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 mean, I keep banging on about this, but it defies belief that a shadow LABOUR minister has been sacked for, er, supporting the workers.
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A Party that was formed by, and is still largely supported by, trades unions. Although that is changing, and the RMT is not a current supporter (bailed during the Blair years).
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Oooh! I did not know this!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/27/sam-tarry-sacked-labour-frontbench-rail-strike-picket-line-keir-starmer
Go on our Angela – start a leadership challenge!
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Workers have been having below-inflation pay rises for fucking 12 years. Enough is enough.
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Thauma, when I was over there a couple of months ago, I recall reading that some workers are back to the real income levels of the early 19th century. Is this even remotely possible/true? I know that wages have stagnated and even declined in real terms but to that extent?
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Derker’s finest Bernard Cribbins RIP
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Thaum – let’s see if this works
https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=keithnoir&src=typed_query
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Thaum – follow that link I think. This is also great:
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This is good news:
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Craigs – thank you! If only I’d remembered what a hashtag is for. (I don’t use Twatter.)
Deebee – I couldn’t tell you if that statistic is true, but anecdotally I haven’t had a rate increase in ten years. Luckily for me, it was a pretty good rate to start with, but people on lower incomes are fucked.
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In the week that a class action has been launched against World Rugby for negligence regarding concussion and dementia, just as Ryan Jones has announced his diagnosis and there are stories about more Welsh players to go public with similar diagnoses, the Rugby Championship has announced they are to retain the 20 minute red card this year.
The “Spectacle” is King, fuck the players, they can die early with a disease that kills them years and years before they stop breathing.
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Big news coming out of Ireland this morning
Professional contracts had to come – but with it there will be huge expectations. Last 6N wasn’t great – albeit snuck a win vs Scotland in admirable fashion (kept at it till the whistle blew). They’ll also need to decide what the focus is – at the minute effectively one squad is supporting 15s and 7s – and clashes last spring meant that 15s were ransacked.
One upside was taking the games to Musgrave, Kingspan worked well. During the 6N, pack was fairly stable but there was huge chopping and changing in the backs – 3 different half back partnerships, 3 different centre partnrships, 4 different full backs and twice one of the fullbacks popped up in a following game on the wing.
I guess there was an element of a shot to nothing – so you could play around with combos and they probably had to with the leakage to 7s.
Main thing that needs to improve is discipline – they ran at an average of 13 pen per game in 6N. Outlier was England (69-0) where they got milled in the scrum – otherwise it was 8, 5, 2, 5, 8 for ruck offences – not rolling away or hands – and 2, 3, 0, 2, 3 for offside. They gave away fewer ruck pens vs Eng and France where they were blown out of it physically. Pens tended to be given away where the teams were well matched (Wales and Scotland) and wiser heads would have decided to let them have the ball and number up for the next phase, rather than forcing the situation.
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@Ticht
Disappointing (to put it mildly) to see this – seems to be driven by NZ/Aus and the “fear” of RL, and timing wise sounds crazy. Plenty of the “let the boys play” crowd out in force on Twitter – foaming at the mouth.
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Listening to thr Bloodhound Gang whilst working. Do I hear calls of ‘loser’ coming my way? Well Mrs Craigs just caught my son jamming to the beats outside my office so I’m still down with the kids innit.
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@craigs
My missus just told me off for playing this song
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OT, that’s a big favourite album of mine, do you have their first one, too?
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@ticht
Yep, love them both. My missus finds music like that depressing while I think it’s great. I started listening to them after I realised Plant and Krauss covered a couple of their songs.
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Plant and Krauss covered a couple of their songs
Definitely not going to click on that, then.
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Mrs OT goes up in my estimation shocker. Still married to OT though.
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A new version of the robot claw toy grabbing game at the sea-side takes a dark turn:
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Mrs OT showing impeccable taste there.
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Flair – the song right?
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Thats brilliant Craigs. Now all we have to do is genetically modify spiders to grow to a supersized one ton, kill em, hook up the jump leads to some solar panels, reopen the Chatham Dockyards rope factory , make some excellent hemp rope, and hey presto, 100% green environmentally friendly container lifting apparatus.
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Flair and other golfers, if you’re looking for a little more adrenalin in your next round, pop down to Skukuza golf club in the Kruger Park, where you can mingle with the animals. This article has clips of hyenas on the course!
https://www.citizen.co.za/sport/3159555/watch-hyena-skukuza-golf-course-greenskeeper-july-2022/
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Or follow an Ostrich on a key Johannesburg highway:
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@craigs
Jesus He Knows Me by Genesis just came on the radio. My missus said “I love Genesis”.
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The Craigsometer is going to crack and self-destruct now that you’ve shared that!
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Deebee, here is your opportunity to start an eco friendly “commute by ostrich” line. Millions to be made: ostrich farms, muzzles, saddles, reliable timetables and fares, et voilà.
I’d avoid that Kruger Park golf course at all cost. Brrr…
Won’t comment on Genesis, life’s too short.
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*Craig’s estimation of Mrs OT update*
Back at normal levels.
*Craig’s estimation of Mrs OT update ends*
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Sultans of Swing comes on the radio. “Tune!” says the missus
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Long drive you’re having there, OT?
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@deebee
Just part of the daily morning routine. If I put any music on its “boring” or “depressing”. So she puts on something like Absolute 80s and is happy. No Stone Roses, Lindisfarne, Johnny Cash, Dillard & Clark, Inspiral Carpets, The Jam etc allowed.
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OT – I think we may be married to the same woman?
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Any household with a Johnny Cash ban is a happy household.
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There is a pattern unfolding here. Although to be fair to Mrs Deebee as she stands behind me with a rolling pin, she did introduce me to Pink. Not literally, just her music.
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Pink is ok by me, nowt wrong with that. However Red Light Spells Danger by Billy Ocean is verboten in this postcode, apparently.
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OT’s wife likes the ‘wrong Genesis’ if Jesus He Knows me is considered ‘good’.
Unfortunately subjected to Mrs BB’s music on the way home. Some sort of tuneless operatic warbling containing incomprehensible lyrics. And to think she complains about Yes!
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John Crace invoking the Prog Gods.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/28/tory-hustings-a-fresh-circle-of-hell-where-we-dont-even-get-to-enjoy-rish-and-radon-liz-fighting
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I may have posted this some days ago when I was pished, but if not: Radon Liz.
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After something like 14 years together my missus and I finally agreed on something musical – that this song (with Steve Coogan’s brother on vocals) is quite good
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Hate Sultans of Swing.
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I’m feeling a certain shade of green.
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Basically mid 90s nu metal innit:
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Yeah!!!
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The 90s were dope
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Had a moment of great clarity just now. Browsing through a local news site without my glasses on, saw a headline that read “Battling for prime position: more about the two people vying for Boris Johnson’s job”
I read vying as lying, which I think given the lack of glasses, was a moment of pure clarity.
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