Italy vs Argentina
Two sides struggling to make an impact in recent times. Well, for Italy, pretty much forever despite one win over the Boks at our lowest ebb, for the pedants and pot stirrers who like to keep dredging that up. Argentina seemed to be on the up when they pasted the All Blacks last year (funny how competitive they were not having been beasted by the Boks beforehand), but have reverted to the mean (in a marshmallowy sort of way) this year. Can Italy use home ground advantage to eke out a win, or will the superior talent available to Argentina tell in the end? Tricky one this, but I’ll go for a Pumas win by about 9 as the Azzurri Fade to Grey.
Scotland vs South Africa
A fabulous match in store in this Currie Cup Clash, as Ticht called it. Much spoken about the four Saffas in the Scotland side, but in all honesty there’s plenty more for the Boks to worry about than a couple of down the pecking order forwards and backs who sought lucre over homeland. Scotland showed just how dangerous they can be ball in hand against the Aussies last weekend (one just past, keep up at the back), but couldn’t quite put it together as a complete package. The Scots forwards were excellent and showed some real grunt, which they’ll need on Saturday if they’re to get decent ball to Finn and Co. The Boks will surely try to batter them like a lonely Mars Bar on a Saturday night though and with a more settled back division, will probably squeak it in the end. The bench to do the job again, Boks by a score or thereabouts as they say it in Broken English.
Ireland vs New Zealand
The respective unsmiling sides of the two hemispheres go toe to toe, both having eased into the contest with little in the way of stern opposition: usually the Kiwis use this as an excuse for World Cup exits (along with Suzi, norovirus, referees, time zones, grass type and anything else rather than decent oppo), but both sides have had lopsided wins in the last week, with Ireland’s dismantling of Japan possibly slightly better than the Kiwis mangling of Italy with a reserve-ish side. Ireland will have a real go at the Kiwi pack at set pieces, where they were vulnerable against the Boks in both 4N matches this year and have been for a while now. The Kiwis will look to decimate Ireland out wide and in broken play and it should be a huge match. Kiwis are pretty confident at the moment, so I’m picking them (against the heart) to win by 4. Either way, it’ll be a Crowded House in Dublin, weather permitting.
Portugal vs Japan
Can Japan be as bad as they were against Ireland? I’ve no idea and writing this on the hoof not having seen the line-up for either side (not that that would make much difference, let’s be honest), it remains to be seen if they can bounce back. They’ve still got good players and should have too much nous for Portugal, despite the Iberians’ recent decent form at Tier Two level. Japan by 15. The House of the Rising Sun will once again shine. Tenuous link if ever!
England vs Australia
Keep feeling tempted to just write ‘looks weak’ and leave it at that. England have stormed out of the blocks with a hammering of hapless Tonga, which probably means little in reality, whilst the Wobblies duly wobbled after a five-match winning streak against stubborn Scotland last weekend. However, the result would probably have been very different but for the discipline issues they suffered from, that potentially cost them 14 points. They’re still a decent side, even without the J-League party-poopers and love nothing more than a crack at the Poms. But they’ll possibly be without Allan Alaalatoa and Taniela Tupou, leaving their improving front row in tatters. Dave Rennie will need to crack the discipline whip harder than a dominatrix at a Tory dinner party to keep them in the game. England, with a very good pack, Owen ‘Venus de Milo’ Farrell cleared of Covid and some good gas out wide should have too much for this now more disjointed Wallaby side. It’ll be tight and feisty, as always, but in the end, it’s England by 12. And as the man who sold the world, Eddie Jones will be smiling.
France vs Georgia
Doesn’t matter which France pitches up, Georgia are no match for them or as replacements for Italy in the 6N. That’s the Boks’ next target, ahem. A brutal mismatch that will put Georgia firmly back in their box. France may be distracted by the looming challenge of the All Blacks the following weekend, but even that shouldn’t see this being anything other than a training ground run for Les Bleus. Georgia’s last outing was a 40-9 thumping by a very rusty Bok side in July, although they’d be doing okay in the Tier 2 stuff before that. France by 35. You know I’m gonna say it, it’ll be a rainy night for Georgia, Randy Crawford to the fore.
