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 
Monday! My theory is that Spaffer is going to try to lose it so an election has to be called.
Or, I suppose, if he wins then he can claim that he doesn’t need to resign.
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TCOD’s fave film:
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“It’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.” – Harry S Truman
One of our better local rags, the Daily Maverick, has a quote a day in their e-mailed newsletter, some of which are very good. Another one I particularly liked, and which seems apt in the current Tory debacle, is apparently an old Turkish proverb: “When a clown enters a castle, he does not become the king, – the castle becomes a circus.”
Can be applied to endless political parties across the globe as well.
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England’s Heros:
15 Freddie Steward, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Guy Porter, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Tommy Freeman, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Danny Care, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Lewis Ludlam, 6 Courtney Lawes (c), 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Ollie Chessum, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie George, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Jack Willis, 21 Jack van Poortlviet, 22 Will Joseph, 23 Henry Arundell
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– hard to criticise that…………………………big responsibility for Jonny Hill!
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Wil Porter bring five forces to the midfield, that’s the real question!
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Kiwi side to get humiliated by Ireland:
15 Jordie Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 David Havili, 11 Sevu Reece, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane (captain), 6 Scott Barrett, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Nepo Laulala, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 George Bower.
Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Aidan Ross, 18 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 19 Akira Ioane, 20 Dalton Papalii, 21 Folau Fakatava, 22 Richie Mo’unga, 23 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
Kiwi posters are complaining that Akira Ioane is a passenger against combative sides like Ireland and the Boks, that Codie Taylor is out of form and Jordie Barrett is only in the side because his brother can’t kick for posts for toffee. Jordan and Havili back in strengthens them in the backs as does Whitelock in the second row. Must say that if the Kiwis go with this 4,5,6 and 7 in France next year they don’t have a prayer. Sam will be 35 and past his (considerable) peak, Retallick 32, so I suppose peak-ish for a 2nd row, Scott Barrett is surely holding the jersey for someone else and Sam Cane will go down in Kiwi folklore much the same way Taine Randell has a nice guy but not much cop as a skipper.
Ireland by 17.
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Sam Cane will go down in Kiwi folklore much the same way Taine Randell has a nice guy but not much cop as a skipper
O’Mahony “allegedly” said to him ” You’re a shit Richie McCaw” (taking our the mouthguard to make sure he was fully understood.
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****Pulls pin from grenade****
Same forum says that Freddie Steward is the guy the Boks would love to pinch from England (assuming they could) because of his all-round game management. I’d rather take Owen Farrell – we won a World Cup with the bloke he modelled his tackling technique on.
****Tiptoes out quietly.****
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taking our the mouthguard to make sure he was fully understood.
Need a bit more than that, surely?
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Interesting article
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/behind-the-lines/2022/jul/14/tom-philip-life-rugby-rage-recovery-scotland-six-nations
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Ridiculous. Let’s get rid of the lot of them.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/14/queen-immunity-british-laws-private-property
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This makes me more angry, Thaum.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/13/halt-use-of-biofuels-to-ease-food-crisis-says-green-group
Unknown environmental group with strange affiliation to gmo food and recommending intensive chemical farming with virtually untraceable ( so far ) funding and history of board members is pulled out of a hat by Guardian and quoted in a headline article. Thats really poor journalism to me. One of the about us section is a professional rewilding activist ( idiots ) who also supports modern intensive farming in preference to traditional land husbandry/preservation of the major resource, the fucking soil. Another one also a soil micro biologist with floppy hair who thinks the same. Woke fuckery. Who are these charitable organisations that “think the same as we do” that fund them ? I can’t find out, but the Guardian apparently is happy with them . I am getting to the point where I would have more faith in what the current bun or Mail tell me.
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I’m with you on that too, SBT.
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The Graun/Observer and either quality journalism or ethics are pretty far removed nowerdays. Unless it’s (still) attacking Corbyn or trans people, they don’t seem interested in much of the fundamentals.
Oh, and there’s this:
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These are good :-)
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Refit – yes, I saw that yesterday. Cohen being one of the biggest Corbyn-attackers. Lovely bloke, clearly.
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Back in the day when Lindsey Hoyle used to dress up as his Dad and appear on rugby league programmes
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Doug Hoyle who was the Labour Party’s go-to man to explain why they had lost the most recent by-election. “We just need to get our message across to the electorate etc etc”
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@OT
Gee….time flies. I recall Doug Hoyle – and now the son is Speaker….
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This is turning into “Which horse would you like to kick you in the head”
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Think Doug Hoyle was later in bother for using his position in the House of Lords for corrupt involvement with arms dealers.
Maurice Lindsay doesn’t come across as a particularly trustworthy man. I guess the debate on that show was just a precursor to what was going to happen a couple of years down the line.
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Predictions for the weekend? Only one I can make with certainty is clear skies and temperature of around 20°C for Joburg. All other bets are off!
What the hell:
Kiwis over Ireland by 8 in a testy affair
England over Aus by 8 in a niggly affair
Boks over Wales by 8 in a fractious affair
Argentina over Scotland by 8 in a tetchy affair
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@cmw
That’s putting it mildly. He always spoke to people like that live on the telly – he was horrible.
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What is EJ playing at dropping JVP?? He was excellent last week.
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To be fair a quick read-up of the history of the clubs represented by Hoyle and the other chap on the show does rather suggest they were probably superfluous. Mind only one of them went at that point and whether that was as true of the other two that did go I’ve no idea. Of course what later happened was much bigger.
