It’s Christmas in July as the Northern behemoths head south to upside-down-world and a feast of rugby! With this being the last July tour before the World Cup next year in France, there are markers to be put down, there are points to be made and there are matches to be won! Not the usual ‘development tours’ we see, but full-blooded Tests, with a capital T and an exclamation mark to boot. So who’ll be the turkeys (not Türkiye, as they’re not playing anyway), who’ll get a stuffing and who’ll provide the trimmings and the sauce? A veritable smorgasbord awaits:
Romania v Italy
After slaying the Welsh dragon in February, there’ll be a sprightly step in the Italian dressing room before facing off with a Romanian side that lost its last two matches (narrowly to let’s-replace-Italy-with-Georgia, and more convincingly to Spain) to end a decent five match winning streak prior to that. Solid second tier, but not enough to get past Italy, who broke a 36-match losing streak at the Principality with THAT try. It won’t be a canter, but Italy should start their summer series with a fairly comfortable win: Italy by 15 over Romania
Australia ‘A’ v Samoa
Much talk around the improvement of Australian sides in Super Rugby this year, but frankly I’m not sure where that came from. A couple of wins against Kiwi sides masked the fact that they only got one side in the semis and propped up the bottom of the combined table along with the Samoan and Fijian sides. The Brumbies were the only consistent side in Australia, but they’ll have too much depth anyway to field an ‘A’ side that will see off Samoa easily enough. No idea what to expect from Samoa, or who they’ve selected, but history tells us they’ll be blood and thunder for 60 minutes, whilst still getting the wrong end of the scoreboard and cards, and fade away as the superior conditioning and game plan of the Aussies takes control: Australia ‘A’ by 23
Fiji v Tonga
A spicy affair for sure, although Fiji have emerged as the most consistent of the Pacific Island sides in recent years, combining some electric running from all 15 (or 23) players at times, with brutal defence and a set piece that’s better than most of their neighbours. It’ll be fierce, it’ll be fast, it’ll be fun to watch from afar, but ultimately Fiji will have too much: Fiji by 13
Japan v France
Two of the world’s great cultures and two of the world’s great cuisines. Most recent and next hosts of rugby’s great showpiece. Two sides renowned for silky skills and derring-do with ball in hand, but that’s where it ends, I’m afraid. France are building up a fearsome head of steam in the lead up to their home World Cup and have oodles of talent and power in most positions, led by Dupont and Ntamack at 9 and 10, behind a pack that won’t step back for anyone. Japan have been solid recently, with good wins over second-tier sides and running the likes of Scotland, Australia and Ireland relatively close (bar one blowout against Ireland), so they have the wherewithal to mix it with the big boys. However, this is a France on a mission and they should stroll away with it in the end: France by 33
New Zealand v Ireland
One of the most eagerly awaited July series, with Ireland having got the measure of the Kiwis in recent years. But not in New Zealand. Both sides come into the series with question marks hanging over them – the All Black pack got dusted in Dublin and flayed in France last year and they’ve gone with Scott Barrett at 6 in an effort to bolster the lineout and scrum. Worked a treat in the 2019 Semi against England, didn’t it? Ireland’s Leinster-dominated side has struggled against top packs, but they’ll probably fancy they’ve got the wood on the Kiwis up front. The AB backline has suffered some Covid disruptions, but such is the depth of talent in New Zealand, they’ll be fine there. The noises coming out of New Zealand are ominous and they’ll throw everything at Ireland this week. Perhaps overly generous, but it’s New Zealand by 17
Australia v England
Another hugely anticipated match as Eddie’s eagles got their wings clipped in the 6N, amidst rumblings around his sometimes leftfield selections. Australia have been building quietly under Dave Rennie and demolished a Bok scrum last year thought to be their key weapon. The Aussies always bring that mongrel spirit to matches like this and they won’t back down against England’s forwards. It’s an intriguing match-up with England’s centres – as ever – a topic of debate and the backs in general, from 9 to 15, with the exception perhaps of Marcus Smith being anything but nailed on. Both sides are actually a little unsettled and it could go either way, with the match-up between Smith and Cooper at 10 a key contest. Australia will look to run England around the park, whilst England will look to smother the Aussies before letting loose later on. Could go either way, I’m backing Rennie’s Roos to break some hoodoos: Australia by 2
South Africa v Wales
