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 
As I said – I can’t recall ever seeing a ref call that kind of bat down (and emphasis on “down”) anything other than a knock on /forward. Obviously in club games – there’s no chance to review, so no ref is going to let it go unless it lands waaay behind.
Like VAR in soccer with offside – there’s a bit of “let play run on and check it later” with the TMO sometimes. I guess there’s a thin line between using the TMO for something you missed rather than something you’re not certain about.
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@Trisk – While I agree in general, in this instance Mike Adamson seemed very convinced it had gone backwards. I was surprised by that and I guess we’ll never know for absolute certain what he’d have done if there was no TMO, but it’s how it was.
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It’s a weird one because although it feels wrong it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that it’s actually a remarkably good decision.
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We’re the Ben Whitehouse area of “medium force”….. to which Billy Holland replied “What’s that?”
A red was ‘proper order’ for that. Probably a yellow for Ala’atoa – he was around neck
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@trisk – I agree, but it did seem to be where the ref was coming from with his ‘it’s sort of an attempt to wrap’ line of reasoning.
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Steyn didn’t even get cited for it. Once again, the inconsistencies in World Rugby are frustrating.
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Think if the ref had gone for a red and a yellow in the prop incident than Wales would actually have had a man advantage for slightly longer than they did, think it was just past 60 minutes. Would still probably have suited Aus better though as they’re better at using the space.
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I’ve just been speaking to a friend who is an instrument maker. He lost an order to Ireland because the customer had just been made aware of the fact that he’d have to pay 23% vat and 12% import duty. He’s not a large scale operation, he’s a one man band (pardon the pun) who makes less than a dozen bespoke instruments a year.
About a third of his clients came from Europe.
He’s not sure what additional tariffs will apply come January.
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This is one of the worst examples of the deliberate knock-down being refereed:
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The ref was reported to say it was against the gave the card because it was negative play that went “against the spirit of the game”.
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Never mind, Ticht. I’m sure your mate will be consoled by the fact our ‘Glorious Leader’* has been to Peppa Pig Land/World.
*That bit was sarcasm, by the way.
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Would moving to Northern Ireland help? Just an idea.
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Moving Johnson to Northern Ireland (or preferably to the middle of the ‘bridge’) probably would help.
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BRB has been keeping secrets according to the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/nov/23/carmarthenshire-west-wales-llandeilo-laugharne-ferrytown
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S’got hills and sheep and beaches apparently.
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And a ‘Men’s shed’.
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Don’t know why people can’t just say melbury if that’s what they mean.
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BB, was out earlier and picked up a cheapo copy of James Hook’s debut novel. You didn’t mention the recommendation from Sam Warburton.
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I guess out of the players prepared to read it Warbs must have finished it first.
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Yeah, we’ve gotten a few letters from An Post saying they’re keeping the package until we cough up.
My wife orders photos from Snapfish about once a quarter. My recollection is that Snapfish pay the difference.
I’ve used Amazon.de (yeah, mea maxima culpa1) – not sure it’s cheaper but it’s less hassle.
Same with SportsDirect (yes, yes…..I’m a bad person) – the have a dot.ie website (assume it’s just a front) but stuff comes w/o any requests for additional payment.
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Our rugby club is doing a push for us to buy kit and other stuff before Christmas. Latest email says get the hoodies now because they don’t know when they’ll re-up because of Brexit and Covid.
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Who’s the supplier?
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Tomp – good to see a yellow in that instance. Looking at Nick Tompkins, I think that and interception should only count if you the ball doesn’t bounce. I.e. in this case he clearly puts his hand in the way and picks the ball up later. Regardless of whether it goes backwards that should be a penalty in my view.
But the Aussies shouldn’t have let him run in like that either.
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ToriesRUs.com can get it to you cheap through their offshore tax haven that’s Proudly Brexit.
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If I was running a cash-strapped organisation that had been hit hard by a global pandemic I too would try and get people to spend their cash sooner rather than later.
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Chimpie, comparing your pack vs SA and Englands pack vs SA, you guys are streets ahead. Reckon wehave had second row issues for a while, a good 8 also helps. Alright having Curry there as an extra flanker, but 8 has a lot more to it than just being a mobile tackling jackling machine.
Also, Finn was crap. He really should be better. I think Scotland may be better served with Hastings at ten, Finn often looks like he doesn’t give a shit, and his “Le Genie” moments, becoming fewer and farther between, don’t make up for his apparent sloppy attitude. ( I am sure he really does give a shit, maybe he needs a break to refocus).
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Pfft. To your first part
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As for Finn he can be frustrating.
Most of the time he’s playing the plan & some of his kicking from hand these days is fantastic, he’s cut out a lot of the aimless stuff & missed touch finders. He did a superb 50/22 vs Oz and regularly gets great length & position.
He does occasionally go off piste & try too hard but it’s a minority of the time.
confess I haven’t seen the SA game bar the highlights but if it was anything like the Japan game we didn’t get enough possession as the pack wasn’t dominating sufficiently.
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Or rather getting minced in the SA game from the sound of it.
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OT, I think that’s part of it, of course. Not too cash-strapped this organisation, or rather there’s a lot of money in the membership.
trisk, BLK is the match-day kit provider. Dunno where they’re from. Hoodies and all that kind of stuff I have no idea.
