Outlandish Predictions

SO the pools for next years Heineken cup have been announced.  Seeing as England will have a large presence (as is usually the case) I feel that outlandish predictions of who's going to win are the order of the day.

In pool one we have Munster, Saints, Castre and the Scarlets.  Munster to win the pool, Saints as an outside shot.  (This sucks for saints, because they could have potentially reached the final with an unbeaten winning streak.)

In pool two we have Cardiff, London Irish, Racing Metro and Edinburgh.  London Irish to win, if their form is good.  Racing metro if not.  (I hear that Metro are buying in players left and right.)

Pool three consists of Leinster, Bath, Glasgow and Montpellier.  Leinster to come top.  Bath to come second.  I don't really care about any of the others.

Pool four has the tigers, Clermont, Aironi and Ulster.  Leicester to go through, comfortably.  I predict one possible upset in the away match with Clermont.

Pool five has some big names, with sarries, Benetton, Biarritz and the Ospreys.  Saracens to go through based on their domestic performance this year, and the fact that the Saracens is essentially the South African national team.  In fact, if Saracens don't win everything next year, they will have under-performed.

Toulouse, Quins, Gloucester and Connacht round out the final group.  My pick for this group is Toulouse, but I'm desperate for Quins to pull something out of the bag.  The problem with this group is that Toulouse aside, Quins, Gloucester and Connacht will be taking points out of each other left and right.  I predict an equal score for at least two teams, bringing it to a points difference decider.

So the top of the table teams will be: Munster, Irish, Leinster, Leicester, Sarries and Toulouse.

The second places will be: Saints, Racing Metro, Bath, Clermont, Ospreys and, in the final pool, it's a three way tie.  I'm going with Quins, because I really want them to do well.

The world cup pools are somewhat easier to draw, they appear to be designed to allow the top teams into the knockout stages.

Pool A is Canada, France, New Zealand, Japan, and Tonga.  France and New Zealand will go through.  There isn't a prayer for Tonga, Japan or Canada.

Pool B consists of Argentina, Georgia, England, Romania and Scotland.  England will lose to Argentina (we always have a kick up the ass realisation moment in the world cup.) but both will go through.  100-1 that Scotland will beat either England or Argentina.

Pool C is as clear-cut as the others, with Australia, Ireland, Italy, Russia and the USA.  Australia and Ireland to go through, Australia on top obviously.  Again, I'm desperate for Italy to beat Ireland and go through to the Quarters.  They've been up and down, with their recent performance falling below par - so I may want it to happen, but it ain't gonna.

Pool D is clear-cut, with Fiji, Namibia, Samoa, South Africa and Wales pooled together.  South Africa and Wales to proceed, with the proviso that Wales don't slip up against the south sea islanders AGAIN.  They love falling at the last hurdle, especially against Tongans and whatnot.  Their history of failure, then, leads me to suspect that this pool will be the most interesting of the lot.

There we have my predictions.  Feel free to ridicule the long-shots and question my sanity.

P.S.  A woman FINALLY gets screwed over by the courts, regarding home ownership:

A court ruled he was entitled to 10% and Miss Jones to 90%, but the Court of Appeal said that despite their unequal contributions, he was entitled to half because the property was jointly-held.


Considering the number of times a woman with no job has sued for half a property, despite not contributing in any way, it's refreshing to see that a man has done the same.  The primary conceit of these women is that they contribute to upkeep of the house.  Fair enough if there are children involved (which is a whole other feminist scam, see fathers for justice) but when it's just a scrub, leeching away, I have no sympathy.  The fact that this is the first case I've ever read of a man doing the same thing, and the fact that he will soon be overturned and forced to pay back the money, shows how woman centric this country is.  Equal rights for all!  (Except if you're a man, or you're black, or you're...  You get the idea.)