Rugby

Sinclair injury worries me most at the moment.

What have you seen on this? All I've heard is that he'll be training on tuesday...

If there was genuine concern you'd hope Harry Williams would be on a plane already...

All of the press seems to be talking about a shock English victory, how much of a surprise and upset it was.

It was always going to be a close game, though, right?

The only surprise was just how bad NZ looked in the last few minutes.

Underhill in the loose and Itoje in the breakdown though. Just lovely to watch.

I daren't rewatch the game or the highlights in case England lose...

Nothing further. Just more the concern he went off early and that he'll have a big shift to put in next week.

I meant only in comparison to SA!

Garces to ref the final - I take it it wasn't his non-refereeing of anything vaguely resembling an offside line in the SA v NZ match that swung it in his favour. Hopefully the players help him out because I fear the everyone if he's required to be centre of attention in the final. It's bad enough that I'd probably have preferred Owens. Assume Barnes has the Bronze play-off. Really think O'Keefe should have, especially as a great ref who probably missed out on knock outs due to perceived lack of experience.

Anyone having a dabble at Rugby X (which should be called Rugby V) - ITV 4 at 8

Was away over the weekend so have just watched the England match in full. The first 20 mins was the best I've seen England ever play. Itoje, Underhill and Curry were all exceptional. I know I would have been nervous watching live, but the All Blacks never looked like winning or, bar the lucky try, like scoring really. First time they have been scoreless in a first half since 1991 is some incredible stat.
I just hope England can keep that level of performance up for one more game. Can't wait for Sat.

How poor is the ITV Hub?
I had watched several matches live, and on Catch Up,
then last Saturday, (on a W10 Home 64/Firefox, both updated),
the live screen just would not resolve, just those four dots.
Easy solution at the weekend, just walk through to the room with the tv.
This morning, same problem, just wanted a small window on the laptop screen to keep up.
In exasperation phoned the Helpline.
Everything checked out, sufficient download/upload speed to negare claim of 'Buffering problem'.
Cleared the Firefox cache, which did allow Catch Up.
Final suggestion was to use another browser,
and,
did get Live feed in Chrome, so saw the last 30-odd minutes.
Anybody else suffering the same problem?

Anyone having a dabble at Rugby X (which should be called Rugby V) - ITV 4 at 8

Tried it. Gave up. Doesn't offer anything over Sevens, IMO, and the one-on-one sudden-death was a bit of a contrived non-event (also reminds me of being shown up in grids drills, as a front-row forward against those horrible, little sinewy backs!). Meh.

One slight plus was interviewing the referee pitch-side to ask them to explain a controversial decision.

Not helpful particularly but bar very occasional buffering had no issues watching most on laptop. Just normal sky Broadband (not super fast/fibre etc).

Great start Bokke

Such a nervous start from England.

Trying the wonder pass whenever we get the ball.

Amazing number of injuries...
Was that a broken collarbone or a dislocation?

Dislocation I’d say. Doctor tried to pop it back in on the field but Lood’s reaction said it all sadly.

Looked it...

And fuckity fuck fuck fuck

England all at sea.. arriving late to this party
What composure the Bokke have,
the intelligence is on their side.

Watching South Africa play is about the least rewarding experience in rugby (unless you're South African, I suppose)

I dunno, all of nz is happy with the bokke so far. And it's pretty hilarious seeing England Rugby supporters complaining about negative boring play.

Wow, this is a rubbish display from England.

Being contained

Soz bru

Flight of shame back to Blighty, looms