Went to Twickenham on Saturday as it was a chance to bring the kids to see England V Ireland at an almost affordable level compared to 6N prices. I thought May looked excellent really strong and sharp.

Ireland looked a bit rusty but I’m not too concerned yet. We have a few weeks to peak unlike England and Wales who will need to be sharp from the getgo.

Coach under 11s, eldest plays scrum half and wore it when he was starting out, it stops a multitude of little grazes especially knocks to the ears on cold days. He still wears his on freezing cold days for warmth more than anything.

Younger wears it now (U11) he plays hooker – old rules, 5 man scrums. My opinion is that while it doesn’t protect against injury it does protect against the things that often have the kids coming off hurt and crying. From a coaches point of view this is a good thing and must increase the kids enjoyment and confidence.

Kearney is ponderous and doesnt tackle well, no idea why anyone would rate him.

– This is very true, bizarrely just like England Ireland have tons of full backs playing elsewhere or not in the team. Zebo, Keith Earls, Henshaw and Payne have all played lots of rugby at 15. I would prefer to see Payne there than centre where apart from the Scotland game he was very average.

Hogg
1/2p
Joseph
Henshaw
North
Sexton
Murray
Healy
Cronin
Cole
Laws
OConnell
Sean O Brian
Vunipola
Warburton

Liam Williams is a much better player than I thought he was going to be, real breakthrough season for him 1/2 should move to wing then he might be concussed less.

How can anyone seeing that not think that Lawes was a very lucky boy.

All I can think is how lucky the French 10 was not to spend the rest of his life in wheelchair. Technically it is hard to find anything illegal about the tackle it just wish it was.

Everyone in ireland knows Neil Francis is a troll, no one takes his rubbish very seriously

Well done Wales, superb game. Off to cry into my Guinness .

Seems that Steve Walsh has pulled out for “business reasons”
Wayne Barnes has been appointed according to Irish Times
Offside line not important in Wales V Ireland

rantham to kings cross and then a tube towards Houses of Parliament ish (you can probably tell that I don’t know London!)

Which party are you running for? planning to pocket the 2nd homes allowance?

I would love to see someone like Keith Earls or Luke Fitz come into the Irish squad. Earls try and overall performance against Glasgow this weekend was fantastic even if the opposition was severely depleted. Either would offer significantly more than Felix Jones off the bench if we needed to chase the game against Wales

Keith Earls Try V Glasgow[/url]

The hire car company our firm uses has lots of them so I have driven a few models both in town and long motorway spins. The look OK, never seem underpowered compared to my 2L SMax
However my handlebar punched a 3 cm diameter hole in the plastic trim which seemed to be only about 2mm thick when carrying it in the boot. this has never happened before so if you plan to carry bikes in the back something to protect against.

Thanks guys useful links.
I’m not sure the teacher has really thought this one through as the main question they have to answer is how successful the town has been in meeting its original sustainability objectives.

OP that is what I call good service recovery rather than good customer service, people often find they are more impressed by people who compensate them for bad service rather than companies that consistently provide excellent service.
Service recovery is much easier you just empower agents and throw money at it, especially if you are as profitable as John Lewis

Can I just say after spending a season rooted to the bottom of the Championship table Ealing my adopted local club (kids play & I coach minis) are seriously threatening not to get relegated. If Jersey lose away to Bedford we will stay up- well unless they pick up 2 losing bonus points. I am not even sure how I feel about this as a season of being thrashed by teams like Bristol, Leeds etc. with premiership aspirations has been no fun.

I know AA disagrees but some of the Pro 12 games are decent, the 6 irish derby games involving Leinster, Munster & Ulster are always watchable for a start. Sure there are some crap games but the same is true of the Premiership, games I’ve seen this year involving Worcester, LI,Newcastle and even Wasps have been really poor.

Rapha and Elliot’s on Stoney Street (near Borough Market) tried to push filter on me well past the point where they were accepting of my polite no, Look Mum No Hands or Workshop Coffee on Clerkenwell are both good.

If you want a decent size coffee to take away from Victoria or a couple of the other London stations Camden Food Company is better than the usual chain muck

For my own personal likes in rugby, despite winning the world cup, it was not our finest hour, as in not the most impressive exciting rugby. I hope to see more creativity and improvement, as well as winning ways in the future..

You won the world cup in the Southern Hemisphere, you are the only Northern Hemisphere team to even win it. You should cherish it.

My rugby club has just sent me an email asking us to apply for tickets for the 2015 World cup, half a million tickets available to members of rugby clubs before they go on sale to the general public.

May’s sideways running is more effective at club level, I have seen him have a fair bit of success with it at Gloucester including against Munster in this years HEC.
The best measure of Englands wing play this season is how Marland Yarde’s reputation improved the longer he was injured.

As for JW, great player and arguably one of the best Northern Hemisphere OHs but way off Dan Carters level, it’s like comparing Beckham to Maradona.

