29erKeith – Member
I really don’t get the “we absolutely must have a nuclear deterrent” thing. it to me always seems to be delivered as a reflex reaction, usually with absolutely no explanation or reasoning. Like it’s been drummed in to people to believe that they really do need it, the world has moved on the Cold War is over.

Plenty of large developed countries in the world get on perfectly well without them.
If some nutter does decide to press the button then we’re pretty much all dead either way so what difference would it make to us? We’ll be dead/ dying. If it’s happening the USA will be getting involved too so what’s the point of us having a dozen to their 2000?
We’re members of NPT, why are we building more!
I just really struggle to understand the point of them.

That’s a hell of a lot of money to plug the deficit and help the nhs with.

I hear this argument a lot but unfortunately it’s an incredibly naive viewpoint. Many people on this thread seem to be unaware of just how unpopular the UK is in large parts of the world – “the Great Satan” (used interchangeably with the US) to Iran, “the Old Fox” to the remainder of the Middle East, the old colonial power who appropriated swathes of their natural resources to much of the globe.

We’re therefore not just a small island in the North Atlantic that no one cares about – we’re the world’s sixth largest economy with global interests. We achieved this by judicious trading, diplomacy (often involving gunboats) and good old fashioned invasion over the last few centuries so it’s hardly surprising that we’re not that popular – and that’s not just with developing countries like Iran and North Korea but also old strategic rivals (and fellow nuclear powers) like Russia and China. Our involvement in recent conflicts as the prime ally of the US probably hasn’t helped either but actually in my experience it’s our colonial actions that the rest of the world really remembers.

So why retain Trident? It’s not impossible to imagine a scenario where the US slips into isolationism and reduces its commitment to NATO – particularly given that the remaining allies aren’t meeting their 2% of GDP on defence spending commitments. An independent British nuclear deterrent acts as an insurance policy against another World War starting in Europe and (combined with effective conventional forces) gives us a reasonable chance of holding on to what we acquired over the last two centuries.

Or to put it another way – if we put the stick down lots of other bullies are going to try and take our dinner money.

Harsh decision.

Also think the para picture should be removed – no place for that in rugby.

dleJon – Member
How much of a dick do you have to be to go to Wales to watch NZ v Georgia and think that singing Swing Low is the thing to do?

Is Fields of Athenry more acceptable?

Mcaw milked that.

Agreed. The ABs and their Captain are the best in the world at most areas of play including “ref management” or cheating as it used to be known…

Naive play from Picamole but I’m not sure how we’ve gone from 15 a side fist fights to a yellow card for a little bit of niggle…

I snapped my ACL 3 weeks before a family ski holiday and managed to go and board although I didn’t go off piste or jump and it was my rear leg.

Since I’ve had it reconstructed it’s been largely fine boarding even when riding switch – it does twinge occasionally but I stretched or damaged most of the other ligaments when I snapped my ACL so that’s probably to be expected. I’d suggest if you’re a reasonable boarder and you’re at the stage of rehab where you’re happy doing the figure of 8 running test then you’ll probably be fine.

Some great games yesterday (stand fast England Uruguay) – the Wales Australia match was the most compelling tryless match I’ve seen in a long time. It also confirmed that England were well beaten by 2 better teams.

I think all the discussion about the centres is moot unless we can sort our breakdown out – even Uruguay were slowing down our ball and beat us on turnovers; the best back line in the world can’t do anything with slow ball.

IMO, ball should go backwards. Nothing to do with the hands, it’s always been the movement of the ball.

Flashy, valuable as your opinion is, the IRB disagree…

There’s a more modern one somewhere.

I think that’s pretty much it – so long as the direction of pass (as defined by hand position on release) is backwards then it’s ok even if it’s traveled forward over the ground due to a player running at full pace when it was passed.

There’s a youtube vid that explains it more clearly…

It must be so depressing when playing against the ABs and they start making replacements – they’re normally taking off arguably the best player in the world in his position and replacing him with the reason it’s arguable…

Belay my last – they’re now in stock.

The point about Armitage (and Pocock, Cooper, Tipuric, Warbs indeed any decent openside) is that they can link and play out wide with the ball in hand – none of our Flankers currently appear able to do that at international level. Launchbury looked better with the ball in hand.

