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 
Scarlets have scratched their game for the weekend against Bristol as they have only 14 players available.
Munster going ahead with their game v Wasps but only because they’ve named a squad packed with nippers. Damian de Allende, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Joey Carbery, Tadhg Beirne, Keith Earls, Dave Kilcoyne, and Andrew Conway are all available. Still would be a major achievement for them to win as they’ve over 30 players out.
Cardiff are in much the same boar. They’ve also got some top players in – Josh Adams, Tomos Williams, Ellis Jenkins, Dillon Lewis and Seb Davies – but the rest are kids or semi-pros. They’re playing Toulouse, so tough enough anyway with this.
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boat not boar. Still worried about the Queen taking on wild animals.
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Hamish Watson isn’t in the top three backrows in Edinburgh right now
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Speaking of Edinburgh, Jordan Venter is leaving the club immediately to join Bath, he isn’t likely to get any game time in Edinburgh.
I wish him well, he has a back story that no one should have, I hope it works put for him at his new club
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Is he even 20 yet? Seems to be a young man in a hurry.
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I see we’re establishing that we’re crap. Boring can wait for the next match.
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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
Well didn’t I get that badly wrong! Only lost four before lunch, was Buttler who had a cameo swing and England made 147 all out at tea. Only a Gabbatoir thunderstorm preventing more ritual humiliation on Day 1 so far.
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I refer the honourable gentleman to the reply I gave a few moments ago
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Getting bowled round your legs to a leg stump half volley while your head and front foot are outside off takes some amazing contortion.
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OT, he’s all over the place! From that image it looks like his bat is coming down too late as well – although that may save him from cracking his patella through mid wicket for four! Horrible, horrible technique!
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Is that a worse start to an Ashes than the (in)famous Steve Harmison ball in 2006?
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Yes.
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A senior political figure brings in the festive cheer
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Re Venter, Bath are saying they tried to sign him a year ago, when Edinburgh did.
He played his way into starting at Watsonians in the Super 6 and did well, but at Edinburgh he had Mark Bennett, Matt Currie, James Johnson, George Taylor, Chris Dean and James Lang ahead of him.
Johnson is 31, but the next is Bennett at 28 and he’s playing back at his best, Currie is going to be a star, Lang has looked very good in the hard carrying 12 stakes, Dean and Taylor are good squad players, Dean has been unlucky with injury, those who play and train with him say he’s one of the best they’ve seen, he might make it back into the Scotland squad, I think there is a fair bit to come from Taylor too. Then there is Henry Immelman, I was surprised to read he’s only 26.
Bottom line is that if Venter is ambitious he is better off at Bath who could lose Redpath, JJ and Ojomoh to international selection in the 6N.
Venter is also English-qualified already, rather than having to wait 5 years to qualify for Scotland.
Maybe he’ll choose to go back to South Africa.
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oops, I missed out Cammy Hutchison in the centres list, he just re-sign this week, another North Berwick laddie to make it as a pro, they do really well for a tiny wee seaside town club.
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Well look at all that centre depth
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Remember when Strauss / Beard was our best offering?
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Well look at all that centre depth
Not quite 4 world class hookers depth, but a decent start.
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“Remember when Strauss / Beard was our best offering?”
They’d both do better than Burns.
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Poor Burns.
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Just caught up on the Xmas Party news from last year. I can’t see anyone giving a shit about lockdowns now. And Labour have asked for an apology.
The sad thing is that if they called an election now I can see the Tories running a more unified and successful campaign and winning by the skin of their teeth.
Thinking of setting up my own country. The immigration process in Craigsland will be highly discriminatory on a case by case basis and we won’t be able to have a cricket team for a while.
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Plus, how the fuck can they continue the war on drugs with a straight face. There is going to be one very happy coke dealer being the sole provider to MPs and a shit load more lives ruined.
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This is the kind of mood a 2 hour Model Oversight Forum can put me in.
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Craigsland would be the biggest importer of drugz per capita inna world innit.
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The war on drugz nonsense is a blatant attempt at distraction
Will be interesting to see if this latest series of shit-shows actually ‘cuts through’ or ‘shifts the dial’ or whatever these political commentators call it. No holding my breath.
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You going for the seasteading option for craigsland, craigs?
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@craigs
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Chimpie – just going to build a bigger wall around my house and garden. Put up a flag. The boys like nerf guns so the real thing won’t be a step up. Quit my job, default on my mortgage, grow crops, raise taxes, put up a flag, write a constitution etc etc.
