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 
So close for Darcy! JUST in touch.
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That’s a shame about the foot in touch, that was an amazing finish by Graham.
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Ah, shame. Foot in touch.
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Scotland take the lead on 30mins. 17-14
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Scotland will never be a top team with a flake at #10 (TM)
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As I said:
Half time
*Sigh*
But not for the reasons I originally thought. Should be further ahead.
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Bah! A try on halftime would have been justice for a great turnaround after that horror opening 10 minutes.
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Hogg’s starting to be a little shit – and not in a good way.
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23-14! That’s 23 unanswered points to Scotland. Probably need another 10 or 12 though.
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Ach well, it was fun while it lasted.
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Ah, bugger! Scotland had a couple of chances to build a bigger lead, but just couldn’t keep the composure and patience. Gutting. The Kiwis were there for the taking today.
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Fuck
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*Sob*
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Gutting.
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Merde. The ABs were there for the taking. Rarely saw them so poor and Barrett so inaccurate. But the last 20 minutes were all ABs.
Bench the big difference. When Ioane, TJP and and a whole new front row came on, it was game over. That, and what I thought was a harsh YC.
But to go from 0-14 to 23- 14 was stunning. Scotland just need to find a handful of players to win vs the top teams. Ach…
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Commiserations Scotland. Thought you’d win that until the card.
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I always took Cat’s theory about how we couldn’t win rugby and cricket at the same time but this weekend and 2019 has pretty much confirmed it as a universal natural law for me. Just wish the cricketers weren’t so bloody selfish!
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* with a pinch of salt
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Just got back from driving so hadn’t seen score. Misread the result as NZ 21. Got a little bit choked up for a second until I realised. Damn. I must like our pals over the wall more than I thought!
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OK, some pastries from that…
Our best performance of the Autumn. Not that that was a high bar to clear, but still…
Finn is our Number 10. End of. As someone once said.
Best performance by McDuhan in a Scotland jersey (that I can recall anyway)
Big Richie can still put in a performance at international level
Funny how Harris never seems to do much, but has people like Mehrtens and Healy waxing lyrical about him. It’s almost as if they know what they’re talking about, which may be controversial in Austin’s case.
Wee Darcy’s a star.
Non-Pastries..
Sorry WP, your time’s up. But we need more tighheads (or Ticht Heids?)
Is The ‘Mish done?
What does Tuipolotu do? If we need a physical 12, Matt Scott’s doing well for Leicester, if we want ball-playing 12s, either Redpath or Hutchison will do.
Thought Hoggy played OK today (although I missed the first 10 minutes, apparently he was solely responsible for the first two AB tries?), but he needs to remember he isn’t the captain anymore.
Need to learn more patience when on the opposing try line. But that’s been a long-standing problem.
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we need more tighheads
Nathan McBeth isn’t capped yet, and would fit in name wise better than a Nel or Schoeman. Oh, he’s a loosehead. Surely there’s a few south of the border with Scottish links you can pick up?
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McBeth collapses blog, shocker! The story of the Scottish play, especially once the subs come on, by all accounts.
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OT –
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You know you’ve really made it when conservative blue ticks on Twatter start to agree with you:
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@craigs
I disagree
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BB, far be it from me to question a refereeing decision, cough, but the penalty given against Nel was an absolute joke. The Kiwi loosehead buckled in under pressure and that is why the scrum went askew.
These guys are beep tested and measured and evaluated to within an inch of their lives. Nel is probably getting more results on the scrummage machine than the others.
That said, he is 36 now, he’ll be 37 years and 5 months old when the next world cup kicks off.
It’s asking a lot for him to be still firing at international level.
He is protected, being an international player playing in Scotland, he is only allowed to play five games in a row. I think because he is looked after he could probably do another season for Edinburgh, but his international race might be run now.
I thought that Murphy Walker had done enough against Fiji to keep his place on the bench for yesterday, the young Dundonian tighthead is a real prospect – in last season’s 1872 Cup game at Scotstoun he started at loosehead and was on top against Angus Williams, when he switched over to tighthead he monstered Boan Venter.
He is the heir apparent to Fagerson, who is still only 26 himself, Walker is 23.
I was surprised that Javan Sebastian was left out of the squad, I thought he’d done really well over the summer against Argentina, I’m not sure if he picked up a knock but he was playing regularly for Scarlets before the international games started.
D’Arcy Rae has been playing at Bath this season, I only saw him on Friday there, and he picked up an early injury.
Berghan hasn’t been playing much, but other than the ones mentioned, and I’m really not sure about Rae, I don’t see anyone ready to play in the 3 shirt for us – it’s a bit of a problem position.
