Fantaloupe

Quite some performance by Wales there.

I may have been very wrong of my opinion of this Scottish team this year, but after half an hour I'm still pretty happy with my prediction of the Ireland-Scotland game.

Scarred by formative experiences etc.

Also, my other instinct is that recent England captains usually stop because of exhaustion, rather than being sacked for poor performance. Last "proper" sacking maybe KP?

My instinctive reaction is that it's losing visits from South Africa that finish the careers of England captains. Oz win/loss usually seems "priced in".

They're amazing, aren't they.

I think a lot of long science projects have (at the "politics" level) the "if funding fails half-way through, is it still useful?" test. Long-term observations, yes: building one-off bits of kit, no.

The commitment and focus and passion of either is still astonishing.

There is a joke in astrophysics like "This event will not occur on an astrophysically useful timescale, which is the length of a grant cycle or PhD project".

Feels like political/electoral cycles are even worse, as "rejecting previous plans" has more advantages.

If you get the opposition captain out for a duck, do you get to claim the moral victory?

A tight game decided when England didn't have the confidence or precision to go for it when on top.

Unimpressed.

England doing end of game drill in the 66th minute in order to get one of the yellow carded players back on. Very nervy

Nothing says lack of confidence like kicking that penalty.

A very cagey and scrappy half of rugby with a few flashes of quality. Not going to win a beauty contest.

Looks like my opinion of the Scottish rugby team was very, very wrong.

Not unhappy if he kept a role, but would like stronger head/lead in skills and culture.

Not sure if there's a serious candidate who could provide that, however.

England do not look like a team, but individuals who aren't talking enough. An embarrassing mess.

A try at the end of that half is the very definition of polishing a turd.

Still think there's more chance that Australia win this world cup than England, but that's a very funny and heartening result.

SCurran > Kent.

Kent > England?

Kent > Somerset there.

Under par, then.

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Very frustrating and disappointing England performance here. Lots of "close, but" and "might have been" but a lot of strengths nullified by a Scottish side that just played better.

I don't think England are on top enough in the kicking game to control the way they usually would, so am very much not confident they can come back into this.

I really thought this was the year that England might find some control, both of the game and their emotions, in the Calcutta Cup.

Wrong.

Look great at times, "next year is our year", never get above third in the table. Great highlights reel, mind.

Is this Italy team going to follow the trajectory of the current Scotland team?

Since Ireland emptied the bench it's like their attacks have been at double speed.

That was a properly good half of rugby. #IREvITA

Since the Italian football team won the world cup in 2006, their cricket team has now won exactly the same number of world cup games: One.

When I said "with this ref he'll give it as a penalty try", I was *joking*.