The BLK socks weren’t a good fit for my boy so I got some from O’Neills. I was surprised they could have the 3 stripes and then read up on the story of how they weren’t bullied by Adidas.
http://www.prideinthejersey.com/O-Neills-Adidas.html
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I know this is likely to be a minority report, but is it possible that Russell is one of those players who is electric at club level, but can’t quite reach the same heights at international level, despite the odd sprinkling of stardust? To be honest, I didn’t think he made much difference in the 3rd Lions Test, and two weeks ago, whilst some nice touches, didn’t take the match by the scruff of its neck and dominate proceedings.
I’ll view responses from behind the sofa.
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The theory in the 3rd Lions test is he got told to rein it in by the coaches at half time. He did have an impact when he first came on and did give the pass to Liam Williams that saw the two-on-one that, let’s be charitable, South Africa did well to snuff out.
There’re a fair few examples of his magic at international level – v England in 2018 and 2019 I suppose are the classics – but he also played a very decent pragmatic game v England in 2021 as well.
He sometimes looks as if it doesn’t really matter that much to him, which is an attitude I quite admire but must be frustrating if you’re a fan of his team.
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Sbt – I don’t think many packs go fully toe to toe with the boks. Would prefer Dombrandt at 8 and Lawes at lock but only just. Lawes is playing great at 6 at the moment and Curry and Underhill are also good. We missed Genge and George but otherwise I thought we did as good as could be expected.
Weirdly the Boks ended the game with 3 penalties all of a sudden. Kolisi taking someone out in the air, Steyn with the ol knee and Etzebeth taking out the receiver of the restart in the air again. Wonder if they get the yips because it’s happened more than once.
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Deebs is saying Russell is like Sexton basically.
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Yeah that’s my point though – you can pick out his highlights quite easily, but it doesn’t suggest a 10 who consistently dominates matches, rather one capable of turning it on when the mood takes him?
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@Craigs – without the accuracy.
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Finn’s always looked like that, though. He did make a difference for the Lions in the first half of the Third Test – think I saw more off-loads and inside passes during that half hour than they had in the other two games put together.
Don’t think he had his best AI series, but he was directly involved in quite a number of out tries. The thing I didn’t like was him arguing with Hoggy over taking the penalty at the end of the Japan game. He had to be told by his captain a couple of times to take the pen.
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Stroppy little bugger. Eben shoulda hit him harder.
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Who’s a 10 that genuinely dominates test matches? Perhaps Sexton. Barrett I wouldn’t say so. Mo’unga, yes-ish but mostly v Aus. Possibly Ntamack but he’s had a few hit-and-miss performances, still young, mind. Quade was good in the RC this year but we might put down to Kerevi.
With the Lions 3rd test, Mostert got HIAed or blood replaced by Kwagga at about the same time as Russell came in, the Lions got quick ball and Russell could do his stuff around the half way line.
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I was trying to resurrect an age old argument between Larry and the Cat about Sexton being either totally amazing or a great club player but not good internationally.
I accept that people probably don’t remember it but it really was a classic of the genre.
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Squidges fave fly half dominates matches. Apart from one I can’t remember and was totally and completely avenged last Saturday.
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Test
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I think you’re pretty wide if the mark v Finn Deebee, if anything he’s more like Dalglish with Liverpool and Scotland, the national team weren’t as good as the club team
But that is unfair too, you never, ever see a fly half dominate a game behind a struggling pack, you might see them play ok or well, but seldom if ever brilliantly on the back foot
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I think Sexton has dominated a lot of games although I realise they do kick a lot from 9 most of the time. In his time Dan Biggar has dragged Wales kicking and screaming through some games though largely ones ‘dominated’ by the opposition. There have been Scotland games where everything good seemed to start with Russell, he still seems to be behind most of their scores though the games where it was more prevalent were when they played more open a few years ago. The highlights suggested he did make a big difference for the Lions though I thought people made too much of ‘Biggar only having passed twice’ or whatever as once you looked at the stats you’d find the ball had hardly made it as far as Biggar anyway.
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Craigs – I remember Sexton as ‘PGCP’ (pretty good club player) and wasn’t necessarily disagreeing with it as I thought ROG was better at managing, and kicking. Obviously once Sexton was given the starting place, he got better at both.
As for Finn, he strikes me as that really annoying bloke in the pub who’s pissed by six o’clock and thinks he’s god’s gift to women. He has that shit-eating grin.
That’s not to say that he doesn’t display large amounts of talent here and there, but….
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Finn certainly grinned a lot the time he didn’t get sent off. By and large though I think there’s something great about not necessarily looking like you have to try. It doesn’t mean he isn’t trying or doesn’t work hard, there are players in all sports who have this thing about them.
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Sam Warburton’s favourite debut novelist dominated the 2007 Wales-England game. It just didn’t really happen again though he did dominate the first twenty minutes of a game I went to at Murrayfield before it descended into turgid drivel from both sides that felt like it would never end.
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There aren’t many world-beating (TM Tories) fly-halves at the moment. Could argue for Sexton, but he’s always injured (see also my gripes about targetting half-backs). Ntamack is good, but France tend to use their scrum-halves in the fly-half role as far as gethsemane goes.
ROG and Wilko and Carter were all imperious.
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Finn’s demeanour is just how he is, look at his physique, in a muscle-bound sport he has arms like fuse wire, he just doesn’t get into that stuff at all.
He smiles and laughs during a game, he doesn’t let things get on top of him
It’s not just coz he’s Scottish, I really like that he’s different
He told Hoggy after the game on Saturday that when he had three senior players including his captain telling him to take the points rather than go for the corner, he was winding them up for a laugh, he had every intention of taking the three
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Marcus Smith will be the GOAT by the time he finishes
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