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 
Customers have faced a third night trapped in the UK’s highest pub due to heavy snowfall during Storm Arwen.
Around 60 pub-goers became stranded at the Tan Hill Inn in the Yorkshire Dales after going to watch an Oasis tribute band on Friday night.
Tis a nice pub to be stuck in but this is why you should never go to see an Oasis tribute band.
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@craigs
They’ll be onto the “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants” album by now.
Bet they can’t wait for the thaw.
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OT – apparently some if the snow was cleared and 12 managed to escape.
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A similar thing happened in the Star Inn at the top of Huddersfield Rd in Oldham a few years back. They were in there a week, I think. Thing is Huddersfield Rd is one of the first to get cleared so I reckon they were just having a good time.
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How many celebs were caught in the pub is the burning question, OT. Must have been a few!
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@deebee
Nearest celebrity to live near the Star Inn is probably Barrie McDermott so I’ll claim he was there.
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Here’s one for you, OT. James Joyce’s nephew appeared in a couple of episodes of The Little and Large Show,
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I hope it was the one where Eddie Large dressed up as Tina Turner
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Any particular reason or is it just that that’s simply the best one?
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Nothing beats a promotional video for a hotel:
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Eben Etzebeth out of rugby until February due to concussion protocols (3 in a year). Unfortunate for Toulon, but after the shift he put in this year, probably needs to give his body a break. Along with Siya Kolisi, he was probably the pick of the Bok forwards in 2021 and is in the form of his life.
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Someone has reviewed the entire first series of the Little and Large Show.
https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2021/06/17/the-little-and-large-show/
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John Sillett RIP
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They’ve been alright Deebs. Not world player of the year levels but pretty good. Like Charlie Ewels.
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Apparently Duane Vermeulen snuck into Ulster on Monday. Old git is superfluous after the pasting the Norn Gibbons back row gave to Leinster. May as well get back on the plane and enjoy his retirement in sunny South Africa.
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Charlie Ewels > Maro Itoje.
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No coming back from that sickest of sick burns.
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Deebs
Charlie Ewels > Maro > Eben > Sia > McCaw
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@OT – Great memories as a (part-time) Coventry fan. Sillett always seemed so obviously happy when they won which is something you don’t see so often in managers now.
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I missed that final as I was on a youth club weekend away somewhere. Also missed a school cricket game against our arch-enemy local rivals – who always won or had the better of the draw against us – in which one of our lads Mankaded one of their players. He was forced to withdraw the appeal by our teacher in charge Alan ‘Blinker’ Jones, not the Alan Jones but an Alan Jones. It was a scandal and on the Monday after the Head of PE had a chat with the team about “the spirit of cricket”.
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@tomp
Attempted mankading has crept into the u9/10/11s game over the last couple of years. One of our players tried it and was met with a response from the club chairman who was umpiring at square leg (while scoring live on his phone) “we don’t do that here”.
It’s the only time it’s acceptable to boo at an u9s game.
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Talking of concussions we had a nasty incident in a U16 game at our place last Sat, Clonakilty (as in Black pudding and sausages) came over for a friendly/challenge.
During the first half, two of their players clashed heads trying to make a tackle. One was walking wounded (it turned out suffered a concussion) – the other complained of neck pain . So we immobilised him and called an ambulance. Coldest day of the year – bitter northerly wind. He was waiting 90 mins for the ambulance – just started to spot with rain when the ambulance arrived.. Ultimately, no neck problem – but another concussion. Made us think a bit about our first aid training and preparation.
Luckily, the father of one of our U16s is Order of Malta (equivalent to St John’s Ambulance) – so he helped to take charge and keep everyone calm.
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I’m a bit ambivalent about mankading. I think it’s definitely acceptable for a bowler to demonstrate that he could do it but not go through with it. The problem you then get though is there are quite a lot of batsmen who will still push their luck after that warning as they don’t believe the bowler will really do it. And if he doesn’t want to he may just threaten again, the ball doesn’t get bowled, the game grinds to a halt. I would probably issue run penalties to batsmen (or just call one short) who take the piss with their backing up if I was making the rules though it’s really difficult to enforce anything as the umpire has too much to look at in the first place.
Obviously you would just tell schoolchildren to pack it in – that’s a different matter.
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What on earth is mankading?
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An ancient Indian ritual these days usually performed in a Men’s shed (or Melbury).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinoo_Mankad
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I thought the protocol was to give a warning – or break the stumps w/o appealing ……
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The only places I’ve ever read about cricket is the real cricket here, natch, and Frank Keating’s columns.
I think Keating must have been the source for my favourite ever sporting reprimand from an official.
A batsman was struck in the hip area from a bowler, unfortunately the box of matches in his pocket caught fire,
Whilst the batsman was flapping at his pocket he was run out by the fielding team, at which point the umpire said, “Don’t be a cad, Sir, can’t you see the man’s ablaze?”