AA is right you can of course construct a game plan that just relies on big back row smashing it up (as we used to) but that’s never been particularly successful and getting less effective as the professional era moves on. Haskell’s never been particularly effective at the international level because just hitting it up and making hard yards doesn’t cut it against decent opposition. 2003 was the only time we had an all round game.

On the subject of turnovers of course it’s not the seven’s job to prevent them – that’s a whole team responsibility but he should be the best placed to make them if his lines of running are half decent.

I don’t really get all the Armitage dislike? He’s demonstrably better than the current incumbents at club level why not give him another run? Obviously playing behind the Toulon pack helps but playing with better players improves your game and he’s clearly in form. All that said, we could have had Richie M yesterday and I don’t think it would have made much difference – we were beaten in the tight 5.

Armitage has played international rugby. He was shit.

He was hardly given a fair go – 5 caps, some from the bench, 2 against Argentina when Moodos was injured; all back in 2009.

Since then he’s moved to Toulon and been named European player of the year which surely merits another look at him particularly given that our back row has been a key weakness this RWC?

The problem is that the premiership doesn’t develop decent open sides – it’s much better value for money for a club to have a 6’4 battering ram who can play anywhere in the back 5 of the scrum rather than a specialist openside, particularly given the focus is on not losing rather than scoring tries.

anagallis_arvensis – Member
A few of things occur to me re England. 1. Steffan Armitage is a fat blob and wouldnt last 30 mins in a fast paced international game.

He’s not fat just cuddly and I can think of a number of larger players (eg Adam Jones) who’ve managed at international level despite their size. Equally I’d take 30 min of decent openside play which is more than we’ve managed all RWC. Either way it would’ve been good to explore the option.

2. You missed the Kiwi gouger, a lot.

Maybe – or would we just have had a yellow a lot earlier?

3. Ford, May, Tuilagi, Joeseph, Watson, Brown could be very good.

Agree.

4. Ben Morgan was not fit and did nothing, you missed Vunipola combined with Wood and Robshaw not being great. Surely you have some other flankers.

Thought Morgan was our best back row in that game by some margin – at least he’s an attacking threat and also has a pair of hands. Any move that Woods or Robshaw were involved in seemed to stop as they drove into the nearest contact. He did fade badly towards the end.

.5. The tictacs that involved flinging it wide whilst playing with that backrow wre seriously flawed.

Agree.

having the stop-start game as it is now with the TMO and all the camera angles just shows how farcical the rules of rugby are. can’t they make it simpler? or at least the players more intelligent?

They’re not rules they’re laws and imo the game should not be dumbed down any further to pander to half witted kiss ballers who show a passing interested in rugby to bask in England rugby’s (sadly passed) glory and bait co-workers from other home nations.

In the end beaten by 2 better teams although I suspect (and fervently hope) there’s a decent team waiting to ultimately emerge from the confused selection and tactical decisions.

Not sure who (if anyone) to support now – would like Wales to do well but think that’s unlikely given their injury list. Could never bring myself to support the French or SH – suppose that leaves Ireland…

Really quite nervous – my head says England are going out of the World Cup but my heart wants to believe we can do it…

If we win we’re guaranteed to go through aren’t we, assuming a bonus point win against Uruguay?

Wasn’t sure if they were trying the hinge / rush defence i.e. rush up on the 2nd / 3rd receiver that Wasps used to employ effectively? The line speed was good in the first half where it was effective but they lost coherence in the 2nd half particularly the last 20. If you’re going to use that rush defence you can’t miss tackles otherwise big holes appear.

Burrell can only be brought in as an injury replacement and the only declared injury in the backs is JJ so it’s unlikely we’ll see that pairing?

A poor performance from England key errors for me were:

Giving away penalties at the breakdown, these were completely unforced (as compared to Wales who only gave away penalties at the scrum or under considerable pressure).

Poor game management and decision making – if we were going to roll the die and go for a try then the penalty under the posts when we were 4 points up and Wales had just made lots of injury replacements was probably the one to go for; although I may be employing 20/20 hindsight there. Equally given our lineout had been shocking all game (and not great this year) and we’d been on top in the scrum all game then why not go for a scrum for the crucial last penalty?

Fair play to Wales – a good win for them which showed lots of Hwyl, grit and determination; hope the butchers bill isn’t too high.

Got it – thanks.

scotroutes – Member

For shorter trips, avoid the frame bag. You can get enough kit for a couple of nights in a barbag and seatpack.

