The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Pub, Ballycastle Bar, Hong Kong.

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 Hong Kong, host city for the British & Irish Lions first Tour match before their arrival in Australia - land of the Giant Budgie Smuggler.

So grab a beer, cider, whiskey or wine.... or a warm beverage and sit back and enjoy the rugby.

                     

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no tampering with the pictures of Rory Best, Sam Warburton, the Limavady Luge Team, Papa Rodders, Mrs Rodders and our newest & sweetest member, Katelyn.    

last Pawb: https://www.606v2.com/t43001p1000-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-rugby-pub-pyongyang

WILLY! how come you're not out partying?! You should be   

I am absolutely hammered. Moreover I can confidently say that trying to hail a can in Sydney at 4 in the morning is more difficult than my GCSE's. fair play to Gatland though. It was a gamble I feel but it paid off. 5 wins in 125 years... 2 in the last 16... Change in the tides...

Give fone-a-cab a shout Willser  

I'm chuffed for the pub regs put there. Lucky bar stewards...

Feeling a lot better today (about 70%). Went for a walk down to the Harbour Bridge. Standing under it you get a great idea of the scale of it.

We caught the ferry over to Manly; nice place, but awash with tourists. Yeah I know, I am one too.


We saw Adam Jones and family having a stroll around Circular Quay. You wouldn't believe he had been through the game last night; just right chilled out he looked.

There's a beer in Aus called Fat Yak - nicknamed a 'Jonesy' by me and Andy.


Currently quaffing on Darling Harbour watching a rerun of the game.



Spoke to Lb this morning and he's gone down with the lurgy too, poor beggar.

Awk hound buddy I was over to Manly myself first thing this morning for a church service. Got in about 5am, up for checkout 3 and a half hours later. Boat over the manly half 9, church at 10, lay up on the beach for an hour or so to top up the colour, then grub and ferry back at a quarter to 3. Currently in the departures lounge at Syndey preparing for our 9 hour flight to Bangkok. Dictionary definition of the word shattered...

Shoite Willy - we got the 3:15 ferry back to CQ. Had a beer in that Bavarian Cafe by the ferry terminal.

Have a good trip back.

Rabbitohs v Warriors. Bunnies win 30- 13.

Afternoon All  

Safe journey home Willy and get some Zs in on the flight.  Glad you're better  but get well soon Breaker.

I wonder if Oz is cooler than here at the moment?  It's blydi boiling!  It must be about 25 in the Diff, but I feel sorry for those at Wimbledon - it's about 28 there in the sun.  However, Centre Court temperature is near 40 degrees! Phew!  I have the tennis on but I won't be watching it all.  Dublin are in the Leinster Hurling Final at 4pm  and I must tune in for that.  

Okay.

Lions win the Series.

Andy Murray wins Wimbledon.

And...the wee fella just got home with a Silver and a Bronze from the All Irelands!

I don't drink Carlsberg but...

 

...if you did it would have been gold?   

I'm just joking, thats amazing news- so pleased for you guys.

It might have been enough to give him the 1cm he was beaten by!

Murray's win ranks up there with Wiggins' Tour De France as the most significant British sporting moment of this and probably the last century. Straight sets against the World #1. He may be a gurner and a shouter, but who cares. It must be all the sweeter for ASBO and the Scottish posters. No wonder politicians band wagon.

I love you Murray. I always believed. Bangkok is warm, and when I say warm, I mean 33 degrees with humidity in the 90 percentiles. I might not last.

Last hour and a bit in Aus

Great tour, great country.

Ooooooooo I forgot to say ran into Sean Maloney after the game (we've been having some banter with him on twitter so it was a class coincidence) he said to us about Deans but seemed to think White had a better shot at the job.

http://instagram.com/p/bgGVBeEctM/

Sounds like you both had a blast out there. You lucky pluckers!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b036750w

I know it's not rugby but I think this is a really interesting and insightful Interview into sports in general, especially after the Lions Tour and going into the Ashes

Literally the Maloney thing was class. We were talking about tweeting him in the taxi on the way down to the Ship inn (stag or hound drink there?) and then we get out of taxi and he's walking across the road in front of us. Couldn't believe it...

