Jones Must Go? Part III

Wales 40 - England 24. On the face of it, that is a demolition job. I sat down to watch the match with no great expectations given England's shoddy previous performances this year. The peculiarity about this latest defeat was that it contained some English play far better than anything that had gone before in this championship. Mind you they were building from a low base.

Let's get it out of the way - referee Pascal Gauzere had an absolute mare. Shit happens. I refereed and, just as with players, you can have a bad day. He played a crucial (and wrong-headed) part in the first three Welsh tries. The first two have attracted huge press but the third seems to have gone unnoticed - he gave the mark yards away from the offence and allowed the Welsh scrum-half a crucial advantage over the defence. So that's out of the way - and here's the important point - it was not his fault that England lost. Good luck to Wales - it's not their job to turn down good fortune. 

England's discipline was laughably bad. These are professionals - they should know better. Itoje (a great favourite of mine) was disgraceful and should have been binned. But beyond that here's what we learned - sorry but Eliott Daly is currently useless and butchered a gloriously worked overlap; Billy Vunipola (an honest player if ever ther was one) had a much better game; so did Owen Farrell whose relative calm in the face of the refereeing came as a pleasant surprise given his recent gobshite tendencies; Ben Youngs has lost a step; Tom Curry is a magnificent player; Henry Slade also played well; Ellis Gence can be a liability.

Jones must go? I now tend towards saying yes, but let' see how they perform in two remaining tough tests against France and Ireland. There's always some perverse fun to be had in spoling someone else's party.

We should also just applaud both Jones and his captain for not using the refereeing as an excuse for the defeat. 

Anyway, I've just remembered that I'm Welsh. For the next few days.

Being at The Top Of The Hill

I speak not metaphorically (could I be so immodest?) but literally. Casa Piggy sits at the top of a hill. Now this has its advantages - for example it never floods. It also has its disadvantages - the water pressure can be dodgy. But the principal drawback for Big Fat Pig is that when he is bent on exercise, be it running or on the precious bike, he always has to finish on an uphill stretch. For the serious athletet this would be a positive boon. The Pig is not that serious. Still this factor provokes a feeling of righteous well-being after a couple of decent bike sessions such as those undertaken by the Pig this weekend. The Pig reverted to the bike: a) because the weather has improved; and b) because he's strained his glutes with a fair bit of running. Anyhow, enough about my glutes and back to the precious bike. Yesterday I climbed the Hill Village Incline, Col de Hillwood Common, Mont Worcester, and the Gibbons Pass. Saddle-sore would be the best way to describe my condition. But being a brave soldier I went out for a shorter session today and decided to do some hiil reps - five passes at the Gibbons Pass. Very saddle-sore but smug. Rewarding myself with a couple of glasses of vino. Still being very disciplined about the old drinking - only indulging at weekends. More smugness.

I can report a good and newish film available on Netflix. News of the World is Paul Greengrass' venture into the realms of that quintessential Hollywood genre, the Western. This might be thought a tad presumptuous for a Brit but have no fear, it is arrestingly well done. It stars Tom Hanks who is himself a Hollywood institution. He is predictably good but has some thunder stolen by his young co-star, Helena Zengel. This is a thoughtful contemplation of the majesty and difficult morality of the making of America. It attracted mixed reviews. The nay-sayers are wrong. 76/100.     

The Joy Of Reading

That's reading books, not Reading the place, though I'm sure it's perfectly nice - I've only ever been to the railway station.

I bought a couple of new books last week, both (relatively) recently published and on the respective topics of Shakeapeare and Bagehot. So interesting to me, if perhaps not to many others. First up is Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power (for some unfathomable reason Shakespeare on Politics in the US) by the much-lauded Stephen Greenblatt - he is credited as the father of New Historicism, not, I suspect, that this bothers you greatly. Anyway this latest little scholarly pot-boiler is clearly written in a brilliant hissy-fit about the rise of Trump. It is tremendously well done and the ghastly Trump never even gets a direct mention. Clever. It is a towering exercise in American Liberal ire. There is a brisk analysis of the Henry VI trilogy which, just as the author intends, has you sitting there thinking 'that's so true and so modern.' How about this?

