The Dew Drop Inn Virtual La Botticella Pub, Rome.

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 the historical city of Rome, the owner Giiovanni, is a Canadian-Italian, and welcomes all after a great day of rugby.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no tampering with the pictures of Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Dane Coles, Aaron Jarvis, Samson Lee and Schalk Brits up on the wall. Erm, actually there is a second rule. No elephants, unless they're Effervescing - we can't be barring a Chiefs fan



Previous Pub:
https://www.606v2.com/t36353-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-jackie-horner-tavern-near-kings-park-durban

I was too lazy to read back and see if anyone made suggestions for a new Pub. So I though we'll go to Rome and have an Irish Pub setting.

If anyone has any ideas of pictures, please suggest them.

Irish pub? Jeez, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Portnoys would have kittens.

I have fond memories of 20 odd of us making a Chinese tat seller's day by buying most of the contents of her tray in an Irish pub in Rome. From Picachu toys to novelty lighters. Ah, those were the days...

If you're going to Rome I think you should go to La Botticella, a great venue during rugby weekends with a great host in Giovanni, the Italian-Canadian guy who runs it. Or why don't we have a Welsh pub in Rome, now that would be radical.....

Mrs Penfro wrote:If you're going to Rome I think you should go to La Botticella, a great venue during rugby weekends with a great host in Giovanni, the Italian-Canadian guy who runs it. Or why don't we have a Welsh pub in Rome, now that would be radical.....

Done.

Same old photos in these pubs

What about AI new call ups? Wales - Aaron Jarvis and Samson Lee. The rest of you can nominate your own country's.

Bore da pawb / good morning all, benvenuti, vaffanculo and all that. Seeing as we're in Italy, I'll have a proper please.

What's this about Britain's Got Talent, PJ?

Morning Welsh pub dwellers please.

Rodders wrote:Rava mate what did you think of the seats behind the sticks at the Aviva? What tier were you on at the Heino SF?

Upper tier. Great place to watch from.

Cheers Biltong! And Ciao from Roma. Caffe Macchiato for me please.

Cheers Rava. Not 100% if we're going but the upper tier behind the post is the most likely spot given whats left.

Good luck to CJ running the Dublin Marathon today (at least I think its today... ) .

Guess richardt Strauss too?

prop_lyd wrote:Guess richardt Strauss too?

In which colour green?

Dave Kilcoyne, Iain Henderson and Luke Marshall are the other new caps in and around the Ireland squad...

There are too many Ulstermen in here this morning for my liking...

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:There are too many Ulstermen in here this morning for my liking...

was half the problem on Friday, with our defence!

It's a sad state of affairs when our only hope for the rest of the season is that the Blues are more gash than we are. But there was a great point made on another thread that the provinces have invested in quality coaches while the regions have given former players the coaches' role and expected them to be good at it.

Morning all. I watched the 2007 RWC final in an Irish Pub in Rome. Trying not to let my English GF* see me cheering for the Saffas was hard

I've added new ABs Kerr-Narlow & Coles to the pics.



*ex-GF soon after. Though I did meet her for lunch on Saturday.

Sorry Lucky, I know its a Welsh themed pub so....

Ah, LA BOTTICELLA – what a great bar . Our Friday visit on the 6 Nations weekend is now a tradition, as is the “watch the Sunday game” session. Giovanni really is a top bloke – a big Pittsburgh Steelers FAN

Luckless Pedestrian wrote: was half the problem on Friday, with our defence!

It's a sad state of affairs when our only hope for the rest of the season is that the Blues are more gash than we are. But there was a great point made on another thread that the provinces have invested in quality coaches while the regions have given former players the coaches' role and expected them to be good at it.

Aye. What on earth is with Cardiff having Xavier Rush as defence coach? Better hope he's good at learning on the job, because the way Leinster and Ulster sliced through them he's got a lot of work to do...

The role of the coaches is key. Obviously it helps to have quality players, but good coaches will get the best out of the players at their disposal. There's truth to the whole silk purse / sow's ear thing, but you'll see an improvement all the same.

The WRU has the money. They could bring in (or try to bring in) quality coaches. You'd think they'd realise how important it is, having seen what bringing in Gatland and Edwards has done to the national side. But no.

Jebus - DAY AFTER TOMORROW ?

