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 
@Slade re. Steyn – what for?
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Dropping the knee on Smith.
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Peter O’Mahony (Ireland);
Zander Fagerson (Scotland);
Paul Willemse (France);
Juan Cruz Mallia (Argentina);
Eroni Sau (Fij).
now Rob Valetini for Oz
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“Dropping the knee on Smith.”
It was completely senseless and probably deserves some kind of consequence
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Looks like Oz are going to be down to 13 for 10 mins.
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Eye on the ball. Yellow card.
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re. Steyn – yellow for me.
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And Wales score!
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Re Steyn: should defo have been a card. But also one for the tackle on Etzebeth, because he was already tackled and it didn’t need to be done.
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Haven’t watched the Eng / Bolton game yet but it sounds like a backs to the wall classic. Maybe Courtney is our best capn. Who’d have thunk it?
Commiserations Deebs.
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Fucking Bolton?
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DAB
Steyn slid in at speed after the tackle and both knees into Smith’s back. Made absolutely no attempt to bale out
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Fouls for stupidity I can understand in their way; fouls of malice aiming at injuring a key player are just not on
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Oz are making a mess of this, when they aren’t being very good.
Referees doing well.
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That was an odd try. Seems legit though.
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They really are jammy bastards, Wales
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Ticht – well put!
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yep, spawny gets I was about to say. Would have been funny if Tompkins had stopped and given the ball to the ref. He seemed as surprised as anyone.
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I agree with Larkham there, Mike Adamson got that wrong
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Nigel Walker – pace man
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Hmm, that really should be red.
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That feels like a red to me.
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Wales are really getting the rub of the green here.
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I think that should have been two cards.
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Think there could have been two yellows (or possibly even two reds) there.
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Nick White with the classic 9 support line
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Lovely try from the Aussies!
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Goose-stepping Australians! (According to Shanks.)
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Game on , nice by Kirtley. This really could be a good Wallaby side in a year or so if they learn to cut out all the stupid stuff.
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Skelton stupid there
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Wobblies would have had walked this without their discipline problems – even allowing for the red.
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That was lovely
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Bill McLaren would call that “ill-mannered booing”
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Beale again.
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What a finish to this match!
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All three games I’ve watched today have gone down to the wire, great stuff.
Oz should have won that, even with 14 against 15 for so long, but the spoils go to Wales, congrats to the Welsh fans
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Well done Wales and hard luck Australia. Either team would have been a worthy winner of that.
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Nice for Priestland and Happy Ianto. Moral victory to the Wallabies tho. Second great game of the day.
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That Aussie conversion that hit the post was the difference.
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This should be another cracker.
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Allez la France!
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Haka just doesn’t look as menacing in light grey shirts.
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Allez.
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Great start for Les Bleus !
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TRY France!
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Good lord, could they have made the advertising hoardings more obnoxious?
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Allez ya Bass
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Allez! Allez!
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If Ireland have been my team of the series so far, Will Jordan gets the individual gong
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I like Kayser as a commentator. He has such infectious enthusiasm.
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