Your week-end programme, unfortunately mostly brought to you by internet providers and subscription television.
Italy/ Fiji : Saturday 1pm. Cancelled
England/Ireland: Saturday at 3pm
Wales / Georgia: Saturday at 5.15 pm
Scotland/France: Sunday at 4pm
But before that, right after breakfast, you’ll watch the most important game of the week-end, and it has nothing to do with the season.
No, it’s not Ireland at Twickenham, nor France at Murrayfield.
It’s much earlier in the day, and it’s Argentina vs Australia.
Can the Argentineans replicate last Saturday’s fantastic game when they stunned the All Blacks and won 25-15? Can they keep the same intensity and dismantle Australia as well? In the absence of South Africa, could they nick the Tri nations for the first time?
Most neutrals would hope so, but I’m not neutral. I desperately want a win for the South Americans.
Let’s see:
Mario Ledesma has stuck with the same players. Australia have beefed up their pack and recalled a couple of old horses. I doubt it will be enough. When Australia dispatched the ABs B team with not much to spare, Argentina crushed their A team. It suggests a gap in power and organization that Australia should not be able to fill, even in front of their fans. Both teams have great attacking power (often underestimated in Argentina’s case), but Australia’s pack might be on the back foot for long periods, particularly if Nic White is as slow as usual: he’ll be eaten alive by the ferocious Argentina back row.
Open the Malbec, it’s about time.
Argentina: 15 Santiago Carreras, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chapparo
Replacements: 16 Santiago Socino, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Santiago Grondona, 20 Facundo Isa, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Emiliano Boffelli, 23 Santiago Cordero
Australia: 15 Tom Banks, 14 Tom Wright, 13 Jordan Petaia, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Reece Hodge, 9 Nic White, 8 Harry Wilson, 7 Michael Hooper (c), 6 Ned Hanigan, 5 Matt Philip, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 1 Scott Sio
Replacements: 16 Folau Fainga’a, 17 Angus Bell, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Rob Valetini, 20 Liam Wright, 21 Jake Gordon, 22 Noah Lolesio, 23 Filipo Daugunu
Date: Saturday, November 21
Venue: McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
Kick-off: 19:45 local (08:45 GMT)
Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Angus Gardner (Australia)
TMO: Nic Berry (Australia)
England v Ireland
A bit after lunch, we’ll sit down on the couch (not too comfortably; we don’t want to fall asleep), and we’ll go to England. It’s basically Group A’s final as neither Wales nor Georgia threaten to top the group after their poor results last week.
England did not particularly set the world on fire vs Italy or Georgia, but they’re solid, experienced and well-rehearsed. They stubbornly follow their game plan to the point that they seem bewildered when it does not work. But it’s mightily efficient against most teams. Will it be enough vs Ireland? A better question would be: can Ireland win in Twickenham without Henderson, Furlong, Carbery, Larmour, Ringrose, Henshaw, Sexton? Irish coaches, like most, are conservative and have not really blooded new players.
For all the deserved praise and success that Ireland enjoy at club level, numbers simply dictate that they don’t have enough players to step in when the starters are injured. Not only will Ireland start with three inexperienced players in key positions (FB, FH, SH), but also with predictable centres and a pack that won’t impress England. And then the bench should make a big difference. There was an interesting analysis of the coming game by Irish legend, Shane Byrne, in Planet Rugby; he knows his stuff better than I do, but unlike him, I can’t see anything but a win for England.
Whose round is it now?
England: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Jonathan Joseph, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Jonny May, 10 Owen Farrell (c), 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Tom Curry, 5 Joe Launchbury, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Jamie George, 1 Mako Vunipola
Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Jonny Hill, 20 Ben Earl, 21 Dan Robson, 22 George Ford, 23 Max Malins
Ireland: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris, 7 Peter O’Mahony, 6 CJ Stander, 5 James Ryan (c), 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Andrew Porter, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Ed Byrne, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Will Connors, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Billy Burns, 23 Jacob Stockdale
Date: Saturday, November 21
Venue: Twickenham
Kick-off: 15:00 GMT
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (FFR)
Assistant Referees: Mathieu Raynal (FFR), Alex Ruiz (FFR)
TMO: Nigel Owens (WRU)
Wales v Georgia
Now, wake up please, if only for going to the bathroom. In a few minutes, Wales will take on Georgia.