Lucky, as far as the Irish national side is concerned;

"They could bring in (or try to bring in) quality coaches. You'd think they'd realise how important it is, having seen what bringing in Schmidt/Anscombe/Penney has done to the provinces. But no."

Notch wrote:Lucky, as far as the Irish national side is concerned;

"They could bring in (or try to bring in) quality coaches. You'd think they'd realise how important it is, having seen what bringing in Schmidt/Anscombe/Penney has done to the provinces. But no."

The empirical evidence is fairly convincing.

Hire NZ coaches if you want to win stuff.

Pete C (Kiwireddevil) wrote:

Notch wrote:Lucky, as far as the Irish national side is concerned;

"They could bring in (or try to bring in) quality coaches. You'd think they'd realise how important it is, having seen what bringing in Schmidt/Anscombe/Penney has done to the provinces. But no."

The empirical evidence is fairly convincing.

Hire NZ coaches if you want to win stuff.

+ 10 million..... and if you can sign or poach some Kiwi players too all the better...

Just bought a couple of Euromillions tickets online. It's a ridiculous rollover jackpot.

Helllooooooo dahlinks! Yah, just dashed back in from this morning's shoot, my feet are killing me and I'm quite literally frozen half way through.

Any chance of soem table service here?

Sorry sweetie, no pictures.

Simey and his peeps are really something, sooooooooo professional and welcoming, made us feel sooooo welcome, I said to Ash and Puds......

Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the book, no offence, but now I'm moving in different circles, you'll probs see a lot less of moi from now on, yah?

Well, it's been such fun, but must run - I have to get ready for Piers.

Toodles.....

Exactly. Can you IMAGINE how good we'd be if we had NZ coaches and players?! Unstoppable.

I really do think the coaches we have in the provinces now will bear fruit for the national team several years down the road. There is much more attention to detail in the execution of the basics in terms of all three leading provinces and they are all trying to play the game at a high pace.

We're going to be up-skilled from where we were five years ago as a result. When the Kidney era ends we'll be absolutely treading water and about to be hit by the retirements of several big names. But the seeds of hope are being planted at provincial level even as our national team remains a blundering omnishambles.

There's plenty of hope Notch...there should be hope now.

How the IRFU think that having the three main provinces playing a NZ style of rugby and the national side playing a circa 2004 Munster/ 2009 Springbok hybrid is a recipe for success is beyond me......

PJHolybloke wrote:Helllooooooo dahlinks! Yah, just dashed back in from this morning's shoot, my feet are killing me and I'm quite literally frozen half way through.

Any chance of soem table service here?

Sorry sweetie, no pictures.

Simey and his peeps are really something, sooooooooo professional and welcoming, made us feel sooooo welcome, I said to Ash and Puds......

Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the book, no offence, but now I'm moving in different circles, you'll probs see a lot less of moi from now on, yah?

Well, it's been such fun, but must run - I have to get ready for Piers.

Toodles.....

Does that mean it went well?

Michael Bent decusion is foolish. He is unproven and it is a two fingers to our Irish props.

Two fingers up to who stag? Who do you feel deserves the shot that is missing out because of Bent?

To be honest two fingers is the kick up the backside a fair few of them need because most of them aren't up to Rabo level let alone international.

I can't think of anyone else though. Loughney? Archer? Hagan? They certainly aren't playing at a level where they can realistically feel aggrieved at being left out.

I feel picking a Kiwi is less of a two finger salute to other tightheads than picking a specialist loosehead as cover which is what Kidney seemed to think we should do up until we lost to England. At least he plays the position in question.

I don't like it at all.

Has he even played very much top flight rugby in NZ?

I have no idea. Kiwi?

I agree Notch. I would agree with Stag if there was someone knocking on the door to be shafted by this...but unless I'm missing someone there isn't. Two of the best 3 THs in the country are a Kiwi and a Saffer.

If Bent is considerably better than the other options, and please God he is, then I have no problem with his inclusion. If he works out and Fitzpatrick stays fit then we'll have 3 options at TH, which is a bare minimum for International top tier survival imo.

MrsP wrote:

PJHolybloke wrote:Helllooooooo dahlinks! Yah, just dashed back in from this morning's shoot, my feet are killing me and I'm quite literally frozen half way through.

Any chance of soem table service here?

Sorry sweetie, no pictures.

