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 
Thanks for the work you guys -but pales intoinsignificance against Japan’s men playing two games (Scotland and Portugal).
ps Georgia vs Fiji could be interesting………………………
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Slade – that was entirely my fault! Offending section removed.
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this is a ‘no blame’ culture.
I am extremely grateful to those who put the work in
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It’s good to know that people are reading with enough attention to notice these things!
I think Fiji will hammer Georgia.
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Death of a blog….
Slade, do you fancy writing an ATL some time? :-)
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Ldn Irish are giving Saracens a bit of of kicking, three converted tries to nil at half time and all the game played on the left hand side of the screen
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Ticht – did I hear Mullins say that the Irish hooker had come from Embra?
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BB, Mike Willemse, very good around the park, very poor darts, though I did see him hit a jumper in that first half and it led to a try
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Callum Hunter Hill for Sarries (No5) also left Edinburgh last season, but that was all a bit weird, he was tipped for international honours, maybe even the captaincy, certainly he was supposed to be the big thing for Embra in the second row, and suddenly he was off down to Sarries on loan with no explanation,
They liked him and made him a permanent offer.
There is still a lot to come out about the Cockerill story at Edinburgh.
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Second half is definitely a lot closer. Sarries back to within 9 and the last two tries have been scored by a winger with an injured arm. Surprised he’s still on the pitch to be honest.
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Ticht – this is one match where I’d actually support Saracens. But something I couldn’t possibly watch.
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What the deal with London Irish, Thaum? Why wouldn’t you support them?
I used to follow London Scottish closely but I’ve lost touch just due to “life” and time available, but I still support them
tbh I’m a bit bored with the match, it’s a Mickey Mouse competition to give players game time, which is fair enough from the point of view of the clubs, but not thrilling viewing tbh
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Ah, hang on, Jackson went here didn’t he?
Fair enough
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Fuck London Irish
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Yep, that’s the one, Ticht.
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BB – good. Saracens are cartoon villains that you love to hate, but LI are real ones.
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Also France (women) vs the Abs again tomorrow. The French spanked the ABs last week. Game on Ftv 2 around 3pm IIRC.
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Nervous about today’s match. The focus here is almost entirely on how the Boks are going to mangle the Englush front row, as if that’s enough to win. England beat Australia handily enough last week and although missing a couple of players from that match, won’t be the easy beats some people here think.
I just hope the Boks keep their heads, play with accuracy and win well to end one helluva year on a high note.
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Good work, Thauma & Ticht, thanks.
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Words Ticht.
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Deebs – don’t worry, you’ll destroy us. 43-6 to the boks
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Agh! The Mish’s mo is horrible!
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He doesn’t have the mullet any more, so he has to do something to get back into ‘Bad Hair’.
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Also, ‘Mon Scotland!’
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Good defensive start and Big McDuhan goes over for the try!
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Hoggy the record breaker!
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It was a good try for the record books.
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Japan starting to make a lot of mistakes.
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Lovely from Wee Darcy!
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We’ve not been great this half, mainly through giving away silly penalties. Japan have had a lot of the ball, but mainly outside our 22. Our attacks have been far more clinical. Expect even more in the second half.
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Yeah, I think you’re right there BB, we haven’t played particularly well but our attack looks decent enough – we gave away a lot of penalties in the first quarter, it’s been a bug bear in all four games this series
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Rambo over 20 seconds after coming on! Bit more relief now.
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Not relieved yet. Should know better by now.
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OK, that’s a win. A couple of brilliant tries. Hoggy breaking the record. Japan being more like themselves.
That’s about it. Not a classic.
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Underwhelming performance from Scotland, there were some bizarre calls from the ref but we weren’t good enough to take him out of the equation, Japan can feel disappointed there, to to be honest they looked toothless in attack,
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Until Japan adress their problem of power, their pace won’t be of much use. Lateral attacks, without the threat of a grubber kick or a 50-22 is too predictable. And they do ned a proper kicker. But they certainly improved in two weeks.
A bit disappointing from Scotland. Hogg’s acceleration is something but Finn seemed to lack concentration and the back row stuttered.
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Just part of the ‘fun’ of being a Scotland fan, Flair. I would have taken 3 wins out of 4 before the start of this series. Yes, the performances could have been better, but we’ve had better performances and lost games in the past.
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Good start by England, but Manu broke in the process.
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May is having a torrid time
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Sideways has had a couple of oopsie moments.
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Fiji are having a hard time against Georgia, down 9-5 at half time.
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SA’s defence it looking a little porous. Slade doing a good job, putting people into space, in the run up to both tries.
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Scotland are going to get tonked in the 6N by the looks of this
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Can you imagine if England got quick ball from rucks?
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Good first half.
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England will rue the stupid penalties given away. Exciting start and some early luck with the scrum but SA will grind them down.
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MArler willsort the scrum
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@Refit – Youngs would just get to kick it away sooner.
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England good value for their lead, Boks don’t seem to have woken up yet. Not much energy in that half.
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May has looked a shadow of his former self this autumn. He’s been a real favourite of mine but I suspect his best days may be behind him.
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