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 
The new Oldham Athletic chairman is like a 90s character comedian. I especially like the bit about a brass band
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OT – henceforth, I shall read all your comments in that voice.
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I tend to hear OT as Bobby Ball more…
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I probably sound more like this guy
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This is not an easy read
https://archive.ph/ZghTw
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Enjoyed the fitba today. Quite a lot of shithousery too. However, the one thing I really don’t like is the apparent lack of comradre between the teams. Rugby still has this over soccer.
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Good sporting weekend all round:
Liverpool beat City
Blitzboks won the Commonwealth Gold
Proteas Men beat England in the T20 series
Our swimmers won some golds too
Football apparently came home too in between all of this.
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Too much good news for the blog denizens, it appears!
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Ticht – jebus that’s awful. Especially given how drawn out it was.
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Still angry about that article. It seems no one in the medical team or the SRU wanted to help her. Everyone uses wfh and zoom calls as an excuse not to work during COVID but I can’t see how that isn’t negligence.
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Tbh we might be witnessing the beginning of the end of rugby as we know it. I know it’s change massively since the 90s but something has to give. Either players sign a waiver knowing that they will likely suffer brain injuries later (who wants that?) or there is a radical change in the way it is played.
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Craigs, there has to be a massive change in how the game is played, I’ve said this often enough, players can get way below waist height to clear out a ruck, there is no reason they can’t get waist height to tackle.
As things stand, even if the law was changed right now so that anything higher than belly button is penalised as a high tackle, we still have 20 years worth of players who could end up with a diagnosis like Ryan Jones or the others.
Also, it’s not just the tackle, the game is full of very high impact collisions.
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To be honest, unless you can enforce a belly button and below tackle rule, you’re not getting anywhere fast. Ruck cleanouts would be another obvious area, although you’d need to change a lot there to make it contestable. Contestable kicks? May be another area you could change.
Out of interest, what are the concussion stats etc like in sports like ice hockey and gridiron?
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Ticht – iirc Siobhan took a knee to the heid. Not sure how you mitigate that. I agree with you on the height of the tackle though. This would suit off loading teams. But it would be a reduction, not an elimination of the risk. Even if you reduced it by 50%, is half the number we are seeing now acceptable? I don’t think so.
Ultimately there needs to be a culture change where players feel like they can raise their hand and say ‘can’t play on’ without fear of being reprisal from the coaches.
And less rugby I’m afraid. Play less rugby and the risk of injury is reduced. I would even lower that to 5 internationals and 20 league games (or there abouts, leagues and calendars differ) per year.
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Repeated pic and drives close to the goal line are also kind of horrible viewing from a medical standpoint in my humble. Makes me cringe watching large guys hammering into each other for ten/12 phases at a time. Thats got to be a high level danger area that should be looked at.
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Deebs – it’s up to 15% of all injuries so quite high I think. Also, the role of the enforcer in hockey and fighting in general is another notch up from rugby. From Wikipedia:
‘Studies show that ice hockey causes 44.3% of all sports related traumatic brain injuries among Canadian children’
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Bok side for the 1st Test against the ABs on Saturday:
15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-lee Arendse, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Francois De Klerk , 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siyamthanda Kolisi (captain), 5 Lodewyk de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Trevor Nyakane.
Replacements: 16 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Franco Mostert, 21 Albertus Smith, 22 Jaden Hendrikse, 23 Willie le Roux.
Arendse in for the injured Kolbe on the right wing, Faf back at 9 and Marx to start on the occasion of his 50th cap. Somewhat callow back three which I’m sure the Kiwis will want to exploit, loose trio is okay – Wiese not a long-term answer, Kolisi still not at his best and PSDT still finding his way back from long-term injury. Faf at 9 means it’s slow, predictable and boring for the most part unless he shocks us all and goes back to his electric best of around 6 years ago.
Marx starting does give us more snaffling and disrupting options at the breakdown and some fearsome carrying power in the loose, although Mbonambi is the better maul director and structured player. Shit, it’s only Tuesday and I’m already getting nervous about this one. Half of SA expects us to belt the Kiwis, the other half that they’ll bounce back from the Irish Affair and stick it to us. I’m on the fence and it’s a rickety old thing.
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Looks weak. But all the SH sides look weak. Boks by 3.
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NEWS: Glasgow Warriors have appointed Franco Smith as the franchise’s new head coach on an initial two-year contract. Smith, 50, joins from the Italian Rugby Federation where he has served as Head of High Performance since 2021, and previously as the men’s national Head Coach from 2020.
Well well! Not sure he did much in Italy (although maybe he didn’t have much to work with?) Who’s he replacing?
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Craigs, I’ll take ‘Boks by one’ over the Kiwis every day, as long as we win! 6-5 would be my favourite score just to piss off the Kiwis as well.
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Craigs and SBT both make good points.
Craigs, we all (mostly) like to see good offloading rugby played at hight tempo, so making players tackle around the waist might also add to the spectacle. You can still drive a player backwards if you hit them in the guts
SBT, I don’t know how to enforce this. but maybe a team gets two shots at a pick and go and that is it, you have to play it wide. Like I say I don’t know how to enforce it.
I’d also like players to join a ruck without smacking into like a human torpedo
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Ticht thanks for sharing that article about Siobhan. What happened to her is horrible, the big suits at SRU do not look there. Amazing lack of followup after her injuries. Negligence does not begin to describe it.