Wales vs Fiji
Another mismatch in store, with Wales looking to bounce back from their narrow defeat against the Boks last weekend. Fiji, as everyone knows, have some superb individuals in their side, but haven’t been able to put it all together into a coherent package for a long while. Wales have had to re-jig their side a bit, with the Horse back on the wing and Adams moving into midfield, but you sense that won’t make much difference in the end. It’s Wales’ match to win by pretty much whatever score they’d like to, especially after Fiji struggled to subdue Spain last weekend. Fitness, structure, technique and a stronger bench will see Wales home comfortably in the end. Wales by 28. And as every Manic Street Preacher in Cardiff’ll tell you – if you tolerate this, your children will be next. You’ve been warned, Fiji.
Preview by the incomparable Deebee7
Onna telly this week
Friday 12th November
| Gloucester v Bath | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 13th November
| Wales v South Africa (women) | 12:15 | BBC2 Wales |
| Italy v Argentina | 13:00 | Prime |
| Scotland v South Africa | 13:00 | Prime |
| Ireland v New Zealand | 15:15 | Channel 4 / RTÉ2 |
| England v Australia | 17:30 | Prime |
Sunday 14th November
| England v Canada (women) | 14:30 | BBC2 / iPlayer | ||
| Wales v Fiji | 15:15 | Prime | ||
| Scotland v Japan (women) | 16:10 | BBC Alba / iPlayer |
Ovally Balls 
Deebee, who do you think the Boks’ll send flashing out of the line to go after Smith. PS du Toit did it good effect v Ford in the World Cup Final, Etzebeth did it to bone-crunching effect on Russell on Saturday. Perhaps Kwagga?
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Oh no, England without our lynchpin. We can’t do without him. Boks by 25.
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SBT – do you mind? I’ve just had to get some wipes to clean up all the sarcasm oozing out of the screen.
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Ah! OT I was basing my comment on where they were picked.
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TomP, there was one absolute bone cruncher on Russell by Etzebeth. A thing of beauty. I’d still be on the floor. No idea who’ll target Smith. You want Kwagga following the breakdowns so leave it with Etzebeth.
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Bok team to be announced at midday UK time. I know you’re all on the edge of your seats in anticipation. Don’t think there’ll be any changes to the starting 15, other than perhaps Nkosi to the wing. A bit pointless bringing him all the way just to sit on the sidelines you’d think.
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Russell bounced back to his feet quickly considering the force he was hit by
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Profuse apologies Thaum. I realise from reading the Guardian BTL last weekend that I suffer from an inbred class hatred of Northerners and Rugby League, I have burnt my barbour, swapped my tasteful Harris tweed shooting cap for one of those big baggy ecky thump flat hats, used my collection of Benjamin Britten and slave song vinyl for a bit of target practice with the Purdys, and given away my signed picture of Boris, but I still want to see an England backline try and learn to function without Faz controlling everything, for good or bad. Perhaps I need an exorcism.
Boks by 29.
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Quite surprised to find that Franco Mostert is actually a year older than Etzebeth, they are a pretty damn fine pair of locks, love watching both of them, shockingly good around the park for big guys.
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@sbt
Here’s something to cure you of your inbuilt hatred for RL:
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Mostert is quite ‘baby-faced’ compared to Etzebeth…actually, he’s quite baby-faced.
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Mostert was a relatively late starter, didn’t play Craven Week – provincial under 18s – let alone SA schools. Etzebeth did go to Craven Week but not SA schools and then got capped when he was 20 and had played over 20 tests before Mostert played Super Rugby.
Lood de Jager is another one. Not picked for his province’s under 18 team.
