Back from my corporate jolly to game...some thoughts having not seen any replays or TV. Long-ish post. (Skip to he last 2 paras for the incisive bit)

Twickenham a pain to get to...and into. Ticket entry barriers weren't working, RFU needs to get its act together - pretty crap really. The crowd was far more respectful to the opposition and the kickers. First time I'd been to Twickenham for a test in about 10 years, so credit to the RFU. Atmosphere was great.

Pom tactics and decision making were excellent in the first 30 minutes - crap after that. Thought Farrell had a poor game - zero variation in his game. Underhill was astonishingly good for England and was my MoM.

AB backline was poor until Crotty came on and he seemed to give a lot of solidity. Thought SBW was poor and you wonder how long he'll be in the team. England targeted DMac with the high ball but he did OK and as well as anyone else - he certainly doesn't lack guts, thats for sure. On attack he was probably the most dangerous AB back. Thought our kicking game (inc. DMac) was shite. We looked way more dangerous when keeping the ball in hand.

Retallick & Savea were immense. BBBR utterly owned the Pom lineout, ruck, maul and, well, the whole pitch. Ardie seemed to be everywhere.

Ben Kay and Ugo Monye hosted a post match analysis for the corporate clients which was excellent. No argument that Lawes was offside from them. We then had a Q&A with Itoje and Danny Care.

Itoje & Care seemed good blokes but I was surprised by the complacency in their attitude. They thought that as they had only lost by 1 point they had scored a famous victory. Astonishing attitude in many ways. Hope I never hear an AB talk like that.

All in all, a mistake-strewn game. But we dogged a win - which I sense Hansen will be happy with

It's a childish, unfair thing to say but it's a pity Sexton wasn't playing.

Would have loved to seen his face at the final whistle

@sparky said in R.I.P. 2020:

Sgt Matt Ratana sounds like a great guy:

Bit shocked when I saw the name. Actually knew Matt when he lived near Bourne End/Marlow in the early 2000's and gave me and my kids tennis lessons at the local tennis club. Had more than a few beers with him after the lessons.

The club was a bit snooty and didn't quite know how to handle the "gee whiz" maori bloke who turned out to be a degree-educated policeman... think he used to enjoy that.

He really was a bloody great bloke. Kia Kaha

Exclusive Interview with Foster

Interviewer: Thanks for talking to us again, Ian.

Fozzie: No worries. My shout this time. How many Big Macs do you want?

Interviewer: What's changed in the camp since the defeat to Argentina?

Fozzie: We had a sit down and a good think about what went wrong and how we could improve. We even brought in a sports psychologist to help us.

Interviewer: How so?

Fozzie: She told us to be open and honest with our shortcomings as there's a natural tendency to hide things we're not good at - especially in a team environment. For example I admitted I had problems with numbers like 12, 13 & 14 at school, TJ owned up to having a fixation with chickens and Scooter has this weird thing called Xanthophilia.

Interviewer: What’s Xanthophilia?

Fozzie: A love of all things yellow, apparently.

Interviewer: There's been some criticism of your comments that things are going well on the training pitch but why are they not being transferred onto the playing field?

Fozzie: Fair question. Look, I can only say it how I see it. I understand the frustration from the supporters’ point of view. And Scotty & Plummy feel it too. For me as head coach it's worse. Way up there with getting to KFC at closing time and finding out you've missed out on the last Big Bucket.

Interviewer: There's been some criticism of the game plan against Argentina.

Fozzie: A lot of that criticism is unfair. We've taken loads of time to analyse and work on our game plan. Obviously, It’s a work in progress but we hope to share it with the players soon.

Interviewer: Are you looking at how to counter the rush defence?

Fozzie: We're working really hard on that and trying different variations on attack. We workshop things in the training sheds before trying it out on the practice paddock. We used my empty KFC Big Buckets to represent the opposition forward and the Big Mac boxes for the backs.

Interviewer: How did that go?

Fozzie: OK, but we had to stop using the Big Buckets though as they were triggering withdrawal symptoms in Asafo Aumua.

Interviewer: You've picked JB at 14 again. What is your thinking behind that?

Fozzie: He's played pretty well in SRA at 14 so he was the logical choice. He was particularly impressive in the game with the Hurricanes. I pretty much made up my mind about him then.

Interviewer: Didn't he play fullback for the Canes in that game?

Fozzie: I clearly recall discussing the 14 slot at the airport & Scotty McLeod saying "Well Jordan played bloody well in the Hurricanes - Crusader game" and I decided there and then he was in the squad at 14.

Interviewer: That was "Will Jordan went well "surely, and not "Well Jordie went well"?

Fozzie: Why wasn't I told about these things? Can you see the sort of ineptitude I have to put up with? People aren’t even able to get players names right.

Interviewer: What about the balance in the loose forwards? There’s been some comment that Ardie Savea is a bit too light at 8 and should be brought on as an impact player.

Fozzie: That’s a good point. But Ardie has the experience which is vital and we’ve been working on his physicality. He’s working really hard on bulking up.

Interviewer: He doesn’t seem to have bulked up much though. Is he working on it enough?

Fozzie: You should see the McDonalds loyalty cards I lent Ardie.

Interviewer: What do you say to some of the social media attacks by supporters on you and the team after the Argentina loss?

Fozzie: Just knock that crap off will you? Just because you're right, doesn't mean you can be abusive.