Everyone in Wales apparently thinks the Boks will smash Wales. So does everyone here. Except for the people who think it’ll be a tight, ugly affair. Of which I’m one. The Boks are generally slow out of the starting blocks in the international season and are probably most vulnerable in this first Test. That said, it’s a pretty settled squad, with most of the players in their prime, or near enough. They’ve all played together for a few seasons and so should be settled enough. Wales, on the other hand, have come off a horror 6 Nations, only winning one match and losing to Italy in the final match – but they also got three losing bonus points, so three tight defeats. Whatever the missing links are in the Welsh side, it’s not guts and defence and bloody-mindedness. And the matches between Wales and South Africa have been tight in recent years, so I expect another tight affair, with the Boks perhaps easing away at altitude later on: South Africa by 9
Argentina v Scotland
This has all the potential to be a cracker, with Argentina now under the tutelage of Michael Cheika and with some of the Euro-based players back in the fold. Having stunned the ABs in 2020 and played some fabulous rugby in the process, they slipped back badly in 2021, winning only one match, against Italy. Scotland’s all-new, all-singing, all-dancing style fell a bit flat in the 6 Nations after a promising start and the Scots once again failed to live up to expectations. That said, they have some wonderful, athletic forwards and some serious gas out wide that can blitz most defences on its day. This could be a great match. Would back Argentina’s 2020 version, but not the 2021 version, albeit they’ve changed management and got a few players back: Scotland by 5
Merrily foretold by Deebee7
Onna telly this week
Thursday 30th June
| Scotland v Italy (U20s) | 19:00 | YouTube |
| Wales v Georgia (U20s) | 19:00 | YouTube |
Saturday 2nd July
| Japan v France | 07:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| New Zealand v Ireland | 08:00 | Sky Sports Action |
| Australia v England | 10:55 | Sky Sports Action |
| South Africa v Wales | 16:05 | Sky Sports Action |
| Argentina v Scotland | 20:10 | Sky Sports Main Event |
Tuesday 5th July
| France v South Africa (U20s) | 16:00 | YouTube |
| England v Ireland (U20s) | 19:00 | YouTube |
Wednesday 6th July
| Scotland v Georgia (U20s) | 16:00 | YouTube |
| Wales v Italy (U20s) | 19:00 | YouTube |
Ovally Balls 
I may have mentioned this before (almost certainly have) – younger brother of a good friend is with BBC news. He did a bit of TV but opted to stick with radio as he felt (as he told me) you can add more context / depth.
Best example of radio over TV is “In Our Time”. Great podcast for long drives…. doesn’t really matter what, you come out knowing more than before….Hittites, David I of Scotland,….
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Starting XV looks fine – bench provides no comfort (Aki is the exception)
Cannot see Ireland winning this….any problems in front row and we’re looking thin….
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Healy in the 23? Didn’t look likely on Tuesday, to be honest.
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Welsh Warriors to tilt at
windmillsthe Boks:Wales: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 George North, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Biggar (captain), 9 Kieran Hardy, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Will Rowlands, 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Ryan Elias, 1 Gareth Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Dewi Lake, 17 Rhys Carre, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Alun Wyn Jones, 20 Josh Navidi, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 Gareth Anscombe, 23 Owen Watkin.
Looks okay as a starting 15, with Faletau and Lydiate a pain in the collective Bok arse for years now and plenty of blokes who were here a year ago in another red jersey. Can’t see them winning at Loftus with 52,000 lunatics baying for their blood, but they’ll be feisty and competitive.
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Thanks for the ATL Deebee,
“Having stunned the ABs in 2020 and played some fabulous rugby in the process, they slipped back badly in 2021, winning only one match, against Italy.”
As I’m sure TomP would say, Argentina also drew with Wales and beat them 33-11 in Cardiff a year ago.
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Ha! That’s what you get for only checking back to last year’s RC and onwards. They were still crap from then on.
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I’ll take the punishment, sure there’s more to follow as well.
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“Argentina also drew with Wales and beat them 33-11 in Cardiff a year ago.”
Poor Wales. And now we’ve got to play the Boks with only Deebee’s half-baked promises that we’ll do respectably badly to protect us…
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Just checking in from a small village south of Prague. Went to a farewell session for the future CEO of Estonian cricket in Tuesday. Lovely beer but so much of it. My head was aching all day yesterday.
Under 20s has been good. SA have got some very decent players. England came back well to beat previously impressive France. Ireland struggling but have scored some fine tries. Wales had a superb win and Italy and Georgia both did well.
Also, Italy beat us in March.
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Georgia beating Wales 21-13 at half time. The Georgian side full if big lads with full beards and their pack is mincing our brave lads’. They’ve had some good results at recent world cups so good to see that continue.