De Bruin came to Edinburgh from the Cheetahs via Leicester but has done nothing to make me think he was worth letting Murray McCallum go – though McCallum was moved along the road under Richard Cockerill’s watch. McCallum really stepped up at Wuss, I’d like to see him back at Edinburgh, De Bruin can be fired into the sun from a very large cannon.
There has to be a balance struck between developing young Scottish tightheads and bringing in supposed good journeymen from abroad.
Edinburgh’s academy tighthead Dan Gamble has joined London Scottish on loan, the Championship is a terrific training ground for forwards and front rows particularly as the standard of scrummaging is high.
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Ticht, if you’re happy to take the good ones, you’ve got to accept the mediocre ones too. Cherry-picking top class players from other countries to bolster Scottish stocks is papering over the cracks in the domestic set up. If clubs had good enough youngsters coming through the system, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t pay for foreigners to come over, at cost and clog up the system. You could argue that the clubs are guilty of short-termism in not devoting sufficient funds to development programmes (I’ve no idea if this is the case or not), but if you’ve signed a guy for three years, uprooted him and his family with the promise of stability for those three years, and suddenly it turns out that your scouting policy is crap, then live with it. In this day and age clubs have more than enough footage and contact to know what they’re getting before they sign a player.
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It’s a bit like rich countries happily trawling the developing world for nurses and doctors and then spending large amounts of money trying to keep everyone else from those countries out, when they can’t get decent medical help at home, because the medical system has been plundered.
I’m not saying this is your line of thinking on immigration, Ticht, just looking at parallels from down this side.
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Deebee, I’m perfectly happy with the phenomenon of freedom of movement and people going to other places in order to better themselves and provide for themselves and their families if they are unable to do so at home. Even if it’s just for the adventure then that’s fine by me, I did it when I moved to France for nearly five years.
One man’s poach is another man’s opportunity, the South African system doesn’t seem to be able to support the hundreds of quality players the exceptional school system pumps out. The best of them play in the URC, the more experienced capped players go overseas to France, England and sometimes Ireland, where the money is. Others, perhaps less illustrious end up as the journeymen players picking up contracts where they can, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Around half a dozen who were not going to make it to the Springboks have come to Scotland and been capped after the mandatory residency period.
I don’t think this was seen as a career move before Nel did it, and he was told he wasn’t making it to the Boks. Of the ones who have been capped, perhaps Schoeman may have made the squad, I don’t know what happened with him. Jaco van der Walt wasn’t ever going to be a Springbok, Josh Strauss was great in the league, as was Cornell du Preez, but they were both found badly wanting at international level, if they had been capped by South Africa it would have been just the once, PSdT or Vermeulen they were not.
I don’t really agree that I have to accept not-so-good players, pro rugby is a results-based business. The two Scottish clubs are in the opposite position from the South African teams, we don’t have anything like the support, numbers of players or clubs, we certainly aren’t seeing a talent drain of not-quite-internationals to other countries, when Finn and Hogg move elsewhere it allows others to fill the only slots available.
Since rugby is a results-based business, the successful teams are rewarded more than just by reputation, there is cold hard cash available to winners, the difference between qualifying for the Heineken Cup and the Challenge Cup is huge, and not just in prize money, the Challenge Cup isn’t televised so there is no advertising revenue or tv money (this isn’t strictly 100% the case, but the difference is massive). My point being that success is compounded by those teams being able to invest in playing resources even more – look at the conveyor belt Leinster have, that has been earned off the back of years of continued success and from what little I know they are tight with the Dublin Schools system, who get near-pro level resources provided for them.
Going back to Edinburgh and Glasgow, I don’t think we are some East India Trading Co. equivalent, as I said previously, we have to strike a balance between trying to compete domestically with the Irish, Welsh, South African and Italian teams under the reality of being very late to the party to accept professionalism whilst developing players for Scotland – that is part of the remit for the coaches of the two teams.
The political and economic situation of Scotland has meant that we have a large diaspora, it just so happens that the South Island of New Zealand has towns with Scottish names with statues of the likes of Robert Burns in them, we’ve had a few kilted Kiwis over the years.
I recall Alex Salmond saying that he would be a very rich man if he had a pound for every ex-pat Scot that had told him that if the work had been there, they would never have left, I’m one of them.
I’m not asking for sympathy here, this is just the reality. Because of that situation we have many players who qualify for Scotland under the parent and grandparent rule, if that was changed so you had to be born in a country to represent it, you go down a dodgy route, but I’ll stick with whatever is brought in.
There is still a loud voice in Scotland calling for the scrapping of the two pro sides, saying that the money that comes from the international game should be divvied up between the clubs (they really mean their own clubs, the traditionally medium-sized fish in the tiny puddle that is Scottish rugby).