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trisk, that’s a long old trek on a Sunday morning for the brave heroes of Clonakilty.
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Up there with the apochryphal about WG Grace – playing exhibitions, opening the batting and getting bowled first ball – whereby the umpire calls “no ball” – saying “All these people” – gestures to the crowd – “have come to see the Doctor bat…not watch Clever clogs bowl”.
(for best effect should be delivered in stereotypical Northern accent)
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Preferred CMW’s first explanation
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I’ve now learned that wearing a mask is like farting in your trousers. Fascinating.
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Grace, Gloucestershire accent more likely, was a right one for that. Was reading about cricket in Munster the other week for various reasons and came across this story:
By the by, or bye the bye, the Hugh Laurie character in Blackadder Goes Forth was called The Hon. George Colthurst St Barleigh.
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Clon? Yes, probably close to 2 hours (unfortunately).
We try to build a network with the closer Cork clubs – makes a change from playing Tralee, Castleisland, Killorglin and Corca Dhuibhne endlessly….our region ‘West Munster’* is 6 Kerry clubs plus 1 from (notionally) Limerick. We could do with introducing a few Cork teams or even some of the closer (county) Limerick teams
There’s probably a few Cork clubs closer than Corca Dhuibhne – probably not as picturesque a ground though.
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If you go down to play at theirs, you’ll be very close to the old family holdings. And in the clubhouse there should be some rugby books donated by my granny’s cousin.
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Don’t think Mankading is that much of a problem. If it’s allowed then it’s fine right?
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@Craigs – It being allowed but not being fine is precisely the problem.
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@craigs
A bit like nicking a run if the ball hits the batter when it’s returned by a fielder. Perfectly legal but leads to the inevitable tutting and shaking of heads.
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@TomP
Yeah – we’d love to get down there – our last planned visit in Mar 2020 got canned in the very first lockdown….
My eldest got drafted in to play 10 vs Clonakilty – he went ok. Up to then, he’d played 9 all season – so, it was a bit 9 1/2 – pretty much passed everything. But he got to two close-in rucks before his 9 and spotted no blindside defence – so dived over in the corner (twice).
Our U16s qualified for 2nd phase of Munster-wide comp – so they’ll be hosting Bandon in the New Year and travelling to Clonmel (as well as playing Midleton, Highfield, and Bruff) – serious rugby now
U18s are off to Waterpark and KInsale, and have Garryowen coming to town.
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Waterford is a schlep and a half.
We’re lucky in that there’re so many clubs nearby. Next week it’s Seapoint away – 15 minutes by car.
I was doing some reading about my great-grandfather’s playing days. When he was playing for Collegians in Belfast pre-World War I, it was all Belfast clubs and then annual fixtures v Wesley, Lansdowne, and Wanderers alternating between Dublin and Belfast but easy journeys by train. Plus a tour of Wales – 4 games in 5 or 6 days over Easter.
After 1920 he played semi-regularly for City of Armagh – all Ulster games – and then for County Carlow, only South Leinster apart from the cup.
It reminded me again that organised team sport across the nation – whichever nation – was only really possible with the railway and then much later the private motor vehicle.
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Cricket sort of excluded as that was a game for the upper classes and those they employed directly.
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Flying through, but I must congrat CMW on the trembling Canaries holding the mighty Wolves to a draw.
And my-oh-my how much do I want the Canaries to murder the Magpies tonight? THIS MUCH!
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@Iks- The highlights on MOTD suggested that Norwich had the better of it but lack a goalscorer. Probably need to win every game we have the better of to make up for all the others, but still a good point given Wolves’ good start to the season.
Didn’t realise there was a match tonight. I would also be happy enough to see Newcastle go down though it won’t help Norwich’s chances of getting straight back up again if it’s them we take down with us.
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It would be very very funny.
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It would. More realistically it’ll be Norwich plus two of Burnley, Watford, Brentford and Leeds.
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Losing 1-0 to a penalty for a handball by Scotland’s great hope Billy Gilmour. Been a man up since the 10th minute, it’s a bit like following Wales only Norwich will actually lose.
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Scotland’s great hope Billy Gilmour puts the ball in the box from which Norwich (eventually) equalise.
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Delia’s asleep in the crowd.
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@TomP
GAA was always based on the “parish”. So local rivalries built up. That model is failing now with mobility and urbanisation. Rural parishes are losing population and gradually finding harder to field teams – and the game is more focused now on bigger clubs and inter-county games.
Which brings me to the World Rugby announcement of Game On. WRU seemed to have led the way here …. but now it’s a global initiative. We did try it at J2 here in Munster – but my experience was that no-one told the refs…..
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/30/anti-mask-blitz-war-public-good
Marina in good form
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