The Road to Bilbao and Beyond: Rugby 2018

[ooh aah]

Just as likely to come from someone closer to home who has taken a disliking to Jones, and saving it for a time when he was under a bit of pressure.

[Ray de Galles]

Possibly but I cannot believe the timing is coincidental. Jones actually refers to this season’s home match against Ireland in the video as an opportunity for revenge and now it is a Grand Slam decider after England have lost two on the bounce and Jones is under presssure for the first time.

Someone has been very savvy and patient to drop this at exactly the right time...and very lucky that circumstances are so perfect this week.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I'm struggling to understand how long this has taken to surface seeing how long ago it was and how many were in attendance. The fact it's surfaced now is no coincidence.

He's lucky if he continues on in the job after this as it's banter that's no longer acceptable.

I presume this has meant we're more likely to be supporting Ireland on Saturday now.

[Ray de Galles]

WALES TEAM TO PLAY FRANCE

Leigh Halfpenny (Scarlets) (77 Caps)
George North (Northampton Saints) (72 Caps)
Scott Williams (Scarlets) (54 Caps)
Hadleigh Parkes (Scarlets) (5 Caps)
Liam Williams (Saracens) (47 Caps)
Dan Biggar (Ospreys) (61 Caps)
Gareth Davies (Scarlets) (31 Caps)
Rob Evans (Scarlets) (24 Caps
Ken Owens (Scarlets) (56 Caps)
Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs) (30 Caps)
Cory Hill (Dragons) (14 Caps)
Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys) (116 Caps) CAPT
Justin Tipuric (Ospreys) (56 Caps)
Josh Navidi (Cardiff Blues) (10 Caps)
Taulupe Faletau (Bath Rugby) (71 Caps)

Replacements:
Elliot Dee (Dragons) (4 Caps)
Nicky Smith (Ospreys) (17 Caps)
Samson Lee (Scarlets) (37 Caps)
Bradley Davies (Ospreys) (59 Caps)
Aaron Shingler (Scarlets) (16 Caps)
Aled Davies (Scarlets) (7 Caps)
Gareth Anscombe (Cardiff Blues) (13 Caps)?
Steff Evans (Scarlets) (9 Caps)

Love that back row, surprised to see Biggar at 10 and Liam unpunished for Saturday's indiscretion though.

[blameless]

Although there's absolutely no excuse for Scotland fans getting physical with him, Jones' behaviour really is akin to pissing on an electric fence and then complaining when you get a shock.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Just as likely to come from someone closer to home who has taken a disliking to Jones, and saving it for a time when he was under a bit of pressure.

It almost certainly came from someone a lot closer to home. I can't imagine a welsh person sitting on this, or a welsh organization either. And why would Irish or Welsh Fans be watching a youtube video of Eddie Jones talking to a bunch of english investment bankers? That sounds like someone checking up on the media profile of Eddie Jones might find.

[Ray de Galles]

I may have to revise my opinion on Ireland's chances of winning at Twickenham. England have picked Haskell...at 7!

England team to face Ireland: Watson; May, Joseph, Te'o, Daly; Farrell, Wigglesworth; M Vunipola, Hartley, Sinckler, Itoje, Kruis, Robshaw, Haskell, Simmonds.

Replacements: George, Marler, Cole, Launchbury, Armand, Care, Ford, Brown

[Antepli Ejderha]

Here's the Ireland team. No surprises at all.

Ireland: R Kearney; Earls, Ringrose, Aki, Stockdale; Sexton, Murray; Healy, Best (capt), Furlong, Ryan, Henderson, O'Mahony, Leavy, Stander.

Replacements: Cronin, McGrath, Porter, Toner, J Murphy, Marmion, Carbery, Larmour.

[Antepli Ejderha]

France name Bastareaud as captain and Slimani on the bench. No recalls again for the Edinburgh drinkers, have they been dropped for good?

France: Benjamin Fall; Gael Fickou, Mathieu Bastareaud (capt), Geoffrey Doumayrou, Remy Grosso; Francois Trinh-Duc, Maxime Machenaud; Jefferson Poirot, Adrien Pelissie, Cedate Gomes Sa, Paul Gabrillagues, Sebastien Vahamaahina, Wenceslas Lauret, Yacouba Camara, Marc Tauleigne.

Replacements: Camille Chat, Dany Priso, Rabah Slimani, Bernard Le Roux, Mathieu Babillot, Baptiste Couilloud, Lionel Beauxis, Geoffrey Palis.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Italy versus Scotland is the first match on Saturday and kicks off at 12.30. What would be a success for Italy? Not conceding four tries, getting a try scoring bonus point or a losing one? I cannot see any of those unfortunately and the debate about their place will gather more pace.