It may look like a dead rubber to many, but it certainly is not. Both teams desperately need to stop the rot. Georgia’s lame defeats to Scotland and England highlight the gap between tier one and tier two nations: the Georgians will want to prove that they belong to a higher level, but it’s going to be hard. Several of their players play in France, but mostly in the bottom half of the Top 14 or in the ProD2. Expect a lot of naivety in defense and a serious lack of skills in attack.
Wales? According to Boris during PMQs, Wales want to avoid going from the Capitol to the Tarpeian rock, but how? Between Scylla and Charybdis, go with the proven and tested, or with the unknown? Oh Boris, shut up, please! Pivac’s rung the changes: no fewer than thirteen new players, some of them quite exciting. As a game it may not be a classic – such is the difference between the two teams – but at least it should bring back some smiles in Wales.
Time for the kebab.
Wales: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Johnny McNicholl, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Louis Rees-Zammit, 10 Callum Sheedy, 9 Kieran Hardy, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Justin Tipuric (c), 6 James Botham, 5 Seb Davies, 4 Jake Ball, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Wyn Jones
Replacements: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Cory Hill, 20 James Davies, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Ioan Lloyd, 23 Jonah Holmes
Georgia: 15 Lasha Khmaladze, 14 Akaki Tabutsadze, 13 Giorgi Kveseladze, 12 Merab Sharikadze (c), 11 Sandro Todua, 10 Tedo Abzhandadze, 9 Vasil Lobzhanidze, 8 Beka Gorgadze, 7 Beka Saginadze, 6 Otar Giorgadze, 5 Kote Mikautadze, 4 Grigor Kerdikoshvili, 3 Beka Gigashvili, 2 Jaba Bregvadze, 1 Mikheil Nariashvili
Replacements: 16 Giorgi Chkoidze, 17 Guram Gogichashvili, 18 Lexo Kaulashvili, 19 Lasha Jaiani, 20 Giorgi Tkhilaishvili, 21 Gela Aprasidze, 22 Demur Tapladze, 23 Tamaz Mchedlidze
Date: Saturday, November 21
Venue: Parc y Scarlets
Kick-off: 17:15 GMT
Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistant referees: Andrew Brace, Frank Murphy
Television match official: Joy Neville
Scotland v France
Sunday in Scotland. Coronavember. In the old days pubs would’ve been closed. Just like now.
Thank dog for the rugby.
This is going to be an intriguing game, and since Fiji’s games were cancelled, it is in fact the final of the group B. Whoever wins gets to go to Twickenham. Unless, of course, Ireland have prevailed the day before, and Wales wake up from their torpor next week (as it is vs England, they may very well). So strike that, it’s just another game.
Shaun Galthié has named a strong team and with the exception of Ntamack, Bouthier and Cros, it’s the team that dispatched Ireland and Wales rather easily. Shaun Servat and Shaun Ibanez will be happy with their pack, as is Shaun Ghezal with his work at the line out. Shaun Shaun Edwards is not so happy with his pupils as they keep leaking tries, but the other Shauns don’t mind, as they score more tries than their opponents. Speaking of which, Scotland seem a bit weakened with the absence of Finn and his deputy Hastings. But they’ve got a great pack, an outstanding back row (Richie would be the first on my list), and in Hogg the best counter-attacker in Europe (bar Cheslin Kolbe, of course).
I wish I could elaborate but teams have not been announced, so I’ll just predict a wonderful game with plenty of tries.
