honestly united

Last 3 for me were Invictus, which I thought is a solid 8/10, probably one of the best sports movies I have seen, Morgan Friedman is excellent as Mandela (and probably looks more like Mandela than Nelson did!!), and does give a good insight into some of the issues the country faced with being to indepth. Good balance between the political and the sporting story Prometheus 6/10 solid sci-fi fare, about the creation of humanity, hadn't realised it was supposed to be part of the Alien cini-world until the very last scene. Did lack originality in that a lot of the scenes had been used in other films previously so there was a feeling of having seen it before. Sing 5/10 - solid enough animation and story, but just lacks the big characters to make it memorable

At the moment the european season ends the end of May (except France which is later usually) then the players go with their National teams for the June tests, have July off and are back in August for pre-season. Non national team players have June off and are back in July for Pre-season with thier clubs.However if you give the national team players June off, they are then going on tour in July unfit. It does look like players are only going to get a couple of weeks end of July / start of August off and maybe end of May / start of June depending whether their club sides make the league playoffs or European finals. The leagues are not going to move on their schedules so its the players / fans that are going to suffer, by being burnt out, or even more club matches without the top players being involved.

Looks like a petty rap on the knuckles for Brown who I think has been good over the course of the championship but had a shocker in the England game, not just the late / tip tackle but some of his throwing was quite poor as well. Im surprised though that everyone that came off with a head knocked that was deemed serious enough to not get back on the pitch has recovered for the game

I know someone who has said they would fill the stadium for anything if they knew going to beat Russia at it!! That said they got good crowds in the Autumn v Japan and Samoa, and would sell out if they ever managed to get a Tier one country to play there

Was just about to post about this. They are going to be head and shoulders above anyone else if this goes through. Seemingly Racings new stadium being a much bigger capacity has triggered it. To be fair looks pretty smart, http://www.christiandeportzamparc.com/en/projects/arena-stadium-92/ Also noticed Georgia's case for inclusion in the 6 Nations is growing, 55,000 in Tblisi to watch them beat Russia, with 4 wins from 4 in the REC with pretty much a development squad for most games

Bonus point would be completely undeserved but hopefully we get it

Our strengths lie were England are weakest which gives some hope, but years of disappointment mean I can't get to excited. As others have said if the scrum can hold up we have the backs to beat anyone

The worst 7's pumping I have had was also my international debut (Im counting playing against an international team as me being classed as an international btw). My club run an annual 7's tournament, and were also hosting the barbados 7's trianing camp ahead of the Commonwealth games (2 of our first team squad were Barbados internationals at the time). I was playing for my club's 3rd team as a fat boys team in the social event. Barbados had 2 teams in the main event so everyone in their training camp could get game time, but my clubs first had beaten both on the Saturday. The Saturday night, had a beer festivals, bands playing etc which was a good night, teams camping overnight etc. Come the Sunday and only 3 of our first team turn up. Our club president is frantic as our 2nd team have all declined to play for our firsts as they were banking on winning the social event as the prize money would pay for the summer ball tickets the next month. Having just played our first game for the thirds, and by now my legs were like lead having played on the saturday which being an overweight 40 something had been hard work, we decided that we would have to step in to save face for the club. Probably not the sort of preparation that the Barbados national team probably wanted, but at least I can now say I have played international rugby!

So same team as against Wales, except Watson in for Hardie and Du Preez on the bench. To be expected I suppose

Just had a look and Grigg is actually a NZer with a scottish grandparent, which is why he was late to the institute of sport

Didn't realise Grigg was just out the academy he looks much older, thought he had a great game, but Dragons were quite poor. Good to get a decent win though

Better end to the 1st half, don't know what the ref was thinking with the dragons try

I think we have been unlucky this year with the foreign guys we have brought in. Kentale has hardly played, the Namibian guy and Peterson have been injured all season, langilangi looked good but he only lasted a few weeks. Grigg and Johnson are OK but hardly world beaters. I know the whole remit is to produce players for Scotland team but we need a core of 3 or 4 players that are not going to disappear during the 6N. We could do with a mixture of either SH guys who are in their 30's and young up and coming guys from the PI's or US& Canada. As has been said we miss Niko nakarawa DTH, Blair cuisiter etc

I was thinking about the fixtures after last weeks game, if Glasgow had Zebra & Trevisio instead of 2 of Scarlets / ulster / ospreys they would be sitting 5th a few points behind the Scarlets. It really is a bit of luck with who you get during the 6N's especially given how many players Glasgow lose (probably hardest hit of all the teams) as to how the league is going to pan out. We still have a shot at 4th, but it would mean winning our remaining 6 games, and hoping Scarlets and Ulster both lose 3 games (although with BP it gets a bit more complicated) Ulster still have Leinster, Munster and Ospreys, Scarlets have Leinster and Ospreys then your hoping one of Edinburugh, Dragons or Connacht do us a favour.

