Saturday 28th November 2020
Argentina vs New Zealand
Newcastle, NSW
Kick off 08:45
New Zealand shake up the pack, bringing in prop Nepo Laulala, lock Scott Barrett, and backrow Akira Ioane. Argentina make 10 changes with only Nicolas Sanchez, captain Pablo Matera, Guido Petti, Marcos Kremer and hooker Julian Montoya keeping their places. Question: can Argentina raise it again, or will a New Zealand side facing a third successive loss for the first time since 1998 save face?
A New Zealand loss and the pressure on coach Ian Foster would keep building; can Argentina bring the sustained ferocity of two weeks ago again, or is lifting themselves for a third match in a row too much? Does the passing of Diego Maradona give them something to focus on, or does it unsettle them (or have no effect whatsoever)? One leans towards an All Black win – if only because they just don’t do consecutive losses very much.
New Zealand – Beauden Barrett; Jordie Barrett, Anton Lienert-Brown, Jack Goodhue, Caleb Clarke; Richie Mo’unga, Aaron Smith; Ardie Savea, Sam Cane (capt), Akira Ioane; Sam Whitelock, Scott Barrett; Nepo Laulala, Dane Coles, Joe Moody.
Replacements: Codie Taylor, Karl Tu’inukuafe, Tyrel Lomax, Patrick Tuipulotu, Hoskins Sotutu, TJ Perenara, Rieko Ioane, Will Jordan
Argentina – Emiliano Boffelli; Ramiro Moyano, Juan Cruz Mallia, Jerónimo de la Fuente, Santiago Cordero; Nicolas Sanchez, Felipe Ezcurra; Facundo Isa, Marcos Kremer, Pablo Matera (capt); Lucas Paulos, Guido Petti; Santiago Medrano, Julian Montoya, Mayco Vivas
Replacements: Santiago Socino, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Lucio Sordoni, Matias Alemanno, Santiago Grondona, Gonzalo Bertranou, Santiago Carreras, Lucas Mensa
Scotland v Fiji
BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
Match Cancelled
The “Mystic Meg” in me predicts the record books will show a 28-0 win for Scotland. It’s a pity that Fiji haven’t had the chance to show what they could do this autumn. Scotland will also regret missing a chance to wrap up with an expected win, and maybe play some more open rugby after what seems to have been something of an arm-wrestle/penalty-fest against France.
Wales v England
Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli
Kick-off: 16:00
Having broken – as expected – a nasty losing streak against Georgia, Wales now face into an England team that pretty much did to Ireland what Ireland had done to Wales in the first round of matches. That said, in the last Six Nations game in an almost identical scenario, it was much closer than anyone might have expected (33-30), albeit Wales scored two converted tries when England were down to 14 following Tuliagi’s red card.
The expectation must be that England will wrap up the group games with a win in their first appearance in Llanelli since 1887 – which was a nil-nil draw – but England continue to stir resistance in Welsh international teams, so Ireland will watch with interest (at least for a bit).
Wales – Wyn Jones, Ryan Elias, Samson Lee, Jake Ball, Alun Wyn Jones, Shane Lewis-Hughes, James Botham, Taulupe Faletau, Lloyd Williams, Dan Biggar, Josh Adams, Johnny Williams, Nick Tompkins, Louis Rees-Zammit, Leigh Halfpenny
Replacements – Elliot Dee, Rhys Carre, Tomas Francis, Will Rowlands, Aaron Wainwright, Rhys Webb, Callum Sheedy, Owen Watkin
England – Elliot Daly, Jonathan Joseph, Henry Slade, Owen Farrell, Jonny May, George Ford, Ben Youngs, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Joe Launchbury, Tom Curry, Sam Underhill, Billy Vunipola
Replacements – Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Jonny Hill, Ben Earl, Jack Willis, Dan Robson, Anthony Watson;
France v Italy
Stade de France, Paris
Kick-off: 20:10
France scored five tries to beat Italy 35-22 in Paris during this year’s Six Nations. Italy have shown enough in the two games vs England (to wrap up the 6N) and Scotland that they might give a what looks like a France ‘B’ or a France XV a hard time for an extended period.
