The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Pub, Cathair na Gaillimhe

First topic message reminder :

Hello and welcome to the Virtual Rugby Pub, a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

The pub has made its way to Galway, the Fort at the Mouth of the Stony River.

So grab a beer, cider, whiskey or wine.... or a warm beverage and sit back and enjoy the upcoming 2014 Six Nations rugby season.

                      

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no tampering with the pictures of the legendary
Nelson Mandela along with Charlie Hayter, Rhys Patchell, The Saw Doctors, Kieran Read and Matthew Screech.  

Guests are invited to chance their arm at our newly renovated dartboards featuring caricatures of Roger Lewis and Oliver Cromwell.   

last Pawb: https://www.606v2.com/t47772-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-rugby-pub-trebanog

The whole Notch clan?

Your folks will be so happy with that!

Say "Hi!" to them for me.

Looks very nice with the cozy fire place, MrsP.
I presume the presents are still under lock and key... or in the usual hiding place?   

Those that are here are hidden away alright though the kids probably know where to look.

Every year I hide stuff and then forget where I put it or forget that I had got it ages ago. Problem is with so many Ps I have to start early and anything that comes by post has to be whisked away and concealed. Sometimes Christmas Eve is full of surprises for me too!!!

One year I complained to Amazon that an item had not arrived so they refunded me. When we went to wrap the pressies I discovered that it had arrived but had been hidden with something else. I had to email them to un-refund me again. It caused endless problems!

You all need to watch referee Mike Jones dive in the Newcastle v Southampton game. Shocking   

Just watching the replay now... can you remember roughly when it happens?
(35th minute here... have I missed it?)

That Man C - Arsenal game was a cracker. It was such a fast paced games with some spectacular goals!

Towards the end, I think.

Man city game was class. Cardiff won too. Could've gone to that, but I wanted to watch Risca win in the Welsh plate.

Risca Rev wrote:You all need to watch referee Mike Jones dive in the Newcastle v Southampton game. Shocking   

yeah, there it is. At 87'30"... accidently poked in the nostrils by Sissoko. Poor bugger.  

morning

Bore da pawb  

MrsP - that tree is very impressive.  I'm not very good at decorating my tree.  I just don't have the patience and creativity sometimes, but mine looks OK I think - considering I've had the same decks for ten years or so.

I'm enjoying a rare lazy day today.  

Morning all. I'm just waiting for the train to depart for what promises to be a very soggy Wycombe. A win and 5 points against Grenoble today would require Wasps to c*ck up badly to fail to reach the quarters.

Linebreaker wrote:

Risca Rev wrote:You all need to watch referee Mike Jones dive in the Newcastle v Southampton game. Shocking   

yeah, there it is. At 87'30"... accidently poked in the nostrils by Sissoko. Poor bugger.  

He went down in installments, didn't he? It reminded me of that ref who was pushed by Paolo di Canio years ago.   

Morning, Hound. I took the dog for a walk earlier and we got caught in a fairly heavy shower. It was quite good fun, actually.

I hope you towelled Lola off, mate... and gave her some nice dry biscuits to chew on.   

She's nice and dry now - and asleep on the sofa

Happy to hear!   

Bet you've been happy to hear how the cricket's going, too. The series has been one-way traffic, really. Australia have been better with bat and with ball. But serious questions have to be asked about our selection, tactics, and basic application. There doesn't seem to be any appetite for the fight, whereas Australia have been the epitome of 'up for it'.

You know it can be such a cruel game.

It's almost the complete reverse of last time here in Oz... but maybe even better for us than 2006/7 (with all those great players) where the miracle turnaround happened in Adelaide.

On paper - it didn't seem as though it would turn out like this (even though I was hoping it might) and the nature of England's capitulation has astounded me.

When Australia were struggling - the batting, bowling, fielding, team selection, planning and execution was a complete and utter mess. Now it's all the other way round.

It will be a pity if it's all decided in the next day or two but I'm sure there'll be huge crowds at the MCG & SCG Tests. It's sort of like therapy for all the fans after a prolonged bad period against England especially.

