Interested on what you would recommend AA as a sustainable structure for rugby in Wales?
Scotland option with 2 teams which are well funded and competitive at URC level and scrap the 60 cap rule?
They seem to be able to afford to retain most of their squad at home with the exception of the real superstars like Russell.

Strike for this game would be catastrophic for Welsh rugby, loss of revenue is supposedly £9 million. I can’t see how that helps the players in the long run. Solution is to lose a region or just join forces with the Premiership. You then have a chance of decent away attendances at home games. Hugely detrimental for URC but probably slightly less so than it was before SA teams joined.

There is losing and there is being well and truly hammered! Gatland out :)

Very impressive by Scotland and especially Russell. Game with Ireland looking tasty!

Wales not as far away as the score line suggests, Porter was a penalty machine in the second half, almost helped Wales back into it by himself. pity as I thought he was a likely MOM after first half.

England V Scotland U20s is a cracker, England will edge it but a very good game

Irish team out also, Furlong injured. Front row looks vulnerable, Dan Sheehan is excellent around the park but very tall for a hooker. In the backs Stuart McCloskey starts with Aki on bench which is good to see, form being rewarded. Aki also worries me every time he goes into contact he is a fraction away from a red!
For Wales as expected Halfpenny out and Loopy Liam in!

That Wales team must be closed to their record for total international caps fielded in one team.
Gatland has had pretty decent success against Ireland so lots of us here are pretty worried.
Ireland are basically just a slightly better Leinster and now Wales are a beefed up Ospreys. Could well be very close.

A week out from Six Nations starting what teams we expecting?
Wales…who knows, Gats loves em big so I reckon

Liam (no form but no other realistic option)

I must say I’m surprised to see 1/2p named at full back unless Gatland is playing games and naming a dummy team early to have Ireland spend a wasted week analysing the wrong lineup

Ospreys have a really strong team when everyone plays, watched them play a really strong Leinster team earlier in the month and they should have beaten them.

They wouldn’t exchange mine without residency 🙁

Might be a bit of a faff but couldn’t any UK citizen obtain an Irish licence pretty quickly?

Irish squad has been announced, fairly settled no Joey Carbery is the big surprise. Keith Earls lucky to make the squad he has been awful since he returned from injury. Like most countries we are stacked with back row choices of a similar enough level but Gavin Coombes has been outstanding recently for Munster offers something a bit different so might be a great bench option. Will probably change after final round of H Cup matches this weekend with injuries and suspensions.

Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) 41 caps
Ross Byrne (Leinster/UCD) 14 caps
Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) 7 caps
Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution) 2 caps
Keith Earls (Munster/Young Munster) 98 caps
Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 23 caps
Mack Hansen (Connacht) 8 caps
Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 25 caps
Jordan Larmour (Leinster/St Marys College) 30 caps
James Lowe (Leinster) 15 caps
Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor) 9 caps
Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) 100 caps
Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas) 3 caps
Jamie Osborne (Leinster/Naas) *
Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) 47 caps
Johnny Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(captain) 109 caps
Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan) 35 caps

Forwards (20):

Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) 8 caps
Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers) 27 caps
Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne) 36 caps
Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) 33 caps
Gavin Coombes (Munster/Young Munster) 2 caps
Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 23 caps
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) 63 caps
Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) 121 caps
Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) 68 caps
Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 31 caps
Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 18 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) 48 caps
Joe McCarthy (Leinster/Dublin University) 1 cap
Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 89 caps
Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 4 caps
Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) 48 caps
Cian Prendergast (Connacht/Corinthians) 1 cap
James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) 48 caps
Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) 13 caps
Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 45 cap

Joey Carbury is No 1 at Munster when fit which has been rare enough, he is No 2 for Ireland. Healy was starter for most of last season. This season Jack Crowley has emerged as a decent prospect but mostly starts at 12. Crowley ended up playing for Ireland against the Aussies in November when Sexton withdrew just before kick off. Fans are pretty divided as to who is the best but Munster were very keen to keep Healy its just he wants to play international rugby.

You could argue Ireland have only produced one quality 10 in the last 15 years it’s just he has gone on for ever. Ulster have Billy Burns at 10, very similar to the Healy situation, he has a fair few caps for Ireland. We have a few now with potential but certainly no one to replace Sexton which is why we are persisting with him even though he will be 38 at the World Cup.

I went and had a look on the rugby forum I am on.

What’s the view on Healy’s swift elevation to the Scottish Squad? Munster forum I frequent all wish him well, all of the negative sentiment is to the Province / IRFU for letting him go. I’ve watched a lot of him for Munster, he has a cannon of a boot and a great pass his limitations seem to be defences don’t expect him to run and for a big guy he is an average defender. There had been signs recently that these elements were improving.

Didn’t know Solovair existed to be honest. I have very wide feet and Docs have always been great though – boots, not shoes

Healy confirmed as coming to Edinburgh. That I am fine with. I don’t want him parachuted into the Scotland team tho. I am still hoping the idea of a scotland squad place is a carrot dangled to him rather than a firm promise

Is that him in particular or anyone newly arrived and qualifying through Granny rule? Interested as we regularly have the same debate in Ireland about players like Mack Hansen which pretty much disappear if they go on to perform well in International team. Latest debate is about Antoine Frisch or Tony Fresh as he is now being called in Munster.

