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 
Solid 5 pointer for embra. Pleasing
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Good BP win for Edinburgh against a stuffy Benetton side, they don’t roll over like they use to.
Magnus Bradbury had a big game again
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knee, etc
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Well done Embra. You did what we couldn’t.
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We did what we couldn’t a few weeks back
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a few weeks back we did what Glasgow did one week back
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Maybe Glasgow will do tomorrow what we did a week back
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Hopefully I’m not getting confused with my weeks like that whole this / next weekend business
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I see someone woke the blue meanies up
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Kinghorn took a very bad boot to the heid, I hope he is okay, he went down like he’d been shot.
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Had a convo with Cat Iver twitter DM this evening. He described expro as ‘a romantic’. He meant in the classical sense I think but I still lol’d for ages.
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*over. Who dat Iver fellow?
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This guy’s brother?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Iver
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Not this guy’s brother? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_the_engine
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no………………this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Cutler
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Ivor Biggun
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…get it seen to….
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Cracking match here. No points yet, but lots of rugby being played.
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Spoke too soon! Yellow for Luke Morgan (deliberate knock-on) and penalty try for Ulster.
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Lions score a cracker of a try through number eight Francke Horn after 10 minutes of helter skelter rugby. Both sides giving the ball plenty of air and occasionally actually finding a receiver.
Lions lock off for a HIA, replaced by promising youngster Willem Alberts. He adds his considerable frame to winning a scrum penalty. Fred knocks it over, 0-10 after 15 minutes.
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Salman Moeraat binned from the restart for taking the man in the air.
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Alberts getting a card here. At least yellow for a no arms shot. Lucky old fart. Just yellow.
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Simelane with a super step and cruises away from Seabelo Senatla. Jaco Kriel lucky not to be binned at the breakdown for a neck roll.
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Aus 7-5 Blitzboks at HT in the final.
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Ospreys also score, and with a penalty each, it’s 10-10. Bradley Roberts unfortunately limping off; he’s been immense.
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Luke Pearce being ultra-picky as he refs Sarries vs Exeter. One instance he marched Billy V. back 2 x 10meters for chat
Exeter 8 – 6 Sarries at HT
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13-10 at oranges.
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Blitzboks squeak it 10-7 in the end. Both sides squandered chances. Evil Stormers apparently up at HT.
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And he was quite right to do so. He also gave a penalty later for Sarries players running at him to complain.
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Or not. Loveable Lions 12-13 ahead at biltong and brandy.
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Another flowing Lions attack and Simelane bamboozles the Stormers defence to send Warner in for the try. Conversion is good! 12-20. Lions backs are playing some great stuff and the Stormers are scrambling to stay in touch.
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And then a beautiful break by Gelant puts Senatla into a gap and Libbok takes it up to 10m from the Lions line. Jaco Visagie of the Lions binned for a professional foul. Stormers take the scrum and with an overlap kick it through and into touch. What an elementary balls up!
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So Ulster, who have been getting mullered at the scrum, have just lost their replacement hooker to injury. Instead of going for uncontested scrums, they’ve decided a prop can come back on and play hooker. Eek!
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First attempt: free kick to Ospreys. Scrum again!
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Scrum is completed.
Ulster look like losing this; Ospreys are 6 points ahead and in the ascendancy.
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Lions in for another! Playing some excellent rugby. 12-30 with about 8 to go.
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Ulster win a penalty & now Eric O’Sullivan has to throw in. Doesn’t do too badly.
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Lions have all three of their OKs on the pitch. With a combined age of 108.
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Insane last 5 mins here!
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Second throw-in would have been very good, if straight. Unfortunately….
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Stormers eventually batter their way over the line. Little imagination or invention. 19-30 with two minutes left.
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Really chuffed with that result. First time something like first choice selection and Exeter really were better than Saracens than the 3 points suggests. LC-D m.o.m. and Slade really smooth in the back line.
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All three of their Boks. From the restart the Stormers butcher it and Horn gets his second. 19-37!
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Doak makes a cross-field kick which is caught by an Osprey (Matthew Morgan, I think), and that’s basically all she wrote. 19-13.
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Good win for the Weedge, 33-14 against Mister Iks’ Mighty Dragons. Nice reaction after last week.
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Wasn’t he the Cardiff player who tweeted from SA complaining about how he was dragged out there.
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Haven’t heard of any tweets, but yes, I think Matthew Morgan plays for Cardiff. It was some other Morgan – and having looked at the team sheet there are three of four to choose from, but probably the winger Luke Morgan.
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Morgans kill the blog deid.
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Morning. Mourning. For the blog. Not Morgan.
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Organ Morgan?
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