Week Two made Irish eyes very sad. But Welsh eyes leeked with joy, when the Wallabies didn’t quite manage to hop into the lead in the second half. Uruguay failed to repeat their magic from Week One. Otherwise, the results were more or less as expected.
Week Three’s biggest clash is looking like England v Argentina, although no doubt there will be some surprises in the other fixtures.
We’ve also got some Pro14 and that English Premiership Cup thingy to look forward to.
Exciting (?) rugby on the telly this week
Friday 4th October
| S Africa 49 – 3 Italy | 10:45 | ITV4 |
| Glasgow 21 – 25 Scarlets | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Leinster 53 – 5 Ospreys | 19:35 | Premiers Sports 2 / TG4 |
| Worcester 19 – 34 Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 5th October
| Australia 45 – 10 Uruguay | 06:15 | ITV |
| England 39 – 10 Argentina | 09:05 | ITV |
| Japan 38 – 19 Samoa | 11:30 | ITV |
| Kings 20 – 31 Munster | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Zebre 28 – 52 Dragons | 17:00 | Freesports |
| Cheetahs 63 – 26 Ulster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Cardiff 11 – 19 Edinburgh | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 / S4C |
| Connacht 41 – 5 Treviso | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 / TG4 |
Sunday 6th October
| New Zealand 71 – 9 Namibia | 05:45 | ITV |
| France 23 – 21 Tonga | 08:45 | ITV |
| Northampton 28 – 54 Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Tuesday 8th October
| South Africa 66 – 7 Canada | 11:15 | ITV4 |
Wednesday 9th October
| Argentina 47 – 17 USA | 05:45 | ITV4 |
| Scotland 61 – 0 Russia | 08:15 | ITV |
| Wales v Fiji | 10:45 | ITV/S4C |
Ovally Balls 
I killed Patches the spider. #thuglife
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4 weeks? Getting serious
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Lavanini a full third more thuggish than anyone else at the world cup
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so far
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‘Hefty ban’.
Is anything more than 6 weeks effectively sine die?
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Lavanini does have quite a bit of previous, unlike most of the others.
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Squidge has a right old rant about Cheika :
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Refit – even squidge thinks that Wales are NAILED ON!!!!
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@craigs
Good stuff. He deserves it after the dirty ambush he pulls in the frontier.
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Morning all! I’m supposed to start the day with a post about HAVING THE FEAR!!!!! and all that. But I don’t. We’re gonna squash Canada. Then think we’re world beaters and lose to in the QF to a grimly rampant Ireland. Bastards.
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Bok players and management are talking about ‘throwing off the shackles’ against Canada. Fair enough they’ve picked three 7s in the loose trio and two dynamic locks, with Schalk Brits at hooker, so it’s about as ‘dynamic’ as a Bok pack will get. Add to that Cobus Reinach and Elton Jantjies at 9 and 10 and the potential is there for some fizzzzzing, runnnning rugby. Then you’ve got Frans ‘kick it high’ Steyn at 12 and Damian ‘crash into the 1st player regardless of team’ de Allende outside of him, and it doesn’t really matter who the back 3 are. May need Brits to play 1st receiver and fling the ball directly to the wings or Damian Willemse joining the line from 15 to play ‘dynamic rugby’. Boks by 56. Or anything fewer than 68, so I can give TomP an awful avatar for the rest of the World Cup. Suggestions welcome.
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I have a ¥ to £ Canada today, We’re going to stick it up their ♅ !
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Yes, I’ve fond a whole lot of HTML shortcuts, so will be ☽ lyrical today! As they say, ☄ the hour, ☄ the man! Not really sure how a hammer and sickle qualifies as a ‘Religious and Spiritual Symbol’. Eish!
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Deebee, quite up to date in a way. They must have read Yuri Slezkine’s House of Government from 2017 that makes the Communism as religion argument.
I think it might be 72 or under and I get a new pic. But not sure. Hope Jantjies has kicking boots on. The Bol bench forwards are terrifying for the poor Canucks.
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Deebs – there’s going to be a huge Canadian hole which the boks will stuff the rugby team into.
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Rugby World Cup you say? Pfft. Rugby X is the game of the future:
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My great and unmatched wisdom suggests boks by 60+
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Rugby X? Boak
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@chimp
Get with it, grandad. This is rugby as designed by Elon Musk. They’ll be playing this on Mars in the year 2052.
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Billy broke
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Are England or France happy to lose Pool C decider to avoid the All Blacks?
No
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@yos
I’m just a jaded auld reactionary
Will this be the version with mutants on dinosaur back?
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’tis a dumb question, dov. Especially as that makes the large assumption that the teams will get to the semis.
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Exactly. Stupid speculation. England’s quarter final is going to extremely tough to win either way. Which is the same for everybody. Only NZ can be looking further ahead with a degree of certainty.
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Something something English arrogance etc.
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Don’t you start Chimpie.
I’ve been foolish enough to peruse the graun BTLs and this stuff is, as ever, rife.
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“Only Wales can be looking further ahead with a degree of certainty.”
FIFY dov
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It is funny how resistant to change rugby fans tend to be.
The thing is, though, if you watch games from the 70s and 80s they tend to be really crap.