Hi all, just back in Ireland after the tour. Had a blast out there and delighted that Dreamer and Hound have enjoyed themselves too. Met AWJ, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies yesterday. Davies said he was wary bumping into us as we were Irish fans. Told him well done and forget about the idiots.

red_stag wrote:Hi all, just back in Ireland after the tour. Had a blast out there and delighted that Dreamer and Hound have enjoyed themselves too. Met AWJ, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies yesterday. Davies said he was wary bumping into us as we were Irish fans. Told him well done and forget about the idiots.

Welcome back mate  

Get out and enjoy some sunshine for the rest of the day - best way to stay awake until a "normal" bed time

red_stag wrote:Told him well done and forget about the idiots.

Good work stag he won't see me and Sin e coming now.....  

rodders wrote:

red_stag wrote:Told him well done and forget about the idiots.

Good work stag he won't see me and Sin e coming now.....  

eh, I don't have a problem with Davies - he seems to be a grand lad (even if he spends too much time on the computer!)

red_stag wrote:Hi all, just back in Ireland after the tour. Had a blast out there and delighted that Dreamer and Hound have enjoyed themselves too. Met AWJ, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies yesterday. Davies said he was wary bumping into us as we were Irish fans. Told him well done and forget about the idiots.

While I wouldn't have dropped him ahead of BOD (I was alright with dropping BOD but thougt Tuilagi would get in) he had a cracking game on Saturday superb execution for the Sexton try and finally used that trusty left boot!

MrsP wrote:Okay.

Lions win the Series.

Andy Murray wins Wimbledon.

And...the wee fella just got home with a Silver and a Bronze from the All Irelands!

I don't drink Carlsberg but...

 

and Katie Taylor wins her 5th Gold in a row in the European Championships and is Fighter of the Tournament (again)!

I've sent a PM to a load of people in here, those outside of Ireland or the UK may be particularly interested.

Good man Thom.

Hi all. The touring 'Lions' are on the Pride.

Feckin shagged mind. From hotel in Sydney to pub in Ealing = 37 hours travelling and transitting airports.

An idea of how good the tour was....it seemed to last five weeks, not three. So much stuff crammed in.

Dubai airport. Last leg of journey home. Slept pretty much all the way from Bangkok which is fairly handy as we haven't had a decent nights sleep since last Thursday. Still shattered can't wait to get into my bed at home.

Still stuck here in Sydney folks.

Feeling better in the mornings, cloudy in the afternoons with this 'mild cold'. The last of my guests dropped off at Terminal 1 yesterday. They had an amazing time here. Can't describe the permanent smiles they wore the whole time - but I think you get the picture.  
Both said they want to immigrate here but will first have to convince the wives.  (the kids should be no problem...)

Me,.. well I'm OK. Ain't nought I can do about last Saturday night. The best cure I've found is to get over the "acceptance of monumental thrashing" bit as quick as possible and try to find any small positives in the rocky, unsealed road ahead. There's potentially more bad news approaching with the Ashes Series looming but I'm too experienced to carry the burdens of a pack of increasingly volatile sportsmen (like I used to.... many years ago). Good luck to both sides anyway - I will try and catch the first session at least.

What else... ummmm... Origin 3, Man U match coming up. I think I need to get back on that horse and go to your Field of Dreams again this Saturday night to see QC and the Reds get some payback on the Tahs (a few players missing from both sides).

Kiwi, BC match a few weeks away too. Guess I'll drag myself out for that one too!

With the big Link coaching that BC game could be interesting. A tenner says he will play Cooper.

In other news... Set to "officially" hit 30 degrees in Ireland for the first time since August 06.

