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 
Red card, must be.
LikeLike
That’s torn it.
LikeLike
Oh dear, Argentina.
LikeLike
Gone. That’s game over.
LikeLike
Farrell seems to attract these nasty tackles. That was a horror from TL.
LikeLike
Lavanini in foul play shocker
LikeLike
No no no no no! Horrible decision.
LikeLike
Definite red, pretty dull play from Lavanini
LikeLike
“You have to feel for Lavanini”. Really? With his record?
LikeLike
It’s almost only a matter of time with Lavanini
LikeLike
Only his second red card in Tests, refit. No worse than Emerick.
LikeLike
Wot a nob
LikeLike
2 tier reffing. England should have 2 red cards by now.
LikeLike
Niggly
LikeLike
I think you have to look at the height of the tackler. Farrell was on his way down so made it look worse than it was.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sport is becoming a complete joke.
It ruins the game for spectators as well as players.
What might be a close game will now be one way traffic.
It’s now the same sanction for an accident as a deliberate assault. It’s ridiculous that a stamp, punch or eye gouge gets the same sanction as accidental contact with the head in a tackle.
Farrell much smaller than Lavanini and lowers at the last minute.
Oh, and Sinkler did a deliberate no arms tackle to the knees of an opposition player and received no card.
Shoulder hit side of knee and player upended. That can end careers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lavanini smashed him in the head with his shoulder, Dab. No excuse. Easy red.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Fuck off ‘Pro. Lavanini lead with the shoulder, Farrell barely dipped – mainly seemed to be bracing for impact.
Lavanini has previous at this and it’s a wonder he still plays at the top tier.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Your bias slip is showing, ‘pro
LikeLike
Lavanini – most red-carded Argentina player.
LikeLike
Ugo bigged up this Argentinian outside half in his column yesterday.
LikeLike
I think Lavanini is the most yellow-carded player in Test history. He’s certainly a stone-cold idiot when it comes to this sort of thing .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, so because Lavanini has previous it means he did it on purpose.
He knew Farrell would stoop at the last minute and managed to get his shoulder right in the chops all in a microsecond.
LikeLike
Straight red for me. Deliberate shoulder to the heid. Just want to see it consistently applied
Lavanini is a pretty filthy player.
And yes that no arms to the knees effort by sinckler should have seen harsher sanction
LikeLike
Arse, is Billy fucked?
LikeLike
Pro, he fucked up. Got his red. Let’s move on.
LikeLike
Mako Vunipola’s back on the bench today so Billy has to take the Vunipola Hospital Bed for a while.
LikeLike
@Chek
He still doesn’t have as many yellows as Haskell.
Who is the real baddie?
LikeLike
Hey, Pro. You know players can tackle around the waist, right? They don’t have to hit shoulder to shoulder.
History would indicate that TL likes to cheap-shot players and put in a big hit. It’s not unsurprising that he would completely fuck it up and smack someone in the head at some point.
LikeLike
Neither side playing well.
LikeLike
@pro
Farrell didn’t dip
LikeLike
@Yosoy – but the #bantz*.
*Fear I may have condemned him there.
LikeLike
“I think Lavanini is the most yellow-carded player in Test history.”
Not even in the Top 10.
LikeLike
Almost an oopsie by Daly (albeit with a pen advantage), but he holds the ball and scores.
LikeLike
How many cards has Lavanini had at club/franchise level, TomP?
LikeLike
Game over, man
LikeLike
Daly on fire.
LikeLike
My humble suggestion to DBWR?
Unless the referee believes it was deliberate – penalty and the tackler leaves the field and must be replaced.
Refs call must be: is it a deliberate cheap shot, or is it an accident?
If then ref deems it accidental, the tackler may not continue and the team loses a substitution.
Let the disciplinary panel look at it afterwards.
It’s still reasonable incentive for players to tackle low, yet avoids ruining a game on the basis of an accident.
LikeLike
The real baddies are DBWR. If they weren’t so fucking slow to catch on that this is an increasingly dangerous sport to play, they might have applied these directives, say, 12 months ago, which would gives coaches and players time to work on techniques and get out of – what are now – bad habits.
Instead they do all this just before their showpiece, quad annual tournament. Rugby blazers are fucking idiots of the highest order. Twats.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We’ve been so disjointed since the red – it’s like we’re not sure how to respond/approach the game now they’re down to 14.
Daly still looking pretty shaky, but recovered well to get the try
LikeLike
On the plus sid
LikeLike
On the plus side, this will annoy the hell out of Pichot.
LikeLike
Really dumb by the Argentine 8
LikeLike
Ticht, one red in 4 years of Super Rugby – I think.
LikeLike
Good rant yos but shoulders to the head have never been legal
LikeLike
Too many 1-up runners for England. It’s not allowing us to get quick ruck ball.
LikeLike
@chimpie
I know and I’ve no problem with the decision. Red all day.
LikeLike
Argentina switch off at a ruck (fair do’s, it was the 20th+ phase) and have a gap in the defence. Youngs snipes through to score.
15-3
LikeLike
Youngs doing the meerkat impersonation too often.
Nice show and go for the try
LikeLike
How many yellows, TomP?
My impression is that he spent a fair few minutes in the bin, it seemed like every game at one point, he also got away with a lot
LikeLike