France – R. Neti, P. Mauvaka, D. Aldegheri, K. Geraci, B. Pesenti, C. Woki, A. Jelonch, S. Macalou, B. Serin, M. Jalibert, G. Villiere, J. Danty, J. Barraque, T. Thomas, B. Dulin, T. Thomas, B.Dulin
Remplacements – T. Baubigny, H. Kolingar, U. Atonio, F. Cazeaux, S. Rebbadj, B. Couilloud, L. Carbonel, Y. Moefana
Sunday 29th November 2020
Ireland v Georgia
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Kick-off: 14:00
With only Ulster prop Eric O’Sullivan joining the squad, Farrell has resisted calls to throw caution to the wind and call up Casey, Byrne, and various members of the last couple of cohorts of U20s. The suspicion is that what’s required is a confidence-boosting win vs Georgia – something along the lines of England’s or Scotland’s 40+ point wins. What’s least required at this point in time is something akin to Wales’s competent but unexciting victory.
Georgia’s famed strength in the scrum and maul seems to be – right now – a thing of the past, so Ireland might feel able to play with some abandon without fear that every forward pass or knock forward results in a lengthy struggle at scrum-time. Equally, it might go the other way and we play a tight forward-dominated game knowing that we can overpower Georgia physically: basically, doubling down on what didn’t work vs England. As expected, Burns will start at 10 with Murray, but in general this is a fairly full strength team, with subs and starters swapping.
Ireland – Jacob Stockdale, Hugo Keenan, Chris Farrell, Stuart McCloskey, Keith Earls, Billy Burns, Conor Murray, Finlay Bealham, Rob Herring, Andrew Porter, Iain Henderson, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Will Connors, CJ Stander
Replacements – Dave Heffernan, Cian Healy, John Ryan, Quinn Roux, Peter O’Mahony, Kieran Marmion, Ross Byrne, Shane Daly
PRO 14
Saturday 28 November
Connacht vs Ospreys – Connacht are unpredictable. They’ve beaten both Glasgow and Edinburgh then lost to Cardiff and Scarlets. Ospreys on the up following a come-from-behind win vs Benetton. Prediction: Connacht.
Sunday 29 November
Treviso vs Dragons – Dragons are improving, but haven’t played since the Munster game on 1st Nov. Treviso failed to see out a win vs Ospreys. Prediction: Treviso.
Scarlets vs Leinster – Scarlets gave Ulster a fright last week, but Leinster seem unlikely to lose.
Cardiff vs Glasgow – Despite the 40-5 scoreline, Cardiff gave Leinster a hard enough game last week. Equally, Munster didn’t win as comfortably vs Glasgow as 27-13 sounds. Cardiff look well drilled, and Glasgow are abrasive. Your guess is as good as mine.
Monday 30 November
Munster vs Zebre – Zebre were easily beaten by Connacht last time out. Munster haven’t lost in the Pro-14.
Edinburgh vs Ulster – Edinburgh’s last game was a thorough beating by Leinster. Ulster aren’t yet beaten and seem to be dogging out wins. Lean toward Ulster.
Mystic Meg machinations by TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA
Onna telly this week
Friday 27th November
| Sharks v Pumas | 17:00 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Newcastle v Sale | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 28th November
| Argentina v New Zealand | 08:45 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Northampton v Harlequins | 14:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Griquas v Golden Lions | 14:30 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Bristol v Worcester | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Gloucester v Wasps | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wales v England | 16:00 | S4C / Amazon Prime |
| Western Province v Blue Bulls | 17:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Exeter v Bath | 17:30 | BT Sport Extra |
| Connacht v Ospreys | 19:35 | FreeSports |
| France v Italy | 20:00 | Amazon Prime |
Sunday 29th November
| Ireland v Georgia | 14:00 | Channel 4 |
| Treviso v Dragons | 16:00 | FreeSports |
| London Irish v Leicester | 16:1 | BT Sport 2 |
| Scarlets v Leinster | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Cardiff v Glasgow | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
Monday 23rd November
| Edinburgh v Ulster | 20:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Munster v Zebre | 20:15 | Premier Sports 2 |
Ovally Balls 
Looked forward to me. Where’s Pro when you need an explanation of the forward pass rule?