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@cmw
Chorley/Springfield/Blackpool Borough were always a bit of a joke club, to be honest. They didn’t really have any local roots in the game and that always makes things unsustainable. Maurice Lindsay’s problem was that he wanted to turn a game that is effectively a local historical curio, albeit it with the odd global connection and passionate supporters, into a globally-relevant brand. Didn’t take long for RU to turn professional and do it itself.
The only way ML could have seen any larger growth would have been to merge the union and league games (that was suggested at one point in the mid-90s). Instead he just disconnected the top level game from its local roots and free-to-air telly and its now less relevant than ever.
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@OT – That’s pretty much how it looked to me too. There are of course parallels for RU especially in Wales, but there wasn’t really a choice there about what was happening to the game whereas RL in the north of England seemingly chose to abandon what it had of its own free will.
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Though maybe they were just prescient enough to see what was coming in Union and the problems that would cause them if they didn’t get more money sloshing around. The original motivation does just look like greed on the part of the small number of ‘big’ clubs though.
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I’ve gone for Ire to win the series, England to do likewise. South Africa to overcome Wales and Scotland to do the business in Santiago.
I’d love it if Wales prove me wrong and we get another clean sweep this week,
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@cmw
Not sure many wanted to go along with it. Basically Maurice Lindsay became CEO of the RFL and got what he wanted. Everyone had to go along with it or go under, I suppose.
Similar thing happened with the Premier League in football.
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problem was that he wanted to turn a game that is effectively a local historical curio, albeit it with the odd global connection and passionate supporters, into a globally-relevant brand
I can see parallels here with gaelic football (also a diversion from rugby). You’ll get Irish people founding clubs abroad and locals playing in same way that you’ll find the odd softball or American football team but I think the GAA are too clued up to think they can expand globally in a serious way.
There are also parallels with RL and GAA in the attachment that communities have to their clubs – and how much those clubs are intrinsic to the community.
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This is an interesting (if technical) explanation of head injury risk and the uses of red and yellow cards in rugby (by an actual sports scientist):
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I quite like the example of sharks and motorbikes vs cars and selfies. Clarifies the importance of frequency and impact, which is something I look at in my day to day job as a not really an accountant.
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@trisk
Some of that has been lost, unfortunately. It’s also linked to what happened to sport in state schools in the 80s – basically there were a load of teachers strikes which were (in part) to do with staff complaining they weren’t getting paid to run teams after school and the like. The catholic schools in particular were massive feeders of players into the amateur and pro games and this stopped completely in the 80s and never started again. There was even an annual athletics event at Westwood Stadium called “the Catholic Sports” that my sisters went to but had disappeared by the time I was old enough.
My school had a football team for the boys and a netball team for the girls but that was it. They used to do rugby (both codes apparently, this was in Rochdale which is a bit more ecumenical on these matters), cricket, athletics and other stuff. By the time I turned up they’d all gone.
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merge the union and league games
Thought experiment – what would a merged game have looked like? 13 a side, retain lineouts, depower scrums, lose mauls, retain ruck in some fashion / development of PtB, limit to coinsecutive phases
Side note – apparently Aussie Rules and RL looked to merge in the 30s…
….and Rules and Gaelic football have a biennial comp – round ball(gaelic), punch pass only (rules), tackle allowed (rules), goalkeeper position (gaelic), no handled scores (rules) – probably a slightly better game than either source (imo) – and what always becomes clear is that the rules players are better kickers/foot passers than the footballers
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The catholic schools in particular were massive feeders of players into the amateur and pro games
Why was this? Granted north of England in late 19th and early 20th cents attracted many Irish immigrants (and in this context Catholic = Irish – ok, few Italians running cafes) but why league ? Or is it like Ross Tucker above – more Irish/Catholics in total played soccer but they were higher %ge in RL?
I can still recall the ‘sports correspondent’ for The Universe (your weekly catholic paper) predicting – tongue in cheek admittedly – St Helens to win the 1976 Challenge cup – based on the fact they had more RCs than Widnes, who themselves the previous season had more than Warrington, who in ’74 had more than holders Featherstone.
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@trisk
I have no idea why the Catholics had/have such a dominance in RL (at least in industrial Lancashire). It might just be because of Irish immigrants making up a disproportionate number of the local working people.
Remember the Farrells, Chris Ashton, Sean Edwards, Joel Tomkins etc all went to the same school and played for Wigan St Patrick’s.
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This thread of Cat at his lad’s sports day is a work of genius
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That is funny
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OT – I’ve been following that too. Really curious about Armani Mum.
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Our kids’ primary school had a teacher who spent all year in Adidas sports gear, his big day was of course sports day and the teachers race, he’d set off like a bullet and win a 60m dash by about 30m.
Everyone ignored him and cheered on the other teachers
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*real long jump update*
My 11yo set the girls u12 long jump record for her school. Next day had chickenpox (yeah, v late) so was ill at the time and I had to collect the medal on her behalf.
*real long jump update ends*
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*Real not real javelin update*
The Youngest won the Class Reception Javelin competition at her sports day, making her the first member of the family to win anything at it. Previous best and only effort worthy of a sticker was my third in the fathers’ race a few years ago. Not a real javelin though.
*Real not real javelin update ends*
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“Nowhere else on the planet would give me the opportunity, standing in front of the nation, asking for the honour of being the leader of the government.”
Remarkable self-awareness from Badenoch.
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” I hope you like at least one of us.”
Sorry Penny.
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“[Truss ran out of time at this point]”
About time she did.
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It was truly dire, wasn’t it?
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“this evening isn’t actually about us”
Sorry Tom, but this isn’t true. So much of the shite we have to put up with is just about you lot.
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Truss and, slightly more surprisingly, Mordaunt were absolutely awful. I find myself hoping (for the sake of the country) that it’s Rish!, but that is still a very bad thing.
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