They'll want to make it 5 - 0, no question. And at the moment, you wouldn't bet against it. How much rain do you get in Melbourne and Sydney this time of year?

Lucky - good to hear the 's enjoying her walks.

As for the cricket, why take tall quicks like Finn, Tremlett and Rankin and not play at least one of them at the Waca, which is heaven made for them.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:They'll want to make it 5 - 0, no question. And at the moment, you wouldn't bet against it. How much rain do you get in Melbourne and Sydney this time of year?

Melbourne has more variable weather about now. Anything from 20-40 degrees C. They get "4 seasons in one day" type of weather. Forecast shows there may be rain on the 27th... but if I check it again tomorrow... it could be completely different.

We've already had some very hot days here in Sydney. Slightly higher maximums and minimums than Melb. and hardly any rain. However, when I looked yesterday it showed several cloud/rain icons during the 1st week in January. Then I looked again today - and they were all gone.

Our wettest time is usually late February but the difference between 2010 (la Nina - wet) and 2014 (El Nino - dry) is very marked.
Where I am, it's been like Greece or N. Africa in mid-summer - above ave. for late spring/early summer (sometimes 8-10 deg C difference over a distance of only 20km) compared to the coastal areas (near the SCG) which does get thunderstorms/strong sea breezes more often.

Well if England do manage to draw a Test, it'll be thanks to the weather. I can't see anyone particularly keen on occupying the crease.

Hound, that's my thinking too. And Andy Flower seems not to want to drop anyone, despite his talk about making tough decisions. Bairstow could have come in for Prior, for example. If someone's out of form, the Waca 2 - 0 down might not be the easiest place to find it again.

Anyway, time to pop in a DVD and fall asleep on the sofa.

Aw bless him - Leigh Halfpenny doesn't like the limelight. He's just been interviewed on the BBC SPOTY prog.

Hound - I think that's what's endearing about LHP - when you think how good he is, good looking and young - he could be a complete doorknob if he wanted to be, but he's very humble and down-to-earth.  I doubt he'll win SPOTY - I think that'll go to Andy Murray for winning Wimbledon, as it's probably the most memorable sporting event this year to the general public.  Still, LHP won the Welsh version so that's something.

In other news, just read that Peter O'Toole has died.  I loved him with Richard Burton in Becket.  One of my fave films.  Both very fine actors.

You can't not like HP, and he's runner up.

Murray wins it. Surprised that Tony M'Coy didn't feature. Amazing record.

At least The Lions won two awards. Team and coach

I think thats the right result tbh, what Murray did was the ultimate challenge for a Brit tennis player and hasn't been done in many decades. Halfpenny certainly a deserving candidate but was just part of a successful team, not the best rugby player worldwide in the year or part of the very top rugby team. Not to minimise his achievements, certainly most years would be enough to win it, but Murray winning Wimbledon was pretty special.

Mo Farah deserved to be in the Top 3... incredible athlete and competitor.

I thought Farah would finish runner up. I knew Murray would win. My three guesses were Murray, Farah, froome.

Good result for 1/2p and cement head though. Plus the lions. I think there are more deserving winners of team of the year though. Wigan Rugby League for a start for winning the double and also for the manner they won the grand final (written off and after a great comeback). What the lions did was good, but they were nailed on to win that series.

Saw some figures on twitter for the voting;

Murray 401,470
Halfpenny 65,913
McCoy 57,854
Farah 51,945
Ainslie 48,140
Froome 37,343

Never was in any doubt.

Not so sure about that last sentence, Rev. Up until the 55th minute it was quite even.   

Team of the year would have to be the Kangaroos.

218 points for, 2 points against... including the Final against an on-form Kiwi side.

(apart from the first game against England when they weren't properly acclimatised)  

oh, SPOTY is just for UK sporting teams and players?

Fair enough then.

 

England chasing 504 to win and Cook clean bowled for a golden duck. It's just perfect, isn't it?