Shaun Shaun may sulk. I don’t mind.
Oops, here is France. As predicted a couple of days ago.
France : 15. Ramos; 14. Thomas, 13. Vakatawa, 12. Fickou, 11. Rattez ; 10. Jalibert, 9. Dupo,t ; 7.Ollivon (cap.), 8. Alldritt, 6. Cretin ; 5. Taofifenua, 4. Le Roux ; 3. Bamba, 2. Chat, 1. Gros.Bench : 16. Marchand, 17. Baille, 18. Haouas, 19. Willemse, 20. Woki, 21. Couilloud, 22. Carbonel 23. Vincent.
As prognosticated by Flair99
Onna telly this week
Friday 20th November
| Harlequins v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
| Sale v Northampton | 20:00 | BT Sport Extra |
Saturday 21st November
| Argentina v Australia | 08:45 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Bulls v Pumas | 11:55 | Sky Sports Arena |
| England v France (women) | 12:00 | BBC Two |
| Bath v Newcastle | 12:30 | BT Sport Extra |
| Cheetahs v Griquas | 14:25 | Sky Sports Arena |
| England v Ireland | 15:00 | Channel 4 / Amazon Prime |
| Leicester v Gloucester | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Worcester v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wales v Georgia | 17:15 | S4C / Amazon Prime |
Sunday 22nd November
| Wasps v Bristol | 13:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Zebre v Connacht | 14:30 | FreeSports |
| Scotland v France | 15:00 | Amazon Prime |
| Ospreys v Treviso | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Leinster v Cardiff | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 |
| Ulster v Scarlets | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Monday 23rd November
| Dragons v Edinburgh | 18:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Munster | 20:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Haven’t seen him do much since getting pinged for holding on when isolated early on.
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Ollie Kebble carrying better than him.
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I clearly don’t understand scrum laws. Looked like the French TH went down first there. France looking ominous now. Last 20 could be horrible for Scotland.
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Hmmm. That should’ve been a penalty back to France, no?
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Need to get some energy from somewhere. Starting to get dominated up front
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Scotland being pulverised in the maul. Reliant on Hogg as ever
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Barnes is missing lots and lots of stuff, Sly boot from the French at the ruck,
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Maitland’s been brilliant since he came on.
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Scotland have done well to keep within a score all afternoon, but they’ve been second best.
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Tommyrot
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Random scrum penalty generator in action
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Ffs
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Just needed a solid lineout take. That’s all.
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FFS. That’s inexcusable.
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France handing Scotland lots of chances.
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Scotland fucking up again.
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France deserve the win. Better in most departments most of the match.
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Ah well.
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Desperate stuff from both sides in the last 5 minutes.
Good game up to then. A fine try to win it.
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Fucking hell. Hogg. Eish.
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Congratulations to France, I thought they deserved it overall
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France were far more consistent and once they sorted their discipline were rarely troubled
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Too bad the game ended like this. Hogg deserves better.
I féel a bit flat, not a game I enjoyed.
18 of the 23 French players won’t play next week. If they win vs Italy, it’s going to be a long afternoon in Twickenham.
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Hogg you nitwit
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I can see why Scotland are using these autumn fixtures to practice/improve their kicking game – it was crap today!
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Try wot won it. Fair do’s
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A minor point.
Can someone explain why Barnes did not award a penalty to France but a lineout to Scotland around the 75th minute when Fickou was pushed in the back while not holding the ball? The French tv pundits were talking over Barnes and I couldn’t hear his explanation. I don’t think the ball was already in touch before the push. Is protecting the ball like in football not allowed, as an obstruction?
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Flair, he gave the lineout due to the ball hitting Fickou’s knee before going out, he ignored the push. He also gave a penalty to France about a minute later for accidental offside when the laws state it should be a scrum.
He missed a lot, it’s very rare for Gregor Townsend to criticise a referee, in fact I’ve never heard him do it before this evening.
