The following four fixtures will be shown on the World Rugby site, and they will be available to watch afterwards, so even the most fevered rugby fans will not be found wanting for action.
Saturday, 20th November
Brazil v Kenya: (3rd/4th place play-off Stellenbosch Challenge, Men’s) Markotter Field, Stellenbosch – 10:00 GMT)
Zimbabwe v Namibia: (Final Stellenbosch Challenge, Men’s) Markotter Field, Stellenbosch – 12:00 GMT)
Russia v Chile: (Men’s) Yug Sports Stadium, Sochi – 12:00 GMT
Georgia v Fiji: (Men’s) Estadio El Deleite, Aranjuez – 14:30 GMT
Now on to the main attractions.
Italy vs Uruguay
Uruguay have qualified for RWC ’23 as Americas 1; however, they fell to Romania last week. Italy did better than most commentators thought they would against the might of the All Blacks but a loss against Argentina will mean they will be looking to make amends. Italy are currently ranked 14 against Uruguay’s 17. The visitors will not be overawed, but I expect the home team to win.
Scotland vs Japan
Scotland were overpowered last week by a very good Springbok side. It would have been understandable if many of those players were stood down, but Toonie has gone for a strong selection as he welcomes Scott Cummings back into the second row. There is rotation on the loosehead side with Schoeman and Bhatti swapping the starting jersey, and there will be new caps: the large shape of Scarlets’ Javan Sebastian, and Dylan Richardson from the Sharks (not the Sale ones) débuting in the back row.
Japan haven’t had the best results, losing heavily in Dublin and beating Portugal by 13, suggesting that this is not the Japan of the last RWC.
Scotland to win.
England v South Africa
South Africa will be after a full house from their three fixtures in November. They have selected a strong side: you know what’s coming, it’s dealing with it that is the problem.
Rodd, Blamire (Blay-mire), Sinckler, Dolly, Marler and Stuart will be under the microscope: it’s a well-known fact of life that you don’t out-Bok the Boks, so unless England can run South Africa around and keep away from set pieces, one would think this is only going to go one way, which is counter-intuitive when talking about England.
Elsewhere, Marcus Smith will be looking to sprinkle a bit of fairy dust on the Battle of the Orcs going on in front of him; he can turn his own Orc outside him in the formidable shape of Manu Tuilagi.
On the other hand, De Allende and Am are a very good midfield partnership; this is a tough game to call because Twickenham is a difficult place to go to play rugby.
I’m going to go for a very tight away win here, less than 7. Unless England’s pack end up as roadkill, like Scotland’s, then it will be a bigger margin: the Boks will be well up for this.
Wales vs Australia
Wales have had a mixed series. Putting out a B team against New Zealanders is never a good idea, but their hand was forced due to the international window agreements. They were five points short of South Africa and overcame the all-singing and -dancing (and big-hitting) Fijians.
Australia have had also had a mixed run of results. After downing the World Champions as a highlight of their year, they beat Argentina twice but lost to Scotland and were thumped by England.
Tupo being back will help their scrum, but they will be without skipper and talisman Michael Hooper, which kind of cancels out AWJ missing from the Welsh boilerhouse.
Wales at home is never a team to bet against, even with a relatively unfamiliar midfield.
Another tough call, but I’m going for a home win here.
France vs New Zealand
New Zealand don’t often lose two in a row. They did last year, but it’s only happened five times since 2000 in around 250 tests (I was surprised at how many they’d played, but then they do tend to play almost all the games possible at the world cup as well as the RC and tours).
Fabien Galthié has chosen partnerships for this match: Dupont and Ntamack at half-back, and Danty joining his erstwhile colleague Fickou in the midfield, which means Jalibert drops to the bench.
Elsewhere there are changes with Mauvaka coming in to the front row with Willemse joining Woki in the locking positions
Is this rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?