What they don’t seem to grasp is that without the two pro teams, the Intenational side would be getting pumped by Georgia in an empty Murrayfield within ten years, the big touring three would never come to Edinburgh and the game would be dead in Scotland.
None of this is your concern, of course, I’m just trying to provide some context to the situation in Scottish rugby today.
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Ticht, my point really is you can’t go shooting players into the sun because your clubs have lured them to Scotland and they haven’t lived up to expectation – the clubs should be very well aware of what they’re getting with the massive amounts of data and video footage and scouts and agents floating around.
I get the point that most of the guys you mention probably wouldn’t have made the Bok side (although Josh Strauss may have, as an impact/utility player and Schoeman I think would have as well, but further down the pecking order), but bringing in imports, of whatever quality, is still papering over the cracks in the Scottish set up, as you’ve comprehensively outlined.
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Also think Thauma is going to be livid that you could’ve used that as the basis of a fantastic ATL!
****walks away whistling, having thrown a grenade into the room****
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The thought had already crossed my mind!
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Deebee, there was a particular situation at Edinburgh. Richard Cockerill had come in and brought with him a new culture, ironically it was a very Old School culture, players were berated and humiliated on Monday mornings at the team debriefing if they made a mistake or played something that was in front of them, as opposed to sticking to the game plan.
I won’t bore you with any more on it than that. During this period a promising young Scottish prop called Dan Winning left the club and in fact I think he may have left pro rugby altogether. Murray McCallum, a full Scotland cap at tighthead was moved over to Glasgow, he has since been playing well for Wuss, only now he’s been made redundant there of course. I heard he was picked for one of the Barbarians games this month.
Simon Berghan, a Kiwi Scotland capped tighthead was also moved on, as was Jamie Bhatti and Rory Sutherland, both Scottish international looseheads.
Edinburgh needed cover in the front row, I would say that a contract of employment was offered to De Bruin, rather than say he was lured there. Some you win some you lose – we took an injured out of contract player with no future in the game, no one else wanted him, and despite him failing a medical, Edinburgh paid for an operation and rehab and there Big Duhan is now, playing on the wing for Edinburgh, Scotland and the Lions.
This was with the backdrop of two very recent punts having failed – Nasi Manu played a few games for us, but was never really fully fit. Robbie Fruean was let go by Bath because of his fitness problems and manged two starts and a couple of sub appearances for Edinburgh before retiring completely.
Other times it doesn’t work out as well as with has done for Nel, Schey and van der Merwe, we’ve had a couple of young Kilted Kiwis (I think Boomking came up with the name Jade Te Ruairidh for Te Rure). De Bruin has played both sides of the scrum – remember when that was “plays both sides” on the old blogs? It wasn’t exactly a compliment?
Maybe De Bruin will come good, but I’m not holding my breath.
If I wasn’t doing my job as well as expected my employer probably wouldn’t shrug and say, “Oh well, I should have checked more thoroughly that he was up to it, my bad”
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One more point, WP Nel has made a happy home for himself and his family in Scotland, he fully intends on living there well after he stops playing. He is coaching and has a Biltong business. He has said on many occasions that he feels his family is better off in Scotland.
Strauss left Scotland for more money as soon as he was capped, as an international he could command a bigger salary and then he went back to South Africa to play.
Duhan van der Merwe did the same thing, it happened when Cockerill was still at Edinburgh – though it was Cockerill who persuaded Embra to take a punt on him, so you don’t know if he would have stayed had the culture been different.
Anyway, he’s back now, the point is that it’s a two-way street, Edinburgh aren’t some dusky siren maidens luring these poor innocent boys off their farms in order to exploit them.
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Rewatched England japan lat night. England defence was very solid. Steward still looks really good at 15. May is defensively superb, shame he never gets a chance to run in open space. Big Joe looks comfortable at this level, certainly a squad player. Porter acquitted himself well, without ripping up any trees, but back line still looks a little clunky, eihter Faz or Smith but not both. VPF at 9 was pretty good. Simmonds looks the part at 8, think he adds an extra dimension to Billy V. Curry tackled a lot. Maro is not a 6, and playing him there leaves us short at the breakdown. He also continues to make really daft mistakes. Hill and Ribbans played OK, if not looking like world beaters, they both looked pretty decent. Starting front row and George all fine, not sure what Mako adds now, and Joe Hayes hasn’t had enough game time to make much of an impression.
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Anyway, he’s back now, the point is that it’s a two-way street, Edinburgh aren’t some dusky siren maidens luring these poor innocent boys off their farms in order to exploit them.
