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 
I had a busy weekend of rugby (2 U14 games on Sat plus the senior game yesterday).
At U14 level we play 50 mins – 3 x 17 (the idea is you take the score after 35 mins- and then play subs /fringe players in the remainder). Our older U14 team – went up the road to Corca Dhuibhne – lovely location – dire pitch. Lost 12-0 (won the 3rd third 17-0 frustratingly).
That’s their 3rd defeat out of 7 – and like all their defeats you can see the flaws in the way they play. We’ve several very strong ball carriers – but they overdo it. They do one of two things – run away from their support or don’t recognize that once stopped they need to take the tackle and present the ball or pass. In trying to make 1 or 2 more metres, they get held up – give the initiative to the defending team – it’s a maul or slow ruck and the opposition get bodies in. Our supporting runners need to do better but it’s hard run support good lines when someone is zig zagging all over the place and won’t pass until too late.
Younger U14 team (all U13s) won 29-15. They’ve 4 good individuals (one very good) but more than that their teamwork is good – they’re looking to pass (or maybe just “get rid”) but it’s effective – even though they’re playing U14s team with a mix of both ages – they’ve acquitted themselves well .
Seniors had a decent win also against Corca Dhuibhne – from 12-0 down. Slow starts are the Killarney way….. Watching them at times, it’s too frantic …. tap and go from a penalty on your own 10m line when a decent kick gets you up into the opposition half.
Also managed to get to a local GAA match – town rivals playing – one going down next level. Opposition imploded in the end – one player picked up 2 yellows (second for what would probably have gotten a red in rugby – high, no wrap etc) , then opposition star player got in an altercation after winning a free – swung an arm – may have missed, may have connected – on the sideline in front of ref and linesman – straight red.
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Another beauty from the European cricket thingy
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Guten Morgan.
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Morgan kills blog again……
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Don’t mention the Morgans!
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Bloody Welsh…
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AAGGGHHHH!
In my current book, I’ve just read, ‘I’ll take on the Morgans.‘
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*Waves imaginary cuddly osprey*
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Morgan the imaginary cuddly osprey, that’s him.
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The Ospreys’ mascot is absolutely terrifying-looking. Must give the kiddies nightmares.
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Certainly seems to have given the blog nightmares…
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A sad sad day yesterday as the death of one of France’s greatest modern Mathematicians, Jacques Tits, was announced.
You’ll know him from some of his work like the Tits group, the Tits alternative and the Kneser-Tits Conjecture.
Haven’t felt a death like this since George Rude died.
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Well I can’t beat that (and who would want to?), but John Miles of ‘Music’ fame died.
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The Saffrication of Scotland continues apace with another SA forward on his way there. JP du Preez, a 6’10”, 122kg lock is joining from Sale Sharks:
“I’m really excited to be joining Glasgow Warriors,” du Preez said of the move. “Glasgow play a style of rugby that I like to play – running rugby with a hard and physical edge.
“I like to think I’ll compliment their style of play and I believe I bring strong lineout presence and a physicality in both attack and defence.
I think you’ve been complimentary enough already, JP.
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“John Miles of ‘Music’ fame died.”
Like so many other hits of the 1970s the brass band arrangement is the best way to listen to this.
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Sale have plenty of spare South Africans lying about. They won’t miss one.
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Yip, JP McPreece may be a good Black Friday Sale. Although to be honest, I didn’t really know him until I read the article I quoted from. You can be a tall, heavy lump and talk about fizzicality all you like, doesn’t necessarily make you any good. Look at Maro Itoje, for example.
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@cmw
Ouch. Not just the 70s either. Our brass band once entered a competition and one of the pieces our conductor chose was a particularly egregious arrangement of “Flashdance… What a Feeling”. The adjudicator was very complementary about the first piece but then seemed to lose his ability to speak. He then decided to say “I thought it was a very peculiar choice of music for this festival”.
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Ashes kicks off tomorrow, assuming the weather plays its part. I for one am really looking forward to it. It’s on my bucket list to watch a day’s play at Lord’s, preferably an Ashes day. Doesn’t look like England will give the Aussies much to worry about this time round, if all the doomsdayers on the Graun are anything to go by: apparently Wood, Stokes and Anderson are all injury liabilities, Broad is useless and petulant in Aussie conditions and outside of Root, nobody with 3 Lions on their shirts has figured out which end of the bat to hold. Other than Stokes, who will be injured. I really hope not!
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Few things to notice from that Grimethorpe performance:
– lots of attention to detail on the haircuts. The band members obviously took this performance very seriously.
– Nice smiling between the percussionists after one of them plays a trivial bit on a crescent shaped tambourine. Also one of them appears to play no role in the performance until he hits the tam-tam on the final note of the piece (CMW – do check, I may be wrong on this one).
