Ireland v South Africa
With Bundee Aki in detention for being a bad boy and Robbie Henshaw pulling a hamstring in training, Stuart McCloskey is at last getting a start in a big game. Fellow Ulsterman Flying Robert Baloucoune also starts on the wing, with Rob Herring and Kieran Treadwell on the bench. Springboks better be careful! Ireland by 5 (McCloskey try).
Italy v Samoa
Hard to predict as I’ve no idea what Samoa’s form is like, but they may benefit from some poached players returning. Draw.
Scotland v Fiji
Fiji are never a side to be discounted, but a strong Scotland will do the business, even without Finn’s flair. Scotland by 15.
Wales v New Zealand
With half the first-choice starters injured (and Halfpenny currently an injury doubt too), this can only go one way. NZ by 38. (It would have been 48, but talisman AWJ is on the bench.)
France v Australia
France have rediscovered Gallic flair and are currently a truly frightening side to face. They are also hosting the World Cup next year, and will want to put on a good display. Wobblies are wobbly. France by 15.
England v Argentina
Eddie Jones has named a tired side, albeit with Marcus Smith at fly-half and a new bloke. As astutely pointed out by the notablog denizens, Billy Vunipola is unlikely to last more than 20 minutes. Argentina by 2.
Onna telly this week
Friday 4th November
| Northampton v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 5th November
| England v Canada (women) | 03:30 | ITV |
| France v New Zealand (women) | 06:30 | ITV |
| Scotland v Fiji | 13:00 | Amazon Prime |
| Sale v Gloucester | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Italy v Samoa | 13:00 | Amazon Prime |
| Wales v New Zealand | 15:15 | Amazon Prime |
| Ireland v South Africa | 17:30 | Amazon Prime |
| France v Australia | 20:00 | Amazon Prime |
Sunday 6th November
| Pau v Bordeaux | 14:10 | Viaplay (formerly Premier Sports) |
| England v Argentina | 14:15 | Amazon Prime |
Ovally Balls 
no I won’t
Instead, John Barclay used to frighten the bejesus out of Hoggy like this. Now the hunted has become the hunter
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Ticht – Hoggy’s new look is scary enough tbh.
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Tbh it’s not his fault. Everyone who goes to Exeter comes out looking like they are some kind of list somewhere.
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Craigs, Johnny Gray (third from our right here) looks like he’s come in from the backwoods for the game.
He’s grown sideboards and a ‘tache, he probably left his chainsaw in the cabin
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third from our right on the front row, I should have said
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Ticht, I agree with Flair, and if you look back at the posts during the match itself, I actually said that I thought there should be two red cards, in my opinion they were both as bad as each other. I don’t think there were any obvious mitigating factors, Danty was motionless over the ball, and received two wreckless clearouts ( or assaults, in more correct parlance). Both clearouts would have been worthy of a red if they were separate incidents in separate games. Both “clearouts” looked planned and premeditated, and I did not see any evidence of either of them being accidently misdirected from a legal clearout by some unfortunate intervention by another player.
I hope I have explained that clearly. I thought the refereeing team bottled it.
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SBT, de Allende struck Danty in the ribs, he led with his shoulder and there is a movement of the arms, as if he’s about to wrap, but that happens in every game.
As the laws stand, he could be penalised for going off his feet at the ruck, but that’s about it and as I say, that seldom gets punished.
What I was meaning in my latest post on the subject was that on a second viewing, the push from Smith didn’t propel PSdT into Danty, PSdT leans forward and flexes at the knees and hips and lunges at Danty, hitting him square in the face.
It was a moment of madness from an otherwise clean player, I read he’s had one yellow card and now one red in 150 or so senior games.
What must happen is that we take these cleanouts completely out of the game, in order to do that we will probably have to look at banning the jackal, make players drive over the ball, but absolutely no launching like a missile into players.
Red cards and long bans do change behaviour, anyone who says they ruin the spectacle can tell that to Steve Thompson.
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Deebee, I did not question Dupont’s 4 weeks ban, it seems fair to me as Kolbe landed on his neck and could’ve been seriously hurt.
What I questionned was World Rugby hypocrisy. One the one hand they say they do everything possible to preserve players’ integrity and when they have an opportunity to do exactly that by dishing a lenghty ban to a dirty player, they just don’t.
PSDT acted extremely dangerously (and I agree with SBT that the other player also deserved a RC, but let’s forget that for the moment) and he should’ve have received a ban accordingly. What are we waiting for to act? A broken neck on live TV? Rugby is not sustainable in this form.
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New post, openly thieved, soon.
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New post is here.
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