people who bag their dogs poo and hang it from a tree

people who use the single portaloos that have a urinal and a regular toilet but still p1ss on seat of toilet

TNT coverage was decent I thought. Austin Healy can be a bit marmite but he knows rugby and when he doesn’t have skin in the game i.e. Leinster or England playing is very good on co commentary

Some really decent Champions Cup ties this weekend, really looking forward to Leinster Vs La Rochelle, and Northampton V Bulls. Gloucester V Ospreys could also be worth a watch as likely both teams taking competition seriously.

Munster fans pretty resigned to John Ryan (prop) getting cited and banned after that. Luke McGrath’s tackle should be a red even if some mental gymnastics allows current guidance to be interpreted differently.

Kingdom trails going on the list!

I assume the weather is mostly better than the UK? It’s a fair way down compared to us.

Always had amazing weather when we’ve gone to the states. But appreciate this is a totally different climate to the mid-west.

Was skiing in VT this weekend and the June Edition of Vermont Sports Magazine was in our accommodation, article on page 24 might be useful for trails and Page 7 for places to stay. I’ts available online at VTSports.com https://vtsports.com/vermont-sports-2023-june-issue/

We ate here which is featured https://www.madbushfalls.com/stay

Is it ok to say I wish there wasn’t a Womens 6 Nations. The mens only makes any sense because of history. You would never invent a competition that is inherent unfairness built in, i.e teams have a different number of home and away games in a season. Mismatches are worse than the men’s game, it would have made more sense to have 2 groups with promotion / relegation via play offs each season.

It’s definitely doable if you have the skills, I know someone who renovated an abandoned pub recently and opened as a cafe with his partner who is a chef. Building was on historical buildings register which added a ton of cost and complications – Irish version of Listed status.

I have recently moved to Connecticut, I’ve done a couple of trips over the winter to ski in Vermont but not been their for Mountain Biking, Kingdom Trails seem to be one of the main areas people head to, also many of the ski resorts like Killington seem to have bike parks. We have being going west to upstate NY which is not New England. Also don’t discount niping across the border to Quebec City if you are in Northern Vermont, that is where my local chapter of NEMBA do their annual weekend away as it is closer than Maine,

Living half my life in Kerry it’s astonishing how much rugby is challenging the football GAA.
There are big, athletic lads down here who now want to play rugby.

Pity David Clifford chose Gaelic Football, would have been a hell of a full back or center. I know what you mean though, Guys like Ben O’Connor and Gleeson in Irish U20 would probably played stayed playing hurling a few years ago.

Could you get your salary paid into a HSBC Dollar account?

How are the trailcross as normal everyday non biking shoes?

I bought them as a commuter shoe I could wear to the office, don’t find them that comfortably. Old 5:10 are way nicer to wear all day but don’t look as smart. They feel like the old Shimano commuter / leisure shoes. Also a narrow enough fit so I had to size up.

Also a hooker who can throw AND carry

Don’t be greedy!

Anyone else listen to Rugby Union Daily with Sam Warburton, he always comes across so well, he has a great attitude and is one of the best people to listen to as he is balanced in his comments.

Must pick up the latest episodes. Normally listen to it, was there one in particular?

That must be the smallest  backrow England have put out in years, could struggle in lineout unless Roots is a decent option.

Just seen 1/2p in the Crusaders squad to play Munster on their preseason tour. How did I miss that?

I was a bit surprised that Cardiff had Bath, then Hairyqueens and then Racing… Seemed a tough draw! 

It was a tough draw, the fact that you play every team in your group except the team from your league means your best chance of a weak team is one of the French teams who are not keen and send their seconds.

The repeat fixtures are a bit crap but maybe a freak outcome. Some great games at the weekend especially Bordeaux away in SA. Ulster at Quins was comically funny, Quins had 7 tries for 9 visits to Ulster 22!.  If R16 goes to form La Rochelle play Leinster in 1/4 finals which even though they play each other every year I’m certainly not sick off. 

Competition has maybe 5 or 6 outstanding teams, Bordeaux, Toulouse, La Rochelle, Leinster and possibly the Bulls especially at home, of the English teams Northampton have the best chance of breaking into this group.

Leinster fans losing their minds over Peter O Mahony being made Irish captain and not their anointed James Ryan.

10 mins in microwave is a long time! 3 or 4 mins turning bottom to top every minute, then 160 for 20 -30 mins is normally enough for a decent size spud

Watched it, Munster imploded after a great first half. Mainly because all their big second rows are injured, and they had to play a number 8 at 4 for the game but Conor Murray’s appearance off the bench didn’t help. Has been a great player Munster and Ireland but he had a game he will want to forget and I don’t think he should be near the side now except the odd URC game. Credit to Exeter though, really agressive blitz defense and Slade is playing really well.

No Sarries fan but thought it should have been overturned, fair amount of simulation from the guy it hit

2 pretty watchable club games this evening Quins V Sale and Munster V Glasgow. Will watch the first half of the latter and maybe decide at HT which is more competitive for 2nd half.

lots of good advice here, basically my aerobic fitness is writing cheques my legs can’t cash when I’m running, I try to run once a week 5-8km but will often miss a few weeks. It feels easy while you are doing it but I get pretty sore leg muscles  especially quads the next day. The other odd thing is cycling seems to make you a disproportionally better uphill runner than you should be for your speed on the flat.

Legend is overused word but pretty accurate in AWJ case, would have been nice if it was an international game but  sounds like the Toulon crowd gave him a good send off

If you are driving south from Belfast to Cork or Limerick to get to the South West, the Galtee mountains and Ballyhoura MTB Trail Centre are a good place for a stop over & a  hike / bike. These are not far from Cahir Castle which was mentioned earlier. I have a cracking walk in Galtees and the nearby Ballyhoura trail centre is pretty good day out with just under 100km of purpose built trails and decent bike rental. 

