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 
A friend of mine went on holiday to Greece and met Bodger (of Bodger and Badger) on a boat trip.
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Ticht – played rugby and hockey with similar backdrops when I was in the army in Cape Town. It’s a spectacular city, but with some abject poverty cheek by jowl with wealth. Part of South Africa I guess, but not what you want in a society.
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@craigs
Yep, there is an official block on information.
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/fda-requests-55-years-to-complete-foia-request-pfizer-s-covid-19-vaccine
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” don’t know if Waikato get any stick”
They don’t need a stick, they’ve got a tiny violin.
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Craigs – I don’t think that comparing yourself with Jews in Nazi Germany can be said to be anti-Semitic, no matter how grossly offensive and stupid it is. Claiming that Jews are evil or greedy, or any of the other things that were claimed to send Jews to the camps (or indeed denying that it happened): those are anti-Semitic.
Plus they’ve got it entirely backwards, because it would be having some marker for NOT having a vaccine passport as a sign of your non-conformity that would make some kind of – very, very dubious – analogy.
I take your point of the trivialisation of the Holocaust, though, and maybe you’re right. I was looking at it the other way round, and thinking that they were massively embiggening their ‘suffering’.
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OT – the FDA is not the only agency with data, though: EMA, etc?
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Cricket is the game for enjoying the backdrop. Hard ball though so still worth trying to stay vaguely aware of what’s going on.
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Thinking of Glasgow Chief is interchangeable with Big Man. Could call themselves the Exeter Big Men.
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Could have fun with designing the badge.
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@thauma
They haven’t published it either.
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I didn’t think we did know the vaccines for safe – don’t we just know within reason that they’re considerably safer than everyone getting Covid?
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Obviously we can’t know of any long-term effects until, er, a long time has passed.
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About 55 years I’d have thought.
I thought it was known that there are deaths due to adverse reactions to the vaccines but that the number is very small compared to what would happen with no vaccines?
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We don’t know the potential long term side effects (assuming there are any), of the vaccine, but we do know that you’ve got a far higher chance of dying from Covid without it than with it.
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Or what CMW said.
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ticht, that picture accompanying the article is at the Piley Rees field at Bishops school in Cape Town. Not wanting to be rude but Bishops are famous for an all-running style (they do kick occasionally) so as a more mature man you might be out of puff before someone poleaxes you if you’re playing there.
Here’s another pic of the ground:
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The place we used to stay in in Cape Town was about 3 kilometres to the south of there. There was a big garden with a swimming pool and it sure is a lovely place to have a swim.
CMW’s right, though, cricket is the game where the view would really distract you.
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Fine conditions at the sport ground
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Dear dog I’ve had enough of the wellness woo wankers
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The implication seems to be from sone of these wellness types is that you deserve it if you get ill. Strangely similar to the fundamentalist position that God’s punishing you personally and that it’s your own fault
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In Claw-pleasing news, Connacht are 18-8 against the Ospreys after half an hour. And don’t listen to Chimpie: the weather is filthy, pure Weshtern filth.
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“Piley Rees”
Sounds like a Welsh schoolmaster out of a boarding school book.
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Chimpie – yep, there was a Graun article on that very subject (your fault if you’re ill) the other day.
I have a relative who is one of these wellness practitioners, and while she’s a lovely person who I’m sure wouldn’t think of actually blaming someone for being ill, she doesn’t half believe a lot of woo. Fucking chakras and purges and so on.
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Thaum- tbh I don’t mind splitting the difference with you on this one. It was batshit mental anyway. And wrong like you say.
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OT – well that doesn’t help. Also, o thought most long term side effects were known inside 6 months?
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It’s been nice knowing yall.
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Who’s got the wind at the Sportsground?
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This was quite a good podcast on vaccines and hesitancy imo:
[audio src="https://static.samharris.org/Making_Sense_256_Eric_Topol_Final2.mp3" /]
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Or Making Sense episode 256.
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Hmm. If Scotland beat Ukraine and Wales beat Austria, then the sides meet for a World Cup place.
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CMW – probably everyone has the wind (up ’em).
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‘Who’s got the wind at the Sportsground?’
Hard to tell, a lot of them may have judging by their expressions
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Chimpie – wellness woo wanker is the most efficient way to describe him.
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CMW, Connacht. RTE commentators say it’s “a 10-point wind”.
Piley Rees was a schoolmaster and Bishops is a private school with boarding houses and the surname is Welsh but he was a real guy.
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@TomP – Bit of a shame that both can’t qualify though I guess that was unlikely anyway. At least both sides have missed Italy and Wales get a home game if they get through the semi.
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Joe Jordan, hand of God springs to mind
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Do we know how Piley got his name?
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RTE panel say Connacht were playing into the wind and kicking at goal was tough for Carty. They scored some nice looking tries. Their new South African centre has had a nice start.
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Switched over to Serie A at the end of the rugby first half. Noticed the players (and the ref) all have red marks on their faces. Apparently it’s to raise awareness of domestic violence and has been taking place for a few years (article below is from 2018).
https://www.sportbible.com/football/news-serie-a-players-will-wear-red-face-paint-this-weekend-20181122
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King Kenny’s sublime second goal.
Alan Rough making a save!
The sad events of Cardiff in 1985.
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I knew Windy Pugh would have the wind at The Sportsground, but I guess conflicting reports is par for the course.
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Switched on now and Connacht do have the wind. And a try with some poor defence from the O’s (after some very good defence just before to be fair). Should be the game.
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Halftime at wasps, Gloucester well ahead, tries by May and Twelvetrees both decent run ins,36 from the 10 yard line. Didn’t know he could still run that far. Glaws pack well on top too, their 8 clement often pulling out of the scrum, while the other seven marmalise Wasps 8. Wasps have a couple of close range drive over tries from lineouts, 23-12 is the Beadlepleasing score so far.
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Another one from 36, 6 from 6 for Hastings from the T, and thats 30-12.
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Well that is game over – penalty try and yellow for a borderline high tackle to save a try in the corner. The yellow totally superfluous (there was nothing remotely ‘cynical’ about it) though I know that’s the guidelines or whatever at the moment.
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Barbeary comes on and reivigorates Wasps, aided by a penalty, Thorley running off with the ball, 10 yards, then Ben Meehan mouthing off, another ten yards. Kick, Linout, drive, try, and yellow card warning. 30-17.
Surely Glaws can’t throw this away now ?
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Clement over from a lineout drive, 35 17.
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After having a bit of a nightmare all round, Umaga scores two tries in 5 minutes, and with May in the sin bin, 2 mins to go and Wasps right back in it. 35-33
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Phew, Umaga knocks on and thats it. Glaws win, by the skin of their teeth.
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Bath lose, but played well. Some pretty “interesting” decisions throughout the game, usually in Exeter’s favour.
I have no skin in this game, it just seemed that way to me.
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