The briefest of all possible previews.
Georgia v Fiji
Fiji are a very good side, but have not played a test match due to their Covid problems. Georgia were much improved last week. Georgia by 5.
Ireland v Scotland
Both sides looking rather pedestrian at the moment. With the inexplicable void where Hamish McFuckface should be, as well as the return of Sexton and Ireland’s home advantage (and despite the dropping of McCloskey), Ireland by 10.
Wales v Italy
Wales by 25. You know why.
England v France
With France putting out a C side, there is not much doubt: England by 15. Although I suspect France will throw some surprises England’s way.
Onna telly this week
Friday 4th December
| Bristol 18 – 17 Saints | ||
| Connacht 31 – 14 Treviso |
Saturday 5th December
| Australia v Argentina | 08:45 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Georgia v Fiji | 12:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Ireland v Scotland | 14:15 | Amazon Prime |
| Bulls v Cheetahs | 14:30 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Leicester v Exeter | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v Newcastle | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Worcester v Bath | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wales v Italy | 16:45 | S4C / Amazon Prime |
| Golden Lions v Western Province | 17:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
| Glasgow v Dragons | 19:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 6th December
| England v France | 14:00 | Amazon Prime |
| London Irish v Sale | 14:30 | BT Sport Extra |
| Gloucester v Harlequins | 16:15 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
It all started with the desire to not watch Wales-England. Now I do little else and have developed the personal hygiene of a New Zealander.
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Do you have a desire to kick everything you see?
If yes, you’re in the same cult as the England rugby team.
If no, you’re saveable.
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Only when I turn on the news.
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I do seem to have a desire to stick masking tape (or painter’s tape if you prefer, I could go on…) on everything I see to cover up for a lack of skill in doing anything by hand.
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Every time I turned on the news yesterday it seemed to have Kevin Sinfield running past the Farrars Arms again and again.
I bet he didn’t watch England v France either.
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Team of the Decade below. Thoughts? Other than looks weak? I may have gone for Duane Vermeulen at 8, but Sergio is a decent call too. Kiwis will obviously be howling that Kieran Reid isn’t there. Fuck ’em, unhygienic bastards. Lack of English players is the least controversial bit I suppose. No French, Scots or Argies either.
1. Tendai Mtawarira (RSA)
2. Bismarck du Plessis (RSA)
3. Owen Franks (NZL)
4. Brodie Retallick (NZL)
5. Sam Whitelock (NZL)
6. David Pocock (AUS)
7. Richie McCaw (NZL)
8. Sergio Parisse (ITA)
9. Conor Murray (IRE)
10. Dan Carter (NZL)
11. Bryan Habana (RSA)
12. Ma’a Nonu (NZL)
13. Brian O’Driscoll (IRE)
14. George North (WAL)
15. Ben Smith (NZL)
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Deebs – I’d have Savea over North and Itoje over the rest thanks.
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O’Driscoll? I’d rather go with Conrad Smith.
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Savea played on the left wing, Craigs. Brilliant for 3 years then burned out.
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Stuff Carter -Wilkinson please – for all his courage and genius in adversity.
Carter was excellent but Wilkinson changed the game………………
And I agree re Vermeulen – one of my favorite players.
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It’s the wrong decade for BOD. North hasn’t fulfilled his promise really though he has scored a lot of tries. Murray would be the first to get the boot from me though.
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If we’re getting a Welshman in (and I realise this is not a necessity) then best case would be for AWJ as the competition is that bit too fierce for Warbs. Big Mike would probably have the best chance though if all you have to do is displace the incumbent even though peak Big Mike was 2008/9. Real answer there is surely Aaron Smith.
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The cheating level in that back row is off the scale.
CMW, perhaps Foxy at 13?
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Aaron Smith or Nick Phipps.
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Even this green eyed supporter would agree….and agree with Conrad Smith….not sure on North either – a force of nature in his early days but been a while since he was at those levels…
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Slade, surely Wilkinson was done by 2010? Conor Murray has slipped a bit in the last two seasons, but was definitely the premier 9 for the bulk of the decade. Carter at 10 just gets the nod, even if he only played for half the decade at international level and owes his 2011 gold gong to Stephen Donald. Agreed on peak Mike – helluva player. AWJ, POC, Etzebeth, Matfield and Botha may have had a shout in the lock stakes, but the latter two also retired halfway through the decade, whilst Etzebeth only emerged after them really. POC and AWJ good shouts, but as a pairing, the Kiwis probably get the nod. Itoje only started for England in 2016, so loses out on that score.
