The Rugby Thread

[Buzzo]

It’s definitely a bit tiresome and bizarre. I also don’t read it anymore. Same as Eddie coming out with…

“This is the perfect time to beat the All blacks”.

I think every nation probably feels they have pivotal decisions in key matches that don’t go there way. South Africa are nothing special in this regards. We were 9 points up on the all blacks when an incredibly harsh deliberate knock on call probably lost us the game.

I totally don’t agree that the rest of the English speaking world hates South Africa. Certainly not up here, where you would have had a lot of support in the last final from a lot of English speaking nations! And also in the first one in South Africa. I think this is vs the world culture is precisely the one Rassie is trying to generate.

[Cormack74]

Don't really see the problem.

Mate, the referee is receiving death threats. I think if you were in his shoes you would.

It's not the same as you or me moaning about dodgy calls, it fuels the whole "it's ok to abuse refs because prominent rugby people do".

Then poor cunts like me get abused by mums and dads on a Sunday morning, so hey presto, no one wants to be a referee.

[Buzzo]

Finn Russell masterclass. At least 4 sumptuous offloads. Involved in 7 of the 8 try’s.

[ame="https://youtu.be/uSoP3M6ul50"]Highlights | Scotland v Argentina - YouTube[/ame]

[Buzzo]

Bristol or Bath apparently.

[ame]https://twitter.com/foychris/status/1595463992071233539[/ame]

[RichC]

Sad news but Doddie Weir has passed away.

[Buzzo]

The passing of a legend.

Was only two weeks ago we saw him at Murrayfield. Fought hard against MND but his deterioration in the last 13 months was pronounced.

[ame]https://twitter.com/scotlandteam/status/1596554586893975554[/ame]

[RichC]

Absolutely horrifying disease. He really brought attention to it along with Rob Burrows

[Buzzo]

Absolutely horrifying disease. He really brought attention to it along with Rob Burrows

Doddie lived with it for longer than most. It’s a terrifying disease.

[Buzzo]

South Africa have got Faf kicking (and missing).

International Rugby gets really hard if you don’t have a goal kicker.

Wow. Farrell missing from in front of the posts.

[Buzzo]

South Africa have absolutely monstered England today.

One of the most ridiculous high tackles ever to go down to 14 for a deserved red gives England a chance.

10 mins to go and England need 2 tries to level. I think they have a far better pool of players than they show. Eddie Jones is the problem.

[Irishnev]

South Africa have absolutely monstered England today.

One of the most ridiculous high tackles ever to go down to 14 for a deserved red gives England a chance.

10 mins to go and England need 2 tries to level. I think they have a far better pool of players than they show. Eddie Jones is the problem.

Lot of talk in Ireland about O’Gara going there with Scott Robertson

[Buzzo]

Yeah, I’m kind of keen that Eddie stays on

Jonny Hill had an absolute shocker. And. Why pick Marcus Smith and then make him play a style of Rugby that is totally against everything he stands for? Really poor today.

[RichC]

Yeah, I’m kind of keen that Eddie stays on

Jonny Hill had an absolute shocker. And. Why pick Marcus Smith and then make him play a style of Rugby that is totally against everything he stands for? Really poor today.

No complaints, we were poor and SA did what they do and deservedly won the match.

So fed up with Jones, we’ve gone nowhere since the 2019 RWC, with the talent available we’ve underperformed for years now and watched other teams improve and progress through playing to styles that suit the players.

[Cormack74]

Lot of talk in Ireland about O’Gara going there with Scott Robertson

Not just in Ireland - I think it definitely has legs

Fortunately, I was on a plane home and missed this, but the team's on its worst run in 14 years and with the players available that's pretty appalling.

[Cormack74]

Here's another DW piece (written by Will Greenwood).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2022/11/26/doddie-weir-made-everyone-met-feel-million-dollars-gift/

Among all the heartfelt tributes – including a standing ovation at Twickenham on Saturday – it is difficult to know what to add. Doddie might have been a Scot, but to me he was a Trojan.

My overriding memory of the man was the reception I always received from him. Whether I was an uncapped Lion on the tour in 1997 – my first meeting with Doddie – or later in my career after all we achieved with England, it never changed. He welcomed all. He walked with kings and paupers alike. He treated you for who you were, not what you were. His default was to trust and then, perhaps, reassess later.