Scot – interested to read that; can I ask why? I’ve always managed with a seat and handle bar bag combination but since I’ve had a reverb I’m limited on the amount I can put in the seat pack; although there’s still plenty of room for summer overnighters. As winter looms I was thinking of getting a frame bag of some sort – should I reconsider?

Not for me it wasn’t. I paid in advance online to take advantage of an offer, the phone number swapped over painlessly but they were unable to swap the broadband. After 4 frustrating months of talking to various BT customer service people in the UK and India, I was told the only way to guarantee a transfer was to request a new number and wait up to a further 2 months without broadband or a phone.

I called Plusnet and they price matched BT’s offer. BT did eventually refund the full amount as promised by the penultimate (and probably most effective and honest) customer service chap but only after sending me a written bill stating that they wouldn’t. One final call to customer services eventually sorted this out – I reckon I made roughly 15+ calls to customer services totalling over 5 hours to not achieve anything particularly useful.

YMMV.

If by big boys you mean the Southern Hemisphere it would appear that no one in Wales is much cop against the big boys…

Unless they’re in a Lions shirt of course.

anagallis_arvensis – Member
Oh and if turnovers are what makes a proper 7 then Warburton is light years ahead of Tipuric. Tipuric is a very good broken fileld runner and link player but he aint much cop atcthe breakdown against the big boys.

Tips seemed to do ok today?

I don’t necessarily agree that it’s all about the turnover in any case – it’s much more about linking play, keeping the ball alive and being a threat in open play rather than looking for the nearest contact to trundle into.

Only saw the 2nd half but looked a good game for Wales – Tips turnover on the line appeared crucial.

I’m not sure a proper 7 is the problem if your scrum and lineout are being shafted any 7 will struggle, ask Martyn Williams.

Completely agree.

What is a proper 7 anyway.

McCaw, Jones (both Michael and Gywn), Smith, Back, Rives, Calder, Williams. A back row of Warburton, Falatau and Tips behind a competitive front five would be extremely potent in combination with the Welsh back line. The challenge of course, particularly for Wales, is finding a competitive tight 5 who are all fit at the same time.

The unbalanced back row consisting of the 3 biggest blokes you can find is a peculiarly NH phenomenon (England have suffered from it since the Jack Rowell days with the exception of the brief Neil Back era) and perhaps explains the general lack of success of NH teams vs the SH. The ABs who have never been without a ‘classic” open side, view the position as more / as important as the fly half…

Disappointing match from a partisan England fan’s perspective. The failure of the pack, in particular the tight 5, to even compete for much of the match is a significant concern. England looked tired, drawn and thin with many players appearing to have lost bulk and consistently losing out in the tight contact one on one battles.

Difficult to judge the backs as they had no ball and were behind a pack going backwards at a rate of knots. I think on balance, after some initial wobbles, Ford didn’t do too badly; I suspect Farrell (who to be fair I’m not a fan of) would have got frustrated and done something daft or niggly and potentially got penalised or even carded.

Whilst I think the lack of a decent classic open side is a concern and will have a negative impact if we manage to progress in the WC it made little difference last night; even the best open sides (McCaw, Jones, Smith, Back, Rives, Calder) would have been unable to achieve much in a pack being so comprehensively outplayed.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

Not the time for speculation but hopefully there’ll be some form of analysis to identify if there’s a requirement for any changes to either trail design or rider behaviour? I’m thinking of something similar to what happens in the climbing world (informally in this country more formally in the US) to work out whether it was a single “unlucky” freak incident or something that we can all learn from.

On the one hand I fundamentally disagree, the trail is what it is, if there was a 3ft drop, you could do yourself some serious harm, but that doesn’t mean all drop off should be at jogging pace and <8″. It’s always rider error, the trail is what it is.[/quote]

I’m not trying to start an argument in any way, this thread certainly isn’t the place for it and it appears from the 2nd (unquoted) part of your post we’re in agreement. I thought a few words to clarify my thoughts may be worthwhile.

If we’re discussing a natural trail or an obvious built feature (such as the drop in your example) then I completely agree – the trail shouldn’t be modified to to be suitable for all; however, if you have a situation where a combination of features or one poorly designed feature, especially on a blue trail ,can cause accidents (perhaps analogous to a badly bolted sport climbing route) by catching inexperienced / unlucky riders out then I’d suggest some form of analysis and perhaps re-design is necessary.

