually a somewhat larger one) is lost in the Principality, which is a bit of a shame. This was a nervy match, it’s not right to say that neither side wanted to win, they both tried but the shortcomings that have been on display throughout the championship haunted both sides. The Welsh pack were superior, although far from faultless, the Italian backs were superior but the Welsh defence c...

I don’t normally editorialise about the games in this introduction but Saturday’s matches were both compelling to watch, at least live, yet completely different. Sunday’s match didn’t quite live up to the Saturday matches, although it was still interesting in its own way. The Matches England v Ireland The first ten minutes or so of this game looked edgy and nervous, both sides making silly mistakes. Then England started passing better, catching the ball and boom; fourteen tries later, the final whistle blew and if you don’t like blow out results this match was finally sent to its rest. But if you enjoy watching flowing, attacking rugby, this was a pretty game. Even as a Welsh fan I can acknowledge that. I just wish it wasn’t England producing it. Speaking with my Welsh hat on, I have to wonder what happened to the Ireland side from last week. They were brave, aggressive on both sides of the ball and committed against us. This week they hardly showed up, for 78 minutes a bunch of peop...

With various things (like what passes for a real life) going on, and an inability to tell the time, I watched these matches late and off recordings rather than live. I also knew the first two results before I watched the matches, which has possibly skewed my thoughts a bit. The Matches Scotland v England England are still adjusting to their new systems a bit, and were missing a few of their more experienced players. In the first half it was hard to tell whether Scotland were defending better than we’d ever seen or England were suffering because of the loss of the older heads and just not quite focussed. In the second half it became apparent it was the latter. Mitchell was able to grab the team, shake them by the scruff of the neck and get them to go out and fight. They put 30 (strictly 29) on the Scots and it looked far more comfortable. Scotland have come a fair way since last year, but they still have a fair way to go. England are changing game plans, coaches and personnel, but ar...

Last week we had an interesting opening round, with France looking more like a group of strangers than a team, Wales just losing to Scotland on a heart-breaking last second missed conversion, and England looking very ordinary for the first half. This week, we’re looking for improvements for lots of those sides, plus looking to see how much Italy bounce back after being totally repressed by England, even when they weren’t playing well. The Matches Scotland v France Last week we saw solid defence and a rather one-dimensional attack from Scotland, while France were rather chaotic but far too good for Ireland. I am starting there because France closed down the Scottish attack line from last week, giving up their only try to ongoing pressure close to the line, but in attack they were awful - they did enough to win, and some of their blown chances were down to inspired Scottish defence, but some were down to just plain bad French skills and alignment. However, where last week the Scottis...

The main event is here! Not only are the women back in action, but this year whoever finishes third will also guarantee a place at next year’s Rugby World Cup. England and France have already qualified, and are presumed to finish first and second again before we start. Teams that finish lower will have to try and qualify by finishing in the top six unqualified places in WXV later this year, but finishing third in a few weeks removes any worries. The Matches France v Ireland Because Stade de France is undergoing redevelopment work for the Olympics, Les Bleues are on tour too. France have a blend of players from last year’s W6N, WXV and a few real youngsters in their squad. They have enough strength and depth that their sevens squad is basically separate. Players do move between them but, a bit like Dupont for the men, it’s more of an occasional thing. Not so Ireland, last year they took the decision to strip the best players and send them to the sevens circuit, focusing on the Olympic...

Super Saturday is here, and as we go into it all the matches could matter. Even if Ireland sew up the title in the second game, France v England always matters, even if it can’t really affect the title. The Matches Wales v Italy First I want to say congratulations to Italy. They’ve built from their draw that should have been a win against France, then their home win against Scotland and come to Wales and backed it up with a win and their best points total ever in the M6N. For most of the game they were firmly in control and while the Welsh defence managed to keep Italy to 11-0 at halftime and only 24 points at full time, with only two tries, for most of the game that was the only bright spot from a Welsh perspective. Until about the 60th minute, more specifically the arrival of Grady and Rowlands, the Italian defence swallowed up almost all the Welsh attack easily. They came forward quickly, and every attack was pushed back, phase after phase, until they had to kick. This was helped b...