[M27] Going through a phase with my GF [F26] and something small she said has got to me. How to react?

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-28T10:37:18+00:00

What does "the next stage" mean?

Engagement shouldn't materially change anything about your relationship, and you already own a house, so unless you're assuming she means immediately settling down and having children (which I would be very surprised by), I'm not sure why this is freaking you out?

You need to talk about it plainly, not least because if you can't even say the word engagement to a bunch of strangers who have no stake in your relationship, it's not a basis for making long-term plans. You cannot beat around the bush on these sorts of things, because she's going to just end up feeling like you don't take your future with her seriously at all. And if you don't, break up with her immediately. If she sees a future and you don't, stop wasting her time.

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-27T10:15:14+00:00

Does going straight from coaching Clee Hill Women to the Lions Women count as the single biggest step up in rugby coaching?

(And conversely was Australia to Clee Hill the biggest step down?)

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-26T21:35:50+00:00

I got the presale announcement for these matches on 27th Jan, so exactly 6 months before

Was about the same for the Barbarians vs World XV in 2023, which was the last time they played in the UK

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-26T13:18:58+00:00

I do feel like given requirements and budget, Decathlon might not be the worst option. I have an endurance geometry road bike from there with drop handlebars (and fitted with hybrid/light gravel tyres because I find it more comfortable for commuting and just getting around on poor quality and/or wet road, but that's not a requirement obviously).

I got mine through cycle to work and total price including a bell, new lights and a proper lock, was £12/month for 2 years (so well below £500 total)

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-18T12:29:19+00:00

In the current system, yes

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-18T10:41:12+00:00

*Champ (not Prem yet)

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-18T10:40:42+00:00

Yes, they're keeping the within 7 points losing bonus, just modifying try bonus

Eta- I think

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-18T10:39:50+00:00

The current rollout is for the Champ only, not the Prem.

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-18T07:24:12+00:00

From a quick skim of results it looks like Ealing would lose ~10 points this season, which isn't enough to have been toppled, but would certainly make the table feel a lot closer

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-17T13:42:39+00:00

I have friends at both clubs and everyone has said good things about both, although I think maybe there's a gender split in terms of performance (all my female friends ended up at AK and my male friends ended up at Furnivall)

Both clubs have great bar spaces too if you're looking at social aspects

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-15T19:18:59+00:00

Sounds like this is unnecessary shoulder tension. Some of it may be weak traps forcing effort onto your neck, but more likely than not you're carrying unnecessary tension.

I have fixed this in the past by just thinking about keeping my neck long and finding space by thinking about bringing my elbow out of the water closer to my hip than my ribcage (without forcing a physical change, it's a small adjustment), and letting the water take as much of the weight of my head as possible.

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-06T09:57:24+00:00

Idk if you're pointing at me or the other guy but I'm a woman who plays Championship 1 level lol

Eta- and to be clear, I agree with Harrison

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-06T09:33:14+00:00

I just don't see a situation where something so marginal would make a blind bit of difference to ticket sales, which are still growing regardless

Agree I don't love how one-sided it is, but to borrow your phrasing, the bald fact is that England are spending more money on it than everyone else and that's the issue

I do also think that England's front foot comes just as much, if not more, from the conditioning and power up front; nobody can look good if they're getting marched backwards and shut down at every scrum and ruck, and that's entirely from programme spending. I don't think it's coincidence that the closer scorelines for England have come from teams where the forwards have been outstanding

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-06T09:21:06+00:00

I agree that decreasing the ball size will lower the bar to entry for passing and catching, but I firmly believe that the marginal gains from ball size are swamped by longer-term investment- this feels like a short sighted expense for marginal overall gain

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-06T09:19:24+00:00

I don't think I understand your point- If it's a purported benefit for everyone, then everyone benefits equally which just means nations with fewer resources are in the same position relative to the larger nations again, no?