Phew! That is equvelant to 42 degrees in "Sydney temp" by my calculations.

Bore da pawb / good morning all. It's warm here already. I'm not complaining!  

I might have said before here how uncomfortable I am with England being such strong favourites for the Ashes. I've followed sport for long enough to know that Australian sides never know when they're beaten, whatever the sport. There's an article on the BBC website this morning with the headline, 'Is this the worst Australia squad in history?' Fate doesn't need much more tempting!

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:With the big Link coaching that BC game could be interesting. A tenner says he will play Cooper.

It's a good feeling to have him in as coach. As much as I liked Robbie I'll admit (now) that he was fairly stubborn - good tactician he may have been it didn't come off as well as we all expected and it probably did have a negative impact in the end. With Ewen, it's a bit like Boof - the players will step up and he will allow them to play their natural game and frame a game plan around that. Here's hoping anyway!  

It was great meeting Paul, J. We got on well, had great seats. I said to him at the end: "although we lost - you sort of won as well..."
He agreed but I can tell you he was screaming out as hard as me for Oz. Really top bloke.

He was blown away by the atmosphere (as was I)... wide eyed and all that. He's 'converted' to rugby now I'd say... he just needed to experience an ocassion like that.

Lucky, I just saw Beefy saying the 1st Test will be all over in 3.5 days. Hopefully it won't be that quick. Oz need to post a decent score and give something for the bowlers to bowl at. I think the gulf is narrowing slightly and the players must sense if they can stick around a bit then others will follow. Same for England I guess... pressure is on their top order to perform and bowlers still have the work to do (but can do it) however it's best to ignore the "10-nil" statements. It worked once for us; then backfired twice.

I hope they've gagged Pigeon! (McGrath)

They had Glenn McGrath on the news yesterday. He wasn't predicting 5-0 this time...!

It's all well and good saying England are the better side, but sport wouldn't be what it is if the better side always won. It's not as if England haven't had wobbles - even in the recent series against New Zealand, the bowlers got th batsmen out of jail at times. Stuart Broad's just as likely to do nothing with the ball as he is to take 5-fer.

Tim Bresnan has a great record at TB although Finn ain't too shabby either.

Just heard Ashton Agar, the 19 y.o. left arm offspinner will make his debut... so Lyon dropped.

The great thing about debutants is that they can either struggle or absolutely flourish. Not long to find out!

After a fabulous month of sport, culminating in the greatest weekend of british sport since...er since last summer.... we are now subjected to the torturous boredom and endless hyperbole of the Ashes....  

 That's the spirit, Rodders!

At least it will overshadow that tour de france nonsence.....  

England win the toss and will have a bat.

Pepole watch cricket?

On purpose?

Give me tour de france any day.

Cricket is even worse than tennis. down there with golf and horseracing.

Afternoon all,

I am by no means a cricket fan but I do enjoy keeping up with the scores in some matches. Can't for the life of me imagine myself actually sitting down to watch it though.

Good sport for having on the radio in the background I reckon. Horse racing I don't get at all. Do people watch it purely for betting purposes?

MrsP wrote:Good sport for having on the radio in the background I reckon. Horse racing I don't get at all. Do people watch it purely for betting purposes?

Yeah, highly trained athletes horses jumping over things and seeing who can run the fastest etc.... whats the appeal?  

Jockeys do a lot of trainin in fairness, you do have to be pretty fit for it, admittedly you aren't doing a lot of work but you still have to be fit. Same situation as rac car driving in that repsect. Although I do hate horse racing.

It's like poker. Feck all crack if there's no money involved

In fairness to cricket. People tell me it's because I don't understand it. Or because I have never been to a test match.

I don't see the appeal of horse racing either (even though I have backed the last two Grand National winners ).

You get 2 or 3 horses to have a race..... 1000s of men show up.

10 men have a race......Not 1 horse shows up to watch.

Who's the smart one here?