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OT – literally no one gives a shit
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craigs, you’ll be helping Global Britain when you negotiate a trade deal with it before your trade deal with the EU.
Have a watch of Passport to Pimlico. Not because it’ll be of assistance to you but it’s a really good film.
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CMW, I think Harmison’s was worse. He was one of the top players in the world 2005 to 2006 and then it all just went around the Champions Trophy in September/October and he was shot for that series. A 140 kph bowler is a big big plus while Burns is not such a big player for the team. Still poor by him but at least he wasn’t hanging around for long offending my aesthetic sensibilities.
And as bad as Harmison’s ball was it’s Adelaide in 2006 that was the nadirest of the many nadirs on that tour.
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@TomP – Harmison’s is a(n even) worse piece of cricket, but losing a wicket to the first ball really is a worse start.
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Last time it happened was in 1936, apparently. England ended up winning the test (but lost the series 3-2).
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Jesus, the series stats for 2006/07 are bleak. 4 Aussies batters with higher averages than England’s best, 2 more better than England’s next best. All 4 main Aussie bowlers with comfortably better averages and easily more wickets than England’s champion.
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Looking at that image of Burns – well, it’s a long time since I watched much cricket and even longer since I played (badly) but that’s looks a bad shot at any standard. Suppose he’s expecting it to go straight and attempting a leg side slog (not sure how else you’d get your feet in that position)
Great photo though….
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I haven’t seen the footage, only that pic, but I’d hope Starc was bowling around the wicket and even then it’s a very bad shot..
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I’ve now seen the footage.It’s uglier than I thought.
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@Trisk – he’s just trying to clip it off his legs which is what needed to be done to it at least on line. He misses it because he’s got too far across though you could argue that he misjudged the length as well as it was more yorker length than half-volley so he perhaps needed to block it to mid-on or back up the pitch. Would have needed to be in line either way.
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Men’s and Women’s Dream Teams of ’21, plus assorted other gongs
https://www.world.rugby/news/675123/first-world-rugby-awards-2021-winners-unveiled-as-week-of-celebration-kicks-off
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@Refit – If they wanted to make their point sensibly they’d show both players from in front or both from the side.
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@cmw
You are right, of course. But we do have enough info to see that Ian Ronald Bell’s centre of mass is around the middle of his pelvic area, while Rory Burns’s centre of mass is dangling precariously in mid air over to the offside somewhere.
When the ball hit the stumps Rory actually had his back to the bowler, which is some feat.
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@OT – Obviously it’s a poor shot. However, I reckon it would be possible for the majority of Burns’ shots to find a still where everything is more or less in the right place – it’s the complicated process of it getting there that I would imagine makes it more likely there will be occasions when it doesn’t happen. the remarkable thing to my eyes is how successful Burns actually is given what a mess his technique looks.
The ‘tradition’/’modernity’ thing irritates me anyway – there were loads of players with unorthodox techniques failing for England long before Bell came along and didn’t quite live up to his potential and there was one unorthodox player in particular who played alongside him who was a good bit more successful than he was.
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@cmw
KP was obviously the very good unorthodox player you’re referring to. I’ve had a few chats with our coaches about him and it’s fair to say he’s changed a few minds about what you coach kids to do. But KP does admit to having one technique stipulation – he doesn’t care where his feet are or even what direction the bat is coming down from. However he will always try and get his head over the ball. Sibley and Burns will always be quite unstable because their head position is all wrong meaning that they are always going to be falling down while hitting a shot. This video should start at the right spot that explains KP’s approach:
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Got my kids this for Xmas. They are going to have so much fun sharing it with me on the day.
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@OT – I agree about there being plenty that is orthodox about KP’s batting and certainly wouldn’t want to push a comparison with Burns very far!
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Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has apologised for going clubbing after coming into close contact with a Covid-19 case.
Sanna Marin went on a night out in Helsinki on Saturday, hours after her foreign minister had tested positive.
She was initially told she did not need to isolate because she had been fully vaccinated, but later missed a text that advised her to do so.
Critics questioned her judgement for not isolating until testing negative.
Ok, the Fins are waaaaaaaaaayyyyy cooler than us.
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@Ticht, I just saw the World XV link you posted. Five Boks in it? Not bad for a bunch of knuckle dragging luddites in the age of footloose fancy flingabout!
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Four hours (I think) to the Aussie innings. England will keep it tight for the first 10 or 12 overs, but without reward before the runs start flowing.
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Just looked up Sanna Marin. She was born a few weeks after i finished school. I’m officially middle-aged. Or worse.
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