Author: Butz

Keith here, you’re stuck with me again for the round 3 review.My predictable round 2 was far from it with the Soap Dodgers doing their best to sabotage the championship plans of Les Bleus. Ireland did enough to beat the Jocks at Murrayfield and keep their bid for a third straight championship on track. And meanwhile, Wales went from bad to worse. Enough preamble, let’s crack on.WalesHaving received a good number of shoeings in south Wales in my rugby playing days it’s difficult to sympathise with their plight but, crikey, they’re having a rough time both on and off the field.…

Round 1 went as predicted with three home wins. Expect something different this weekend with at least one away win and a very predictable one at that.Saturday 8 February. KO 14.15ITALYOf the teams that lost in round 1, Italy can take the most positives out of their game. They came back from being 14-0 down in next to no time and pegged the Scots back to 19-19 before the men in blue pulled away for the win. It was a great forward effort that took its toll towards the end. They also have a talented back line with power and…

Although normal G&GR service with the usual suspects won’t be resumed until 3 February, contrary to popular opinion there is some rugby being played north of the equator. With three domestic competitions taking a break and the European Cups completing their opening rounds, the rugby void has been filled with the Six Nations. This year’s tournament could be a cracker.It kicks off on Friday, 31 January with France taking on Wales in Paris followed by Scotland v Italy and Ireland v England. My fearless predictions for round 1 are set out below.France v Wales – Friday, 31 January. Paris. KO 20:00.…

And why not, it’s a new year and a new Super Rugby season is about to arrive. The Rebels are history and the spoils have been divided with RANSW and the Reds being the main beneficiaries. Commonsense has prevailed and we’ll see Australian teams and the Drua playing each other home and away with three home and three away games against their NZ counterparts. Hopefully at some stage in the future we’ll see a united competition where everyone plays each other home and away. Hoss’s annual prediction that the Tahs will sweep all before them may even bear fruit. We’ve also seen…

Damn, he’s back!No it isn’t if you’re a true blue Soap Dodging Taswegian. However, setting that aside for a moment, in the true spirit of Christmas mine’s a Hellyers Road single malt whisky aged in French Oak red wine barrels (in case you’re buying it’s $640 a bottle, thank you very much). What better way to finish off the year than to have a look at how the main protagonists performed in the November series. The matches have been covered in great detail so I don’t propose adding anything further other than my random thoughts for what they’re worth and…

BANZAI or BONSAI?Or may Steve Borthwick live to coach the Soap Dodgers for 10,000 years and Eddie gets cut down to size. The results so far see the Japanese ahead of the Soap Dodgers on their Northern Tour. The Brave Blossoms stand with one loss against France and a win against Uruguay in what was a see saw contest. We all know how the SDs have gone; they stand at 0-3 and the less said about it the better. Their last win was funnily enough against Japan at the start of July tour. Japan had a pretty good Pacific Nations…

The Soap Dodgers – onwards and upwardsOr if you’re referring to the England scrum, backwards and upwards. The less said about last weekend the better. We were beaten by a better team who showed more drive up front and more idea in the backline. Any other result would have been a travesty and just papered over the massive cracks that are appearing in Borthwick’s selection policy and game strategy. South Africa were made to work bloody hard for their win against a very good Scottish team but they will have benefitted from a tough workout. Rassie has such depth in…

SECONDS OUT ROUND 3What a nice way to start the northern tour season. The SDs v the Minstrels resuming hostilities after two close games in the land of the long white cloud. The only clouds we’re likely to see at Twickers/Allianz will be be dark and ominous ones. While the SDs were sunning themselves in Girona, the ABs warmed up with a quick FIFO to Japan where they comfortably dealt with Eddie’s Brave Blossoms 64-19. A nice runout to get the kinks out before battle commences in earnest.The ABs try out their new Haka.THE TEAMSEngland XV: 15 Furbank; 14 Feyi-…

G&GR goes global. Some last minute drop outs means that you’re stuck with me, the brains of the outfit, for Monday news. Not to everyone’s taste I know, but needs must when the devil drives.Not Up Schmidt Creek.Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has resisted the urge to make widespread changes following last week’s record loss to Argentina, making just two tweaks to his squad for upcoming Tests against New Zealand. Queensland duo Fraser McReight and Hunter Paisami return as the only new inclusions to the group that toured Argentina, both having recovered from injury. Wagga Wagga junior Corey Toole and inside…

It was all action in soggy Hobart on Saturday for grand finals day at Rugby Park. Inclement weather, and the cost of my diesel-guzzling ute, prevented an appearance from yours truly but the good people from TAS Rugby have been quick to post reports of the games and a few piccies. Thanks guys.Men’s Premiership Final – Launceston 1 47 defeated Taroona 33Launceston 1 have stormed to a third straight TRU Premiership after seeing off a resurgent Taroona in Hobart. The Tigers roared early with captain TJ Pieters scoring inside the first three minutes and looked home and hosed with a…

From your Tasmanian correspondent and resident Soap Dodger.Good morrow, fellow G&GRians. Unfortunately, RAWF is tied up on urgent matters for the next few Tuesdays so it’s been left to others to fill his new boots, and I drew the one and only straw for today’s piece.The weekend has come and gone and we’ve seen Auckland Blues crowned as worthy Super Rugby champions. National teams are flying south for the winter and the Soap Dodgers kicked off their southern campaign with a warm up against Eddie Jones Brave Blossoms in a hot and humid Tokyo over the weekend. The team has…

I must admit that I was in two minds about posting this article as it’s a bit of a rant about the goings on in English rugby and particularly the impasse between the Premiership clubs and the RFU on a number of issues which maybe of little or no interest to readers. However, I’ve decided to don my body armour and tin hat, damn the torpedoes and go full steam ahead as it cuts across a couple of issues that have been galling me for ages namely the benefits of overseas players and player development/pathways. The latter has been a…

This is the very first article I’ve written without the assistance of my esteemed G&GR colleagues. Whether you like it or not here’s an opinion piece on our game and how I see certain aspects of it, based on a very brief comment I made a while back. But first some ancient and I do mean ancient history. I played in the 70s and 80s back in Soap Dodger land. We were a famous old club blessed with a succession of great coaches. Officially trained twice a week but if you wanted to progress to the top level you were…

We sometimes forget that there is more to our beloved game than test matches, super rugby and dare I say it, the Shute Shield. It’s played across the country by all ages, all genders and all abilities. I picked up my first rugby ball aged 11. It was thick, hard leather weighed a ton when it was wet and went out of shape so easily that it soon became almost shaped like a soccer ball. My first game of senior rugby was as a callow 17 yr old in the 5th XV of a famous club in SE London (the…

 ‘In the beginning’ Where did it all begin? As usual, you can blame the Poms and that bloke William Webb Ellis, who in a game of ‘football’ at Rugby School, allegedly picked up the ball and ran with it. He probably got clobbered by 20 or more of the opposition for being ‘unsporting’ which seems fair to me. Writing this article it caused me to think that if Bill could step into a time machine and leap forward to the present day and see how our game has been taken over he would have gone back and said ‘fuck footy…