The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Walkabout, Covent Garden

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 the original Walkabout pub in London's Covent Garden, as it is set to close its doors at the end of the month.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no tampering with the pictures of Mark Ella or recent birthday boys Gibson and Glas a du above the bar.




Last Pub: https://www.606v2.com/t40864-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-rugby-pub-come-by-chance

littleswannygirl wrote:
If any of our NI regs are about this late, how easy is it to get from Belfast Intl to Belfast Central Rail Station? Can fly to Belfast for a third of the cost of getting to Dublin. And the flights are at times that mean we could take our time

Yeah Notch summed it up already there's a regular bus that takes 30min or so into the centre or you could taxi either. Not much bother really its about 20 miles or so. Belfast city is handier if you are willing to risk using flybe....

Notch, Willser, Mrs P any snow your way??

Great job Swanny!

Rodders,

No new snow here and the sun is trying it's best to shine. Temp above freezing even up here in the hills. MrP and P3 are in Antrim having left early and have reported no travel probs!

Good to go!

Glas a du wrote:Breaker - feature on your cousin on S4C ahead of the Blues game.

Thanks for letting us know, Glas. Wish I had S4C. I would easily trade in a useless Fox channel for that.
Did he have anything interesting to say?

C'mon Wales.
Watching the 7s. How that Fijian thug only got 2 mins in the bin for a spear tackle... a bloody joke!
Good scrambling of the ball in the in-goal by Harris. 19-19

Wow thanks Mrs P!

There is still lots of snow around but the roads are clear.

The road opposite our place had drifts as high as the hedge! There were these huge mounds of snow half way across the road with the hedge completely hidden underneath!

Sun is actually shinning now!

No snow here. We're in the middle of a long, dry hot Indian Summer right now.

Early 30s° C every day. Nice ocean breeze to take the edge off in the evenings.

I used to be 12km from the beaches but 3km to the Harbour and I'm now about 20km away from the coast.There are a few creeks and rivers nearby which feed into Parramatta River/Port Jackson. I'm surrounded by some tidy looking residential, nice parks, a botanical garden, 4 golf courses, Olympic Park 3km away, the largest cemetery in the SH..."Rookwood" is 4 km away, the largest Mosque in Oz 2 km away. Russian Orthodox church is a gem. There are countless footy fields (AFL, Rugby, NRL, Football, cricket ovals) bike trails, adventure parks - lots of money has been poured in here and the roads are very well maintained. There's a great vibe in the locality with some bold new projects either just built or underway. People are out and about and are more engaging than where I was before. It's much less 'hidden away' and insular compared to the North Shore.

The move went well then LB?

Yes, all in a day, Mrs P.

I had to unscrew some furniture to get it down the lifts at the old place and then bolt it all back together here. It all went quite well though.

I was so completely knackered on Wed-Fri nights... unpacking, shifting stuff around... but there is plenty of room. Need to sort through a few more boxes and chuck out old paperwork, etc however, for the time being I'm just going to place them on shelves in the garage and sort through it later.

Got my P.O. Box, phone, Foxtel, Electoral Commission sorted. Will do more utilities this week. I've got a private unlisted no. and have other mail (from old accounts) directed to my Post Office Box which is only about 400m away. I'm trying to keep hassles to a minimum and avoid getting on those Tele marketing lists!

Evening All

I've had a really up-and-down weekend. Had an almost run-in with some stupid woman on the bus on Friday, O's had an epic win, I had a great day out with my sister yesterday followed by being kept up all night again last night due to the ignoramus next door. I shouldn't let things get to me so much...

Anyway, watching Scrum V on telly. Hibbard comes across as a lovely guy in his interview.

Breaker, he spoke about his flying and his senior leadership roll in the Blues. S4C have an on line on demand service called Clic. I've PMd you a link.

Thanks mate. I can't access the link though.
I think it's an antipodean-free zone.

2 solid days of shovelling snow. Massive shout out to all the farmers across NI and the UK as well I'm sure, who have been doing there best to clear roads in this unprecedented weather. Snow here hasn't really thawed at all. Going to be an unreal amount of water when she does though.

http://instagram.com/p/XQiLjmkcr9/

This might not work I've no idea but this is how I abandoned my car on Friday in the driveway.

