BETTER NEWS

It’s finally here. One of the few moments when I miss Mud Island. Yes, the English Rugby season gets under way this weekend. Hurrah. Sadly the enlightened souls at ESPN/Star have chosen to show the All-Asian under-12 hard-boiled-egg-painting competition from Godforsakendump, Laos instead of the rugby (apparently hard-boiled-egg painting will be a demonstration sport at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 with a view to becoming a medal event in 2012) so I shall be forced to listen to the games via the miracle of the BBC website and Netvigator Wireless Broadband. Still at least we're finally under way.

Leicester take on Sale in Manchester on Sunday. Fingers crossed for a winning start to the campaign but sadly Tigers are nowhere near full strength, with an unbelievable 6 loose forwards injured (that surely has to be all of them). How 6 can be injured before a game has been played in anger is a mystery but fortunately none of them are serious long-term injuries and hopefully enough will have recovered before the kick-off for Leicester to field a proper back-row instead of a makeshift lineup.

Leicesters two arch-rivals, Northampton and Bath, face each other on Saturday afternoon. These will be two of the teams to beat this season so I’m sure Leicester’s coaches will be watching the game avidly (and probably praying for a lot of injuries to both sides). Both these teams look strong and this is likely to be one of the closest seasons for years. I can hardly wait.

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