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 
Its all over.
Congrats to Wales for winning their group.
England and France will both want to avoid them in the quarters
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Navidi has been superb tonivht.
Wales have been battered. Hopefully JD2, Biggar and Adams all ok.
Fiji are some team
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Elliot Dee is a specialist at wasting 30 seconds at a scrum
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If Fiji had a fly half in the same class as their 3/4s and loose forwards they would be a hell of a team
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Wales looking really good.
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@ticht I thought Volavola played well, think the let off was discipline around clearing out rucks
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Wales looking worryingly good.
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Craigs might have been right. It’s Wales’ to lose now…
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FBC, I thought he played better today than I’ve seen from him before, two missed conversions hurt Fiji, but if he was the fly half equivalent of Radradra or Nakarawa or Mata it would make a big difference to them
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NAILED ON!!!! #FACTBOMB
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Ahem….
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Who was it that used to say Factbomb? usually about some supposed inside information about the England camp ?
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“Who was it that used to say Factbomb”
Unfortunately, I recall that it was a Guardian poster called TrendyPontcanna.
Actually, there’s probably a good AoD quiz on the various deranged posters we came across (present company excepted) – if one did a bit of research in the Graun’s BTL archives….
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That was as hard as I expected it to be. Ugly, ugly stuff and if we’re not the team that ‘pro hates the most, we should be. Good win.
Now, let’s get Iksy to pray for Foxy’s knee.
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@trisk
https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/2681429/search/rugby%20league?page=1
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BBC reporting that England France may be cancelled due to typhoon
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That was it. Jeez. Some of us have been chatting shit about rugby and other stuff either there, the other place and here for a long long time.
I used to go under a different name there but go way back to 2004 I think. Some stay others have gone away and new ones arrived.
I miss Sag.
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Graun reporting that the Scotland Japan game equally under threat.
Surely they’ll re-arrange both or cancel both if weather prevents them going ahead to plan. Can’t do something different for each.
I can’t see them cancelling. Japan will not want to be seen as going through like that, especially as the hosts. Could be some last minute travel arrangements. Good job they have an unrivalled transport infrastructure I suppose.
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The same story is being reported on Rugbyrama, a French site, saying a decision will be taken tomorrow morning
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Fuxxsakes. Typhoon? Who the hell schedules a rugby world cup during typhoon season in a place where typhoons do their thing.
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This is pretty fucking awesome.
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How will people feel if they do cancel?
Seems crazy that Scotland could go out on that basis. Surely they can move the match back by a day or 2 (even if it means a reduced rest period for the team who gets to the QF)
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They won’t cancel. Postpone or change venue. They simply won’t have it that they go through in these circumstances.
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There’s something brutally predictable about Scotland getting eliminated cos of the rain.
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‘How will people feel if they do cancel?’
That truly would be the shaft of all shafts
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Going out because of the weather would be pretty outrage inducing. Would rather be beaten fair and square *cough*
At least France & England are both confirmed as already through.
Don’t think switching venue is all that simple, but would hope there was enough contingency planning
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Going out because of the weather would be pretty
outrage inducingfucking hilariousFIFY
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I’d prefer to see the games being played through the typhoon myself.
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Hate to be a fun sponge here, but Hurricanes/Typhoons are no laughing matter, there is a real danger to life
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#funsponge
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Box kicking would not be an effective tactic inna typhoon
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Especially category 5s Ticht of which this I believe is one.
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Already starting to see LSF posts online claiming Japan will fix a combination of typhoon route / stadium availability to unfairly eliminate Scotland.
Does anyone remember the 1995 SF between SA and France?
That game came very close to cancellation due to pitch flooding. If it had been cancelled, France would have had advanced to the final as the deciding factor would have been each teams disciplinary record, As James Dalton has been sent off v Canada the Boks would have been adjudged to ‘lose’ the match.
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Talking of outrage
‘In 2018, for the first time in history, America’s richest billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than the working class.’
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Just close the roof. Every one will agree. Until the last minute when Eddie changes his mind.
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Do you have a link to those posts, pro?
It’s bollocks, DBWR and the Japanese organisers will do everything they can to get those games played, but we are talking about a storm of the same intensity as Katrina.
If it means we go out because they are averting risk to life, we go out.
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I’ve had a brief scan through Shitter and this is the closest I could find:
I think they are there, but not in overwhelming numbers.
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Or this, I suppose, but it’s a bit of a stretch. Maybe the integrity thing
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Yeah it’s bollocks.
Scotland should have beaten Ireland, like Japan did.
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It would be a real shame, but the tournament rules are that they won’t play the matches on days other than those scheduled.
They could relax the rules in an emergency I suppose, maybe one will crop up.
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It’ll be fine. Someone drew on the map. Lead to all sorts of confusion.
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Craigs, we could get Trump to draw the route of Typhoon Haggis right enough
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I hope the game goes ahead, somewhere, I feel we can beat them by 8 points. The only starters from today, in fact starter to double up will be Darcy Graham and he looks red hot just now. Bradbury will start, he played about 50 mins today, that’s about it. Others like Fagerson will be on the bench
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Scotland will beat Japan well.
It’ll be Hoggbounce and Laidlaw assistant reffing that will do for them.
Scotland will then get minced in the least interesting of all the QF games.
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*tramples over ‘pro’s sour grapes*
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I wish Japan AND Scotland could go through.
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It has the makings of a classic, two teams that are fairly evenly matched and want to play high tempo rugby. it certainly won’t be easy, I can’t see a big win for either team.
Japan have looked terrific so far, I just think the whole occasion might get to them, and they certainly won’t be taking anyone by surprise – I don’t think Ireland expected them to be so good, but the Scottish camp will be burning the midnight oil in preparation.
I guess on the other hand the occasion might get to them and the crowd could carry them on to a superb display.
I’m really looking forward to it.
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“Is it wrong to love Dan Biggar?”
No.
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Wales were on the ropes, at 6s and 7s and under the cosh when Big Dan Biggar was knocked out on top of it all.
His decision to stand up and then jog off the pitch rather than depart on the wagon must have been a huge morale boost for the players out there. And I reckon he knew that.
Fecking Marvellous.
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