Here comes the World Cup! Oh, and an English Premiership Cup match too.
Exciting rugby on the telly this week
Friday 20th September
| Japan 30 – 10 Russia | 11:45 | ITV / S4C |
Saturday 21st September
| Australia 39 – 21 Fiji | 05:45 | ITV |
| France 23 – 21 Argentina | 08:15 | ITV |
| New Zealand 23 – 13 S Africa | 10:45 | ITV |
| Exeter 28 – 14 Bath | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
Sunday 22nd September
| Italy 47 – 22 Namibia | 06:15 | ITV |
| Ireland 27 – 3 Scotland | 08:45 | ITV |
| England 35 – 3 Tonga | 11:15 | ITV |
Monday 23rd September
| Wales 43 – 14 Georgia | 11:15 | ITV / S4C |
Tuesday 24th September
| Russia 9 – 34 Samoa | 11:15 | ITV4 |
Wednesday 25th September
| Fiji 27 – 30 Uruguay | 06:15 | ITV4 |
Thursday 26th September
| Italy 48 – 7 Canada | 08:45 | ITV4 |
| England 45 – 7 USA | 11:45 | ITV |
Ovally Balls 
I think that’s play on, myself.
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Killing ourselves with penalties.
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We’ve had flashes of our best and equal amounts of being very sloppy/poor discipline (so same old England).
Expect they’ll get a rocket at half time from Eddie and fitness will tell from 60 minutes but not entirely convincing. At least we’ve got a good build up in difficulty so hopefully will be fully up to speed by the time we hit France
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We’re just a few percent off. Looking like we’re still playing a warm up game
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I wish Tonga gave up on the territory game.
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George Ford just stopped enormo-Prop!
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Big Ben isn’t bringing much force to any charge.
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Greasy balls causing havoc for England.
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Jeez catch the damn ball England.
This has been a really really poor start to the 2nd half
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@Tomp
I don’t think the kicks are to gain territory as such. Tonga know England have the pace on them wide, so they cant go around England. I also think Tonga aren’t confident in their ball retention at the ruck, so they dont want to play too many phases.
The kicks are basically to cause an error and hope an opporunity arises from the scraps or broken play.
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Christ, this commentary is appalling.
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@borderboy
I think Ugo is just reading out one of his Guardian articles rather than watching the game.
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I have a different feed. The commentary is quite good from Andrew Mehrtens and Melodie Robinson. Not sure who the main caller is, but he seems ok.
Had the delights of Real Eddie & Chris Patterson for the Ireland Scotland game
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Utna,
It was the break off the back of the scrum by the 8 who then kicked that provoked the comment. It’s a bit too one-sided and would like Tonga to get some kind of threat up close.
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@Ourterry
I normally don’t mind Mullins and Ben Kay is usually pretty good, so I’ll blame Ugo.
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This is really disappointing.
Compare to the ABs and SA putting Tonga/Japan to the sword and you can see we aren’t going to be winning this if we keep this kind of play up.
Only hope is that the occasion will mean we’re a lot more with it in the big games
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You don’t like Stonegenge?
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I’m watching with Mehrts on comments as well. He’s upped his game since Willi Heinz came on.
The main commentator is an Aussie, no? Sean what’sisface.
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After yesterday’s fun, the northern hemisphere hasn’t exactly got with the programme today.
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This game is the visual equivalent of Maitland running
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FFS. First Heinz was too close to Watson, then Slade JDII’s it.
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Ffs
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That’s the miss of the World Cup right there.
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We don’t deserve a bonus point
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Woeful performance.
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Honestly we could easily repeat 2015 based off this. Arg and France will be licking their lips
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Finally, the BP try.
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Neither of them’s beating you, FFB. Don’t worry.
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Other than Manu and a couple of bench players this has been a 5/10 and below performance.
This feels exactly like post the Fiji game 4 years ago
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Billy V showed no interest in hitting that ruck. Leave it to the reserve halfback, Billy!
