chrisjpainter

I think this is part of the confusion. One of my most hated words (and small parts of me die when I hear it) is 'seagull'. What too few people realise is that we have a dozen and more gull species seen over a year in the UK and if you treat them all as 'seagulls' you miss the fact that some are in serious trouble and experiencing serious population declines. The BTO's the place to go for all the accurate data on bird populations. The RSPB's a bit mainstream

They really have. It's now such a lottery as to who will give the penalty away. It's all about 'painting a picture for the ref' as the commentators are so fond of saying, which shows just how arbitrary it all is. If the ref's on your side, it's an easy three points/kick to touch. If not, you're just one failed scrum from a yellow card, as Italy were yesterday. It's just what the ref chooses to focus on.

What vexed me about the red card was that someone in the previous round of fixtures (I forget who) got kneed in the head as he went low to make a tackle, because going high's too risky or too dangerous. That's not even a foul (obviously) but carried far more force than Steward's incident yesterday. He had to go off and then failed his HIA after a fair few minutes treatment on the pitch. I'm all for taking player safety seriously, but the rules have got to make sense and they've got to actually do the job they're made to do - keep players safe. If tacklers are going to be going lower and lower, we're going to see people putting their head in as dangerous places (maybe more so) and it's going to be entirely legal.

This confused me. I saw the title and thought, 'How has Putin managed to pick a fight with the International Cricket Council?' Fair enough he's a bit of a power-crazed megalomaniac, but invading cricket is a bit of a stretch. International Criminal Court makes a touch more sense, although the former would at least result in something significant happening

Now signed 👍

It's a valid concern. Removal of greys isn't only about protection of reds. They're an invasive species that does plenty of harm to other things too. Grey sterilisation would be a more long term solution to the protection of reds and would be much easier to maintain a balanced ecosystem afterwards That said, I'd still sign the petition as it's a great short to medium term solution that would at least prevent reds from going extinct because of parapox. It wouldn't solve displacement problems, but it'd give them protection from something they currently show little to no resistance to.

Unless I'm being dim, I can't see anywhere to sign a petition on that link?

Aigle. Or you could try...no. Just Aigle.

Well this is fun!

He was one of our better less awful players today and did come up with the occasional bright spark dim, 10 watt glow. But we're so bad everywhere else that whatever good things are done, it's never long before all the work's wasted.

France have been absolutely superb. They've played wonderful rugby and we're well off the pace. Far too many steady-eddy players in the forwards, not enough flair and cohesion in the midfield, far too many penalties. France in the World cup should be entertaining to watch.

van poortvliet is having an absolute shocker. He's just not quick enough to the ball and to the breakdown.

Ugh. Bad start.

Never believe anyone who begins a sentence with 'apparently'. It means the source is probably only one level up from the eccentric in the pub who always brings his parrot in, which talks a lot more sense than he does...

No one will present MOTD tomorrow. There will just be highlights. No studio talk, no analysis. just replays and then move on to the next game. Sky, BT Sport and Amazon must be beside themselves with joy.

The team sheets are in and finally we'll get to see what Smith can do when he doesn't have Farrell slowing him down. Whether it works or not, I don't mind, but at least they're trying it, although I'd like to see him get more than one game against a very tough opposition. For Wales, is Gatland trying to turn the clock back 5 years? Rhys Webb back at 9, Liam Williams and Wyn Jones both come in too. Wales' lack of a production line might be leading them to the wooden spoon; beating this Italy side in Italy isn't going to be easy

Rained all night here in Dorset. Goodness knows, we need a few heavy showers, but I would have loved a proper dump of snow!

Cheers mate; that's definitely something to consider. I might give these a miss

@Rim FireHow warm are these? I've never owned any, but would like something a little warmer for (non-wading) fishing than my Aigles. Worth a punt?

Eyes to the skies! The first Dorset Osprey's been spotted! 4th March and they're back in town. The Spring migration's under way. We've also had reports of a Sand Martin. Here comes the sun...

A fight once again proving there is plenty of life in boxing - if only the cameras are looking in the right direction!

Yup. The spotlight is rarely on the right fights. There have been some great fights and fighters in the last few years. There's an absurd rigmarole around all of boxing, but that doesn't mean the actual fights are rubbish. And every so often you get a real gem of a fight that goes under the radar because of chumps like Paul and (Tommy) Fury

I would be staggered if he did.

I can't quite believe I'm going to type this, but I agree with Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin: Well at least it's over. Can we get back to some proper boxing now?

I thought Jonathan Davies on comms was going to have an aneurism over that. Incredible levels of persistent stupidity! They virtually awarded man of the match to Steward themselves. Although at times England's kicking wasn't much more intellectually inspired.