– Not only did they have a drumkit they also had a SEPARATE standing snare drum. Unheard of – you’d always play the snare on the kit. This lot mean business.
– Most percussionists just bring their stick bag on stage and leave it on the floor or a chair. No this lot had a specific stand JUST FOR THE STICKS.
– As with all brass bands the soprano cornet player takes himself very seriously indeed. I bet he has comments to make on everyone and everything at all times.
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I’m not sure they used the separate snare in that piece so maybe they were using it in another one that didn’t ‘require’ the kit at all?
There is some glock and xylophone, the separate bass drum gets a whack, someone hits a triangle at some point I think, the timps get used and we have our happy tambourine player so I reckon they do all more or less keep vaguely occupied though it’s hard to tell the full division of labour.
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@Deebee – Wood absolutely is an injury liability and never makes it through a series. Nobody knows how fit Stokes is and he hasn’t generally bowled that much the last few years anyway though occasionally he bowls quite a ,lot so it’s hard to know how that relates to fitness. Anderson seems to be getting left out of the first test – whether that’s injury or rotation (i.e. saving him for Adelaide, but will he then be undercooked?) we don’t know. From what I saw in the summer I’d also be very surprised if Robinson can play all the games without his pace dropping down into the 70s.
Broad’s record in Aus isn’t helped by only having played the first couple of tests which were on very flat pitches in England’s one good series there in his time (2010/11). He hasn’t managed to make up for it since though and might now be past it anyway.
Our batting is pretty rubbish – Stokes is easily the next best player after Root but hasn’t played for ages and he doesn’t have that great an overall record though it is good just on the last few years. Root himself hasn’t made a hundred in Aus. Someone else may well come good, but there is no particular reason to think any of them will.
Aus have some iffy batsmen, but they also have three great/very good ones. They also have four proper test bowlers who these days normally all stay fit. Not many teams have as many as seven top class players which I would say they do (and that’s if none of the others prove to be up to it which is not a given). I would still bracket them with India, NZ a bit behind and England quite some way further back.
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Wise words, CMW and agreed 100% with your analysis. It’s also Test cricket, so you can’t paper over the cracks as easily as you can in shorter formats and hope that one good blast will see you home, especially not over five Tests. That said, Warner is nearing the end of his career and perhaps won’t have the durability to use his hand-eye co-ordination as a primary weapon throughout the series, his opening partner Marcus Harris averages 24 in 10 Tests (and under 40 in FC matches), Marnus Labuschagne is admittedly superb and scoring for fun in Ausstralian conditions, Travis Head averages less than 40, Steven Peter Devereux Smith, Steve to his mates, has been in scratchy form for about a year now, Cameron Green is a rookie with 4 Tests and a batting average of 25 outside of his one good knock (84), Alex Carey is a 30-year old Test debutant rushed in to replace dick-pic Paine, then the four bowlers – who are a bloody good unit.
If England’s bowlers can get a couple of early wickets and maintain discipline, they could unsettle this line up, especially if they can get 2 of Warner, Marnus and Smith cheaply. On the other side of the ledger, you’ve got a very good Australian attack (not Warne, McGrath, Gillespie etc. good, but still very good) up against a, shall we say, brittle English batting card. Root is peerless at present, we know what Stokes can do when the mood takes him (and technically he’s pretty sound too), but two of the other top 6 need to make a step up this series – Rory Burns would be my favourite to do so from a viewing perspective, but would also like to see Dawid Malan and Ollie Pope have good returns. Also Hameed to nail down the other opener spot.
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Of course, if England bat first tomorrow and lose five before lunch, see Stokes and/or Pope have a lavish few swings with the tail and collapse to 120-odd all out around tea on the first day, it kinda blows everything up in my face. A good result for England may actually two days lost to rain and a draw that sees both batsmen and bowlers get some decent time in the middle to get used to conditions and get some work under the belt.
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@Deebee – I accept there are question marks against Smith and Warner at the moment, but it’s very easy to imagine them both scoring very heavily. Smith is obviously the biggest problem as compared to other players how he gets on seems much more to do with him than it does the bowling.
I would probably argue that Starc and Lyon are the critical bowlers. We know that Cummins and Hazlewood will almost certainly bowl well, take wickets and not give much away. England need to find a way to score off Lyon whether that’s hitting or nurdling or whatever. That way if Starc’s having one of his bad days he will still have to bowl more. Of course he may be on song and is very good when he is, but he is the one there’s a chance to get after. Also the less Lyon is allowed to tie England down the more the chance of Cummins and Hazlewood getting overbowled. I imagine Root will sweep Lyon as he does all the spinners, but it’s a dangerous game with the extra bounce out there so I can see him getting out doing it.