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Steve Diamond leaves Sale with immediate effect – personal reasons….
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Trisk beats me to it.
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Tomp – still better.
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@Deebee – I don’t think you can do these things taking pairings etc into account or you’d just pick NZ so the second lock space alongside Retallick should be up for grabs with a number of contenders (including Whitelock of course). That said there’s a better case for having about 13 New Zealanders in total rather than the team above.
We’ll have to agree to disagree about the relative merits of Smith and Murray.
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Deebee, Botha finished after 2011 effectively. Played a bit in 2013/14 but missed the 2015 World Cup. Etzebeth’s quite a good call in that case. Itoje’d be all right as well I suppose.
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Shit, Steve Thompson has early onset dementia.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/08/steve-thompson-interview-world-cup-rugby-union-dementia-special-report
This is heartbreaking.
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CMW, fair enough on the pairings. Which now makes me want to go and do a beer or wine tasting, but that’s an aside. Didn’t realise that POC had retired after the 2015 WC – thought he’d played a couple more seasons, so on that basis he’s probably not in the running either. Would like to see AWJ and Etzebeth up against the Kiwi pair though. Lood de Jager when not injured and on form would push them, but sadly hasn’t been consistently either.
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That’s really sad for Thompson.
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Awful. I hope the time doesn’t come when we all have to realise we were wrong to like rugby, but I do wonder sometimes.
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I remember watching the Eubank vs Watson fight with my dad and being enthralled. Next morning, my dad told me what had happened to Watson, and then added that we were partly responsible for giving boxing an audience. It made me feel sick. I got the same feeling today when I read about Steve Thompson. Awful.
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Big day for rugby news then. Steve Thompson news is just horrible. Thats the guy that paid back his insurance pay out for a broken neck and returned to play. First generation of fully professional players thru his career. Have to say, watching England grind away at the line on Sunday a la Exeter and Saracens, how many of those guys are going to have serious neck and concussion issues later in life, or not so later maybe. It is brutal.
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Plus Alix Popham and Michael Lipman and 5 others.
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I wonder how much the new protocols protect the players really. Wouldn’t want to be George North or Johnny Sexton right now (amongst others).
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SBT
Exeter really are more varied than that with much more back play as part of the overall ‘pressure wave’. They also back themselves to run the ball back much more so you see lots of metres from Woodburn/O’Flaherty/Cordero.
They are good enough to get a high % of time played in their opponent’s defensive 1/3rd and then use their forwards to effect -but not entirely.
They back themselves to be fitter over 80 minutes and their handling skills are relatively speaking very good.
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Poor old Steve Thompson. This https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/groundbreaking-lawsuit-over-head-injuries-looming-1/ was being reported yesterday.
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Any thoughts on steps to take to reduce the risks in professional rugby? I think weight limits on teams, reduction in number of games played and strict limits on amount of time teams can devote to contact training.
I also wonder if the maul law should be changed to give the attacking team the ball back in if it doesn’t come out. Might encourage the forwards to spend a bit more time huffing and puffing together and make space out wide for the backs. Ball in play time is leading to a higher tackle count, which may be a big part of the problem.
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“I also wonder if the maul law should be changed to give the attacking team the ball back in if it doesn’t come out.”
Didn’t England ruin this for everyone way back when the correct moaning laws were in place?
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More seriously one of the main things Popham spoke about earlier was the amount of contact training.
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The maul thing may also have been a precaution with regard to South Africa being readmitted. Them being known to be boring bastards and what have you.
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The numbers suggested in the article in the Guardian are very worrying indeed and of course each individual case is horrendously upsetting. There’s going to have to be some sort of massive change.
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A sensible conversation until CMW got involved. The Boks haven’t box kicked once this year – not once.