Oh, and Pietersen's just holed out to long on. I didn't see that coming.

Actually, I'm furious about that. The odds are against, but we're supposed to be batting to save the Test, in the hope we can draw the series and retain the Ashes. Why on God's green earth is he trying to hit sixes, especially when he's been out caught I don't know how many times?

Boycs must be apoplectic out there.

Linebreaker wrote:Not so sure about that last sentence, Rev. Up until the 55th minute it was quite even.   

The Lions were expected to win the series though, weren't they. Even before the series started.

All pundits (and a few bookies etc) in the Grand Final studio predicted Warrington to win and they went 16-2 up.

Maybe your bookies had a different take on it.
I blamed the turf at Suncorp and Kurtley's choice of boot.   It could have so easily been 1-0 after the first Test. It's sort of like Oz v Wales... not as much difference between the sides as the scorelines suggest.

Wigan and Warrington would also be a flip of the coin, no? Both sides were fairly evenly matched I would have thought. The late surge from Wigan shouldn't have been such a surprise. Like our GF here; Manly up 18-8... then they ran out of legs and the chooks scored a few tries.

Morning all.

Interesting time with my reading group of 9 and 10 year olds today. They were trying to explain what "diagnose" meant and one of them asked,

"Is it when you give someone a tablet?"

One of the others looked very puzzled by this question and said,

"A tablet? What, like a Kindle or something????"

  

Modern times eh?

Yep. They probably think Moses came down from Mount Sinai with a couple of iPads!

good evening

Hello CF. Evening all.

I'm recovering after a fairly lively weekend.

Murray achieved something huge in winning Wimbledon but in reality it's just one thing in a year that was otherwise underwhelming at best and showed that in terms of consistency and toughness he is miles behind Novak and Rafa. Last year Murray deserved to be in the frame. This year I am disappointed that he won. Winning one thing in a year shouldn't really be enough to win SPOTY

True, but one of the funny things about Britain is that for a large number of people the sport of tennis only matters for two weeks at the start of the summer.

Most consistently impressive British athlete on the world stage for me is Mo Farah.

It often doesn't come down to what a sportsman (or woman) has achieved, but how long ago it was last achieved. You'd think Chris Froome would be there or thereabouts after winning the Tour de France, but it was viewed as less of a big deal because he was the second Brit (should that be in inverted commas?) to have won it. Same with Andy Murray: if a Brit winning Wimbledon was a regular occurence, then he'd need more than that to get 50-odd percent of the vote.

In Mo Farah's case, his misfortune is that his achievements have coincided with the achievements of others. Greg Rusedski won it for losing the US Open final!

I'm surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25426263

Ha ha - I was on that pier on the Lions tour. There's an historic cafe at the end of it. The water under it isn't very deep though.

Loved the comment from the guy afterwards about walking into a lamppost

Gee's this weather is grim, had planned to start my Xmas shopping this weekend but might have to put it off until Monday now.

How's the littl'un going, Rodders? Wishing the 3 of you a wonderful Christmas.

Weather here is rather hot. 41 deg C tomorrow... ! Only 30-something today but I moved the thermometer out of the shade and within a few minutes it went up to 44!

Would you believe both my fridge and my laptop conked out? The computer was on it's last legs for a year or so and the fridge started acting funny on Monday morning. I had to replace both of them. (I went a bit crazy making ice cubes today... just so I can get through tomorrow)

Hey thanks LB, she's doing great, a bit of handful alright but sure that's what you want really . Xmas will be totally different this year but looking forward to it.... if I ever get some xmas shopping done!

Aww snow pelting it down now!

That's great news! Quite jealous of your snow... that's like a Christmas dream to me.

I have a feeling those store assistants in the electronic and white goods departments are going to be run off their feet in the coming days. I felt like I got in there just before the storm!

Afternoon everyone.

Feeling very smug as I managed to get all but one of the Christmas pressies wrapped!

  

Whoever titled this pub much props to them. You have better Irish skills then half the country.