No, but you can’t complain about journeymen clogging up the system, if it’s the system that’s broken either! Someone on the Graun a few weeks back was moaning about SH players just pitching up in between Tests and collecting paychecks, completely ignoring the contribution many of them had made to the sides they played for. Quite an extreme view, but it happens often enough that people constantly moan about foreign players, except when they’re winning. It’s not just a Scotland thing either, you see it with reference to Irish and English sides as well.
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Deebee, I was complaining that one of our signings isn’t all that. It’s not a particularly unusual thing for a fan of a sports team to be moaning about. It’s nothing about him being South African, it’s that he’s not very good, or hasn’t been so far. He’s just come back from a pretty serious injury so hopefully he’ll improve.
If you’ll notice, I didn’t complain about Pierre Schoeman or Boan Venter. Nor did I complain about Jaco van der Walt, all I said about him is that he wouldn’t have made the Springbok squad. I didn’t complain about Henry Immelman, who has been excellent for us this season.
de Bruin is a huge man but he’s not bullying anyone in the scrum.
I don’t think our system is broken by the way, it’s only really just started in terms of having proper academies and pathways up from school rugby.
On another forum I read all the time about the “$hark$” hoovering up players from the other teams in South Africa. The Saffer fans are always complaining about the players in their teams
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The Saffas don’t muck about, their team for the weekend has been announced already
15 – Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz) – 81 caps, 65 pts (13t)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Toulon) – 22 caps, 61 pts (10t, 1c, 3p)
13 – Damian de Allende (Wild Knights) – 68 caps, 45 pts (9t)
12 – Andre Esterhuizen (Harlequins) – 10 caps, 0pts
11 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 5 caps, 20 pts (4t)
10 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 25 caps, 25 pts (1t, 4c, 4p)
9 – Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles) – 44 caps, 30 pts (5t, 1c, 1p)
8 – Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers) – 19 caps, 5 pts (1t)
7 – Franco Mostert (Honda Heat) – 61 caps, 15 pts (3t)
6 – Siya Kolisi (captain, Cell C Sharks) – 73 caps, 45 pts (9t)
5 – Marvin Orie (DHL Stormers) – 8 caps, 0 pts
4 – Salmaan Moerat (DHL Stormers) – 2 caps, 0 pts
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 56 caps, 5 pts (1t)
2 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 53 caps, 55 pts (11t)
1 – Ox Nche (Cell C Sharks) – 17 caps, 0 pts
Replacements:
16 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 57 caps, 65 pts (13t)
17 – Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers) – 69 caps, 5 pts (1t)
18 – Vincent Koch (Stade Francais) – 40 caps, 0 pts
19 – Eben Etzebeth (Cell C Sharks) – 108 caps, 15 pts (3t)
20 – Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 29 caps, 15 pts (3t)
21 – Evan Roos (DHL Stormers) – 1 cap, 0 pts
22 – Cobus Reinach (Montpellier) – 22 caps, 40 pts (8t)
23 – Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers) – 1 cap, 0 pts
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That bench :-)
6/2 in case they are getting monstered up front!
Libbok’s kicking has been superb in the URC
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The SA mood music would appear to be to pulverise Thomasso Allen………
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Refit, there was actually an editorial/opinion piece in Business Day today, a very austere publication basically telling Rassie to STFU. He has become an embarrassing whiny tit, but thinks he’s very clever doing it. Basically a keyboard-bully.
He and Nienaber either win the World Cup next year, or I’m petitioning Edinburgh to sign them. 🤣🍾
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Bok 2nd row is callow, Mostert really isn’t a 6/7 depending on how you look at flanks, two absolute beasts in the midfield, but can they do any more than smash into the defence? And still no recognized goal kicker. Unless we beat Brizz on Thursday, the Boks could come home with a 0-6 record from this tour. Rassie will post shit on Twitter about it. He’s becoming the Donald Trump of rugby.
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Ticht, the bench is decent. That’s something at least.
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Edinburgh already tried a journeyman Saffa coach in Alan Solomons, that was the dullest rugby Edinburgh ever played … and the most unsuccessful
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Roos is going to be a superstar Deebee.
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To be a bit more serious for a minute, I’m really enjoying the SA teams being in the league, it’s definitely going to make us up our collective game. It can’t be easy with the travel, but at least its the same time zone-ish.
Many didn’t want the SA teams, but I think it’s been great. Overall they are a step ahead of most of us, but we’ll get there, I hope.
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Ticht, I think it’s great for our rugby too. The constant travel was very much against us and Argentina, whereas popping up to the 6N venues is much easier.
All I’d like is for my Lions to be able to print cheques the same size as everyone else!
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Nuff said:
https://www.news24.com/sport/rugby/springboks/former-referee-nigel-owens-on-rassies-social-media-antics-he-should-have-learned-his-lesson-by-now-20221115
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