What are the options for improved braking on a cross bike being used as a commuter? I find the current canti brakes are fine when blocks are new and rims are dry but this responsiveness doesn’t last a week of my regular commute.

Ealing V Jersey tonight for me, Championship relegation decider although I suspect win or lose Ealing will be relegated unless Notingham go into administration

I can’t wait until Ferris is back in an Ireland shirt or even starting for Ulster against Sarries in the HCup.
This short clip from his sub appearance indicates he is in good shape, Ferris at 6 and move SOB to 8 for IRE would give us real forward momentum.

looked like a dive to me as a Liverpool supporter and I wish he hadn’t done it. Would love to see retrospective punishments for divers.
What is becoming obvious to me is that Ferguson was an even better manager than any of us thought to mold that group into a title winning team.

I was physically ill watching that game, 2 point leads when you can’t keep possession are horrible. I was so happy when I remembered Madigan was the reserve fly half and not Jackson, the though of Bastareaud running at Jackson had me terrified.

Wales U20 had already been beaten Ireland 0 -16 away and while Ireland lost 33-9 at Franklin Gardens to England there was nothing to indicate Wales would ship a cricket score to England.

On a separate note if Scotland were to beat wales would the knives be out for Gatland or has he sufficient credit in the bank? (realise it is a big if!)

Suprised Zebo hasnt made the team

Zebo’s off field antics haven’t endeared him to our new coach.

Domaine Louis Moreau Chablis 1/3 off at Waitrose until 11/3
Looks like you made an effort

Of to twickers to see this one, English bench looks a bit crap if I’m honest. Too close to call though. As a neutral I love England V Wales games I wouldn’t use hate but I would say it is the most intense rivalry in the 6N.

Interested why you picked Reims for a stop over. I have done a similar drive (as a passenger) and we went via Luxembourg to fill up with cheap fuel and then through Germany to avail of higher or non existent speed limits and avoid the french toll roads.

Please tell me the police took some action against her (not that I think it’s likely).

I tried to follow it up and was assured they would when I finally got through to the officer dealing with it, she said it was one of the the easiest cases they had ever seen with good witness statements from half a dozen people. That was the last I heard though.

what is your budget Rscott and must it be a week? We go for 4 or 5 days which is a good amount of time.

As above really, cheap as chips flights with Ryanair to Turin or Bergamo very early one morning. Fly back late one night, 2 Star self catering or room only in a place like Sauze or Cervino which are only a little over an hour from the airport. Ski every one of your days but save a nights accommodation.
Equipment booked online in advance with Snowbrainer or similar. Lots of other good tips in earlier posts.

Local tube station (Northfields in West London) just had cameras installed to police the parking on the zig zags at the crossing. A friend who received a ticket that showed 25 elapsed seconds while he let his daughter out of the car. In fairness to him he thought it was a fair cop. It’s a while since I saw anyone park there.

Not exactly related but middle child was knocked down on a zebra crossing on his like-a-bike by an impatient women in a range rover who thought the truck that stopped to let him cross with the child minder was parked. He was fine luckily enough.

you mean like scotland and england?

or north and south korea?

Not at all like North & South Korea which are ethnically identical,
Separation does seem to make perfect sense a la Czechoslovakia given the other option is likely to be more Yugoslavia.

Glasgow have signed “worlds fastest player” Carlin Isles.

Look up some of the footage of him on youtube playing 7s, he is incredible (at 7s)

Watching the game in French, what did Picamole actually do for yellow? They are not repeating it

Dan Cole ruled out for rest of 6N, who is next in line for a call up?

Scott Johnson a pretty useless coach, when he was at Ospreys I used to look at his team and genuinely fear them as a Munster fan, he should have won a Heineken Cup with that team.
The Scottish team still have the players to upset a few teams especially at home. I would actually say each of the last 3 Scottish coaches have been numpties. Vern Cotter is a different story and I will be really surprised if they are not a different proposition next season

The loss of Girafferis is a blow, makes the pack look a bit lightweight.

it’s not your lightweight forwards we are worried about, it is your giant backs. I’m still pretty hopeful Ireland can win but it should be close.

Thought Care was excellent today and really unlucky to be subbed, Farrell actually looked like an out half rather than a converted centre. Brown apart the rest of the backs were average enough, Goode put in a very lame tackle for 2nd try, I would still have Strettle on the wing ahead of any of England’s 3 wingers today. England forwards pretty good, wood at 6 is a beast.

Wales start slowly again but I have no doubt they will improve, if Edwards is to be believed most of them turn up in dreadful condition and it takes 3 weeks of beasting them to get them fit.

Who knows what green machine will turn up tomorrow, the one that played ABs or the one that played Australia. I hate playing Scotland it is lose lose for us recently.

No Fitzgerald he is injured bugger! Trimble ok replacement but would have liked to see Zebo on bench. team looks solid rather than exciting. good ulster represantation and delighted to see TOD on the bench

Have you found a way yet to manipulate the Libor rate without attracting the attention of the regulator?

Why did you decide to stop sponsoring the Boris Bikes?