England lucky that one of the Tongan counter ruckers knocked on
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Hopefully not Tom P and I’m sure we’ll lift (can’t imagine Eddie letting them repeat the amount of errors again), but it’s so frustrating to see the same old sloppiness come back – so many unforced errors.
Just when it looks like we’ve turned a corner in the warm ups the same old issues with concentrating come back
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Phew, thats over, horrible. Daly continues to under impress,
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Well.
Ireland very much in contention for the tournament on today’s display. England absolutely nowhere near.
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Very poor. England won’t be that bad again.
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“England won’t be that bad again.”
You say that but we said the same after Murrayfield 2018.
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Well, positives that Watson, May, Manu, Joseph, Slade all looked sharp. Got the impression that maybe the forwards were holding something back to avoid injuries
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“After yesterday’s fun, the northern hemisphere hasn’t exactly got with the programme today.”
Italy, mun! 7 tries and smiles as wide as the River Po.
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Quite frustrating to watch, but it was the amount of fumbles which made it so – they were the main cause that we kept losing momentum, rather than any particular weakness elsewhere, I thought.
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Czech telly has an advert from the rugby coverage’s sponsors, a freight/logistics compnay, at the beginning and end of the ad breaks.
I expect the New Zealand Army to invade later this week:
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I missed the games so on catch-up…………….
Kitson …….”trifecta” ffs
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Just caught up on the highlights.
Italy scored some nice tries. I know it’s ‘only’ Namibia, but Ruzza’s no look pass would have had plenty moistening their gussets had Maro or Ryan done it.
Ireland are like a bad dream for me. Everything I find ugly about rugby combined into a battering ram of relentless attrition that needs to be stopped for the good of the very game itself. Very difficult to get the ball off them and once they get a penalty kick into the corner they will nearly always score.
I fear a backlash from England against the USA on Thursday. Still no word if USA will field their strongest line-up or save the best players for the later games. Don’t want the USA to be the first team to get a hiding.
Been looking at houses in Bitez today. We are planning to move here in April.
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You should have said something, You’ve kept this so quiet.
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Feel sorry for Scotland, so underpowered and not helped by a sloppy Finn. I hope they wake up before their game vs Japan. Their only chance was to run the ball and each time they had it, they kicked it away aimlessly.
Ireland quite effective, and the BP point is not to be sniffed at, but I doubt box kicks after box kicks and mauls after mauls will be enough vs the big guns, come the QF. They have some lovely runners, but boy how patient they must be!
Why the gloom about England? It was a pool game ffs, They did what they had to do. A bit rusty, sure, but the BP won’t even be necessary as they are head ans shoulders above Arg and France. They have an army of very efficient serial poachers, and Tuilagi and Co will do the rest.
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Agree mosty Flair. Finn faffed generally and had a poor game, albeit in difficult conditions. Scotland need to learn how to stay in games when it isn’t all clicking into place.
I thought Ireland mixed it up quite well actually. It wasn’t all box-kick and attrition, but more knowing how to do exactly what was needed to beat the opposition. There was a fair bit of good handling, creating and running into space in the first half. Good defensive plan to stop Scotland getting the ball wide and keep Hogg n Finn quiet.
Stodgy from England but you are right in that they did what they had to do. I wouldn’t compare this to the Fiji game at the last RWC, when they flattered to deceive against a better outfit than this Tonga one, which just painted over the cracks in leadership and preparation. England are in a far better place this time around.
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Has Hogg lost a yard of pace meanwhile or was he just well marked? There was a couple of times when I was expecting blistering runs through gaps, and they didn’t happen even though he went for it.
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Ireland’s locks were particularly impressive today. Ryan is ridiculous considering he’s so young.
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Ah Jaysus expro
A bad dream?
Wet dream if you’re me
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Squidge! On Japan/Russia.
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BBC News has just called Hamish Scotland’s ‘best forward’. I might agree with that, but it’s a bit controversial, no?
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@Thaum
He usually is although he wasn’t effective today before he got crocked. Not that he was alone there.
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