Agree with you about the dark future of rugby. We can’t pretend not to know the risks and I’ve no idea how to even reduce them. Low tackles would help but then it seems it is the multiplication of small hits rather than the “big one” that causes concussion.
I should probably stop watching and yet I know that as soon as the season will resume, I’ll sit in front of my tv or in the stadium.
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Deebs – he replaces Danny Wilson.
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BB, nothing to sing about there. Sorry.
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Tasty
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Made of torn up strips of Quins shirts?
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Just over a month to go.
Gallagher Premiership Rugby Round One
Friday 9 September
Bristol Bears v Bath Rugby – BT Sport
Sale Sharks v Northampton Saints -PRTV Live
Saturday 10 September
Exeter Chiefs v Leicester Tigers – BT Sport
London Irish v Worcester Warriors – PRTV Live
Newcastle Falcons v Harlequins – PRTV Live
Sunday 11 September
Gloucester Rugby v Wasps – BT Sport
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A week later for the other comp:
United Rugby Championship Fixtures 2022-23
All kick-offs UK & Ireland time.
Round 1 – Weekend 16-18 September
Edinburgh v Dragons
Ulster v Connacht
Benetton v Glasgow Warriors
Zebre Parma v Leinster
Scarlets v Ospreys
Cardiff v Munster
Sharks v Stormers (3/4 Feb)
Lions v Bulls (3/4 Feb)
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This lull before the season starts would be a really good time to have, say, a travelogue ATL. ;-)
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Thaum – do you want to hear about my mission to Canary Wharf last week during the rail strike?
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Craigs – sure, why not?
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Kiwi side for Saturday:
15 Jordie Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 David Havili, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane (captain), 6 Akira Ioane, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Angus Ta’avao, 2 Samson Taukei’aho, 1 George Bower.
Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Ethan de Groot, 18 Tyrel Lomax, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Shannon Frizell, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Richie Mo’unga, 23 Quinn Tupaea.
Obviously from a NH perspective it looks weak,* but us impoverished nations down here can’t compete with the financial and physical muscle available to the bearers of pounds, euros and yen, so this is actually looking like a decent AB side.
I think the tussle between the two 9s will be key – the Boks will be desperate to disrupt ball to Barrett and the Kiwi outside backs as much as possible,** whilst the Kiwis will want to disrupt Faf’s kicking game as much as possible. New look front row, with Samson Taukei’aho apparently the form hooker in NZ during Super Rugby, but don’t know much about him or George Bower. Assume he’s shit. They’ve gone for Barrett back in the second row and a more dynamic loose trio, looking to run the Boks ragged and disrupt the breakdown.
Boks should definitely have the upper hand in the tight five, neither loose trio is overwhelmingly good, although we’ve got better lineout options (and off the bench) so the Boks will look to disrupt the Kiwi set pieces as much as possible. For the ABs, it’ll be all about whether they’re able to unpick the Bok defence properly – and the back three of ours is not a settled combination, added to the fact that Wales scored tries out wide by getting outside our rush defence. Expect we’ll see more of that on Saturday.
* Thought I’d get in before Craigs does.
** from set peices and rucks, obviously – we’ll be giving them plenty of ball courtesy of Faf and Pollard’s hoofing tactics.
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Deebs – I might tune in just to support the second tier nations.
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Thaum – erm…
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Craigs – I know you were bloody joking, but I don’t see why it couldn’t make a good story anyway! :-)
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Thaum – ok, i will try.
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Yay! If it works, good, if not – you may suffer some nonsense.
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(By ‘nonsense’, I mean some utter shite of my own composing.)
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Think I still owe you Cameroon Part 3 as well Thauma. Will see where I left it and try finish it off at some stage. Probably just pip Larry to his Euro Final report.
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The URC fixtures are out.
https://www.unitedrugby.com/match-centre/202201/1
Munster v Leinster at Thomond, 7.35pm Boxing Day is a bit of a post-Christmas treat
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Looks weak.
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Refit, links ?
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Kudos to Hoops.
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Today sees the return of Pride to Brighton. We are expecting 300 000 revellers to visit the city, doubling the population over the weekend.
Some sad news, The Oldest Gay In the Village, George Montague, died last year at the age of 98, so he won’t be in the parade this year. He’s been a stalwart, marching via his mobility scooter with the said moniker proudly displayed on a placard.
I wrote this after the 2019 event
I’ve just read in the local paper that there was a protest at the march by some “Christians“ (I’d also like to add that there is a church on the parade route that had huge banners displaying the words JESUS THINKS YOU’RE FABULOUS), anyway, there is a photo of three guys with placards with silly quotes about sin etc on a fenced-off section of the pavement just for them. There was a little bit about how the people on the march shouted things like “we love you” and “God is love” etc towards these guys, but the bit that made me chuckle was at the very end of the article where it said that a man dressed as a mermaid stopped to twerk in front of the protesters.
This is the first Pride since Covid, it’s hot and sunny and it’s going to be epic. I feckin love this city.
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Eddie not a fan of the public school hegemony in English rugby shocker
https://inews.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/eddie-jones-english-rugby-public-schools-1778827
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Judith Durham RIP
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Oof, that’s not good. Faf headbutt’s Caleb Clarke’s knee and knocks himself out.
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Not even a minute on the clock and SA are going to have to re-jig – and with a 6-2 split.
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you wouldn’t happen to have a link there, Refit, would you?
Mine fell on its sword
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The only one I’ve got working is French comms https://cricfree.top/rugby/south-africa-new-zealand-cfre80i8?l=1451275141
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