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I think it’s safe to say that Scotland will finish bottom of the log in this U20s, our backs are outstandingly bad in this cohort.
It’s a poor schoolboy level.
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Thanks Deebs – good man!
I don’t see England losing, but……………
Anyway – some great match-ups!
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Need to watch with your eyes open, Slade! Also who plays 12 when Farrell gets sent off after he decapitates Silk because Lawes is skipper?
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Watched bits of Scotland’s U20s game against Italy, and I have to take issue with Ticht’s assertion we are at schoolboy level.
In fact, we’re worse. Most of the primary school kids that used to do displays at Scotstoun during half time had better passing and ball control than this lot, from what I saw. Didn’t watch the whole game, but I had to switch it off in order to stay calm…
But well done Italy! It at least looked like their guys had some sort of plan. ‘Pro will be pleased…
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Missed last night’s U20 matches – what were the final scores?
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Hmm. Nick Mallett, a very sound voice in SA rugby circles, reckons Boks by at least 15. I think he’s off the mark. This won’t be like the B&I Lions against SA ‘A’ last year, where the Lions got caught napping by the ferocity of the challenge – half of this Welsh side were here and know exactly what to expect. I suppose knowing what to expect and doing something about it are two different things, but there’s plenty of experience and nous in the Welsh side. The Boks are settled, albeit a bit rusty, and playing at altitude should give us an edge, although most of our players have been playing at sea level for the past season, either in Europe and Japan or for the Stormers and Sharks, so it may not be that big a deal. Nerves are kicking in nicely!
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Ticht:
Wales 30 – 24Georgia
Scotland 7 – 34 Italy
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…ooops, meant Deebs………….
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Thanks Slade – I’m sure Ticht is grateful too!
Interesting stat about Wales woes at Loftus. They’ve played 3 Tests there and conceded a total of 186 points, including 96 in one match. Take that out and it’s 90 points in the other two, so 45 a match, on average. I don’t think it’ll be that kind of score this weekend, but would back the Boks to score between 25 and 30, which should be enough in the end.
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Our front row will be mangled and the replacements will be eaten alive. The second rows will be overpowered, Faletau will just be tackling and Lydiate was an effective player ten years ago. I don’t know what Reffel looks like now and don’t expect to by the end of the game if he even looks like the same person by then. Hardy will be so bad he has to be replaced by Williams who will be run over by an elephant. Biggar will get injured tackling someone enormous but will play on anyway and make some good clearance kicks. The rest of them will get no chance to make an impact and wouldn’t make one if they did. Boks by 100.
The other two games could get ugly for Wales.
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Much as I’d like to think you’ve got it spot on, CMW, I don’t think this side of ours will get to three figures:
Faf will keep kicking it too far not having played at altitude for a decade, giving Adams and LRZ ample time to run rings around our fat forwards, tiring them by half time, where they join Etzebeth and Wiese, both red carded for a double team spear tackle on Dan Biggar, who will play on regardless. We go to uncontested scrums after Malherbe and Koch both tear hamstrings before half time, negating the Boks only attacking weapon, AWJ will come on with 20 to go and complete a memorable hat trick of tries, two from rolling mauls and one from a sidestep that leaves Kolbe sprawling and clutching at air like Farrell in 2019.
Kolisi says afterwards that he’s proud of the way the guys knuckled down and fought back from 37-13 down to get a losing bonus point and that this is part of the process towards the 2031 World Cup, where he hopes the nucleus of the squad will still be in place. On hearing this, Scotland pinch the entire stock of South African props under the age of 35 for a deep fried Mars bar and a can of Irn Bru.
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@Deebee – And the other two games will still get ugly for Wales?
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Expecting England to get pumped by the Aussies, their pack is no walkover against the best these days, and England have been creaking in that department for a year or so. Add in Jones coaching staff failing to get the hang of new breakdown interpretations introduced 2 years ago, add in Koribeite and Kerevi slamming thru the midfield, and we could be in serious trouble. Their bench looks lively too.
Anyone got any ideas on good streaming services for these games?
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@Deebee – And the other two games will still get ugly for Wales?
Yes.
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As an update on tv, Aus channel 9 is showing the England game live, so I will be good for that one, via hide my ass server proxy and friends postcode. Other games will be difficult, but am sure they will turn up on youtube later, so will just try and avoid results.have to
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From the horse’s mouth – if the horse only ate steak and was addicted to Benzedrine:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWkjB-sXkAAez-y?format=jpg&name=900×900
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@tomp
I bet the horse’s stable is very tidy, mind.
