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 
France (women) tonk the ABs again, 29/7.
How I wish the men could get the same result!
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Offside gives SA territory and possession. Brainless and hopeless.
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South Africa obviously tired after their exertions of last week….
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Jesus, that maul.
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I don’t feel so bad about last week now
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Hmm. SA definitely bossing the fizzicality now.
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I did not expect SA *not* to score there.
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Will they go red?
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I can’t see how that can be a red.
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Not even a penalty! Unbelievable!
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Get in. Totally against the run of play.
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Great line
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Good try.
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And that wasn’t bad eitehr.
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SA are SO much the better team. Thoroughly deserved try. England pack just blown away this half.
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Does Itoje have a brain??
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Phew, that was a close escape.
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Eben should have just dipped the feckin shoulder there
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@Dab – it’s full of poetry.
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If Sia gets a card here, SA twitter is going to explode.
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Could argue he’s lucky there. Not only was it a tackle in the air, he also let him go and then Marchant fell on his shoulder/face.
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Well, it’s inconsistent reffing, to say the least.
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Our lineout is a thing of horror.
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I hate that kind of fouling
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Itoje got away with that. Whistle had blown and he comes right round the ruck and dives in.
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I can’t believe we scraped that.
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Well, that was a match decided by the ref.
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Thaum, Brace matches usually are.
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A couple of players put on their big boy pants in the last five minutes there, Etzebeth at the lineout and Smith nailing what would be a straightforward penalty in most circumstances, but not at that point in the game.
Well done England
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England deserved that on balance. Game of fine margins, but 3 tries to 1 is good enough for me.
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you never win anything with young lads
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Refit – true.
Anyway, well done England, and I’ll look forward to 6N. :-)
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SA robbed! England showed some heart and the tries were terrific, but SA pack blew us away second half.
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And yet had Pollard made his kicks (and he would have expected to make them) SA would have won. England’s last try was a beauty, but I think they got away with that a bit.
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good heart in the face of a fierce physical testing – you could see SA felt it slipping away ‘cos their penalty count started to go up………………
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Well done England. Brutalised in the 2nd half but the weapons to take a chance.
That line looked just like BOD’s for the Lions Vs Oz (without George Smith’s dreads flying around as he misses the tackle)
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There’s a kid in the crowd in Cardiff carrying a sign saying My mum gifted me her ticket. Please can she have your shirt LR Zammit?
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Phew, sneaked that one. Don’t think ref decided it, Kolisi decision was harsh, but I don’t think that affected the result, and other dodgy decisions evened out either way over the game. Pollards off day cost them the game, but England defence while being steamrollered was impressive. Marchants sidestep as he received the pass was magic as well. Backs superb, still looking underpowered at the breakdown, everyone does against SA.
Well played both sides, great game.
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Good effort by England. Bright start and hung in there. Slade was excellent in all 3 tries.
England’s kicking game was better than South Africa’s for almost the whole game and that was a big part of the win.
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Kolisi looked a stone cold yellow to me. I was a bit surprised at the no penalty for the swinging arm when they stopped to look at it but it didn’t look like much at full speed.
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Please God the 10 shirt is nailed to Smith from now on!
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Well I hope those Springboks are pleased with themselves for mucking up my Bru picks
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Dab, except for when you play Scotland
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Ooh, that’s a bad start for Wales.
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Beautifully worked try that
Nick white has really stepped up this year.
Tupo is great to watch in the carry
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I hope Steyn gets cited
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Marchant was the player I always thought he was – a big threat to Slade’s earlier career
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I think that’s the sixth player to get sent off against Wales this year
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A red awarded!
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Now that’s a stone cold red to me. Reckless.
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