Planet Rugby Forum

openclashXX

The details on the latest YouGov poll are even more dire for the Tories. Reform are currently polling AHEAD of them among: - Male voters (19% vs 17%) - Leave voters (33 vs 32) - Northern voters (18 vs 17) - Working class/C2DE voters (23 vs 19) On current polling, Tories would end up as the 4th large...

openclashXX

Dan Barker, Tory candidate for Mayor of Manchester, defects to Reform UK.

Mayoral elections are scheduled for 2nd May, which leaves the Tories with less than 6 weeks to find a replacement

openclashXX

Well, the gap between Reform and the Tories has closed further. Just 4% now. Reform at their all-time high in the polls, Tories at their Liz Truss-lows. The latest YouGov/Times voting intention poll has the Conservatives on 19% (-1 from 12-13 March) – the same share the party received at their lowes...

openclashXX

The default answer for England is to just pick the entire 2003 side I'll try a more hipster selection, without picking anyone from 2003 FR: Corbisiero, Hartley, Cole (2011-2013) Locks: Itoje, Kruis (2016-18) BR: Haskell, Robshaw, Vunipola (2016-17) 9-10: Hill, Andrew (1991-92) Centres: Guscott, Car...

openclashXX

The default answer for England is to just pick the entire 2003 side I'll try a more hipster selection, without picking anyone from 2003 FR: Corbisiero, Hartley, Cole (2011-2013) Locks: Itoje, Kruis (2016-18) BR: Haskell, Robshaw, Vunipola (2016-17) 9-10: Hill, Andrew (1991-92) Centres: Guscott, Carl...

openclashXX

According to Neil Fissler, LRZ has been made offers from 3 different teams to join their summer training squads. Salary would be $900k

openclashXX

In footballing terms Townsend's legacy will be remembered the same way as Roberto Martinez and Belgium. A golden generation of players, underachieving under mediocre management Were they golden though? Golden for Scotland sure but we're they ever good enough to beat what they were up against? "Gold...

openclashXX

In footballing terms Townsend's legacy will be remembered the same way as Roberto Martinez and Belgium. A golden generation of players, underachieving under mediocre management Remember the rules (that I made). You don't get to say he goes unless you can point to someone available and better. Keep ...

openclashXX

In footballing terms Townsend's legacy will be remembered the same way as Roberto Martinez and Belgium. A golden generation of players, underachieving under mediocre management

openclashXX

Pretty clear that fans don't even agree that Aki was the unanimous choice for best Irish player, or that Menoncello was the best Italian player. If JGP and Brex were in their spots then I doubt many would be complaining Whereas Earl was, by some clear distance, the best English player across all 5 r...

openclashXX

shanky wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 10:49 am I’ve become immediately fascinated by this document, the Irish Constitution

Does it have a section on wanking? Please tell me it has a section on wanking..

What about video games?

openclashXX

Next year is France and England away and both seem to be improving, so that's probably a lost cause already. So maybe 2026? The bigger issue is that Townsend has 0 wins in 10 attempts against Ireland. The current Scotland team is good enough to consistently get win one out of either England or Fran...

openclashXX

puku wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 4:54 pm Menoncello shirely though, has to be the find of the 6N, despite very stiff competition from the French newbies.

I thought Brex or Lamaro were more important for the Italians than him

openclashXX

Bundee Aki (Ireland)
Ben Earl (England)
Tommaso Menoncello (Italy)
Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland)

Was Aki really the best from Ireland?

openclashXX

iarmhiman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 18, 2024 4:20 pm A bigger security risk is Russian navy.

Narcotics are small fry in comparison

And yet still no Irish membership of NATO, even after Sweden and Finland abandoned their neutrality

openclashXX

Mike Kofman's latest update on the WOTR podcast paints a quite grim picture for Ukraine Having been in Ukraine + met troops and units fighting on all of the major frontline battles, he notes that there are 3 issues facing Ukraine in 2024, and all 3 will likely manifest themselves as major problems i...

openclashXX

Worth clarifying that the 20-25% figure is one independent estimate - Bloomberg and other news sources are giving more conservative figures of 10-15% It will be interesting to see if/how the Ukrainians escalate the refinery strikes - it seems a perfect segment of the Russian oil & gas industry to ta...

openclashXX

Estimates that up to 20-25% of Russia's refinery capacity has now been hit by Ukrainian drone attacks https://twitter.com/HerrDr8/status/1768935407469678598 Exports of refined oil products have been banned for 6 months in response, but so far the impact on wholesale fuel prices in Russia is limited ...

openclashXX

nardol wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 10:22 am
openclashXX wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 10:17 am
nardol wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 10:11 am Really?

You must be old. They haven't gotten out of the groups how many world cups in a row now... 3? 4?
You were born after 2015?
Meh.. that's the best you could muster?

