Susan Hated Literature

Brian O’Driscoll has been voted best player of the Six Nations. Have to say I’m a little bemused by that. Not that he isn’t a great player, but he hasn’t shone this tournament. I know, he has had a huge influence, and made some great tackles. But best player? I’m not so sure.

But the Irish players have certainly had a role to play in the “best of” awards this Six Nations. Ronan O’Gara finished top scorer, for the second year in a row. And Shane Horgan was joint top-try scorer

The Blogosphere has been very annoying today. First off, I had no internet connection at all at work. And then when I got home, and online blogger was acting up, and any blog that has word verification was showing the exact same image, and so I couldn’t post any comments as they were looking for a different selection of random letters. Otherwise I would’ve had a great^[1] comeback for your post Luke, with Serenity quotes and all, and a clarification. It was e-bananas, not apples. They are far too clichéd for the likes of me.

And in a piece of promotion, anyone who comes across any interesting quotes from whatever blogs you read, feel free to submit them to the quotes site. There is a submit a quote page there, or you can email me^[2] or register over there and post away^[3]

Right, I’m off to watch Bones

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Was Sat ever a day of rugby or what? I missed the first match cause was taking the sister shopping for her birthday, but bloody hell. The two matches I caught were entertainment enough.

Weirdly, I’m starting to feel some sympathy for Gavin Henson. Thought all the criticism he got during and after the Wales/Ireland match was hugely unfair. You can hardly expect someone who hadn’t played properly in an age to come on at international level and do well. And that’s leaving aside the ructions going on in the Wales camp as it was.

But in the end France did the expected and won. Which meant that, realistically, all we were playing for was second place. Oh yeah, and the little matter of the Triple Crown, and beating England of course.

Everyone said that we needed a good start. That England were fragile, and if we, well, you know, gave them a kicking while they were down they might not make it up again in time for the match. But what did we get? A try. An english try.

Fucking hell. What a shit way to start a match. Almost as bad as against France.

But then Horgan became mighty as he did the impossible, he scored after the ball touched the line. Yes, it was out. So the English can feel them selves unlucky, but as the man himself said you have to play the whistle. And Ireland have had plenty of call like that go against them in the past. Swings and roundabouts.

Not to mention that there was something funny going on in that scrum, given Flannery’s “thats the second fucking time” outburst. And the fact that more than a few of the papers today were reporting that he needed treatment to his eyes.

But in the end we won. And I think we deserved it. I’m biased, but I don’t care.

You should have heard the screams in the front room of the house in Sligo. De mudder kept saying she’d have to leave. The tension was getting to her.

And I really think that this year we had one of the most entertaining Six Nations in a long time. Okay, so there were no great matches. No exhibitions of flowing skillfull rugby, but we did have some great competitions. Tensions and uncertainty everywhere. No one was safe as Italy almost beat some of the bigger teams. As Wales crashed from the heights of their grand slam last year, and as Scotland came from nowhere to win some great matches.

Here’s hoping next year will be as good.

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Bloody hell, those were two great matches. You’d have to feel a little sorry for Wales as they were the better team against Italy and deserved to win. But I wanted Italy to get their first away win. Didn’t happen, but the draw is better for them than for Wales.

But of course the Irish match was the one that I was most interested in. And we did deserve to win, and by a greater score than the final score if 15-9, but Scotland have a fantastic defence. And the rain and wind didn’t really help to create an error-free game. I think I’d have picked Stringer as man of the match, but Paul O’Connell was great.

And that was the final Six Nations match to be played in the current Lansdowne Rd. Next year we’ll be heading to Croke Park while the old stadium get redeveloped.

And, speaking of rugby, last October Victor Connell (Gavin’s cousin was seriously injured in a rugby match and will need assistance for the rest of his life, so if you think you can donate do visit the 4Victor website.

And I keep forgetting to post this image, which was the cartoon from BiffSniff last week. I think it is great:

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So the third rugby weekend of the 2006 Six Nations is over. Scotland, France and Ireland the winners, England, Italy and Wales the losers. But with what 4 teams (?) on the same amount of points it is amazing how open this years competition is. I’ve a feeling the France might sneak it.

Our match against Wales was quite odd. We started slowly, or did Wales start out fantastically? They did have something to prove after the recent disturbances in their set-up. In the end though it was a fairly easy win for us. Gavin Henson didn’t get much of a reception when he came on. I wonder why Plenty of wolf whistles and boos for the Welsh rugby player. Is it just me, or did he look like a old style Italian gangster?

Anyways, a final score of 31-5 was grand. And nice to see Peter Stringer score a try.

Anyone who has been visiting the quote site may like to know that I’ve finally gotten around to setting up a wordpress version. Means you can register yourself, as well as rate the comments. It can be found at http://quote.prettycunning.net

Luna Nina says:
1. Baby step::
2. Wasted::
3. Reggie::
4. Pitiful::
5. Acting out::
6. Tomato::
7. Bad night::
8. Trip::
9. Finance charges::
10. Sport::

so I say

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I’ve become a bad player in two weeks according to a lot of people but there’s not much I can do about Saturday’s game now

Poor Geordan. Don’t worry, we forgive you. And more importantly we all know you aren’t a bad player. Yes you made a mistake or two, but we still think you’re great.

To spare the rugby-phobes there is more, but I’ve hidden it under the cut. So I have.

Continue Reading »

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Talk about your bloody clichés. Was that game of rugby ever a game of two halves?

My first half commentary could be summarised as “fucking, french fuckers, and fucking stupid silly mistakes”, or to reduce that even further: FUCK!”

Lets look at the score timeline:

• 3 min.s and the french score a try 5-0
• 7 min.s and another french try. Converted. 12-0
• 18 min.s and guess what? Another French try. Also converted. 19-0
• 28 min.s sees Ireland’s first score. A penalty. 19-3
• 30 min.s and France erase Ireland’s score with a penalty of their own. 22-3
• 38 min.s, and a huge error by Murphy sees France get in for yet another try. Once more converted. 29-3

Half time, and we are all thinking of turning the telly off, cause this is just humiliating.

• 45. min.s and France continue on their Try scoring ways. Converted. 36-3
• 48 min.s and a block down from an O’Gara kick sees France’s SIXTH try 43-3
• 58 min.s sees us score our first try. Converted. Not much a reason for celebration as the score is still 43-10
• 61 min.s - Another Irish try. converted. 43-17
• 67 min.s and O’Callaghan makes it three for Ireland. Converted. 43-24
• 70 min.s and why the hell didn’t we play like this in first half; A converted try makes it 43-31

And that was the final score. 43-31. 6 tries to 4. Can you imagine, ten tries in the one game!

So did France take their foot off the pedal and allow Ireland back into the game? Or did Ireland’s work in the first half wear the French down enough so that they just weren’t capable of maintaining that level of defence in the second half.

Here’s hoping, against all reality, that Italy beat England.

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Well that was turn-up for the books and no mistakes. Great match, great result. Guess my days of jinxing teams really are over

Scotland beat France with a final score 20-16.

So, this is looking like a really good year for the Six Nations, Italy did well against Ireland, Scotland did fantastic against France. We just need someone to beat England and this might well be the most open Six Nations in quite a while.

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