In South Africa schools rugby is excellent and the best schools are fantastic but it’s noticeable that quite a few of the players – Mapimpi, Am, those two locks – all came out of school unheralded. de Allende, Etzebeth, Kolbe, Mbonambi from non-powerhouse schools.
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Mapimpi’s even older than Etzebeth and Mostert.
He’s playing better and better. He can get frustrated some times but he does his job so well and is a finisher supreme.
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Russell bounced back to his feet quickly considering the force he was hit by
Yeah, it does just show how tough and well conditioned these guys are. That video clip of the idiot in the kebab shop that someone posted a few days back is ample evidence of it: normal guys just wouldn’t get up from being smashed like that. I mentioned before that I played touch rugby with a number of Boks and Province (Stormers) guys when I was in hte army, and even that was rough as hell. Almost as rough as six-a-side football with Peter Winterbottom when he played a season or two out here. Scary to be in possession when he had you in his sights.
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Mapimpi was a guy I didn’t rate when he was first picked for the Boks: always lethal ball in hand, but was defensively weak. He’s worked hard at that and his aerial skills and he must be amongst the first names on the teamsheet these days.
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Deebee, a few of us were chatting with Derek White one day and the subject was players he’d encountered, he said of Winterbottom that he’d put his head where most players wouldn’t put their feet.
Re Etzebeth, he’s listed at 2.03m and 122 kg
when I played I was 1,85m and 105kg, but it’s not just the difference in numbers, the difference in conditioning is like night and day and the intensity of the hits has increased to make it almost a completely different game.
Basically I wouldn’t like to get melted by big Eben, though Andrew Cotter made a good point that Finn goes limp and kind of absorbs these impacts, he passes very late to open a gap like that sometimes so he gets whacked like that in almost every game
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One thing that’s been bothering me is the way commentators pronounce the first syllable of Jamie Blamire’s surname. They say it as if the first syllable is the same as in blancmange but I’m pretty certain it should be pronounced “Blay-mire”. In fact it bothered me that much I had to dig out an old episode of Last of the Summer Wine to check the right pronunciation (because of the old character called Cyril Blamire).
I’m happy to report I’m right and the commentators are wrong.
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OT, Pierre Schoeman’s surname seems to an issue for debate every time he plays now. It’s properly Skooman apparently, however the Embra crowd shout “Shoooey” whenever he carries the ball and he said recently that he now likes Shooman as the pronunciation.
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@OT
I’d have said “blay-mire” too (if only for the same reason…. LotSW)
Reminds me of when Elvis Costello appeared on the Wogan show – first question from Wogan was “why do you pronounce it “coh-Stello” when you know it’s “Cost-ellow”?”
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I’m dilly-dallying today, I went to get root canal work done, but when I got there the dentist said he couldn’t do it as the dental nurse had called in sick.
“Oh no”, I thought, “I can’t have root canal work done today”.
I’m not very good at getting back into work when I’ve stopped.
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Blay-mire just sounds so much more Northern
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@trisk
I’d have said “why do you call yourself Elvis when your real name is Declan?”
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Wasn’t it the same with Schalk Burger – he was “Skalk” not “Shalk”??
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Labuschagne is another name I’m convinced everyone gets wrong.
The Aussies pronounce it “La-boo-shane”
The South Africans something weird like “La-boo-sharkney” or summat.
Whereas I think it looks French so should rhyme with Lasagne.
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@OT – As the cricketer’s also one of ours we need to find out how the Welsh are pronouncing it.
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@Trisk – I can remember it being pronounced more like Skulk, but no idea what would be correct.
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A Huguenot name, OT, but old in South African terms, very early 1700s. Best to ask the player/person.
The South African pronunciation of Juan is confusing for me. Much too long compared to the Spanish.
Have mentioned it many times but the Nick Mullins’s pronunciation of Francois Hougaard’s name is horribly incorrect but horribly funny.
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“Nick Mullins’s pronunciation of Francois Hougaard’s name is horribly incorrect but horribly funny.”
Does he call him Francis?