I always thought it was the captain that indicated to the ref and AWJ clearly tells the ref they are going for the posts. As far as I can recall, once you have indicated to the ref you cant then change your mind and Clancey should have made them go for the posts. Also the ref should have told Biggar he had to wait on the touch judge getting back to the side of the pitch (he was on his way back from being behind the posts) rather than him just taking the kick when he wanted.

Zdob si Zdub are a tremendous band, So Lucky isn't anywhere near there best stuff though, Agroromantica and Ethnomecanica are tremendous albums

Stunning performance in the 2nd half, helped by the number of knock ons and dropped balls by Wales. The win should mean we are safe as a top 8 team for world cup seeding. Also makes life difficult for Garland to justify having more Welsh than Scots on the Lions but bet it still happens

same here I was panicing that I had missed the start

The pro12 have already had talks with Spain (how have said can't afford it) and Georgia. I don't think the Canadians have a ground to use during the winter either

Was surprised by how bad Glasgow were yesterday, forwards off the pace defensively and I thought the team looked good as well. To me Pyrgos and Horne were especially off the pace

Grant has dropped down the pecking order ever since the fancy dress take away incident, but to be fair he has had a huge drop in form - has been packed of to Worcester as not getting any game time at Glasgow. Looking at the games over the last year, obviously Nel and Dickinson were first choice in the 6 nations and summer tour, but Sutherland and Low seemed to be the preferred back ups with Fagerson and Reid also being involved, however from the Autumn onwards Dell and Fagerson have been the first choice with Low and Allan being backups in the autumn. Bergman looked ok vs France, Low isn't getting much game time at Exeter and Sutherland's injured. My biggest concern injury wise for Wales is Dunbar - we have Taylor and Scott who can both play there, but I think Dunbar is a very different player from both of those, he is much stronger defensively, which we will need against the crash ball of Wales, but also adds something to the attack.

I think it shows how far this team has come that people are disappointed that we were drawing with France in Paris with 10 minutes to go, and lost as they kicked 2 late penalties. It hurts as the game was their for the taking, but this is the best French team in quite a few years, and only lost to England the week before due to a late try. Its 18 years since we won the last 5 nations, and in that time all we have had to celebrate is the 3 calcutta cup wins and avoiding the wooden spoon. I might be biased but i thought again this weekend the Scotland match was the best as at least both teams were trying to win the match rather than the England Wales trying to avoid losing. I dont think Peyper was any worse than the other refs we've had. I just dont think Scotland ever do a good job of playing to what the ref will let you get away with. We got hammered in the scrum and if we are not going to sort if we are going to struggle. I can see what he is doing with Dell and Fagerson as obviously the are talented young props and in a few years this experience is going to have benefited them and the team in general as they will be much better for it, but i think they would have been better rotating the props after last week. However Cotter has gone completely the other way with Price. If he had been given more than just 10 minutes against Georgia in the Autumn (dont think he got any game time in Japan either) he maybe wouldn't have given away that penalty and a bit more experience would have helped against France. I dont think it was just Laidlaw going off that was the issue, it was losing Barclay as well. Its a bit harder being 3rd choice captain trying to get in the ear of the ref. Also I dont know if Russell was maybe feeling the pressure a bit in the 2nd half, there is a lot of praise being thrown his way, and I wonder if he was feeling the onus was on him to create something

What gets me is all the commentators gushing over what a great game it was, both Wales and England looked devoid of ideas in attack and just look to batter up the middle. The kiwis will be delighted at the prospect. England look to have gone backwards since the series win in Australia last year and wales have gone back massively. A good win today should see us as favorites for the 6 nations as I've not been that impressed by anyone else yet

Very much the same as last week, if we can get the backs enough quick ball we are in with a shout. I think its the other way round though, as long as we are no more than 10-12 points down with 20 minutes to go we will win. The Scotland team will be much fitter than the French, and if we keep moving them about the park gaps will open up near the end.

Given 70% of the votes of World Rugby is held by the 6 nations and the Rugby Championship then any change is the responbility of the 6 nations and the RC, but they are only going to vote for self preservation. If they cant get games outside of the world cup, the tier 2 teams are nver going to progress, but maybe thats what the established teams want. Argentina have done more to help promote the game taking part in both the south american championship, the Americas 6 nations on top of the Jaguares and RC. They are letting Uruguay and Paraguay play in their regional cup. And I totally agree, NZ and Oz should be doing a lot more to help the PI teams. SA at least open up the vodacom and curry cup to the likes of Namibia and Zimbwawe.