Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

I speak English like a native - probably on account of being a native (well, native Scot) I speak French like a native - sadly, that is a British native! However, my 'O' level French, secured in 1965, enables me to translate - loosely and for the most part - pages on, for instance, the TOXIII and Treize Mondial websites. Of course, the Catalans Dragons' website is bilingual - French and English - just like all other SL teams' sites...oh no, hang on... In the early days of my love of GAA (ie c. 1963 -1970), I could tell you all 32 counties in Ireland, categorised by historic province and with their Irish names. Nowadays, I can still do almost all of this, but may have forgotten a few of the Irish names. I have a small vocabulary of Scots Gaelic and Dutch words, but, in each instance, it would be an exaggeration to say that I speak the language. My knowledge of Catalans is limited to three items. First, reading the new(ish)ly painted wording behind one of the sets of goalposts in Perpignan, I deduce that 'Sem Dracs' means 'we are Dragons'; the English and French clauses next to it are the clue! Second, I know that 'Els Segadors', the title of the Catalonian 'national' anthem means 'the reapers'. Third, I know that 'gos d'atura Catala' means 'Catalan sheepdog', not least of all because our pet dog is one!

Very sad news. RIP, Bill.

Nor was I, Tony, and I don't think there was one. Durham was indeed the third English location to have a university, but I don't think it was until the 19th century. In the late 16th century, my native county, Aberdeenshire, very briefly had three universities - one in Fraserburgh and two in Aberdeen.

Agreed - that was an epic game-and-a-half! Commiserations to Corcaigh, well done An Clar! It had a great sense of deja vu for me. I first saw a game of hurling in the early 1960s. It was live coverage (provided by RTE) on BBC2 of the All Ireland final. So history repeats itself today, in terms of the coverage medium in the UK. I was hooked! Not long after, and then living in Bristol, I saw my first live game, which was Eire Og Salisbury -v- either St Patrick's or St Joseph's (who were the Gloucester and Cheltenham GAA clubs), I forget which, at the Polo Grounds, Swindon. In 1966, we had a family holiday in Ireland and I got two tickets, via the GAA Gloucestershire County Board, for the All-Ireland hurling finals day at Croke Park, which my brother and I went to. A memorable day out!

In short, no, I don't suffer mid-season blues. I think I can identify at least two possible reasons for this. First, for a mix of reasons, I didn't gorge myself with six games a week when the season began. In previous seasons, I would watch both the games available, if at all possible. Nowadays, I tend to watch three. That's enough for me; I feel satiated. I suppose I am confirming the opposite of the adage that you can't have too much of a good thing! Also, and despite being retired from paid work, I have other activities and interests, not to mention domestic tasks, that limit the amount of time I can devote to watching rugby on TV. Second, sports have their own culture, as I have noted previously on other threads. The sport I have watched live the most over the years is ice hockey, first following Durham Wasps and then, following a move south, Basingstoke Bison. I am used to how ice hockey is organised, two aspects of which are repeat fixtures and no automatic promotion and relegation between the top tier and the next tier down. What I wanted above all was to see close games, ideally with the Wasps or Bison winning out in the end. The fact that you might play the same team six times in a season didn't matter, if they gave us close games. So, I realise that I might be in a minority of one on here, but repeat fixtures are fine by me. As to the competition you played in, in Basingstoke's case they wisely dropped down voluntarily from the first to the second tier. It then became an issue of securing, first, an end-of-season play-off spot and, then, making the most of it, with winning the second tier competition being the sole and wholly satisfactory aim; no need to bother thinking about promotion, as it wasn't going to happen. So fans took pleasure simply in winning that competition; it wasn't just a tiresome but necessary stepping stone to allegedly greater things, which is how soccer fans see their championship and, I fear, we are aping them with our view of our own championship. In ice hockey's English National League, about 80% of teams make the play-offs. Perhaps SL should have the top eight (66.7%) qualify for them. As the current SL table stands, that would mean ten teams currently with a valid aspiration to be in the play-offs, which would only need three weekends to complete, on a quarter-finals basis of 1 v 8, 2, v 7 and so on. All the above said, I am finding the spectacle of games this year in SL on the whole less attractive than last year, with a number of commendable exceptions. Some matches seem to have long passages of rather mundane or mediocre play, but I think that is another issue.

And I think I am right in saying that Clare haven't won it since 2013, so a refreshingly different final. I don't really mind who wins, therefore, but as Clare have fewer titles overall than Cork, I might harbour a soft spot for the Bannermen - sorry, C77.

Thanks for that, C77. I thought it was only on BBC2 in Northern Ireland, but now see that it is on BBC2 across here too.

I take your point, Padge, but doctors are not infallible (I should know. I am the son of two doctors, but, when I was a kid, it needed a family friend to point out - correctly - to my mum and dad that the reason I was 'off colour' was probably linked to the fact I was displaying whooping cough symptoms!) You say that not all contact with the head results in an HIA; true, but then not all contact with the head results in a red card. I am still surprised that an HIA doesn't automatically follow from a red card for this offence.

Apologies if this point has already been made and I have not spotted it. In this era in which player welfare is allegedly paramount, how is it possible for a player to be sent off for a dangerous tackle to the head, but for the player illegally tackled to be allowed to play on without going off for an obligatory HIA? We heard the ref say there was contact to the head with no mitigating circumstances, so Harrison clearly wasn't sent off for intent; he was dismissed for the actual contact.

I predict that, on 30th August, you might get your wish, TR!

Agreed, yet never is.

I take your point to a degree, Padge, but only to a degree. I still think there are backwards fumbles which are erroneously deemed to be knock-ons. ps my spell-checker tells me your spelling of 'travelled' is wrong; yours probably did too. Thanks for ignoring it! pps my spell-checker tells me that my spelling of 'knock-ons' is incorrect in that it should have an apostrophe before the final 's'. I'm ignoring that (of course, really pedantically, it arguably should be 'knocks-on'!) OK, I'll shut up now!

I wholly agree with you, PL. Indeed, you could delete 'of a knock-on' from your last sentence and your comment would be relevant to a number of things - not least of all various aspects of the PTB - but I fear I am going off-topic to get on a hobby horse!

For those with an interest in such things, Les Dracs had eleven Frenchmen in their seventeen. There were eight in the starting line up - three in the backs, both half-backs and three in the pack.

Elliott Whitehead finally, officially confirmed as back at Les Dracs in 2025.