honestly united

I have to say (and being a few weeks behind on Impact tapings) but TNA has been pretty decent recently. Which is a shame if they do end up being wound up soon / dont get picked up by a new station in the UK. Delete as appropriate) Obviously you have Broken Matt who has went from being totally meh, to the greatest character in wrestling EVAH, the world title shouldn't be on eddie edwards (or should he be near it) but it looks like it could be interesting to see how Lashley gets it back with EC3, Moose and Eli Drake in the mix Cody turning up adds something to the mix, Hopefully it goes better than Sandow / Rex who has been totally dull so far. Add in Drew and Grado for a bit of scottish interest and they can put on a decent show. As an aside, does anyone know whats happened with Magnus and Bram lately? Edit to add just read spolier above so thats have of my question answered

I've only seen him play in the summer tests vs Japan, and he didn't look anything special but to be fair, no one came out of those games with much credit. I assume we are writing off this game and targetting wins against Argentina and Georgia, as the only way we are going to beat Australia is hammering them up front, and we have picked Ford and two props, one making his debut and the other his 2nd cap. With Nel missing you would have thought Dickinson would have to start.

First time trying Gearbest so if this package turns up soon and everything is ok will probably buy more with their 11/11 deals

I always get hit with them when I've bought stuff previously, although it does tend to depend on who delivers. In my experience TNT are the worst for having custom charges - every time you get charged, and they usually add on an admin fee as an added bonus, if its Parcel Force or Royal Mail who deliver you hardly ever get them.

I order the Umi Super earlier this week as it was marked down along with some other bits and bobs for Christmas presents, will be gutted if any of it is even cheaper this week

The scarlets lost their internationals for last weekend which is why they are unchanged. They had the disadvantage last week due to Wales playing an extra international

Am I the only one who thought King Ezekiel had stolen the Broken Matt Hardy shtick? Thought he was going to try feeding carol some green beans at one point

True that huge mismatches don't help anyone, but we already have a 6 nations b, and nobody will give them a game to see how big a gap is. Georgia have been excellent for about 10 years and it's only now they are getting games against tier one sides. You look at the challenge cup and there are only 2 qualifiers from rest of the European leagues, this year Einsey and Timisoara. Now there is a 3rd European competition and the top 2 in that play off against Einsey and Timisoara for next years spot, however they have just said that if Einsey get into the quarters they automatically get back in and the two best teams play off for the right to play Timisoara. No mention of maybe the worst English or French team missing out

Cyprus' record was from when they joined World Rugby (or the IRB as it was) so started in the lowest level and worked their way up. They had a decent team with some ex pats compared to the countries they were playing against. Its not like football were world cup qualifying has groups of teams from each pot, its very much set up so the best teams dont have to play any minnows, ever. Teams tend not to play anyone with more than 10 places between them in the rankings. Think Scotland are about 10th and would never play anyone outside the top 20 in the world, which is one of the reason that other countries never get any better. That and if they have any decent players they move to play in a top league and dont get / want to be released to play internationals.

So 2 weeks, or a rest, save on the air fair out to the US and back ready for Irelands home autumn internationals

6NA has been binned as not everyone runs a team anymore, think it is only us, England and Ireland that still had a team, but our last games were in 2014. The SRU have taken all reference to the A fixtures & results off their website so looks like we aren't running one anymore.

we still do play A internationals every year (although not as many as we used to), we have turned England over the last few years

Also why is every other position listed alphabetically, except for hooker where f'n Ford gets listed before Brown?

I think the big difference with Glasgow is that there are not real standout players, in that you could take out any starter and there is a replacement who is more or less just as good. This is great in the league as you can rest players, and it doesn't affect the standard the team is playing at, however when it comes to Europe, the Irish and Welsh teams bring in their internationals ans suddenly they are much better teams. Its the argument the English and French were making when they revised the cup as if you are not worried about a league position you just have your best players playing in Europe. Now Niko and Nakarawa have gone, we dont really have any big game players left in the middle of the park. We have Seymour, Sarto, Hogg and Bennett out in the wider channels but we dont seem to have anyone in the forwards with any spark. Grey is very good at doing the donkey work and the hard yards (as are a lot of the forwards) but we are lacking a big ball carrier in the back row that can break tackles and make something happen. It used to be Strauss but he has really gone off the boil since he made his Scotland debut, Harley does do it at a Pro12 level, but dont think he is good enough for the level above. As soon as we start to get dominated up front it all becomes a bit predictable and safe which gives the opposition defence a chance to drop players out to cover our backs

Does anyone have any experience with the MIUI OS? I am being severely tempted by the Xiaomi Mi5 which seemed to be the best spec / battery life for the 5" screen i've seen but comes with the MIUI 7 rather than android OS which has put me off slightly.