We moved abroad and took the dog, my wife and daughter go back to the UK over the summer and Christmas period for most of US school holidays leaving me with the dog. Our dog was pretty traumatised doing the flight in cargo so we won’t put her through it again until we go back for good. One person  we know here goes back via France as Air France allow small dogs on board and then Eurostars it to London. 

David Humphreys former Ulster & Ireland and Head Coach for Gloucester and Ulster looks like he might get the Ireland High Performance Director role replacing David Nucifora. Its a pretty important role in Irish rugby as IRFU pay all the coaches of the provinces, decide which players get central contracts, have to sign off on any overseas signings. They can also heavily influence players to change provinces and probably should do a bit more to distribute some of the players down the pecking order at Leinster across the other teams where they might challenge for a starting position. I’m pretty happy with appointment, met him once at Gloucester’s training ground and he seemed pretty sharp.

Just been back through the last 5 pages of posts and somewhere between 20 and 25% of the posts are knocking England, or England’s players, or their style of play, etc.

are you counting those by English fans? 

At this price their lack of durability isn’t a problem, many thanks OP! Great PSA

villageidiotdanFree Member

@ElVino. Interesting perspective from the right side of the pond.

There’s no border control between each state right? So isn’t it a case of lowest common denominator – meaning you just go get your automatic rifle from the next state across?

In theory that is true, I guess most places you have to show ID to purchase a gun even if they don’t do a background check.  The tightening of laws has definitely made a difference to gun crime in CT. It also helps that we are surrounded by states with similarly tight gun laws. Saying there is no point tightening them just because state down the road has loose laws is another reason to do nothing.

Moved here just over a year ago, to Connecticut.  The Road club I joined regularly pass Sandy Hook Memorial on our club runs. I’ve met a couple who’s kid was in the school that day and lost one of his best friends and a woman who counsels parents of survivors. There is a fair amount states can do to restrict access to these type of weapons. CT has tightened it’s rules considerably, still not perfect but I’ve heard people describe each law like a layer of swiss cheese eventually there will be few holes.

Red & Blue states are like different countries and on an increasingly divergent path, Maine may well try to do something about access to these type of weapons although I suspect not enough to restrict access to a firearms instructor. Places like Texas are beyond hope!

I think I can answer the Vivoactive question, No, the 5 isn’t included just the 4 & 4S – the 5 seems to be full price at £260

Porter has been on borrowed time for years, he never scrums straight. Sad state of affairs when something has been obvious for years but then only seems to be noticed in a world cup knock out game though.

Porter is a converted tighthead, he moved across to loose because Leinster and Ireland thought the had sufficient cover at TH. He still wants to try to push with both shoulders. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move back given decline of Furlong.

England now blame the 2019 loss to SA for Sinckler having to be replaced by Cole and the 2023 one for Cole being  replaced by Sinckler. I do have some sympathy having seen a “dominant” but illegal Irish scrum penalized 3 times against  New Zeeland for very similar to what SA seemed to be rewarded for. Maybe we should hope for BOK as a ref going forward.

This game seems depressingly predictable! Hope I’m wrong. 

So ABs are 18 point favourites Vs Argentina and SA are 13 point Favourites. Straight betting ABs are 1/9 and SA are 1/5. England maybe worth a punt to lose by less than 13 points. I think ABs will win by 20+

There’s a lot of chat about the incredible Irish “conveyer belt” of talent. Why then is fully half their starting back line, well, not Irish?

I guess there is 2 things going on here. People who are Irish qualified by birth through a parent and people who qualified through residency. The former I quite like and will continue to happen, we are not quite as good as Scotland but provinces are busy hoovering up players like Mike Halley, Antoine Firsh and even Billy Burns who are Irish qualified at birth, the second one like Lowe, JGP & Bundee is a bit different, qualified through residency. I suspect this will happen less and less now the qualification period is 5 years although there are a few in the system that may make it. Funniest one is Jean Kleyn who is in the SA squad this world cup having previously played for Ireland so becoming the first Irish International to make a world cup semi final!

No, a real subsidy, the state pays the teachers’ salaries.

Don’t get me started on this, I find it hilarious that people in UK moan (rightly) about school fees being VAT exempt and Irish people accept this massive subsidy to the private sector every year. Add in the tax exemption for your earnings from sport and most Irish rugby players have had a fair old subsidy over their education and careers.

Yeah plenty of the Irish team come from schools that charge fees, very different fee levels to the English Private School system – St Michaels in Dublin who usually have 3 or 4 in the squad charge around 6,200 euros per year. I think most of the Ulster players come from the Grammar school system, Munster players come from a couple of Cork schools that charge around 4K per year or club system around Limerick.

Still feel slightly sick about the Ireland V NZ game but this Irish team have given me a fair amount of joy over the last world cup cycle. For someone who has been watching Ireland games for over 40 years the idea we would even be slight favourites against NZ when we had never even won a game against them in over 100 years. People can say we choked and I suspect we did in the first 15 mins allowing them a lead which we never overhauled. Going forward we will be fine, 2 consecutive Grand Slams at U20 mean we have some good players coming through. Eventually we will get a kinder draw and win a quarter final.

As for semi, I hope England win, I’d be surprised if they do but maybe SA will struggle to get back to this level again for an opponent they expect to beat!

How was Farrell Player of the match! I haven’t a dog in the fight but thought Ben Earl was stand out English player.