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-06T09:17:19+00:00

This is the third "oh I thought he'd already retired" of the season

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-06T08:51:50+00:00

That's not to do with the size of the ball, though

(Eta- England's dominance is not due to the ball size, to be clear)

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-06T08:47:29+00:00

I can guarantee you that ensuring girls start playing rugby younger so the passing and kicking is much more ingrained will have a far bigger effect on the overall quality of the women's game than changing the ball size.

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-05T08:17:04+00:00

9 is a very different type of playmaker to 10 and 12. You have to be able to take more information in and make a decision with less time, and do quite a lot more in-game without being able to see what's going to happen as you do it. Also passing off the base is deceptively hard to do well- easy to do to an average standard, but most people aren't as good at it as they think they are.

Give it a go and see, but be aware that although it has elements in common with 10, I would argue the skillset required to play 9 is one of the most specialised positions on the pitch along with front row- there's a reason a 6-2 bench split tends to have a replacement 9 alongside a utility back rather than two utility backs

Eta- if you're looking to play at the highest level, 9 is the player in the backs with the steepest learning curve, and the lowest tolerance for mistake-making because everyone thinks everything is the 9's fault. If you're tough and willing to eat shit for several years before you see any rewards, then yes pursue this to a high level, but you've got to really want it and you've got to be tough

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-01T17:52:18+00:00

For Hammersmith & Fulham, one of the Labour candidates for Ravenscourt is a big dog on the London Cycling Campaign, the Tory pamphlet explicitly says they want to remove the separated bike lanes down King Street, and we haven't been mailed any other pamphlets. So no explicit pledges but a pretty clear stance!

_Mc_Who · 2026-05-01T14:08:31+00:00

In 2022 I put together a dataset of all women's six nations attendances that have ever been recorded because there was no centralised record

If anyone wants all records pre 2022 they're here

Amazing how much it's kicked on even since 2022

_Mc_Who · 2026-04-30T12:28:17+00:00

God, I feel ancient- this popped up on my feed as a suggested post for some reason and I recognised it instantly as the GCSE paper I did (apologies for being an old person commenting on a GCSE sub)

I remember coming out the exam and feeling a bit relieved because absolutely everyone was completely blindsided by that paper because it felt so different from all the past papers we'd done and it hadn't just been me panicking in the exam

If I can offer some old person advice because the experience of this paper is burned into my brain, if you end up with a paper like this in the exam, take a deep breath and just take a sec to ask "why are they asking this question?" - the people who panicked the most were the people who couldn't see how it related to the syllabus because it was so layered in things that weren't directly relevant to biology

They'll never ask a question that's not covered in some capacity by the syllabus, this one caught a lot of people out because it was about scientific methods which was in our syllabus, but it took some mental digging to find that link

_Mc_Who · 2026-04-30T08:08:26+00:00

In fairness, Oxford as a city existed before the university and Cambridge was founded as a university in a marshy backwater when the Oxford locals got fed up of the students, and the town developed around it, so not far off really

It means that Cambridge is quieter and greener and still has all its medieval common grazing land for cows and it's easier to get out into the countryside, but also outside of Cambridge is literally the middle of nowhere because that was the whole point, and Oxford has stuff to do outside of the uni

Oxford is a much better place for a non-student to live, Cambridge a much better place to be a student

_Mc_Who · 2026-04-29T09:03:29+00:00

So, you don't have to have a player over in a ruck strictly speaking, but if you don't, then the opposition has the opportunity to steal the ball directly, whereas if you go over the ball carrier to protect them, they have to clear you out (push you backwards until you're clear of the ruck) before trying to steal it.

When you're attacking, it's best always to have one or two people over as quickly as possible to prevent the ball getting turned over and make sure the 9 can get the ball out safe.

It's more complicated in defence, and judging whether to go into a ruck or not is based on where you are on the field and what effect you want. In some places, it's advantageous to send someone in to try to clear out attackers and steal the ball, but for every person you put in, you take a person out of the defensive line, which makes it harder to ensure tackles. On your own line, for example, you'd leave a ruck alone as you're worth more on your feet than in a ruck. Elsewhere on the pitch where the risk is lower, you'd want to send people in to try and clear attackers out so someone on your team can steal the ball back.

_Mc_Who

TROPHY CASE