Simey and his peeps are really something, sooooooooo professional and welcoming, made us feel sooooo welcome, I said to Ash and Puds......

Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the book, no offence, but now I'm moving in different circles, you'll probs see a lot less of moi from now on, yah?

Well, it's been such fun, but must run - I have to get ready for Piers.

Toodles.....

Does that mean it went well?

Noooooooo MrsP, that's a comment on the type of people you come across in TV land.

The bottom line is that they will more than likely get nowhere, they will more than likely not even appear on TV in any way, shape or form, but some people just can't help but fall over themselves to appear so "at home" in front of a camera, that they inevitably end up looking complete berks. Arron and James finally showed a bit of excitement this morning when I got back from EAT with coffee and bacon rolls, but I don't think the TV people were impressed by their general nonchalance.

They did about a dozen takes this morning of them coming out of the train station and saying "well here we are, we've finally made it." Like they'd walked it all the way from Shrewsbury and they'd never been to the big city before! They kept saying "more reaction" "bigger smiles" "more excitement" then they made them walk downhill so they could get a shot of Centenary Square behind them; Arron said that was a bit lame as anyone who knew Brum would know the ICC was in the other direction... my mate from yesterday didn't like that much.

Pretty much the entire process is so far detached from the image they portray of the auditions on TV as to be completely divorced from reality, it's just so fake, I never really thought of it as genuine per se, but honestly, it's pure fantasy.

They'll find out around Christmas time whether or not they'll be going back for the "auditions" show, but I would say their chances are a good deal less than 50:50.

It is a farce isn't it PJ?

When the wee lad was involved it that TV thing this time last year he fairly quickly sussed that they were looking for drama rather than sport. The NI kids hardly got a mention since they are all pretty grounded, normal kids who didn't buy into the whole "showbiz" thing at all. The amount of winding up that went on behind the scenes was a bit disappointing.

Still, really brilliant experience for them to get to see the how that world functions. No bad thing for them to learn.

Surely the fact that they were filmed means they stand a decent chance of getting on telly?

Lucky,

From our experience they might but whether they do or not will be determined by how good TV it makes, not how talented they are. If they cried/screamed at the moments the director deems appropriate and at a volume and intensity he wants they will be on. If it fits with "the story we want to tell" they will feature.

The fact that they were very good will not be considered!

I see. Compliance over talent, then.

Very much so Lucky!

In the thing the wee fella was involved, the 2 kids who ended up as reserves for the NI team hardly appeared at all in the whole thing. Now they were so good in sporting terms as to be in the top 6 kids from NI. The NI team were runners up in the whole competition and yet this boy abd girl appeared on screen for literally about 30 total in 11 episodes. I don't think we heard them speak a single word. The whole thing took 2 weeks to film with the kids having cameras in their faces pretty much all day.

The ones who appeared were the ones who cried when they were told they hadn't made the team!

I should add that my lad wasn't one of the kids I am talking about!

I suppose it all comes down to what the director/s want for their programme.

Absolutely.

So long as the kids involved (and some of these kids were 12 years old) realise that it is not actually a sporting or talent competition but a TV show. Difficult distinction for them at that age.

Anyone have any idea what time CJ was hoping for in the Marathon?

MrsP wrote:I don't like it at all.

Has he even played very much top flight rugby in NZ?

I have no idea. Kiwi?

He's played a fair amount for Taranaki, who are traditionally a forward-oriented province (lots of dairy farmers) - though only 29 matches in 4 ITM cup seasons suggests he's only really established himself the last 2 seasons.

He's only managed 11 appearances in 2 seasons for the Hurricanes - out of a possible 30-odd games. So an ITM starting player but not yet SXV starter quality - i.e. pretty good by Rabo standards ). He'd probably be ranked just outside the top 10 NZ-based tightheads this season.

Sooooo....

Not good enough for Super Rugby and straight into the Ireland squad from the plane?

Great!



Look, the lad could be the best TH in the world and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with this situation. I hope the guy goes really well and commits fully to Leinster and Ireland but I just don't think this is right.

I don't think I'd like it if someone was flown into the national side like that, even if they were real quality.

Why not? He's qualified and better than his rivals. That is the only criteria that should matter.

I'd far rather pick this guy and win games than watch one of our homegrown players do a folding deckchair impression.

Pulling on a provincial jersey shouldn't be a prerequisite for selection.