Doddie was a total and utter inspiration – from the first time I met him, to the last. From that first Lions camp in Weybridge in 1997, to seeing him at the 25-year reunion this summer; his enthusiasm for life was infectious despite the awful cards that he had been dealt. He possessed this eternal optimism, in circumstances where so many others would be angry, resentful or bitter. It remains a mystery to me how he and his family were so stoic and outwardly positive since his horrific diagnosis.

At that Lions 1997 reunion, full of some of the game's greatest players, Doddie sat front and centre of the team photograph, between Fran Cotton, the tour manager and Martin Johnson, the tour captain. That says it all about him; a hero to us all – and how we all wished we could spend more days with him.

Remembering that tour to South Africa; Jesus, we had some fun. We played hard, we boozed hard – and both ends of the candle were scorched. When you embark on a tour like that you need characters like Doddie, the most auspicious of bridges between the midweek and Test sides. He embodied the fact that we won or lost – on whatever the day of the week – as a squad. All together. He was critical in connecting and linking the two. His raw authenticity meant that you always wanted him on your side.

We all know about his “mistaken identity” quip from the Living with Lions documentary, and how he took over player cam duties from John ‘Bentos’ Bentley but it just served to prove how no one straddled the amateur, Corinthian era and the professional milieu like Doddie. For many, the adjustment was too much. But he was different.

I still remember the day I found out that he was ruled out of that tour – before the Tests. The barbarous act that ended his tour was one of the most spineless I ever saw on a rugby field, ending Doddie's chance to become a Test Lion. I cannot recall the name of the coward that carried it out – and I do not want to.

The things that did not make the cut for that documentary were the Jim Telfer sessions. How any success we had, no matter who started, was a 20-man forward effort. Living with Lions is remembered for its fun and joviality – encapsulated by Doddie – but, like Doddie, the pack were world-beating, animalistic competitors.

There was a little bit of him in me on the field, too, I felt. Despite him being a lock and me a centre, we were both beanpoles, effectively. I always had hope when I saw him. How could a lamppost like him be a forward? It gave me confidence to be a lamppost out in the backs. But, as a man who had not yet played international rugby yet, I thanked the Lord that I was not playing in the second row. It just shows his granite mentality.

I visited his farm a couple of times over the years. Even as Doddie began to lose the physical capacity to drive his tractors, he still went out there and did it – with a smile on his face, knowing the doctors were not watching!

After the Lions had beaten Japan in Murrayfield on a Saturday in 2021, Scott Quinnell and I visited him on Sunday morning – my last trip to his farm. I had a 1.30pm flight and Doddie got the sherry out at 9.15am! He was the only human being who I could not say no to a drink at that time on a Sunday morning.

His after-dinner speeches were legendary, too. I did a couple alongside him and he always stole the show, with the crowd in raptures. He would even bring props! And there was never any pretence, nothing fake.

At domestic level, too, it was telling that when Sir John Hall ploughed those funds into Newcastle, that Doddie was part of the cabal of superstars that the Falcons recruited. They wanted the Premiership title – which they clinched in 1998 – and for that they knew they needed the best.

No one could ever meet a better brought-up group of young men than his three boys, either. Hamish, Angus and Ben – alongside Doddie's wife, Kathy – coped so impressively with their father's death sentence. They still found normality, they were still amazing children, all in spite of the extra work that they took on.

The reality is that Doddie should not have had almost six years – but what a titan. It was pure optimism that gave us longer with Doddie than others who might not have been as positive. Everyone: Be more Doddie. And bottle this feeling, do not forget this emotion for the next time that Kevin Sinfield laces up his trainers for one of his fund-raising runs. Kevin might be doing it for fellow MND sufferer and former team-mate, Rob Burrow, but next time he will be spurred on by the legacy of Doddie.

In life, everyone has the ability to make others feel bigger or smaller, to feel better about themselves or to doubt themselves. Everyone who met Doddie left feeling a million dollars about themselves. That was his gift.

I hate sherry, but what I'd do for one more with you, Doddie. Hopefully I've done enough to walk with you again some day.