Seems to have legs, Cooney definitely is self promotion but Healy hasn’t said anything publicly, Graham Rowntree a man not known to wild speculation pretty much confirmed their interest. Good luck to him if he goes for it, not like we in Ireland can claim any high moral ground.

Any of our Scottish contingent care to comment on the Ben Healy to Scotland story that is in the Irish rugby press. Decent player could be great if he added a bit of running threat to his passing range and huge boot, he is an impressive physical specimen but often doesn’t play to his size, he did however when crashing over in the 80th minute to hand Munster a rare win away win Vs Ulster on NYD.
Healy try hands win to Munster

Does anyone know what it is about her that triggers such frothing apoplexy amongst the gammons?

No idea, I do think it is related to the countries cap doffing obsession with the royal family. Anything that threatens it has to be destroyed in case the we all realise how utterly ridiculous it is as an institution.

As far Clarkeson, I detested him for years, then I started to watch his Amazon Prime show and read some of his pretty thoughtful articles on farming and food production, I was starting to grudgingly respect him, thankfully he has revealed again what a turd he is so I can go back to my original correct view.

Hoping there is a decent Scandal offer in this sale, mine was stolen and I miss it!

I’m 5′ 10.5, I also went for a large, absolutely fine with 2 small caveat’s, fitted 35mm stem and best dropper I could manage was 150mm drop.

If touch is done as small sided games i.e. multiple games 5 V 5 max so every kid gets lots of touches of the ball then it is a decent warm up. OP what are your reservations ?

Do not use Pickfords, that is from personal experience albeit a US move . My house contents were collected in June and are still in the UK. Totally evasive right up to and including Managing Director who responded to my email almost 4 weeks ago to say he would get back to me in 48 hours then silence despite 2 follow up emails.

Is it wrong that I think there could have been much worse appointments?

I think recent history has shown us there could and there have been much worse. Part of me worries he will be quite good and make the Tories re-electable.

We recently sold our 7 year old Volvo diesel. WBAC gave us a quote as did a couple of similar competitors. In the end we sold via Motorway.co.uk. They set a reserve you are happy to with and then run an online dealer auction. We were pretty happy and received 15% more than Webuyanycar offered before they got a chance to beat us down. I would highly recommend. May have got more in a private sale but couldn’t deal with timewasters

Once you’ve made the dal, fry some whole cumin in a reasonable amount of oil.. once that’s browning nicely then lob in some chopped garlic, fry for a short whole then lob in some whole dried chilli…

Cook until the garlic is nicely brown, but not burnt… then stir into the dal…

This is an important step in my view, really elevates the dish. Some black mustard seeds also work well with cumin

I use Currency Fair a fair bit, seems to offer good rates, not tried Wise.

thanks few good options

I did most of it, plan was to do it all but ran out of time. We had the key to the toilet blocks by the locks and “wild” camped close to these. We used sea kayaks with rudder kits. Despite planning it to go with the prevailing winds from Forth William to Inverness we ended up with a head wind and a big swell on Loch Ness. Genuinely I was quite scared on a couple of occasions despite having some experience of sea kayaking.
It’s a pretty amazing trip though, highly recommended.

Maybe he’s been over promoted but his Scarlets side were pretty decent, great to watch and one of the few sides to break the Irish Hegemony in PRO rugby. Looking from the outside at how Welsh regions and WRU are organized, Gatland was a magician to achieve what he did.

Me too, I am also giddy with excitement everytime I check the sports pages in the hope that Pivac has been sacked!

Who would you want instead?

Your question was what’s a generous rate. You could always ask the babysitter what’s their going rate, if they lowball it round up a bit, they are unlikely to say £15 an hour

£10 rounded up to nearest half hour, certainly for London

Premier Inn by Borough Market, Marriott County Hall on the South Bank. St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel if you are feeling flush, handy for the North.

king alfred way perhaps?, C2C or even Trans Cambrian way

I’m pretty happy with Andy Farrell as our coach but Shaun Edwards would definitely add something as defense coach to any set-up

Thanks AA,
I followed up by reading Nigel Owens in the Torygraph, interesting analysis even if it is Irish TV :)

Under normal circumstances you would expect 1/8mile to deal with that though. The Irish hooker is quite inexperienced also which can’t have helped, he’s a converted back row isn’t he

That’s what was most surprising, it was multiple times not once or twice. Nothing worked for us there. Sheehan is inexperienced but has been playing hooker for a while, certainly was an U20 international. He is possibly a little tall for a hooker though 6’2″ ish I think. Great in the loose but perhaps les effective in scrum.

Anyone come across any decent analysis of the scrums in the England V Ireland game? I would be really interested in reading or watching something from someone like Alex Corbisiero but can’t find anything other than some comments he made on position to Cian Healy’s feet.

On the game I think England shouldn’t allow themselves to be too pleased with themselves outside of the performance of their tight 5. It was another game where they created nothing. It is possible to attack with 14 men, check out Irelands narrow loss to Wales last year where they had a deserved red after 14 mins. I was amazed to hear EJ say on the BBC rugby pod after Saturdays game that the sending off affected their defensive shape but not their attacking shape!