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@BB
In the U20 6N, Italy were (after France) the best team Ireland played. They got an “unlucky” red ( Azzurri forward tried to hand off but it ended up as a punch on the chin of the tackler)
Strong scrum (hooker was a handful), and some decent backs.
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Hello everybody,
Wasn’t there a prediction game set up for the summer tours?
Anyone got a link and password?
FWIW, I expect the following winners:
France, not by much
NZ, with a bit to spare
England, by a score
Boks, by a bit more
Scotland not by much.
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Así se alistarán Los Pumas para el primer test-match ante Escocia:
1. TETAZ CHAPARRO, Nahuel (67 caps)
2. MONTOYA, Julián (75 caps, capitán)
3. GÓMEZ KODELA, Francisco (21 caps)
4. PETTI, Guido (66 caps)
5. ALEMANNO, Matías (73 caps)
6. GONZÁLEZ, Juan Martín (8 caps)
7 KREMER, Marcos (44 caps)
8. MATERA, Pablo (80 caps)
9. CUBELLI,Tomás (82 caps )
10. SÁNCHEZ, Nicolás (93 caps)
11. BOFFELLI, Emiliano (38 caps)
12. DE LA FUENTE, Jerómino (65 caps)
13. ORLANDO, Matías (47 caps)
14. CORDERO, Santiago (44 caps)
15. MALLÍA, Juan Cruz (13 caps)
SUPLENTES:
16. CREEVY, Agustín (89 caps)
17. VIVAS, Mayco (12 caps)
18. SCLAVI, Joel (sin caps)
19. PAULOS, Lucas (5 caps)
20. ISA, Facundo (37 caps)
21. BERTRANOU, Gonzalo (38 caps)
22. CARRERAS, Santiago (19 caps)
23. MORONI, Matías (57 caps)
Head coach: Michael Cheika
Entrenadores: Felipe Contepomi, Andrés Bordoy, Juan M. Fernández Lobbe y David Kidwell.
Sorry guys, Pumas by 10
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@Flair – you’re showing in the AOD pool. Here’s a link https://www.superbru.com/july_internationals/pool.php?p=12456666
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I know we were bad in the U20s game, but we did manage to get 14 points against Italy, not 7.
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..oops! – late score perhaps? Fingers too fast!
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Thanks Refit, my memory is definitely shot.
Didn’t prevent me from selecting my picks though, except for Fiji-Tonga which is inactive of my phone. I expect a big win for the Fijians.
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Still seems unlikely – Ed Byrne on way …. Bealham can play both sides (visions of Tom Court here…) so one or other of Porter or Furlong is going 80 …
I’ll be pleased if we’re not hammered….
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Penaud in the corner, Jaminet converts and France start in style! 7-0 inside four minutes. Japan with a shot at posts almost immediately from the restart. Lee lines it up and it’s over! 7-3
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French forwards making good ground ball in hand, but they’re pinged for holding on at the breakdown. You get the feeling Japan will need to jackal a lot of ball to stay in this one. France have conceded three penalties in the opening 9 minutes. Need to tighten up there a bit. Lots of water being drunk, so assuming it’s pretty hot out there. No comms on my stream so no idea!
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@Deebee – the commentary team on my stream have made a point about it being very hot & humid, so also expect a lot of handling errors later in the game.
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Fabien Galthie rocking the 70s lounge lizard look. Scrum France. Hoofed downfield and Japan run it back. What a joy to watch! About 14 phases of silky handling, this way and that, but always with purpose and finally over under the sticks! Japan lead 10-7, their big number 8 the scorer. 15 gone.
Japan maybe lucky not to be a man down for a dodgy tackle. Ref happy and play on.
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13-13 after 30 minutes. Match being played at a furious pace, with France kicking long a lot and trusting their defence against the slick Japanese attack. Seungsin Lee lines up another one 45 metres out and misses for the first time today.
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Refit, that’s if anyone makes it that far!
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Japan with 60% possession so far, reflecting their ball on hand approach. Refit curse as they knock on from the lineout!
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PO’Ms got his face on………………
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First blood to Ireland. 18 phases on the NZ line, following a lineout, before the ball goes wide to Earls to score on the near side.
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POM pinches the ball from the back of an unprotected maul and put in a lovely grubber down the wing, that Earls can’t quite get to.
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Missed the end of the half and start of the second. 13-23 after 53 with France ahead. Can Japan claw this back? They’ve got a shot at goal…. and nail it! 16-23!
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Ah. Forgot there was another match on. Two dodgy streams then..
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