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“Of course, if England bat first tomorrow and lose five before lunch, see Stokes and/or Pope have a lavish few swings with the tail and collapse to 120-odd all out around tea on the first day”
I reckon that at some point our openers will last long enough to show the Aussies that we’re boring as well as crap. It might not be the first game though and either way the same total will be achievable.
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The Queen can take on a swan – she can break one of their wings with her arm – so I reckon she’d do a wolf easily. A bear’ll be a tougher ask for the long-serving monarch. I’d expect the corgis to be of limited use against an ursine foe and it’s expecting a lot for a 95-year-old great-grandmother to go mano-a-mano with a 300-kg beast. Unless Her Majesty was packing heat. In which case, it’ll be a case of the Prince Andrews for the veteran Defender of the Faith. No sweat.
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Pretty sure that corgis were originally bred to herd bears in South Wales so I reckon they’ll all be OK.
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My hope for the Ashes is Hameed plays a couple of good long innings. He’s got a lovely technique, very easy to watch.
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Lord Harland mentioned the Queen and the corgis being up at Balmoral. Yes, the corgis can do it down Pembroke way but up in Scotland?
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A cold wet Tuesday night in Aberdeenshire? Only one way to find out.
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Hameed does have a nice way of playing, but he usually also scores very slowly. I want him to do well, but if I’d paid for a ticket I might be OK with the idea of him getting out early.
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I prefer the style to the runs. Burns and Sibley was painful viewing. Smith
Maybe the thing to do is what flair does with soccer. Record the day’s play and fast forward between balls, changes of end, drink sessions. Think you could get through in pretty quick time.
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Style + Runs is, of course, best but am happy to watch dull but technically correct batting.
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Hameed is one of those players that makes you want to applaud whenever he does a forward defensive. Head over the ball, front foot pointing in the direction he’s facing, bat ALONGSIDE the front pad.
Burns and Sibley, on the other hand, often fall to one side when playing a forward defensive. Sibley in particular found some really inventive ways to get out playing a ball outside leg stump while his head was outside off stump. Takes a certain genius.
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Someone mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but now confirmed, Handre Pollard is Joining The Journey!
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Looking through the comments, it seems the Tiggers fans are as happy at him arriving as Flair no doubt is him leaving French rugby!
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Pollard’s comments were pure marketing gibberish. I’ll spare you all.
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Brass bands eh?
The musicianship can be terrific, there is a band that plays in Brighton Pavilion park and they swing like a motherfucker, to use a phrase Miles Davis frequently quoted in his autobiography.
On the whole I find them a bit too melancholic for my taste, they remind me of of the Salvation Army band that used to play every Sunday morning across from my grandparents house, at the old folks home. They didn’t swing like motherfuckers very often.
It’s like tearooms and loudly ticking clocks on the mantelshelf, I find it all a bit too sad.
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@ticht
That’s the soprano cornet and first cornets doing that. Complete show offs – all aftershave and hair gel. The Bb basses on the other hand normally do like a beer.
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Pollard joining Journey? Does that mean he won’t stop believing (in Leicester)?*
*Other awful puns based on Journey song titles are no doubt available.
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Deebee, am quite happy Pollard leaves Montellier. You know I prefer running and passing rugby to endless kicking. Might be necessary in wintery Leicester but it is unforgivable in much drier Montpellier.
I don’t mind imports as long as they bring some fun and fantasy. Give me Beale or Finn anytime but spare me the AFP. We’ve had too many of these in key positions, constantly injured Sexton, well past his best Carter, aging Sanchez etc…
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I think that, for Tigers and the way they play / are developing, Pollard is a step down from Ford.
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Flair the funny thing is that when Pollard first emerged he was a great attacking 10, either taking it up himself or moving it wider. Injuries haven’t helped, nor has the Bok game plan, but he has the ability to attack if given the chance. Haven’t seen much of him in France so can’t comment on that.
Ironically, Morne Steyn was a terrific distributor and attacking 10 when he was at the Bulls, having a huge role in their 3 Super Rugby trophies, before moving north and being remembered only as a metronomic kicker.
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Where’s Ford going?
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Sale
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https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/george-ford-leicester-sale-rugby-25612410
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Ford for Sale? Nah, you’ve got the lyric wrong.
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From a magazine:
Rugby World’s 100 Best Players in the World Right Now – Top 20
1. Antoine Dupont
2. Ardie Savea
3. Maro Itoje
4. Michael Hooper
5. Taniela Tupou
6. Aaron Smith
7. Lukhanyo Am
8. Cheslin Kolbe
9. Tom Curry
10. Sam Whitelock
11. Abby Dow
12. Brodie Retallick
13. Rose Bernadou
14. Beauden Barrett
15. Richie Mo’unga
16. Jerry Tuwai
17. Eben Etzebeth
18. Hamish Watson
19. Courtney Lawes
20. Josh Adams
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