I don’t think the current iteration of the All Blacks present as insurmountable a problem as before, but they are still the All Blacks.
The ABs side hasn’t been announced yet, so just for fun I’ll call this a draw.
Ireland v Argentina
Ireland were HUGE last week: a top-end performance full of fire, commitment, cool heads in the heat of the battle, and extraordinary focus. That is what it takes to beat the top teams, and Ireland had it all.
Can they back it up this week?
At the time of writing the teams have not been published, but everything points to a home win. For me, they have been the most impressive team over the series so far, and the only problem they may face is injuries, which will only serve to open the door for more Leinster players to make the step up to international level, the gits.
A comfortable home win.
Thanks to Tichtheid2 for the preview.
Onna telly this week
Friday 19th November
| London Irish v Saracens | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 20th November
| Italy v Uruguay | 13:00 | Prime |
| Scotland v Japan | 13:00 | Prime |
| Ireland v Japan (women) | 15:00 | RTÉ2 |
| England v South Africa | 15:15 | Prime |
| Wales v Australia | 17:30 | Prime |
| France v New Zealand | 20:00 | Prime |
Sunday 21st November
| Ireland v Argentina | 14:15 | Channel 4 / RTÉ2 | ||
| England v USA (women) | 14:45 | BBC2 / iPlayer | ||
| Wales v Canada (women) | 17:00 | BBC2 Wales |
Ovally Balls 
We’ll stuff them. Up their holes.
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Up their holes, Chimpie.
I make it 18 internationals in our side, and Vellacott will almost certainly be called up for the 6N, Scotland have put out weaker packs than our 8, even without the injured Ben Toolis, Jamie Ritchie, Bill Mata and Mesa Kunavula.
However in reality I still think we’ll come off second best tomorrow, this is very early days in the Mike Blair Revolution (TM), but the early signs are good. There have been so many false dawns, though, as they say it’s the hope that gets you.
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thaum,
Read a novel by a guy called Ricky O’Rawe last week (read up on his life story by the way). It’s a wild read, a real giallo. There was a part that might tickle you:
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:-D
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I started watching Sons of Anarchy, I gave up after a while because it was dreadful, but there was a storyline that took them to Belfast because there was a chapter of the bike gang there. They used ancient Landrovers to signify Norn Irish security forces and it was so obviously filmed in California it was funny. They did that thing where they played with the lighting to make it appear not so bright and sunny.
Suffice to say that it didn’t go too well for some of the Belfast chapter, they were running guns from the RA to the cartel in Mexico and that’s never a good business model.
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My new favourite conspiracy
‘“Birds Aren’t Real,” a Gen Z conspiracy theory that states birds don’t truly exist and are drone impersonations utilised by the US government to spy on Americans.’
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This lot are, however, actually taking the piss.
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God is taking the piss by introducing Gen Z to the human genome.
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What kind of Mexican cartel needs to be buying guns from across the Atlantic? They’ll be out soon enough.
Best representation of the IRA by America was, is and always will be this:
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Birds Aren’t Real is a joke, though. Or was to start with. The guy who started it gave a few interviews about how it was a joke.
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Ah, didn’t see your next comment, Chimpie.
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My favourite fiilm about Les Troubles is You, Me & Marley which was filmed on a soon-to-be-demolished council estate just across the road from my house ~30 years ago. My favourite bit is the army checkpoint at the bridge on Bullcote Lane
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I went to war-torn Belfast several times in the early to mid 1990s. Willing to believe the Oldham of the time looked rougher.
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Tomp – you could tell the IRA would win because it’s a merican program.
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@tomp
https://www.ilivehere.co.uk/sholver-a-giant-category-c-prison-built-on-a-hill-side.html
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Beavers would never do what those dreadful otters did.
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“They did that thing where they played with the lighting to make it appear not so bright and sunny.”
Item 1 on the list of ‘Things not invented in Scotland’.
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New post in the offing.
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New post here.
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