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 
Jantjies misses the conversion – could be crucial to the TomP points difference.
LikeLike
@DB
all the Boks can get out of it is injuries and maybe keeping the bench players match fit for the bigger matches ahead.
The South African coaching staff were given an opportunity to see that South Africa’s defense is rather porous – they’ve allowed a try against Canada, who was playing with 14 men at the time. Hopefully they can use this to improve things moving forward…
LikeLike
Cuddly boks clobber Canada catastrophically
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hmm. 66-7 final score. looked like a lot more at half time. Well played to Canada for scoring and keeping it less apocalyptic in the second half. Not much to read into the Bok performance, other than hoping there were no injuries. RG Snyman was pretty good from the bits I saw and Schalk Brits really is a complete footballer, but had to compete with John Smit, Bismarck and now Marx and Bongi for the 2 jersey over the course of his career. Probably should have been on the bench behind Bismarck when he was in his pomp, but the beef of Adriaan Strauss was preferred to Brits’s cerebral approach for the most part.
LikeLike
LADOAB – you’re quite correct and they could’ve had a couple more but for the bounce of the ball and some handling errors. Cobus Reinach must be knocking hard for a spot in the first team, his performances so far have been a step up on both de Klerk and Jantjies.
LikeLike
Latest on typhoon Hagibis –
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/oct/08/rugby-world-cup-england-scotland-super-typhoon-hagibis
Seems like Ireland are ok now – path of the storm now puts England’s and Scotland’s games at risk.
LikeLike
Is there no end to the influence of D4?
LikeLiked by 4 people
It would be quite something to see the guardian rugby pages in meltdown if the Japan/Scotland game got declared a draw because of the storm…
I assume they’ll relocate it instead
LikeLiked by 1 person
I assume they’ll relocate it instead
That was the plan for Ireland vs Samoa… shifting a game at short notice seems fraught with difficulty
LikeLike
Lunchtime touch rugby update: top skillz, just eaten a bag of jelly babies and about to put some Voltarol on my knees.
Mainly though, top skillz.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Schalk Brits and the Canada hooker swapped shirts after the match this evening.
The Canada player couldn’t get Brits’s shirt on and required help from his opponent.
Both seemed to find it rather amusing.
LikeLike
“‘Snot a proper book side unless stocked with brutes, Neanderthals and possible serial killers. Or some combination of all 3.”
Truest words ever written about SA rugby.
LikeLike
Ah, AVS, just because your front row (Joe Moody specifically) seems to have a prayer mat in front of him at scrum time doesn’t mean you can be mean!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Who needs the EU, eh? Britain and Australia doing some glorious SABRE rattling!
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/hypersonic-flight-air-breathing-rocket-scli-intl-gbr-scn/index.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
More seriously, it’s an amazing feat of engineering if they can get it right – some mindbending stuff in that article.
LikeLike
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/oct/08/france-players-told-to-kick-coaches-out-rugby-world-cup
Uh oh, the French are about to start ignoring the coaches – a heavy loss to Les Rosbifs might push them over the edge…
Wales should be worried
LikeLike
I’m trying not to worry until I see Yachvili and Harinordoquy named to play against us.
LikeLike
Will the Scots be thwarted from releasing Typhoon Haggis on Japan by Typhoon Hagibis?
LikeLike
“Lunchtime touch rugby update: top skillz, just eaten a bag of jelly babies and about to put some Voltarol on my knees.”
Good work. When are planning to leave the changing rooms and join in?
LikeLiked by 4 people
Mr Iks,
Worst case is Fiji doing us by 8 or more and getting a bonus point so reaching 12 points and our game v Uruguay being washed out.
LikeLike
left a ‘you’ out there. Sevenz standard typing.
LikeLike
Hagabis is the Tagalog word for the whizzing sound of fast cars.
LikeLike
Yosoy – aye, and Chabal back too….
Am I right in thinking that the last time the French rebelled against their coaches, they won?
LikeLike
Got to the final Thaum. Homer ref stole it from them by a point.
LikeLike
I don’t know TomP, but I am asking myself when DBWR decide where and when the RWC will take place do they not factor in climate and playing conditions criteria? I mean, was it not possible to avoid typhoon season as best as possible during the planning phase?
LikeLike
Should I call it Qatar Syndrome?
LikeLike
I thought they rebelled in 2015 as well. Before getting destroyed by that brilliant NZ performance in the quarter finals.
Brunel’s long been expecting it. Only explanation for that moustache.
LikeLike
Growing the WR bank balance, innit.
Sorry, growing the game.
LikeLike
Lemme just put it out there that weather conditions are perfect for rugby in SA at the moment. Something that was pointed out to Moneybags DBWR during the bid. Just saying.
LikeLike
LikeLike
“Ah, AVS, just because your front row (Joe Moody specifically) seems to have a prayer mat in front of him at scrum time doesn’t mean you can be mean”
If he played for a proper Book side he would at least be able to sort out his binding.
LikeLiked by 7 people
Arf!
LikeLike
“If he played for a proper Book side he would at least be able to sort out his binding.”
And have a spine too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You guys seem to be on the same page
LikeLiked by 1 person
If he could stay square and not turn-in or hinge then he really would turn the corner. Of course if he were a Book then this sort of thing would have been paste-down to him in the first place.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anyway we seem to have a lot of shafts knocking around at work that are facing obsolescence with the closing down and all that. Not sure if any of them are the shaft of all shafts yet, but will keep looking.
LikeLike
This is like saying ‘BorderBoy’ in the mirror 3 times. Look out.
LikeLike
My stepsister’s husband is a bookbinder which is a fine thing to be in this day and age. Seemed like a nice bloke the couple of times I’ve met him even if he is a Bath fan. Not sure it would be for me though what with the cackhandedness.
LikeLike
@cmw
Buy him a Kindle
LikeLike
I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy him anything as they keep themselves to themselves. Unless I ask him to do some work on some of my father’s old books in which case I suppose it would be a good payment ‘in kind’.
LikeLike
There is a guy called Roy Bookbinder, he used to be The Rev Gary Davis’ driver a long time ago, that’s where he learned to play like this
LikeLiked by 3 people
One of the things I missed most when AoD disappeared was getting things like this to listen to.
LikeLike
LikeLike
buenos dias a todos
LikeLike
A win here would be a feather in the cap for the USA and not outside the realms of possibility.
LikeLike
After the talk yesterday about how much better rugby is now, have a look at the scrum, resets were rare back in the day, now you can be looking at two minutes of pissing about before the game is restarted
LikeLike
Lee Calvert has gone full Blood & Mud in his match intro, over at the Graun.
Nice break by Argentina, only for the player to tackle himself.
LikeLike
Great ankle tap by the Argentine wing prevents a certain score! Pity itcwas his own ankle he tapped, sprawling on the floor with the line at his mercy.
LikeLike
Refit too quick for me there.
LikeLike
Bosch from the Poomas scrum half
LikeLike