CBSY9 - Quins v Saints

My experience of the new scrum sequence - Crouch, Bind, Set, Yes 9 - has been totally positive.  As a referee, it gives me control over the process, removes the high intensity hit, allows me to see the positioning of the front row players and has the outcome of a tiny number of collapsed scrums, less than one a match.  I've not changed my policy of insisting that the throw-in to the scrum must be made properly along the centre line of the scrum (I referee at the community Rugby level), and so there has been a real contest at the scrum in most matches.

My big worry is that this great improvement - as shown by the firm refereeing of Craig Joubert in the first of this year's NZ v Wallabies matches - could be undermined.  If the professional game is allowed to continue with the bent throw-in to the scrum, then there won't be a contest and hookers won't need to hook. The lawmakers could ditch the contested scrum altogether if the CBSY9 trial fails.  Here are the scrums from Friday night's Aviva Premiership match (13/09/2013), in foul conditions, between Quins and Saints:

1st half

07:54 - Saints scrum 5 - first attempt, both front rows fail to crouch
08:32 - goes down on Quins LH side, Marler underneath TH prop
09:20 - third attempt, ref comes round to far (Quins LH) side; Marler has bound long (on TH shorts?), penalty for 'hingeing': 0-3
13:50 Quins Rob Buchanan on for Joe Gray (hooker)
17:45 Saints scrum, goes down on throw-in side, referee talks to captains
18:05 Scrum reset, Quins penalised for popping up (penalty missed)
24:11 - scuffle, captains warned
24:35 - scrum to Quins, Marler long bind, goes down
25:05 - scrum reset, Care feed ball between LH and hooker's feet - successful scrum
28:00 - Quins given FK for numbers at line out, but opt for scrum...
28:40 - scrum collapses on set, still moving as Care throws in, Saints LH penalised for angle (3-3)
36:20 - diagonal feed by Care, never near middle line - succesful scrum
40:00 - another feed by Care, standing a foot to the right of middle line - successful scrum

2nd half

44:20 - penalty to Quins, taking man in the air (6-3)
48:40 - scrum to Quins went down
49:12 - reset, ref on far side, ball at least visible in tunnel - successful scrum
52:50 - line out penalty to Saints (6-6)
58:20 - Marler subbed by Lambert
62:15 - Great Saints maul, but then turned over. Couldn't see Quins throw in, didn't look good; scrum had gone low on far side, before ref allowed scrum to start - successful scrum but messy result for Quins.  Saints charged down kick at subsequent ruck and scored a try from there, converted by Myler (6-13)
65:10 - Care dropped Ball at LH prop's foot but it rebounded and Saints won scrum against head - successful scrum
66:15 - dubious feed by Dickson, scrum moving but no way Quins hooker could challenge - successful scrum
67:50 - early engage by Saints, FK
70:55 - went down on far side from Quins throw-in, reset
71:30 - Ref starts on far side from Quins throw-in but in a great position; he moved off the middle line, but ball visible in tunnel - successful scrum
74:10 - Nick Easter YC
76:30 - Myler YC

Summary

Six scrum awards in each half.   In the first half, three awards ended successfully: two at first attempt, one after one reset.  Three other awards ended in penalties, one after two resets, one after one reset, and one at the first attempt.  In the second half, five ended successully: three at the first attempt and two after one reset.  The other award ended in a FK to Quins. 

Saints were awarded three of the twelve but managed to finish only one of them successfully, the two others resulting in penalties.  Quins had six successful outcomes, plus one lost against the head, one FK and one PK. The ball was visible in the tunnel in only two of the successful outcomes, and from the viewpoint of television, the opposing hooker would not have been able to reach the ball if he'd bothered striking for it in either case.  