Increasing the ball in play time has been a major benefit, for example.
Hopefully one day we will look back on box kicking the same way that we now view kicking into touch on the full from anywhere on the pitch.
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pro. I agree, old rugby romanticism is well overblown. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it then and there were some cracking players but in terms of entertainment and standard of play even games from 10 years ago are noticeably inferior on average.
I do think there is a tipping point though which we need to be careful not to go over. The more like League it becomes the less need there is for it to exist.
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@dova
You may have noticed there that Owen Farrell was responsible for twice being tackled high. If he had been running higher the other guys wouldn’t have been sent off, thereby spoiling both games.
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I’d be feeling confident of a semi (Karl) were I Welsh. They have the beating of either England or France. In fact, I’d much rather England faced Australia than Wales.
I am bemused by this brave new world where a creature called the Cuddly Boks lives. I think this is the first time in history anyone has described a South African rugby side as Cuddly.
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BTL on t’graun during the World Cup is always disgusting. As is ATL- quite what Kitson thinks he’s playing at today (other than blatant clickbait) is a mystery
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OT yes. His evil knows no bounds. He’s basically ruining the world cup by smashing his own face into peoples entirely innocent shoulder charges.
Bastard.
Mind you I also saw some numpty fight back by accusing AWJ of milking penalties in mauls by essentially hanging himself by the neck off opposing players arms and pleading to the ref.
It’s a wild place.
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Aren’t actual springboks quite cute?
The rugby team look like their training regime involves mostly attempting to head butt Rhino’s unconscious.
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Kiwis are very delicate, fragile little things.
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Kitson describes mako as a fringe player who might take his chance to make a claim for place.
These people have the best jobs going and make no effort whatsoever to do them well.
I miss our own communities previews and analysis ATL. Much better.
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@Dovahkin
I think the main reason union is starting to resemble league has little to do with rule changes and much to do with tactics employed by teams.
In as much as it is possible under the different laws, union attacking patters eerily resemble league in the sense that a typical attacking ‘set’ of plays tends to start with one out crash ball from big forwards (2-3x), followed by a midfield attacking backline play involving the ball being passed behind decoy runners. Most teams even employ a second playmaker either as a centre (England) or FB (NZ), much like the dual pivots in league. The kick pass is also becoming a standard way to get around a well organized defence.
Once tackling in union got as good as it is in league – and players only committed to rucks they are confident of winning a turnover from, meaning 10-12 players spread across the pitch, as in league – the attacking patters were always going to head in a league direction.
It always amazes me how primitive top level union attacking tactics were in the amateur era, Back row move, switch in midfield or a miss pass was about everything.
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Rugby fans are most definitely not resistant to change, I started playing in 1975 and the laws have changed every year since, and probably before that. It was precisely these annual changes along with the most protected status of amateurism in any sport to professionalism that led to huge increases in ball-in-play time.
Yes we older players compare and contrast because we have experienced those different eras, but any charge of conservatism is well wide of the mark.
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Yes indeed pro. So, further de-powering of the scrum or reducing the importance of lineout or, reduction in the importance of tactical kicking just leads to further convergence.
I think they’ve got it about right now. The scrums are less messy but still a competition. The rucks are cleaner and clearer in my view. Still can’t abide the choke tackle law but can see why its needed. All in all not much need to change anything else.
Kicking is always going to be needed unless you make it certain you keep the ball after a tackle (like league)
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“kick pass”
Ugh. Who first coined this?
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Rugby now is miles better than when I first watched it in the mid 80s. Change doesn’t mean Rugby X is a good thing – it’s a fucking training match, the kind we used to do in primary school. Good for improving your skillz when you’re young, but it’s diet 7z. Genuinely pointless for professional sport. It’s The Hundred when T20 already exists. It’s a load of shit and it will fail. Take it to the bank.
Also, I love box kicks. May they rain down from an Irish sky forever. Forever. Forever.
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I’m blaming Sir Clive.
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“It always amazes me how primitive top level union attacking tactics were in the amateur era, Back row move, switch in midfield or a miss pass was about everything.”
Apple and oranges, there was a lot more space, there was no such thing as “line speed” as it’s understood now, many more players were tied into a ruck. Players got tired, there were no subs at all when I started and eventually injury only replacements rather than substitutions etc etc
Baldy understood all this well, he was right in that defence was the first thing to be sorted as the game went open, as a result attacking had to change
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yes – yos. Quite agree.
The first time I hear someone describe it as -“putting up a bomb” though, I’m done with it.
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“Baldy understood all this well”
Revelation!
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“Change doesn’t mean Rugby X is a good thing “
It’s not for me, but then whilst I really loved playing 7z I get a bit bored watching it
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7z is great to play. Arguably more fun than full fat rugby. I can watch it in small doses and get behind the ladz in the ‘lympics but I couldn’t do a Hong Kong weekend of it.
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‘pro, England’ve got 3 playmakers now. That trumps both the ABs and League.
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In the more innocent times that were the early 90s that particular tactic was brought to Grandstand viewers by the great Bobby Goulding of St Helens and was known as the “cross kick”.
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Brexit just got nasty.
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