Interviewer: But can’t you see how supporters might feel with the way the All Blacks are playing?

Fozzie: I can certainly empathise with how they feel. It’s a bit of a shock when you lose twice in a row unexpectedly when you have a history of winning. The only thing I would say is that the shock does wear off after a few losses. Trust me on that.

Interviewer: Will you consider your future if you lose on Saturday?

Fozzie: I'm contracted until 2021. So we'll see after that. But you know, you never know, you know.

Interviewer: Thanks for talking with us

Fozzie: My pleasure. Do you want those fries?

Been trying to sum up the utterly crass and inane questions that get asked at the daily press conferences until this popped into my FB feed...

First Ref to a 100 Tests this weekend. Terrific achievement.

Probably the best referee I've seen and up there with McCaw & co in the annals of Rugby. Pretty much a role model off the pitch as well.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/55091122

@Catogrande said in Coronavirus - UK:

@MiketheSnow said in Coronavirus - UK:

@TeWaio said in Coronavirus - UK:

@MiketheSnow no, what makes you ask that?

I was being sarcastic

MSM can and always do find an outlier to confirm their opinion.

Could easily have posted a picture of a cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, pie eating, 85 year old,20 stone tub of lard to show BMI is not perfect and exact.

But as a general yardstick for a population it’s pretty spot on.

I had this discussion with my GP about BMI being something of a blunt instrument approach and cited Matthew Pinsent the Olympic oarsman as being clinically obese according to BMI and his answer was basically that you can always find individuals that defy the metric and that BMI as an individual metric should be considered individually but as a broad measurement for the populace it is a very good indicator.

That's fine by me, I count myself as an outlier. Pass me the Big Mac and fries please. Oh and a black coffee, no sugar.

Pretty much what my GP said.

Told me to not to think about BMI but think about exercise instead. Even just 5 minutes of exercise like press-ups or lunges to a point where you just can't do anymore makes a huge difference apparently.

@Tim
Ah, OK.

I also wonder if there's less sleep in the UK. Lack of sleep does a huge amount of damage.

@Tim said in Coronavirus - UK:

I'm increasingly convinced that free time (subtract working hours and commute) is a key factor in the BMI and diabetes disparities between anglophone countries and continental Europe.

How so Tim?

@MajorRage

Hancock and Zawhari are confident they have enough Pfizer doses to meet the mid-Feb target. Read somewhere that AZ can deliver 2-3m doses from UK factories per week from end of Feb.

Opportunity for BoJo to seriously wind up the EU by offering some spare doses "to help out our EU neighbours who seem to be having difficulties".... Would have the additional virtue of seriously pissing off the loonier Remainers

@canefan said in Coronavirus - UK:

@Victor-Meldrew A wise man once said "The earlybird catches the worm." Clearly this didn't resonate with the walaahs at the EU

Kate Bingham deserves a Damehood or whatever it is they give women.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55591470

PS: In Peston tweeted and quoted a pro-Remain AZ director as saying he now fully understood the rationale for Brexit..

Interesting that AZ have hit back quite hard and quite quickly

The UK's "headstart" in rolling out vaccines before the European Union means nearly everyone aged over 50 will be inoculated by March, the AstraZeneca chief executive has said.

Pascal Soriot said he believed the UK was on course to administer doses to “maybe 28 or 30 million people” within weeks – nearly half the total population – and would comfortably hit the target of vaccinating the most vulnerable groups by mid-February.

It came amid rising international tension after the EU threatened to block vaccine doses from leaving the Continent without prior approval, leading Matt Hancock to accuse Brussels of "protectionism and narrow nationalism".

Last week the bloc’s rollout was thrown into disarray when AstraZeneca announced scheduled shipments of around 15 million doses would be delayed by manufacturing problems. EU politicians on Tuesday accused the firm of withholding the bloc’s “fair share” of doses, and suggested the UK had been given preferential treatment.

But Mr Soriot said the EU had been "treated fairly," adding that Britain had a three-month “headstart” after agreeing a deal for 100 million doses in May, three months before the EU.

**He revealed that British plants had among the best yield in the world after spending months perfecting the process, while **EU factories had been left with the “lowest productivity in the network**”.* 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/26/britain-track-vaccinate-nearly-everyone-aged-50-march-astrazeneca/

@Snowy said in Investing - Property/Shares:

Tech stocks - we have seen all of this before.

This time you can add regulation and anti-trust actions to the risks. Google is a prime candidate to be broken up along with Apple. Will be interesting to see how the Oz - Google News royalty spat goes.

@NTA said in Investing - Property/Shares:

Goodness knows dealers aren't pushing them because they're less profitable than fuel burners on service etc.

They're pushing them quite hard here. Diesel and petrol car sales are banned here in 9 years time

@Snowy said in Electric Vehicles:

to go wrong as well. My Audis have never actually broken down, but I have had an issue with the the TPMS (it is also 14 years old). The cheaper cars won't even have that to go wrong, so is that really an accurate measure of reliability?

The three low-mid-spec Skoda's I've had seem to have started falling apart after 5-7 years. Not the trick stuff but things like oil pumps and window winders.

@pakman

I've read there's real cold fury & disbelief in Germany at how the EU have handled this, particularly UVL's threats to AZ and the UK. If I translated correctly, one German commentator called her outburst yesterday "Trump-like nationalism".

And no-one seems to have noticed the UK did its vaccine deals while still effectively in the EU.