Pah, there's hardly any snow on it willy!


Plenty around it though


stuck

And the forecast remains shoite

One for the wall

https://www.606v2.com/t42276-do-the-irish-players-lack-courage#1945001

Glas a du wrote:And the forecast remains shoite

Pretty grim here today as well. 27 degrees and overcast. Not what you want on a Monday is it?

No Rev.
27 degrees and clear blue skies with a full moon is preferable.

I've just met some of my new neighbours... had a good old chat and they made me feel really welcome.

Good to hear Breaker. Nice to have good neighbours.

I heard the kids splashing around in the pool and screaming on Saturday night... that brought back memories. It was a very pleasant and happy noise!

Btw Rev, a big congratulations on the 6N win for Wales... and your 7s boys also came so close to beating Fiji. Class rugby depth!

Morning all, currently at a country hotel having a full welsh breakfast and having a massage and 2nd day using spa facilities.....mrsprops b.day present for me!! Can't complain really!

Kiwi, if you're lurking, are you still up for a spot of lunch on wednesday?

Bore da pawb / good morning all. Back at my desk today, but it's only a four-day week!

Australian cricket has reached it's lowest eb since 1969.
The 4-0 loss is the worst since I was 4 years old.

Oh well, only one place to go from here... a little further down into Ebbw Vale (first).

I'm sure you can take some comfort in our impending series defeat against the Black Caps...

Hound_of_Harrow wrote:Pah, there's hardly any snow on it willy!


Plenty around it though


stuck

Morning!

I love the heading on the first photo.

"...Craigant Hills near Belfast"

I assume they mean the "...the hills at Craigantlet near Belfast!"

Oh, and guess where the wee fella is just now?

Any sign of a thaw with you, MrsP?

It has thawed a bit here Lucky. Still walls of snow around higher than the hedges in some spots but then other spots are getting a bit green again. The drifts were very ddeep in some parts and they will yake some time to go as the temp is hovering around freezing. There was some sunshine yesterday but just now it was snowing again. Very very light snow mind but I doubt there will be much thawing today.

Hasn't stopped the wee fella's rugby team training though!

Well rugby's a winter sport, MrsP, and still an outdoor one, apparently.

I didn't see anything of the Edinburgh - Ulster game - were Edinburgh good or Ulster poor, or what?

Both really Lucky.

Neither team were in any way recognisable from their early season incarnations. Credit to Edinburgh though as we were probably nowhere near as poor as we have been recently but their defence was very good.

You're still certain of a play-off spot, right?

No, but extremely unlikely not to get it. I think we'll be turning the corner soon.

Not mathematically certain Lucky.

We are on 62 along with Glasgow who are ahead on ? pts diff? Leinster top with 63. Os and Turks 8 points behind us.

We have home games against your guys and the Blues as well as travelling to Galway and Dublin.

We do of course have the slight distraction of a HEC quarter final to factor in to the equation.

I would guess we should win our home games but we might not get more than 2 points from the away ones.

I would think we will make the playoffs but maybe not get the home semi spot which looked likely earlier in the season?

If only we could get some of the lads back and played into form...

I know they lost the other day, but I love Glasgow's approach to the game. They (mostly) have the balance in their offloading game, in that they know when it's on and when it's not, and Matawalu is a real box of tricks. I'd like to see them stick with Mark Bennett in midfield, he looks quality too.

Glasgow certainly have been playing exciting rugby.

Good to see the Scottish sides doing well again. I suppose it offers a bit of hope for your lot too. These things really do come in cycles.

How do you see the Dragons developing?

Ugh. Do we have to, Notch?

To say we need a change in coaching staff is accurate, but that's not where all the problems lie. Certainly our defence has got poorer as the season has gone on, and I don't see much in the way of an attacking strategy when we decide to hold on to the ball rather than kicking it away. Our midfield needs more balance - Dixon and Leach are far too similar, Adam Hughes makes us tick and should be playing outside centre rather than on the wing. We still need a decent tighthead and a proper, tough lock. We need our pack to hold its own at the very least.