Am I supposed to "muster" more World Cups out of thin air?

openclashXX

Townsend is working a miracle to keep Scotland competitive when you see just how bad their underage results are. Pretty sure I've seen Scotland in the knockout stages of a World Cup before Townsend How long ago though? 2015. They were a dodgy Joubert penalty away from making the semi-finals.

openclashXX

Townsend is working a miracle to keep Scotland competitive when you see just how bad their underage results are. Pretty sure I've seen Scotland in the knockout stages of a World Cup before Townsend Really? You must be old. They haven't gotten out of the groups how many world cups in a row now... 3?...

openclashXX

JoeyFantastic wrote: ↑Sun Mar 17, 2024 9:58 am Townsend is working a miracle to keep Scotland competitive when you see just how bad their underage results are.

Pretty sure I've seen Scotland in the knockout stages of a World Cup before Townsend

openclashXX

So that makes his Six Nations record: 2018 - 3rd place 2019 - 5th place 2020 - 4th place 2021 - 4th place 2022 - 4th place 2023 - 3rd place 2024 - 4th place Coupled with group stage exits at the 2019 and 2023 World Cups Is there another coach in world rugby that gets such a free pass off such a medi...

openclashXX

The Irish 8 has been crap

openclashXX

You think that a small country like France can have an influence? I am not even sure our nuclear capability is up to scratch. We've stopped testing a long time ago and I don't know the state of our delivery means. Plus Putin would know he can rely on Trump later to apply pressure on Macron to keep ...

openclashXX

You're projecting a very simplistic and narrow take on a situation that we really don't know much about. I'd hold fire. You're falling into the exact trap of hopium/copium that you, rightly, disparage. You've decided what the point of the exercise is before all details are known and have drawn your...

openclashXX

My guess would be that it's a data-gathering exercise. Almost anything can be framed through the lens of "a data-gathering exercise". Even flying a single drone into the roof of the Kremlin (remember that?) could be seen as a way of "gathering data" on the response times of the security services. T...

openclashXX

Depends what they're going after. There's a strategic, tactical, information and propaganda war going on that none of us here truly understand. Ukraine military approach so far has been anything but wasteful, and I'd imagine there's a Russo-Ukraine mentality sidebar that we understand even less fro...

openclashXX

Any one else has heard about this? https://x.com/warmonitor3/status/1768337335068819928?s=46&t=hahx9CseQw_Ts1igZokqEQ Hope the Ukrainians know what they are doing with their adventure into Belgorod. Seems like an awfully high risk to take with both their people and equipment for what is effectively...

openclashXX

Any one else has heard about this? https://x.com/warmonitor3/status/1768337335068819928?s=46&t=hahx9CseQw_Ts1igZokqEQ Hope the Ukrainians know what they are doing with their adventure into Belgorod. Seems like an awfully high risk to take with both their people and equipment for what is effectively...

openclashXX

Danny Care for his 101st cap...

openclashXX

Mark Rutte's path to the NATO leadership just got tougher Nato should not appoint the outgoing Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, as secretary general without first holding a broader discussion about the alliance’s future challenges, Latvia’s foreign minister has said. Krišjānis Kariņš’s remarks refl...

openclashXX

Kyiv is saying that Russian offensive operations have culminated; they are no longer advancing due to massive losses, the frontline has stabilised, and overall the situation for the Ukrainians is the best it's been in three months. Rescued by the Czechs, it seems. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2...

openclashXX

forrester wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 8:19 pm Christian Wade has signed for Gloucester from next season.

I haven't been watching him much over in France - has he still got it? 7 tries in 16 games seems like a decent strike rate, but he's been there two seasons, so 16 games seems like he wasn't starting much?

openclashXX

Someone should be asking - if Trump is so against funding Ukraine, why did annual military aid to Ukraine triple under his presidency? https://i.postimg.cc/7YRFF0z4/Screenshot-2024-03-11-at-18-03-25.png https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-foreign-aid-does-the-us-give-to-ukraine/ 2016 was the las...

openclashXX

Lee Anderson was one of the few Tory MPs that actually had a positive favourability rating among Reform voters and a negative one among Tory voters. Defecting has almost certainly improved his hopes of getting re-elected I would imagine many other Tory MPs are actively trying to gauge the same metr...

openclashXX

Lee Anderson was one of the few Tory MPs that actually had a positive favourability rating among Reform voters and a negative one among Tory voters. Defecting has almost certainly improved his hopes of getting re-elected I would imagine many other Tory MPs are actively trying to gauge the same metri...

openclashXX

Watched 20 Days in Mariupol. Terrific - heavy, but necessary viewing.

Available on 4 on Demand, for UK viewers.

openclashXX

Someone should be asking - if Trump is so against funding Ukraine, why did annual military aid to Ukraine triple under his presidency?

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much- ... o-ukraine/

openclashXX

Hope there's very few handling errors because England are going to get cooked at the scrum by France

Search found 15885 matches