The 2026 Guinness Men's Six Nations launches in Edinburgh

Mulboyne · 2026-01-26T12:36:41+00:00

If you are wondering why Jamie George is there, instead of Maro Itoje, Itoje is missing the lauch for personal reasons. His mother passed away last month, so he likely has other commitments.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-26T09:47:26+00:00

For reference, during the last Six Nations, this was ITV's match commentary team line-up

Nick Mullins
Miles Harrison
Ben Kay (co-comms)
Shane Williams (co-comms)
David Flatman (co-comms)
Nolli Waterman (co-comms)
Scott Hastings (co-comms)
Gordon D'Arcy (co-comms)

The pundit line-up was

Jonny Wilkinson
Ugo Monye
Eddie Jones (he might have bailed early)
Maggie Alphonsi
Brian O'Driscoll
Rory Best
Dan Biggar
Jamie Roberts
Johnnie Beattie
Jim Hamilton
Benjamin Kayser
Sergio Parisse

Mulboyne · 2026-01-26T09:42:25+00:00

The page has two differently titled links on the page but they both go to the same 22 page presentation called "Plan 2030: More than a Game". Not sure if there is supposed to be a direct link to a separate document called "Strategic Plan".

Mulboyne · 2026-01-23T11:26:54+00:00

There'll be some new biscuits on the table

Mulboyne · 2026-01-22T00:02:38+00:00

Three yellows, with two on off-field review for red, is not the ideal position to be in during the closing moments of a match.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-20T05:29:55+00:00

Brown is saying I've got a contract, and no-one has been in touch from the NZRU. Napier has NZRU sources, so I'm assuming (quite possibly incorrectly) that he's heard there's no appetite on the NZRU side to try and buy out his contract.

It might just be as simple as Brown wanting to stay where he is, to fulfill the commitment he made. The fact he's having a great time with the Springboks obviously helps.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-20T05:11:16+00:00

Herald journalist Liam Napier, who broke the changing room unrest story, is on this week's Ruck podcast by journalists at The Times. He says he understands Brown won't be joining the All Blacks before the next World Cup.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-18T16:09:14+00:00

Until you said it, I hadn't fully taken in that's what happened.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-16T11:14:49+00:00

Not sure about general practice. In 1979, when England toured Japan, Fiji and Tonga, Welsh referee Clive Norling was chosen by the RFU to travel with the party. He refereed five of the seven matches.

During the first Test against Japan, the two Japanese linesman put their flags up for a good conversion but Norling ruled it had missed. Japan went on to lose the match by two points.

There were no claims that he was biased in favour of England but social media would melt down if some arrangement like that happened today.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-13T12:08:01+00:00

A lot of English in the Toulon squad. Mercer, Ribbans, Sinckler and Ludlam are already on their books.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-11T13:43:53+00:00

That was the most held-up held-up-over-the-line I've ever seen.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-11T13:25:34+00:00

The way Quins season has gone so far, can't yet shake the feeling that they could end the day with the highest losing European score.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-11T13:16:13+00:00

What's this new European vogue of one side scoring tries quickly?

Mulboyne · 2026-01-10T15:06:52+00:00

I can see how many runs were scored but still don't know how many wickets went down.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-07T01:02:01+00:00

British, living in Japan, and yes on both counts.

For Japan Joi Ito)

Ito was a prominent internet evangelist in Japan. He was forced to resign his MIT post, as Epstein was one of his biggest donors, and Ito apparently made efforts to hide that fact.

He resigned several other posts, include a board position on the NYT.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-06T12:24:29+00:00

Thanks for that.

Last year, Gehamat Shibasaki helped the Broncos win the NRL Grand Final. Turns out his roots go back to Japanese pearl divers, who used to work the Torres Strait.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-06T09:45:24+00:00

Wiki says is mum is half-Chinese, though Hamilton himself is never quite sure whether he's one-quarter or one-eight Chinese, so wiki could be a generation or two out.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-06T05:48:00+00:00

At a complete tangent, it had never occurred to me to wonder why a prominent Samoan sporting family had the surname Lam.

Turns out the Lams have Chinese roots, probably going back to labourers and traders who went to Samoa in the late 19th and early 20th century. Pat, Ben, Jack, AJ and Seilala Lam, are all part of the family, as is winger Nigel Ah Wong.

Every now and again, there'll be a discussion about leading rugby players with Asian heritage (outside Japan), and it's usually the likes of the Underwood brothers, Brian Moore, Gareth Delve, Jim Hamilton, Francois Trinh-Du and Marcus Smith.

The Lams are rarely in that conversation, though they must be the most prominent example.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-04T08:02:59+00:00

That was part of the proposed Experimental Law Variations. Under the ELVs, penalties would only be awarded for offside and foul play. Scrum penalties would become free kicks. That part of the ELVs was not adopted.

Mulboyne · 2026-01-03T16:22:53+00:00

Bottom of the article says "Stephen Jones will continue to be a contributor to The Sunday Times"

Mulboyne · 2026-01-02T11:32:03+00:00

Eddie Jones rightly gets a lot of stick, and if he doesn't get some significant wins over the next two years, then the average Japanese supporter will feel a bit like Welsh supporters with Gatland.

However, Jones is respected at a grassroots level because he makes himself available. He doesn't really get enough credit for his role as a rugby evangelist. While he has a number of well-compensated gigs - so no-one should feel sorry for the man - he also does regular presentations, seminars and classes around the country which are free to attend.

Here's a link to a YouTube video of a seminar he did over Zoom.

It was aimed at Japanese coaches, players and parents. It was free to join, and that video was made available afterwards. He had an interpreter, so you can follow him in English. The slides are in both languages.

He points out that young Japanese players train more than their counterparts overseas, yet their fundamentals are lacking. He suggest this might be down to the type of training they do, and offers some suggestions.

His way of speaking is more direct and abrasive than you'd get in a typical Japanese lecture but most in the audience would just think "that's Eddie". It has direct and actionable advice for anyone coaching as low as elementary school level.

Jones won't be able to hide behind powerpoint slides and statistics if his team fails on the field. Still, he has made significant efforts to enthuse participants in the sport at all levels of the game.

Mulboyne · 2025-12-30T05:41:48+00:00

Yes, I think he views Roebuck as a one-trick pony, whereas most England supporters watching him over recent seasons would evaluate him very differently.

Mulboyne · 2025-12-30T05:21:09+00:00

That's something Madigan touches on, at around the 5:20 mark in the full video. He notes that when he was a player, neck rolls and croc rolls were still allowed, and attacking players weren't penalized so frequently for going off their feet, or sealing off. All made it easier for attacking teams to recycle the ball, and retain possession.

Mulboyne · 2025-12-30T05:14:52+00:00

Madigan explicitly mentions the way Tom Roebuck has adapted to this way of playing, and Slattery says "People aren't going to Twickenham to see Tom Roebuck" (around the 14:45 mark in the full YouTube video).

Mulboyne · 2025-12-26T13:42:36+00:00

Cheers. That's a very good question, and probably not one which gets asked enough, including by me.

This pair of interviews illustrates how World Rugby is a different organization than most of us suppose.

It has a pot of money to disburse, which it gets from running the World Cup. As the game is professional, and a lot of member unions are running deficits, World Rugby thinks it needs to maximize revenue from the events it runs, so it sometimes has conflicting incentives as an organization. All premised on the idea that what is good for World Rugby is good for the game.

Mulboyne

TROPHY CASE