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 
Yos – he’s normally a complete bugger for poaching the ball. I suspect Ireland had noticed this and planned for it.
In other sporting news, Countryfile has One Man and his Dog week. I love it. :-)
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@Thaum
Here’s the Scottish entry….
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Ireland won the first round :-)
It was the youngsters.
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Christ, you not won enough for one day?!?!?
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Uh-oh. I was hoping OMAHD was going to be a preview of the WC, but Wales pipped Ireland to the post.
That was a very difficult test.
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@Thaum
Small world….Irish youngster in One Man and His Dog is daughter of a work colleague of my wife.. .
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Trisk – she was lovely! Did really well, and was unlucky to go first and not be clear on the rules, otherwise she’d have scored much better.
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I’m not an expert, but it seemed to me that the hardest part of the second test (the adult one) was separating and penning the sheep, which had a relatively low score compared to earlier parts. Only one of the four contestants managed to complete it – and that wasn’t the winner.
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” was unlucky to go first and not be clear on the rules”
Yeah….the others learned from her mistakes.
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Indeed – but she didn’t panic (to channel Squeaky) and did well when the judges explained that she could move. And still squeaked the win!
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Out late at a 60th birthday party last night- so maybe not entirely sober watching first thing this morning but I was pleased with Ireland’s performance – a major step up from 6N
Seemed strange to me that Scotland wanted to play such an open game from start …we kept it tight (mainly) – some good breaks that didn’t result in scores – NZ would have scored in similar circumstances.
Failed HIAs for Aki and O’Mahony aren’t good news – although Farrell played well and we weren’t too upset by moving Stander to blindside. Though missing POM left the lineout a bit vanilla.
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At least we didn’t lose the frigging line-outs! That was a huge relief for me.
Yes, worried about Aki and particularly POM. We will need him and his grim game-face.
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Separating the sheep is always the difficult bit, even when working with them in general. Awkward buggers, sheep. Especially when you don’t have a pig available to ask them politely. I’ve seen many a stand off between a stubborn auld ewe and a dug.
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Sounds accurate to me.
I hear Shep mun is going well down in Yokohama.
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Needs a Nige shouting ‘Ewes it!’ to sort them out.
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The most frustrating thing about Aki’s, is it was self inflicted. Seems Andy Farrell has been teaching not only his son how to tackle.
Also, did you hear about Sam Cane failing HIA test? It took place at half time and they used the full 15 mins, so it was failed on ‘time-taken’. The rules are not being changed.
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@Refit, it is being reported here as a timing issue and will be changed so the time is taken from the start of the HIA test, not from when the player leaves the field.
And Sam Cane passed the HIA, but the old timing applied and that ruled him out.
Apparently.
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Matias Moroni of Argentina cited for hair pulling. That Japanese lock not cited.
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Moroni let off with a warning.
Was it Huget’s hair he pulled?
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Nervous about Wales this morning, can see Georgia winning 9 – 6 in a ‘worst game of the tournament’ encounter…
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I must say I have more FEAR than I’m comfortable with. A poor start and one untimely injury on top the build-up woes and it could be painful to watch.
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Shameless welsh underdogging
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Pfffffffffft!
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Wales by 20
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I might have to dust off and recalibrate the old feelgoodometer.
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Wales will probably splutter for 30 minutes, get a try and then wind up winning comfortably.
Wales by 25
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Was full of gloom yesterday but having just seen this article by Matt Dawson:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/49789503
I’ve decided England must be fine as whatever Mayy Dawson says is generally rubbish.
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FFB,
Well quite. After all, England are actually topping the entire tournament at the moment on points difference… The All Blacks aren’t even top in their pool and you don’t see anyone worrying about *their* future.
Ahem.
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“The stadium was finished in 2001. It was built with a retractable roof but that has not been used since 2015 because of extra costs for maintenance. That could prove challenging if predicted thunderstorms or even a typhoon does descend on Toyota.”
I am not happy with how the fates, ironies and constellations are swirling.
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This should perk Iksy up. Foxy and Parkesy, friends forever:
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Someone needs to advise Michael Cheika to keep his gob shut
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/23/cheika-slates-fiji-over-reece-hodge-referra
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this time with the full URL
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/23/cheika-slates-fiji-over-reece-hodge-referral
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Keep yer gob shut Michael Cheika!!!!
*shakes fist*
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*wipes away tear*
Ta, yosoy.
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Oi! Cheika, shut your cakehole.
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Romania hire Cardiff legend Olly Robinson’s dad to be their next coach.
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Cheika does lurk here so hopefully he will heed our advice.
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Israel Folau to play RL for Tonga.
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@expro
Already vetoed by RLIF
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Laser precision on that line
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Nice try. Terrible conversion
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Hilarious conversion miss from a top class kicker
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This TMO stuff is going to really get to me over the course of the tournament.
I thought that was a penalty against Adams, but nothing dangerous and, if it wasnt spotted live, no need for TMO to intervene
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This from the Irish Times
“Side entry was frequent. A particular one to note is when Cian Healy side-entered on Scotland’s openside, Hamish Watson, who was seriously injured in the incident. Healy did look genuinely concerned and drew attention to the injury. Watson is now probably out of the tournament. I can imagine the outcry had that been the other way around.’
Watson is indeed out of the tournament, Furlong was involved in the clear out as well
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Great scrum from Wales, battered a good Georgia 8
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Interesting angle from Wyn Jones.
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Two good interventions from Georgia’s left wing to shut down Wales attacks
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Sorry, right wing (but wearing 11)
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Is he the loosehead, Yosoy?
I thought he was okay, the Georgian three folded in
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Nice heads up work from Tips
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