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CMW, /k/ is definitely right. For top knowledge, call him Schalla.
I’ve heard a couple of British and Irish commentators pronounce the WP in WP Nel the Afrikaans way recently.
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I’ve already used my one Huguenot joke on here
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According to Midol, World Rugby is about to allow players who played on residency grounds for a nation to play for a second nation with which they’d have connections (birth, parents etc..) after a three year lull.
The vote will take place on November 24. That’d be great for the Pacific Isles.
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One of the other dads at cricket is South African and his lad is called Stefan. The other week the dad was umpiring an indoor match and the lady scoring said “what’s the bowler’s name?” His dad said something like “Schhhtieafan”. The lady looked a bit bewildered so I just leant over and said “it’s Stefan” and everybody was happy.
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It’s funny, double ewe in English, double vey in French, wey in Dutch and vee in Afrikaans
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Flair, is this because of the lobbying from Dan Leo?
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Ticht, I have no idea who’s behind it. I just hope it works and that there won’t be too many unintended consequences.
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Double ewe. Hehehe. Why would you need a double “brebis” to pronounce a letter…
Labuscagne is a small village in the SW, in the Gers area. Doubt the South African pronunciation has anything to do with the French one. Specially the letter “u”.
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There are clips from Leo’s film, Ocean’s Apart in this tweet, I’m all for it
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https://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/international/2021/international-info-midol-world-rugby-pourrait-permettre-a-certaines-nations-d-ameliorer-leurs-effect_sto8629906/story.shtml
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I’m not worried. Aussies beat them easily.
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3 disruptive changes. England by 30.
Glad to have Reinach in at 9, he made a huge difference last week against Scotland. Pollard back signals a return to high box kicks on the attacking 5m line with de Jager beefing up the second row in place of the more mobile Mostert (nicknamed Sous, or sauce in English, mostert obviously being mustard in Afrikaans to give a little more flavour to the debate above).
It’s very difficult to get the guttural sounds in Afrikaans across to people who can’t pronounce them. Also, there is no natural ‘c’ in Afrikaans, so it’s always a hard sound – closer to Scandinavian I would imagine. Some similar word origins too: kirk in Scotland and kerk in Afrikaans both being church in English.
There is also a stunning amount of snobbery in pronunciation in SA over Afrikaans surnames. Those of Afrikaans origin but now English speakers, especially in Durban and surrounds, always try to Anglicise their names – Bow-thar for Botha etc. Also Larboo-shane for Labuschagne, which should be pronounced La (as in La Bohemme) boo (Casper the friendly ghost) sss-ka-g(grating gears)-ni (we are the knights of…)
Altogether now: La-boo-sss-ka-ggg-ni!
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When I went to South Africa, I noticed there were a lot of people whose surnames were the same as a month of the year – rugby players like Ricky Januarie, Garth April, Marquit September for instance.
Finding out why and how their ancestors got these names was an interesting way into the history of the country, especially of Cape Province.
This is an interview with Mr April:
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Ha ha!
I just said “La-boo-sss-ka-ggg-ni” out loud and I sounded like one of the the Savo commentators
I think the gggg is much harsher than the Scottish och in loch, but certainly do-able
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Deebee, that must be close to your best side, I guess Kolbe and PSduT would start and big RG Snyman would be in the 23
oh and Faff,
Still, not a bad team.
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Deebs/Ticht – am really worried about scrum time tbh. I think we’ll be competitive in the loose but we’ve got some green players in key positions. If we can get the ball quickly we should cause problems. But I’m not convinced.
Cmon Eddie, prove me wrong.
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“we’ve got some green players in key positions”
So have South Africa
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Bugger, just remembered, I’m supposed to be doing an atl for this week
Thaum, could you send me an email please so I have the reply address – mine is the one with a t in the middle of my name, I think there were two addresses for me.
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Deebs – commentators in this game got his name right:
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Got it Thaum, cheers.
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No Malherbe either.
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Good job rugby has cleaned its act up since these days:
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