Populism may look like an embrace of the have-nots, but in reality it is a form of cynical exploitation.

What a great sound-bite that makes. Of course it has liberal snobbishness coursing through it but we can leave that for another day.

The other, and weightier, tome is Bagehot: the Life and Times of the Gretaest Victorian by James Grant. Yet more proof that the best Bagehot scholarship these days comes from across the Atlantic. In truth it is mildly irksome to find another Bagehot biography appearing after you have finished drafting your own chapter on the Bagehot literature. Hey ho. 

Grant's bias is towards my boy Walter as an economist and I think he gets him right. Bagehot can come across as a right old smart-arse (Grant would probaly say 'smart-ass' if descending to my level) but you have to admire his sheer energy as a writer and you have to accept (perhaps grudgingly) that he was often onto something. Anyway I was amused to encounter the pithy dissection repeated below of the cycle of boom and bust that is, to this ignoramus at least, the key to the pseudo-science of economics. Those of you with keen memories will remember that good old Gordon Brown abolished boom and bust - bet you wish you'd never said that Gordon. 

Overstone - like Bagehot, a clarifier of complex ideas - was among the first to identify the cycle of boom and bust, which he described  in these words in 1837: "First we find it in a state of quiescence - next improvement, - growing confidence, - prosperity, - excitement, - overtrading, - convulsion, - pressure, - stagnation, - distress, - ending again in quiescence. 

Plus ca change? 

I recommend both books.

 

 

The Joy Of Rodding Drains

If you don't own a set of drain rods you really should get some. I do suppose in recommending this that you are a member of the drain owning democracy - and I apologise to those who are excluded by my supposition.

Now, of course, the situation that leads to the use of rods is not a pleasant one. Nor is it a fragrant one. However once you have got past the initial queasiness and have plunged your rods into the unsavoury mess and commenced the act of rodding you are on track to that magnificent sensation of a whirling evacuation of the blockage. You can then clean up after yourself in the happy knowledge that, unlike some wimps (aka the rodless), you have averted the need to call in a man to do the job for you.

Thus was it yesterday. We have two lengthy runs of drain and three drain covers. Both runs were rodded and all three covers lifted for an inspection. No need to call in outside assistance. 

So happy was I with my efforts that I followed that activity by going for a run. Some days the gods smile on us.

Henry VI Part 1

OG's going to do something unusual today - bow to his betters. First Jonathan Bate:

Modern scholarship leans to the view that the plays which the Folio calls the second and third parts of Henry the Sixth were originally a two-part 'Wars of the Roses' drama ... and that this play [Part 1] was a (collaborative) 'prequel', written later to cash in on their success. This argument supposes that the three plays only became a 'trilogy' when they were renamed and ordered by historical sequence in the 1623 Folio. Some scholars, however, adhere to the minority view that all three parts were written in sequence as a trilogy.

OG will, uncharacteristically, put himself in with the majority of those modern scholars.

A bit of the Bard - this is how Part 1 ends - the lines are spoken by Suffolk and they tease the audience with the themes of Part 2 and 3:

Thus Suffolk hath prevailed, and thus he goes / As did the youthful Paris once to Greece, / With hope to find the like event in love, / But prosper better than the Trojan did: / Margaret shall now be queen, and rule the king: / But I will rule both her, the king, and realm.

You might think this tends to support the minority 'in sequence' scholarly view but I think not. It puts us in mind of nothing so much as the final choric Epilogue at the end of that greater prequel, Henry V.

Next up in my Shakesperae trail will be that hoary old favourite of this blog, Titus Andronicus.  

 

 

Jones Must Go? Part II

Another week in the Six Nations and another underwhelming performance from Eddie Jones' England. The admirable Ugo Monye talked about the need for passion and precision. Good call. There was plenty of the former and all too little of the latter. If you're finding it hard to sleep, perhaps re-watch the match and keep a tally of how often the recipient of an England pass had to jump, stop or reach backwards to take that pass. Such imprecision is not acceptable for professional athletes. 