To put it another way, where a trail is purpose built the features should be obvious and probably look harder than they actually are – i.e. it should’t look easy but then have a nasty wheel size hole just around the blind corner or have a landing with a line that ends in a tree etc…

I’m not saying that this is the case at Swinley but that an accident like this should prompt some informed discussion.

Very sad – deepest sympathy to his family.

Not the time for speculation but hopefully there’ll be some form of analysis to identify if there’s a requirement for any changes to either trail design or rider behaviour? I’m thinking of something similar to what happens in the climbing world (informally in this country more formally in the US) to work out whether it was a single “unlucky” freak incident or something that we can all learn from.

I like a bit of Tennyson at times like this:

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Just trying to look on the bright side JB…

I missed out too – maybe for the best though as the rest of my team from the Day into Night (best crash winner and best write up winner respectively) were unavailable so I’d have been riding solo.

I don’t have first hand experience of this but one of my oldest friends is going through something very similar; he’s a few years further down the path.

The post above seems to offer good advice. I’d also consider asking the mods to delete this thread – if your other half knows you use this forum (and maybe even if she doesn’t if she gets a decent lawyer) you can expect it to be used against you in court. It’s not hard to see how posts such as:

wanmankylung – Member
It’s heartbreaking, but it’s better than staying here and either killing her or killing myself

could be taken out of context and used against you. During my friends hearing to “establish truth” (which has a much lower burden of proof i.e. balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt) his wife brought up every exaggerated tall tale of drunken adventure (including ones she’s only heard from us his friends) from the last 20 years, including university, to attempt to discredit him.

I quite fancy it – can I get away with a Bell Super 2R or do I need a “proper” full face?

My not particularly light medium BFe Mk 3 build (150-140 Revs, Reverb, XT brakes, Zee 1×10 drivetrain with NW, hope pro II, HD tubeless on flows) comes in around 13Kg.

I’ve not ridden an Alpine but my BFe has been great at both steeper South Downs stuff like Rogate, Staunton and the back of QECP and more benign local stuff.

I rode in the fun category – my first enduro and really enjoyable. Massive thanks to the QECP Trail collective in general and Scott in particular for all the hard work preparing for and running a really well organised event.

Are you still taking orders?

If so one black anodised please – I’ll send you an e-mail on the off chance.

payment reference is: 18F69284GJ560264U

£100 + 25 gift aid

My children aren’t old enough to play yet so I don’t have any recent experience of children’s rugby but I have played for nearly 3 decades and still enjoy the odd vets run out.

I’ve had a few concussions over the years (I forget exactly how many…) which used to be a bit of an occupational hazard if you were doing your job as a decent openside but the only season where I had more than 4 and had to end the season early on medical advice was the one in which I wore a scrum cap.

I don’t think this is a coincidence – wearing a scrum cap can encourage poor technique and make it more likely that you’ll lead with your head as you (wrongly) feel invincible, it also hurts the opposition less if they make contact with an elbow or knee; hopefully the latter’s not an issue in mini rugby.

Taping will prevent cauliflower ears caused by rubbing if that’s a concern although a direct blow to the ear will still cause swelling and ultimately the classic cauliflower if you continue to play.

My advice is that scrum caps may reduce minor injuries (cuts and bruises) but they encourage techniques that make major ones (concussion, neck injuries) more likely and should therefore be avoided at any age group.

Thanks Nick – I did mean the adaptors to convert my existing shifter to I-spec, although upon re-reading that wasn’t particularly clear from my post. I’d not realised that a new shifter was only £20ish (and Xt only £7 more) so that’s probably the obvious solution.

Nick – unless you know different I don’t think you can get I-Spec for SLX?

HG – Both the SLX shifter and the Zee brake both seem to be slightly chunkier than the Zee shifter / XT brake combo on the hardtail – it’s only mm but they don’t quite fit together. I might be exaggerating the issue slightly – on the HT it’s set up so I can brake / drop the saddle / change gear without changing my hand position on the bar – that’s not possible on the FS.

Drac – no and not blind victorian orphans either – again sorry.

Klunk – Member
that’s just not even remotely close to being true.
the actual areas used by ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) are in reality limited, and overlap (alleged to often be between Malin Head and Rockall Bank).

Klunk – that story just highlights how difficult subs are to detect when they’re trying to be stealthy. The collision occurred because neither sub could detect the other – i.e. the opposite to the point you’re trying to make.