Actually,

Looking at the table again, if we managed 9 points from the 2 Welsh games (not a "given" by any means but still a realistic possibility judging on current form) and got even 2 from the away games it would take both the Os and Turks to get 20 points from their remaining games to pass us.



Have I got that right?

Too many Ulster fans losing the run of themselves I think. I'll eat my hat if we don't finish in the Rabo top 2 and reach the final.

The heino is a different kettle of fish. The Saracens game will define our season and we need a huge one off performance.

Either way everything is in our own hands right now despite a run of disappointing results.

When you say,

"Too many Ulster fans losing the run of themselves I think"

do you mean we are being too optomistic (my understanding of that phrase) or too pessimistic (what the rest of your post implies?

Did you come to the smoke yesterday? Any bother?

Pessimistic Mrs P. Its been a bad couple of weeks but we are still in a very strong spot. I still see us topping the Rabo table.

We must be bad when the fella who has been predicting the end of the world as we know it with alarming frequency is telling us we are too pessimistic!

Or do you think an asteroid will hit before the Sarries game?

No,no Mrs P, I'm an optimist.

For sure the asteroid won't hit until next season.

Were the roads okay yesterday?

Didn't chance it in the end Mrs P. Was worried about the glenshane althouth Traffic NI said there were no problems.

Might chance it next week!

Long long till "D" day now?

The Heino final or the other one....

15th May Mrs P.... loads of time yet!

rodders wrote:Too many Ulster fans losing the run of themselves I think. I'll eat my hat if we don't finish in the Rabo top 2 and reach the final.

The heino is a different kettle of fish. The Saracens game will define our season and we need a huge one off performance.

Either way everything is in our own hands right now despite a run of disappointing results.

Will it be a successful season if Ulster finish without a trophy?

I know as a Munster fan I won't consider this a successful season as we will not make the playoffs but say if Ulster come 2nd in league and lose against Sarries would that be a return you'd consider acceptable or not?

red_stag wrote:

rodders wrote:Too many Ulster fans losing the run of themselves I think. I'll eat my hat if we don't finish in the Rabo top 2 and reach the final.

The heino is a different kettle of fish. The Saracens game will define our season and we need a huge one off performance.

Either way everything is in our own hands right now despite a run of disappointing results.

Will it be a successful season if Ulster finish without a trophy?

I know as a Munster fan I won't consider this a successful season as we will not make the playoffs but say if Ulster come 2nd in league and lose against Sarries would that be a return you'd consider acceptable or not?

Depends on the manner of the defeat to Sarries. It would certainly be acceptable but disappointing.

We are still well in contention for both trophies so I'm certainly not contemplating finishing trophieless at this point.

"Successful" is different from "acceptable".

That scenario might indeed be acceptable but it could not be considered successful.

But most would not consider a trophy to be the only acceptable conclusion to the season. Maybe if we had fallen apart without the injuries I would be a lot more dissappointed with that outcome but there have been times when the only selection decisions to be made was which "out of position" shirt does each fit member of the squad wear.

https://www.606v2.com/t42286-judgement-day#1945918

For anybody struggling to keep up with Ozzy's cerebral efforts, a little frolic for the wall.

rodders wrote:

red_stag wrote:

rodders wrote:Too many Ulster fans losing the run of themselves I think. I'll eat my hat if we don't finish in the Rabo top 2 and reach the final.

The heino is a different kettle of fish. The Saracens game will define our season and we need a huge one off performance.

Either way everything is in our own hands right now despite a run of disappointing results.

Will it be a successful season if Ulster finish without a trophy?

I know as a Munster fan I won't consider this a successful season as we will not make the playoffs but say if Ulster come 2nd in league and lose against Sarries would that be a return you'd consider acceptable or not?

Depends on the manner of the defeat to Sarries. It would certainly be acceptable but disappointing.

We are still well in contention for both trophies so I'm certainly not contemplating finishing trophieless at this point.

Acceptable yes, satisfactory- yes. Successful- no, not necessarily.

I don't think we're favourites to win either trophy, but a win is possible.

I'd say genuine success is winning a trophy, the minimum requirement is to make the playoffs and Heineken Cup quarter-finals. So anything less than what we're on course to achieve is failure but where we are is okay-ish.