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McCLOSKEEEEEYYYYYY!!!!!!
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Stockdale, better than Finn Russell.
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Or not. Pah.
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Pity. Was a great finish.
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When the 2008 Olympics were on, we were living in London’s fashionable Notting Hill Gate. We woke up on the first Sunday of the Olympics to hear car horns hooting and a lot of noise nearby. I went off to buy the paper and saw a lot of people with Georgian flags making a racket. I thought they’d won an Olympic gold. Went back home and turned on the radio to find out the Russians had attacked Georgia and these lads were protesting outside the Russian embassy.
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Why isn’t Raynal speaking in Georgian?
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That second half was one for the purists.
Well done Georgia, great try, great defence.
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I watched the last quarter of that game. Ireland should be better than this. For all the criticism of Eddie, I think Faz snr is a crap coach. It’s a shame because last rwc cycle we had some quality coaches in the nh (Schmit and Gats) who have moved on and the new coaches are fairly shite in comparison. The only team which has a better replacement is France.
Oh, and there was some lovely passing from the English forwards yesterday.
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Well that was disappointing- very flat. Credit to Georgia – I thought 4 weeks on the run would be tiring but actually playing multiple games helped their cohesion.
Looked at more closely – there were chances to have scored more tries – Stockdale blew a couple by kicking through when keeping ball in hand looked a better idea.
And once again we went for the short range ‘pick and go’ when a clear head would have recognised we’d sucked in a lot of defenders. (Compare with England last week…. 2 or 3 drives and then go to the air)
We also seem to be slow to get to rucks or carriers are persistently running away from support (or both).
Playing Bealham at LH didn’t work – struggled all day unfortunately (not nice to be obviously out of position).
McCloskey was unlucky – I didn’t think the pass was ‘forward from hands’ …. (and I tend to think we’d make life easier all around if the receiver just had to be behind / level and stop all the Physics 101)
Burns going off was disruptive and ideally you’d not end up with reserve hoover at openside.
Second half was very flat, no structure. Hard to see what the plan was….
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Or even reserve hoover….😀
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Christ…autocorrect …
Hooker….Hooker….Hooker
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Trisk – to me one of the things that Ireland have lost under Faz is a clear idea of what each player should be doing. In 2018 you were so organised. At the moment I can’t quite see what Faz is aiming for. Other than to be hard to beat I guess.
I might not be over the 2015 rwc so I may be being harsh tbh.
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LI jut done Tigers quite nicely
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Good thing the 2019 one went to plan. At least one Irish side didn’t take the piss out of the jersey today. Great win for London Irish!
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@craigs – fair comment!
There’s a lack of clarity in how we’re playing – or we’re still between Schmidt-ball and whatever Farrell has in mind. It all looks off-the-cuff…
….possibly that’s not achievable without a thorough change of onfield personnel….
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Trisk – the good thing is that you’ve still got some great players.
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It’s a tough one. In the past they’d have gone for Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris but they’re not available
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there’s still |Sir Cliff…………………..
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Major shock! Glasgow win! Was only Cardiff though……
(Sorry Mr Thaum).
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I take back all the nasty things I said about the Ireland jersey yesterday! I’m rich! A lovely gesture from the Connolly’s from Country Armagh! Perhaps one of our Irish posters could pop round and pick up my good fortune in person? Cash only, used bank notes, I’ll pop over soon to pick it up.
Our Names are Frances and Patrick Connolly from County Armagh in Northern Ireland. We Just Won 115 Million Pounds from the EuroMillions lottery jackpot Lottery draw. We are therefore giving out Grant donation of 1,500,000.00 pounds each to (50) Lucky international recipients worldwide to show God our appreciation. You received this message because you have be listed as one of the (50) lucky Individual Selected.
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@deebee
My Granny was a Connolly. Don’t think her family was from Armagh though.
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My granny was born in Armagh but wasn’t a Connolly.
I’d be a little wary, Deebee. There’s a saying in Armagh and South Down that you probably don’t know. It’s when you get an offer that seemingly will cost you nothing but will in fact have some hidden costs.
