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 
Tell that to Teddy Tomas. He barely saw the ball today.
Obviously Jalibert was told to kick everything back, playing against type. Efficient but not pretty.
Scotland need Finn. And a new captain, Hogg’s a bit like Parisse, wants to do it all by himself.
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That was a reply to Ticht.
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Flair – think Hogg is too distracted by the captaincy. And not sure it’s a good idea to have someone in the back 3 as captain anyway.
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Great defence by Ulster!
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Great effort by Stewart Moore.
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Squeaked that!
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That was a pretty good game. Pleased to see the excellently-named Daf Hughes in a Scarlets shirt again.
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Been watching Freddie Mercury tribute concert, with the remaining Queen members & all-star guests. Mostly dire, but Robert Plant rocked Crazy Little Thing Called Love while wearing his granny’s shopping bag.
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Cool, have managed to sign up for French TV with a friends post code. Can now watch games with French commentary.
Got any good program recommendations, Flair/Slade ???
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Oh wow, Bowie and Lennox doing Under Pressure!
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That was fab. Annie dressed like a demented harlequin (not the rugby team).
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Bowie’s stayed on while Ian Hunter performs his song All the Young Dudes. :-)
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And he’s playing the asthmatic sax, just for Iks.
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Has he done The Lord’s Prayer yet?
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Don’t think so, but just realised that half the musicians doing the star turn are deid now: Bowie, George Michael, etc.
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Elton attempting Bohemian Rhapsody. This can’t end well, unless there’s a soprano hiding in the wings.
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Ah, they’re just playing the recording (and video). Wise.
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But Slash (I think!) comes running on for the last vocal bit.
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And then Elton & Slash duet for the nothing really matters bit. Sweet. Awww.
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SBT, does it include pay TV such as Canal+?
Best French TV ( not that I watch much) is public TV.
F2, F3, F4, F24, Arte, 5 and 7.
Most Arte (French/German run) programms are excellent, specially in term of history documentaries and films.
During the day, #5 and #7 have very good educational shows.
Also a little known channel, LCP, the Parliament channel has very good debates, documentaries and live programms from the Parliament. F24 is a decent news channel and F4 sometimes show the “lesser” rugby games (Challenge cup games for instance).
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“Tell that to Teddy Tomas. He barely saw the ball today.”
I agree wholeheartedly Flair, two sides with really good attacking players and for much of the game it was all about a kicking territorial battle.
I know they were saying before the game that sides that kick the most tend to win, but winning at what cost?
It was a full on international, if there had been a crowd there the atmosphere would have been terrific because it was a tight and tense match, but I’d love to have seen more of the French wingers, they are both wonderful to see in full flight.
The French midfield was better than Scotland’s and although Duncan Weir is a good pro who can operate at this level, he is no Hastings, let alone Finn.
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What I mean about Weir is that he isn’t really comfortable playing really flat, that is where Hastings and Finn eat and drink.
Weir plays deep and it stifles our attack, he didn’t really play first receiver that much as a result, the ball was shuffled out to forwards who just biffed it up
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Thaum – that was Axl Rose not Slash. Slash is the guitarist. There was some controversy at the time because Axl had apparently said something that was considered homophobic and he was then singing at the Freddie Mercury memorial WITH Elton John.
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BB – not a fan of theirs, but checked on the Wiki page, and it says Slash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freddie_Mercury_Tribute_Concert#Guest_musicians
Pretty sure not Axl, although I am not an expert.
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That section doesn’t come close to listing all the musicians, anyway: Daltrey, Lisa Stansfield, Plant, Liza Minelli, etc not listed.
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Oh, this is a better list – apparently vocalists aren’t musicians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freddie_Mercury_Tribute_Concert#With_Queen
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And of course you’re right: says Axl Rose for Bohemian + one other.
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Let’s just say that Axl at that time would have been playing for the forwards rather than the backs.
Horrifyingly short time until tomorrow’s get-up, so NN.
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“Horrifyingly short time until tomorrow’s get-up, so NN”
*switches on smug mode*
I am no longer shackled to that pony, no more 4:15 alarm clocks, I’ve taken to having a weekend’s worth of beer on a Sunday night, just because I can.
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Quite right too. Hopefully Mrs Ticht gets to celebrate too, as she’s not standing/sitting on a train for hours?
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Yeah, definitely, BB, she has taken to cooking and working out.
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SBT
I support wot Flair said.
We watch Arte almost exclusively, plus 2, 3 & 4 for sport (2 and 3 for non-stop TdF); sometimes 1, 2 & 8 for films; 5 for nature/travel; and 5 for political/current affairs discussion – a programme called ‘C dans l’air’ on every day 5pm repeated 10.30pm – it’s really excellent if you like that kind of thing.
Sunday/Monday and Thursday seem to be film night around the channels.
I haven’t checked for the other channels but most/all of Arte is available on repeat via their website e.g. Scandi Noirs.
Don’t forget the wonderful Evelyn Delhiat (sp?) who does the weather on 1.
We watch ‘free to air’ only. I also watch rugby on VIPleague and have a friend with a multi-user BT license – which is nice!
We also listen to radio and have France Inter on most of the time as ‘wallpaper’ it’s a bit like Arte for sound only.
Also listen France Musique (mainly classical but some jazz and other themes) and France Info.
As an ‘orange.fr’ email user I have the habit of using the Orange site for all TV channel info.
Hope that helps……………………..