I agree with Dab that attacking intent should be rewarded and not seen as a risk. Maybe with less roosting of the pill you’d have fewer mid-air collisions and the risks those bring, as well as more running rugby. Also agree on the contact training and reducing the number of matches played, especially pre-season knockabouts.
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I suppose there has to be balance though: you don’t want teams to be able to simply take it a couple of phases of pick and go and get rewarded for ‘attacking’ play. You’d end up with League style huffing and flopping with little risk. In short, I have no idea.
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Oh My Fucking God;
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I’m not clicking on that. It looks bloody awful from whatever angle you look at it.
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I agree with all regarding the confirmation of what we all must have thought was happening.
I hope the outcome is a safer game that is still Rugby Union.
Am I mistaken but aren’t there timelines here?:
– change from amateur to professional
– emphasis on physical ‘growth’
– fitter/faster game
– changes to laws
I would start with two things:
– reduction in contact training
– halt ‘torpedoing’ into rucks – victim usually un-prepared therefore badly shaken
If too much is changed at the same time, it is hard to establish what is effective and the game and players now are quite different to 2003.
Are there any stats from France? I’ll try and get the latest copies of Mid-Ol……………
It is a contact sport or nothing, in my view.
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@slade
I don’t know if this is related but rucks today look very different to the mid 90s. Then they were more of a quickly formed loose scrum that the forwards would bind on each other to enter and were much slower in impact. These days there are many fewer people and the emphasis is on attempting or stopping the jackal. So you have the jackler head down digging out the ball and an opposition forward flying in to displace him.
The people affected seem to be disproportionately forwards so it may be a contributing factor.
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@OT – yes, this is another big change that I don’t think has actually improved the game. When I learned to play at the beginning of the ‘90s, when a ruck (or a maul) formed we were taught that a priority for the ball carrying team was to ‘block the sides’. I think because the offside line was the ball. It meant that, as long as you joined from your own side, you could go in at angles to compete for the ball. Bringing that back, I think, might help end the motivation for the torpedo into the ruck. Again, it meant the forwards spent more time grunting together, leaving space for the backs when the ball (eventually) emerged. In my view, it’s a fallacy that more ball-in-play time makes a more entertaining game, and the Autumn Nations Cup was living proof of that. Rugby Union needs to be about the forwards genuinely competing for the ball and then leaving space for the backs. While I agree that it always has to remain a contact sport, it never used to be about high impact as much as it is now.
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Spot on Dab, OT – the collision has become the holy grail of rugby, hence the surge in these injuries and conditions. Even in the 90s, the ‘hit’ at scrums was virtually non-existent and attempts have been made to neutralise this, albeit with limited success. You hear coaches all the time talking about winning the collisions, which is exactly where the problem is. Nothing wrong with a thumping tackle when you’ve lined your man up, but the ferocity of these, match after match, hit after hit is not good for the players. I’d like to see stats from now versus the 90s as to how many tackles per game on average we’re looking at – guaranteed it’s soared.
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@Deebee: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/08/rugby-union-dark-news-dementia-presents-sport-with-reality-dared-not-face
Average 102 tackles per game at 1991 RWC vs 257 in 2019!! Admittedly, Guscott was playing in 1991 so that would have reduced the tackle count a little, but even so, that demonstrates how the game has changed beyond all recognition.
Regarding the ruck, I think I would advocate no hands from anyone once a ruck forms (so defender has to let ball go as soon as someone arrives), offside line is the ball, and the put-in goes to the defending team if the ball gets trapped. Would give teams the motivation to drive over the ball in numbers rather than kamikaze into each other in a collision. (Defending team need a reason to get stuck in or else they just fan out.)
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Morning Deebee you boring old bastard. There are some stats in here:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/08/rugby-union-dark-news-dementia-presents-sport-with-reality-dared-not-face
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Beaten to it. On the scrum the hit still seems to be there in some sense as we have loads of penalties being awarded before the put-in. Would be good if someone who understands these things better than me (anyone really) can explain what’s going on with that and what could be done to change it while still maintaining the scrum as a contest of some sort.
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Isn’t the dominant tackle % one of the key indicators of whether a game is won or lost now? England are good at this.
Maybe imposing a weight limit at the top level is a way forward too.
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