And what bloody match was Sir Clive Woodward watching? Clive, I have loved you dearly but for heaven's sake drop the bromance with the Boy Jones and call it for what it is - uninspiring tosh.

Got to say it - Sam Simmonds scored two more tries for Exeter at the weekend. With the horrible injury to Jack Willis, is there room in the squad for some back-row cover?

Rest of the weekend: Wales lucky; Scotland self-harming; Ireland not bad; France the best of the lot even though misfiring at times; Italy - very sad, and they were only playing England!

That's all folks. Oh, I ran for six miles this morning.

Jones Must Go?

The good thing about England losing their opening match in the Six Nations is that it gives the Overgraduate an excuse for a sustained and thoughtful whinge. Indeed just to make sure that you, dear reader, are not short-changed the OG was thinking about it all the way through his run in a biting wind this morning.

I used to be able to find it in my mind to be amused (if only occasionally) by Eddie Jones. Now, I'm afraid, I just find him tiresome. And I think there may be something of the Mourinho Effect manifesting itself here - an obsessive student of the game getting left behind. Professional sport is ruthless.

Now here's the first thing that has to be said, indeed should be shouted from the rooftops - Scotland played really well. They have a coach who has learned some difficult leassons, they have a core of committed players and a sufficient smattering of genuine world-class. Mind you, a less generous referee might have sent Finn Russell off for his egregious trip. No matter. Scotland thoroughly deserved their victory.

Having given Scotland their due, we have to ask why were England so bereft of gumption? Here's a few clues. The core of the side was stuffed with Saracens players who have not played for two and a half months. Billy Vunipola (a player I love) looks like a busted flush. Jamie George was in need of a run. Maro Itoje - I exempt from the criticism - he is a force of nature and was, by a country mile, England's best player. Owen Farrell is stellar from the kicking tee but could breathe no fire into the back-line. But most glaring of all is the continued presence of Elliot Daly at full-back. I know he's blindingly quick and has a siege-gun left boot but he's useless under or in pursuit of the high ball, and his tackling technique is over-committed and next to worthless - just take a look again at the build-up to Scotland's try. 

Most unusually there is a sane and fair analysis by Matt Dawson today - Matt Dawson - in which he gives the Scots their due. Finally, can someone tell me what Sam Simmonds has done to offend Eddie Jones? Number Eight is a specialist position and Simmonds is currently England's best practitioner.

Sack Jones? Not yet but at present we're going backwards.  

The Two Gentlemen Of Verona

A slight play perhaps but better when played for laughs. The BBC production suffers from some over-acting and some truly dreadful hairstyles but does at least convey the main message we should take from this play, specifically that Proteus is an utter knob. That's all folks. Next time it is back to the future with Henry VI Part 1.

Pop Still Eating Itself - Own Leg Already Half Digested

You may well be tired of my saying this but it's my blog so sod it. Pop will eat itself. 

Joe Root made a brilliant double century in the Test match in India overnight. Brilliant. That is real cricket. Go to the BBC cricket page and you will find it leading on the outcome of the utterly insignificant Australian domestic T20 competition. But that is not the worst of it - you will find occupying a lot of air time at the moment, coverage of some ridiculous T10 contest. That's right, ten overs per side, played by professionals. What a load of complete bollocks.

I ventured, a few years ago, the opinion that Tiger Woods was a knob. So he was, but he is much better now and I hope his fragile body allows this remarkable sportsman a last hurrah. His mantle as talented knob now rests easy on the head of another macro-talent, Rory McIlroy. McIlroy is stuck in a rut of serial under-achievement but that does not stop him talking tosh when a microphone gets put in front of him - McIlroy Tosh. It is worth comparing this peevish reaction to that of the normally daft Bryson DeChambeau, who seems to have had some PR lessons.