What they say, and if I were you I’d mark these words, is ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’.
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I think we should have a bit more faith in Dog here. Congratulations Deebee.
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@tomp
Sorry that’s wrong. What they actually say us “There’s no such thing as a free Ulster Fry”
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‘You received this message because you have be listed as one of the (50) lucky Individual Selected.’
Now if you could just deposit £50K inna bank account to free up the cash that would be grand. I’m willing to act as intermediary in this case.
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Thanks for all the helpful advice folks. Once I’ve got the money safely in my account, lunch is on me. For free. Take that TomP.
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Aye, Deebs. I have no truck with the cynical residents of Markethill, Newry or Poyntzpass. For me, most of their home-spun wisdom is Belleeks.
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It’s not impossible …..we’ve had a few very big wins – a woman in Limerick scooped €115 back in 2005, and a couple of years ago a couple of lads split €160M, plus a smattering of €10-20m or a big one split between several work colleagues
On the other hand – if someone in Ireland won the EuroMillions – the dogs in the street would know. As this wasn’t front page news…. I’d be careful…. :-D
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Armagh people are likely to tick the no publicity box.
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Armagh people are likely to tick the no publicity box.
Yeah, I’m in big trouble with them now for posting their act of generosity on here. In order for them to release the funds they’ve now suggested that I deposit 100k into their account to ensure my silence going forward.
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Good news, Brits:
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@tomp
I hope it includes scotch eggs in plastic wrappers and not just those fancy ones with runny yolks and cut in half that make Gregg Wallace and his ilk go “ooooooh!”
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OT – Gregg Wallace lives near me and goes to a really crap leisure centre in Tenterden. Maybe he’s been banned from the nicer gyms.
I also met him once and he new about me through the fire. I like to think that he is writing about how he met Craig’s on a not a blog somewhere.
Also, I like the runny yolk scotch eggs.
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£100K?
I only need £50K, Deebee. Much better value.
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What about a pickled egg in a bag of cheese and onion crisps ?
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While I’m here, would just like to say how well I thought Billy Boy played on Sunday. Only seen extended highlights, but he looked pretty decent. Lovely crisp pass on him, not Finnesque, but pretty tidy all the same. Chuffed for him, I am.
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@sbt
Billy Boy…
Burns? Yes, in general – he’s jumped over Ross Byrne in the pecking order in my view. While he was at 10, we looked reasonably lively….
I have to say that when I’ve seen Byrne (R) play for Leinster, I’ve never seen him play so static as he has for Ireland – standing deep giving out lateral passes, no running threat – like stage fright….he’s rooted to the spot. I would be hard to believe that he’s told to do that.
(You’d see it in U14s… lads who are fine in drills but when someone runs towards them in a match they just throw the ball away to nearest team mate…or worse… they just can’t think through the options) .
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Chimpie i know you come cheap at 50k, but, you see, it’s like this: I’m not scared of you. The evil Connolly’s from Armagh, though – terrified!
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Hmmm.
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£50k would just cover our new kitchen/diner quite nicely, thanks – plus you’re always welcome to pop in!
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That’s it, I’ll steal your braai and cut off your wine supply. Then make you live in Pretoria.
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That’s below the belt Chimpie. Wine and braai i can live without (not really) but being shoved off to Pretoria, no way!
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* hand trembles over banhammer *
Karl
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Thanks for the ATL Trisk and Thauma. Keeping it interesting and factual deserves lots of credit, week in and week out, especially in these dark winter days.
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Not winter until tomorrow, though, so what you mean is these dark autumnal nights…..
Unless you’re going by the solstices, so winter then starts on December 21st.
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Pretoria’s too quiet for Deebee. He needs the incessant sound of gunfire that you hear day and night in his beloved eGoli.
Plus, it’d be uncomfortable living in the home city of the only South African side to win a SuperRugby title (4 titles so far).
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Possibly some club rugby in England soon:
https://www.hampshirerugby.co.uk/news/current/2780-breaking-news-return-to-play-approved.html?fbclid=IwAR2Ef0k29Q0jJrglWX1_D6pZ1JE4jAaJWCTz95Ft2b2UlqO8LlTZF00y_Bs%20
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