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Cotter & the French pundit were of the opinion that Barnes realised he’d been wrong on the line-out and compensated by awarding the penalty.
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That was a different penalty Thaum, but yeah I think that was what happened at the lineout
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Thanks Ticht. Am pretty sure you know it but I wasn’t compaining about the ref ( I rarely do, even less often than Townsend), just trying to understand. It seemed weird at the time and the following penalty against Scotland had a whiff of compensation.
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There were a number of contestable calls, but on the whole they cancelled each other out. Microscope always focuses on the ones towards the end of the match, understandably, but you have to win it over 80 minutes (he says, wondering if the groaning truism is enough to get an Amazon gig).
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I’m actually not too bothered by today. France well deserved the win, yet for a lot of the game things were pretty close. Although Dunc’s done well, today was a game we could really have done with Finn, just for those wee bits of ‘off the cuff’ things he does. Which don’t always come off, true, but he keeps defences thinking.
If we finish second I reckon we’ll play Ireland. Do we go to Dublin or do they come to Murrayfield?
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Cardiff are actually giving Leinster a bit a trouble. Don’t get me wrong, Leinster are comfortably ahead (19-5), but the Blues are not making it easy for them.
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Deebee, stupid question probably but when will WC South Africa resume playing ? Any schedule?
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BB, I think the final games are all scheduled in the home nations.
One in each.
Fiji’s last game, vs Georgia, might be cancelled.
So three venues.
I guess you’d go to Dublin and Murrayfield ‘d be cancelled?
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Cardiff do a sterling job of defending their line, under sustained pressure, from the BP try, and eventually win a penalty.
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There was an amusing moment in the first half when Cardiff’s hooker was kicking the ball down the pitch, trundling after it, and nearly got all the way. The commentator referred to it as ‘May-esque’. It kinda was!
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Resistance is futile. The Blue Meanies get the BP try.
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Flair, we’re playing local rugby again but the feeling was our guys didn’t have enough game time to go to Aus for the 4N. Wonder what the thinking is after watching the Pumas for the last two weeks?
The Lions are due here next July, so that’s when the Boks are due back. I suppose a couple of warm up matches against middling opposition like New Zealand and Australia might be lined up to get us up and running.
More seriously, I was desperate for us to play this year. Think we have a great squad, with more guys coming through.
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It all fell apart after that. 40-5.
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flair and BB, the Group A sides are the home team in the rankings games. England, Ireland and Wales in London, Dublin and Llanelli respectively while Georgia would host their game at Murrayfield.
Scotland are away from home whatever.
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Deebee, too bad your boys arent playing in the 4 N.
Less entertainment for us and poor schedule for Arg.
Los Pumas have shown you can play without proper preparation. On their showing, you should eat the Lions alive!
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Flair, we may actually have struggled a bit. 3 of our 4 World Cup locks are/were injured, along with Handre Pollard and a couple of others, plus the inevitable retirements. I think if we’ve got a near full-strength side for the Lions, we should sneak it. Don’t think you thump a Lions side!
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“Am pretty sure you know it but I wasn’t complaining about the ref ( I rarely do, ”
Yeah, I get that.
I don’t think Barnes affected the result, France were winning many of the collisions and they produced the one good bit of attacking play in the whole match, in fact they had a couple of good runs, but refs are just like players in that they can have good games and and bad games, even within the one match they get decisions right and wrong, all we fans ask for is consistency, and that was what Townsend was hinting at in the post match interview.
I think a full French squad would give England a very had time, but a B team won’t trouble them too much.
France are on their way to becoming a very good side, I’ll take some comfort in being close today, though it’s frustrating to see that back three mostly unused and Hoggy trying to force everything
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TRY Lyttle!
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Try Lyttle too late?
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Lyttle is a victim of nominative determination.
Treadwell has just narrowly avoided a red card; downgraded to yellow.
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Treadwell is a very lucky boy. Good by Scarlets after to score a try to equalise.
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