Italy: Minozzi, Benvenuti, Bisegni, Castello, Bellini, Allan, Violi; Lovotti, Ghiraldini, Ferrari, Zanni, Budd, Negri, Polledri, Parisse (capt).

Replacements: Fabiani, Quaglio, Pasquali, Steyn, Licata, Palazzani, Canna, Hayward.

Scotland: Hogg, Seymour, Jones, Grigg, Maitland, Russell, Laidlaw, Reid, Brown, Nel, Swinson, J Gray, Barclay (capt), Watson, Wilson.

Replacements: McInally, Bhatti, Fagerson, Gray, Denton, Price, Horne, Kinghorn.

[Antepli Ejderha]

I may have to revise my opinion on Ireland's chances of winning at Twickenham. England have picked Haskell...at 7!

England team to face Ireland: Watson; May, Joseph, Te'o, Daly; Farrell, Wigglesworth; M Vunipola, Hartley, Sinckler, Itoje, Kruis, Robshaw, Haskell, Simmonds.

Replacements: George, Marler, Cole, Launchbury, Armand, Care, Ford, Brown

Wigglesworth at 9? Looks quite desperate from the casual racist. A large and aggressive pack but little skill.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Wigglesworth at 9? Looks quite desperate from the casual racist. A large and aggressive pack but little skill.

Big units in the pack, Wigglesworth box kicking for 60 minutes until Care comes on. It's going to be one big rumble with little space for individual skill.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Big units in the pack, Wigglesworth box kicking for 60 minutes until Care comes on. It's going to be one big rumble with little space for individual skill.

England revert to type. The All Blacks are quaking in their boots.

And Uncle Eddie isn't going to be the Lions coach.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

So he's going to be managing England against Ireland. So we are to conclude that the RFU are totally cool with Casual racism, and they expect us all to be pretty chill about it?

I'm shocked I tell you. Shocked.

[Antepli Ejderha]

In fact he's a racist and should no better because of his background.

[Ray de Galles]

France name Bastareaud as captain and Slimani on the bench. No recalls again for the Edinburgh drinkers, have they been dropped for good?

Good point, I hadn’t picked up on that. Given the well-documented defensive problems all our back three players have out wide you would have thought Teddy Thomas could be a real threat.

[ooh aah]

I'm sure they haven't been dropped for good, but perhaps it was felt that dropping them for the whole tournament would send a message to the whole squad. That would in turn be beneficial in the long run, and it's not as if France were in any position to win the tournament after the Scotland game.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Iirc France go to to NZ in the summer so I can't imagine them going there without them but stranger things have happened and it does appear to have galvanised the team.

[ursus arctos]

Brunel told reporters that the sanction was over and that they could expect to see at least some of the players on the tour to New Zealand.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

In fact he's a racist and should no better because of his background.

It's just a thing that some australians like to do. See, people hear this at a rugby do and think it's a bit of banter or whatever, but that's not banter. There's loads of people in Australia who say that sort of shit and mean it. I've met too many people of my age who've spent a couple of years in Australia, and while they've loved the place, and most of the people are just grand, but there are a fair smattering of morons, and It would seem like a great place to go to hear a lot of old school anti-Irish racism, in regular use. The thing that no-one can get over is that these people are frequently called things like Murphy. How is this a thing in a country whose Robin Hood is called Kelly, whose great national saga is called the Sullivans, and whose mozart and Olivier are called Minogue and Donovan?

[Ray de Galles]

I can't be bothered devoting much thought to this Eddie Jones thing but thought this (from Welsh clothing company Cowbois) was funny:

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Cowbois are ace - we have a fair few of their shirts. Based in Bala, I think.

I'm not bothered with the Eddie Jones furore - it's not like we didn't know he was an irritating little shite beforehand.

[ursus arctos]

New Canada kit, featuring their new retro badge

[Antepli Ejderha]

Blues Benetton on BBC 2 Wales and the red button. Feels very flat but that's to be expected with so many players away on international duty.

[Ray de Galles]

Just found the Wales u-20s game on S4C* and wish I hadn’t as we’re 3-24 down with less than ten minutes left. With the home loss to Italy last week it might be a sign of the paucity below the national side we’ve all been worrying about for a while. Though I hear the WRU and regions are more in tandem on player development than for a long time it may take a while for that to bear fruit.

* do they alternate coverage with BBC Wales then? I ended up watch the Blues game wondering what had happened to the u-20 and didn’t think to go to S4C