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A proper cover of a Queen song really needs at least 300 school children and a member of Spandau Ballet. Worth a trip down the M1 and getting soaked to the skin on a freezing night in January every time. It’s a terrible, terrible shame I won’t have to repeat the trip next year.
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‘I reckon:
Wales > Georgia by 20
England > Ireland by 10
France > Scotland by 8 (much as I’d like it the other way)’
So in terms of points I was I was 2, 1 and 1 point out . Really wish I’d plugged that into the ‘bru. Silly chimp
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the ball was shuffled out to forwards who just biffed it up
Schalk Burger spent most of his career at first receiver. Only learned how to offload when having fun in the twilight of his career at an obscure club in the south of England when the pressure was off. I often wonder how many tries Bryan Habana would have scored if he’d been given the ball more than once a match.
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Real shame France have limited access to their players now. If they win their remaining games that would be truly impressive.
Random, disconnected thoughts from the weekend.
Not sure what Wales’ plan is. That was not a particularly impressive effort from what I saw. Gatland is a big miss whatever one may think about him.
Georgia still a way off 6N standard, reckon Italy would see them off with a bit to spare although unlikely to happen cos of Fiji’s covid woes.
Not sure what to think of England, seemed well on top but needed a bit of jonny forwards to put them clear of Ireland. Lots of kicking and bosh but can’t help feel a bit more guile would help them dominate. But as flair said, who want’s that?
And obviously Eddie should listen to some random punter on the interwebs.
Ireland couldn’t unlock that miserly English defence and looked a bit short of ideas with habitual route 1 closed. Until more Ulster players came on. Obvious solution is pick more Ulster players. Obviously.
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Axl had apparently said something that was considered homophobic
It was the lyrics from their song One in a Million, which took a swipe at minorities of most descriptions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_in_a_Million_(Guns_N%27_Roses_song)
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For all the criticism of England, they did get the ball to their winger off a turnover in their own half. Who scored a length of the field try.
That second kick is dreamy. ‘Dribbling’ isn’t really appreciated in rugby.
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Everyone seems to have gone furra kick & chase style at the moment. Can be effective but not as much fun to watch.
France looked pretty solid yesterday. Hard & close fought match but thought they had a slight edge yesterday & deservedly won it with a nice try. Building some nice depth in most positions too, will be interesting to see how the B team fare.
As for Scotland I think our lack of depth was highlighted yesterday. Did well to stay in the game however some bone-heided mistakes certainly cost us, i.e. near the end going from lineout on french line back to our own 22 via fluffed lineout and silly penalites.
In a lot of positions once we get past top pick or two there’s a big step down (i.e. prop). Fagerson snr is on great form but just don’t think Bergs is top quality, Sutherland is a big miss although Kebble looks decent enough. Turner needs to work on his darts otherwise he’s a good player.
Lock options are pretty good, as are flankers but 8 remains an issue. Fagerson jnr is a good player and did some decent things yesterday but not sure he’s an 8. Maybe needs a bit more time at this level?
SH options are solid rather than spectacular, think Price is generally underrated. SHC is on decent form at the moment but need some more youth coming through.
Weir is Weir, he’s never going to be Finn or Hastings but can do the basics and kick goals. Cupboard pretty bare otherwise.
As for inside centre I’m not convinced by Johnson at the moment for all he’s been good in the past. Not sure who else I’d pick out of the available uninjured options at the moment though. Scott disappeared at tiggers, yoof at Embra / weedge untried or injured. Harris doing OK & probably underrated but the way we play doesn’t seem to involve a lot of attacking from the centres. Really need some new options here.
Back 3 options good with top 4 of Hogg, treacle toes, Graham & DVDM. Kinghorn a bit behind them. Shame they don’t seem to see much of the ball in space bar Hogg.
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“And he’s playing the asthmatic sax…”
Is there any other kind?
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Thanks Slade and Flair for the round up. Looking forward to an occasional bit of education. Think I just have the fre to air channels.
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Bulls win Super Rugby in their Captain America kit and this happens:
Kadyrov is clearly a Lions supporter.
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*Checks the Wily Llama’s Oz – Arg prediction*
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Kadyrov is clearly a great man. A hero of the people. A Superhero I would say. Any Western reports to the contrary are clearly fake news.
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Seems the lunches in Grozny are good.
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SBT, wot Slade said.
I’d add France Culture radio station, Arte’s TV equivalent. Very good in depth news, documentaries and some of the best ITVs. Covers science, philiosophy, history etc…
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Autumn Nations Cup – Lebel, Barraque et Moefana (France) appelés pour préparer l’Italie – Autumn Nations Cup 2020 – Rugby – Rugbyrama
https://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/autumn-nations-cup/2020/autumn-nations-cup-lebel-barraque-et-moefana-france-appeles-pour-preparer-l-italie_sto7999869/story.shtml
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This is the list of the 31 French players for the rest of the Autumn Cup. Only 5 left from those who were in Scotland, mostly on the bench.
Danty (centre) and Zegueur (flanker) replace Delbouis and Camara ( injured).
Assuming they win vs Italy – and it’s not a given – they’ll face a stern test in Twickenham. And almost as stern in Dublin, should they lose to Italy.
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It feels a bit as though England’s approach is heading towards the Gatland/Edwards model of basing the whole game plan around defence. The way they are blitzing is leaving space out wide, though. Ireland looked threatening every time they got width on the ball, just didn’t do it often enough.
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