Stoupa 2013

Another wonderful holiday in Stoupa - places we'd recommend include:

• Stoupa Restaurant - we went four times, each better than the preceding.  The last time we were early enough to order the pot-roast goat. Fantastic.  As was the bifteki stuffed with feta.
• Akrogiali -  went three times for dinner and twice for lunch.  The view from the restaurant at night is pretty but in daylight, it's awesome.  Really liked their saganaki prawns, totally delicious with great fresh tomato sauce, and will try and recreate this at home.  Mixed grill, moussaka and bifteki were highlights here too.
• Ta Pende Adelphia (also known as The White Trees) - great for lunch (five times) or dinner (three). Rabbit stifado, calamari, stuffed peppers, excellent souvlakia and moussaka.
• To Steki - lunch and late drinks. Sometimes very late drinks, with a Stekiburger or two to sustain us.
• The Butcher - this seemed to be a more expensive evening than most, but that's probably because we stayed more than two hours after we'd finished our food. The reason: rembetiki music every night, with Andonis Ainitis starring on bouzouki, a girl with a lovely voice who sang and played the guitar, and some really good dancing. A good night out.  

Here's Andonis Ainitis on YouTube:

Nasty

This repulsive product could be lurking on a supermarket shelf near you, waiting to trap you on your next shopping trip into buying a mixture of butter, water, vegetable oils, buttermilk and salt (1.1% according to the label).  

It masquerades as butter, using the respected Anchor branding, but it doesn't behave like butter when you spread it on toast.  You might as well pour water over hot toast as use this stuff.  Instead of Bovril 'soldiers' with my boiled eggs this morning, they were a soggy limp mess that was just about unfit to eat. A nasty experience.

It looks similar to the normal Anchor spreadable package - which doesn't have the blue scroll below the logo. You have been warned.

MPs' Pay

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority was created by Parliament in 2009 to act as an independent regulator and has now proposed a reform of MPs' pay, allowances and pensions.

The BBC, with Nick Robinson leading the charge, seems to be trying to drum up public opinion to oppose the package of proposals; it's focusing on the salary which is recommended to increase from under £64,000 a year to £74,000 in 2015.  Yes, that's way above current increases in the public sector, but MPs' pay has been held down for years.  There's a good deal of rebalancing through the other changes - a change to the pension basis, reduced expenses allowances, and reduction of the 'golden goodbyes' available to retiring MPs.

Personally, I'd like our MPs to be drawn from that pool of people that would be employed at salaries of at least £74,000 a year in middle-to-senior management roles outside Westminster.  If they're not, maybe we should replace them with people that are worth that much.  

When Parliament delegates its decisions about terms and conditions to an independent regulator, the regulator's decisions should be respected.  Instead, we're seeing politicians  posturing about it being an honour to be an MP, or saying that they won't accept an increase.  This just feels like bullshit.  If we pay MPs properly, we have reason to demand better performance from our MPs.  I think we should.  After all, when you pay peanuts, you know what sort of primate will take the job.

Sky TV Customer Survey - 4th July

7. Please use this space to provide any other feedback you may have:

I feel ripped off by Sky because you will no longer be carrying Aviva Premiership Rugby, substituting in its stead the RaboDirect Rugby that has been free on BBC and/or S4C for several seasons.  Even in the last two seasons you failed to show some key Aviva Premiership matches such as semifinals which were only available on ESPN.

I hate paying you silly amounts every month so that you can pay ever more millions to line the pockets of football players, and I'm frustrated by the fact that I can't tailor my subscription in any way that's meaningful to me. It's no good offering Sky 1 Sports and Sky 2 Sports as separate products when what I want is split across them.

If you wanted to, you have the capabilities to offer a Rugby subsscription, a Cricket subscription, a Golf subscription, etc. You exploit your monopolistic position and show these sports across a mixture of your channels, instead of as discrete products. So if I want all of the Rugby and none of the football I still have to buy Sky Sports 1 & 2 at disproportionate cost.

You are cross-subsidising football's grossly excessive wages from subscriptions of people like me that don't want it.  I hope one day the Competition Commission will take you to the cleaners for abuse of your market position, which I think has been going on for years.

So when the new BT Sports offering comes on line, Sky Sports will be distinctly optional.  I can live without Super Rugby and I can visit at least two places within 500 metres' walk to see any interesting matches that you still manage to show.  

When you treat your customers like that, don't be surprised when they desert you, no matter how good your customer service agents are. This one was fine, but I'd received the letter telling me of yet another inflation-smashing increase in monthly payments just that morning.