There is only really Lashley, Galloway and EC3 that I could see interesting WWE, as they have already signed up everyone else over the last year in Aries, Rude, Joe etc It would be epic to see Broken Matt Hardy and Senior Benjamin delete people in the WWE as it is the best thing in wrestling at the moment, but you cant see them giving them free reign in the creative aspects.

I think Italy were favourites as well prior to pulling out. They have plenty of other stadiums they could have used in Rome, and all the rest of the stadiums are in place already so not as if much money would have been involved, it is more ensuring the use of them during the football season. I think its more a case of they dont want to be seen to be bidding on a global event when they have pulled out of the running for the olympics

Depends who's hayfever's been the worst recently

I would say Edinburgh have improved slightly but not much. They have gone from having a very attack minded team trying to outscore the opposition but usually failing, to a very tight team trying to concede less than the opposition and usually failing. Hopefully hodge can get the balance right

I think Nel will be a shoe in for a spot in the starting team, but apart from that I think we could struggle to get any others in the team. I cant see anyother front row players getting close to the team, maybe dickinson might be in the squad, although Ford is a Lion already, maybe he has the same pictures of the Lions selectors as the scottish management. 2nd row, one or maybe both the Gray's are in with a shout, although Itoje and Kruis are definetly the first choice, and you have Lawes as well in the mix Back row - Apart from Hardie I cant see anyone being near the squad, although the 2 welsh open sides may force him out Backs, Laidlaw will probably get in the squad, and end up captaining the midweek team but I would see this being a more political choice. Russel would be an outside choice at 10, but Sexton, Ford, Farrell, Biggar are probably ahead of him. Centers - Dunbar, Taylor, Bennett are all outside bets, but given how Gatland will want to play, not sure any fit in. Davies and Roberts are show in for the squad along with Henshaw Wings - I think Seymour will get in the squad, and maybe the only other Scot to start. Other wings are in with a shout. Hogg vs Halfpenny - Halfpenny is bound to get in the team unless he picks Farrell at 10 or 12 as they will need a goal kicker. Hogg should make the squad though as it would be a travesty if he was left out altogether

They need to change the Tue regs. It should be changed to yes you can use them if you have a problem, but you cant compete while taking them, which I bet would cut it down. I mean taking it for hayfever or a chill is just an excuse for any advantage you can get.

Froome's got 46 seconds back at the first check point, Quintana has hammered the first section (by his usual standards) as he is 6th overall at checkpoint 1 Edit - up to 1min 33 at 2nd Checkpoint. Needs another 2 minutes before the finish, cant see him getting it Another Edit, Froome wins the stage, but more important only 2 min 16 infront of Quintana. Will be interesting last with Froome needing 1 min 21 tomorrow

I was going to ask about that, has anyone looked into when all these athletes are diagnosed with asthma. Is it when they are kids like everyone else or when they start to get to a high level of competition?

Im assuming that Cotter must have something lined up for next summer, either that or the rabbit skinning hasn't gone down to well with the SRU. I thought it smackd of Jobs for the boys when he took over at Glasgow (after Lineen was forced out to make room) as when he was Scotland backs coach we played some of the worst rugby I can remember and couldn't score tries, but he has been a revelation at Glasgow. I thought the team couldn't improve on where Lineen had taken them, but I was wrong. Might have been the case of SRU offering him the job before a big club down south, or in France came knocking. Dissapointing to see Cotter go as I think he has been excellent and exactly what was needed, but also hopeful Townsend can move us on. Be interesting to see who Glasgow get in, whether its a local or we get someone from the southern hemisphere?

Looks like Froome's going to have a crack at the Vuelta, could be interesting. Are any of the other big names confirmed for this yet?