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 
TomP should come back, and not just so as he can post mean things about Scottish players, I’ve just read something about the English language that I find interesting.
Surprising etymology fact:
The “-ing” suffix in phrases like “I like running” is etymological unrelated to the “-ing” suffix in phrases like “I am running”.
gerund
a verb form which functions as a noun, in Latin ending in -ndum (declinable), in English ending in -ing (e.g. asking in do you mind my asking you? ).
the present tense – “I am asking” is unrelated and was different in middle English, old English and proto- West Germanic and before that
Then someone else pointed out that the “ing” in Earthling or Hastings is also unrelated, in this case it means “people”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tonight’s musical interlude:
If that doesn’t make you smile, you’re a liar (not really!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, seeing as we are having a cultural feast, I may have to mention here that I have just watched the second episode of The English. It starts if a smoothie baddy English lord or somesuch playing cricket on a prairie in Wyoming ( with a golf swing of a stroke, altho maybe he played too much 20 over stuff.). What remarkably silly television. I haven’t laughed so much since I watched the first episode last week, and it looks to be getting even sillier.
LikeLike
Well this is fairly sobering:
LikeLike
I’ve said before that I don’t think the current game is sustainable. How many current players will have buggered brains in 10 years?
LikeLike
Talking of TV things, I was forced to sit through a season of The Crown over the lasty couple of weeks. The latest season, whatever that one is. Mrs Deebee enjoyed the previous series, but she conceded that this one is appallingly acted. Whoever plays Diana clearly wanted the public to hate her (and the scriptwriter wasn’t far behind), whilst it took me the best part of an episode to work out who Charles and Phillip were.
LikeLike
Craigs, that is a very good thread, cheers.
It actually gives me a little bit of hope for the game, the illegal actions are what is causing the problems.
Refs must not back down from read cards and coaches have to get their players tackling lower, it makes for a better game if the carrier can get the ball away in the tackle anyway
This was a yellow card, apparently -ffs!
LikeLike
Another newspaper questioning Rassie. A bit of a mea culpa from the scribe too. My view is that Erasmus is doing more damage than good to the Boks. He’s not a messiah, rugby doesn’t work like that, and he should shut his gob and focus on picking a side that plays winning rugby.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-11-16-rassies-dangerous-game-with-officials-is-hardening-attitudes-towards-the-boks/
LikeLike
Ticht – agree that its good to have this data but coaches and players will still go right to the edge of what is within the laws. As it stands we still see tackles designed to dominate or dislodge the ball. I think we might get to a situation where any tackle above the hip is a card.
LikeLike
Apparently rugby is dying because mums won’t allow their little darlings to risk permanent brain damage, but the Women’s RWC is going to result in a massive boost to player numbers. Both of these things can’t be true. Amateurism kept women players slower, smaller and less fit, but those days are apparently over. The games I saw were genuinely great spectacles but also often genuinely brutal.
LikeLiked by 1 person
BK, if I’m reading your misogyny correctly, you’re suggesting that women can’t start off as little darlings, but are brutes from the off? Or something like that?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Still waiting for my watch to come. Just like the 90s.
LikeLike
…………ho hum………………
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bawsax destroyers (vs All Blacks, Saturday)
15. Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 15 caps)
14. Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 43 caps)
13. Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 48 caps)
12. Owen Farrell (Saracens, 99 caps)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 70 caps)
10. Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 15 caps)
9. Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 5 caps)
1. Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 41 caps)
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 39 caps)
3. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 54 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 60 caps)
5. Jonny Hill (Sale Sharks, 17 caps)
6. Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, 16 caps)
7. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 43 caps)
8. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 66 caps)
Replacements:
16. Jamie George (Saracens, 70 caps)
17. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 72 caps)
18. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 23 caps)
19. David Ribbans (Northampton Saints, 1 cap)
20. Jack Willis (unattached, 5 caps)
21. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 119 caps)
22. Guy Porter (Leicester Tigers, 3 caps)
23. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 50 caps)
What’s happened to our 6s? I know Courtney and Lewis Ludlam are out but surely there are others?
LikeLike
LikeLike
Scott Barrett at 6 for NZ too. Like Simmonds there more.
LikeLike
Think England are going to have their arses handed to them by NZ this weekend. It won’t be pretty.
LikeLike
So Dupont get a 4 week ban for a clumsy – and dangerous , no denying it- tackle on a player in the air and DuToit gets 3 weeks for headbutting Danty. Same game, same officials, same court of justice.
I hope Rassie will gratify us of yet another enlightening video to explain how yet again SA have been hard done by.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Flair – Rassie is a prick.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dab – I always get slightly hopeful when you predict England getting smashed.
LikeLike
He’s going to be right at some point.
LikeLike
Dab I mean, not Rassie.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dab I mean, not Rassie.
Glad you clarified that!
I agree with Dab on this occasion.
LikeLike
Two things I want in Bok rugby: less embarrassing hot air from Erasmus, and more giving the ball air from our backs.
LikeLike
Deebee – somehow I read that as something about ballsack hair.
If you want your backs to get more ball, then you’ll have to let the opposition’s backs also get more ball, which would have put the likes of Baloucoune in for one or two. The game you’re playing shuts down that kind of rugby.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We might get spanked but for some reason the gloom gives me hope.
LikeLike
If we do end up with one of those random winning performances we sometimes get, we just know it’ll go even more to shit the following week!
But I can’t see past a minimum 15 point win for the ABs.
LikeLike
Dab – I expect something a bit more like this tbh
LikeLike
Sounds like Rassie-logic deebee, so I won’t try to disentangle it. Regardless of whether their little girls are darlings or brutes, if their mothers saw two YCs for head knocks in the Black Ferns semi final, and a YC and RC for head knocks in the final (the latter associated with serious brain injury causing memory loss), then perhaps the recruitment drive might not run as smoothly as assumed? (Or, at least in NZ’s case, it might be limited to those who see professional sport as their best way out of the poverty cycle, regardless of the risk).
LikeLike
Not looking forward to watching the English being handed their arses, which I agree does not sound pretty.
LikeLike
Given that it’s reasonable to pose the question of whether men’s rugby is a ‘better’ thing for the top level being professional it doesn’t seem unreasonable to wonder whether all the current enthusiasm for the women’s game going professional might be a little misplaced.
And whatever the positive aspects of professional rugby may be it certainly doesn’t seem to be safer in the long term.
LikeLike
We have to cross a rugby pitch* to get to the Middle One’s netball training and I often tell her she should be playing rugby instead what with it being a better game and all that. I might even sidestep a few imaginary opponents and score the odd try while telling her this. She turned to me after the sending off in the final and said “And you keep telling me I should play this game?!” All I could say was the truth: “Yes, but you know I don’t mean it don’t you?”
*Well we could walk round. And we do when the archery is going on on the rugby field.
LikeLike
@Craigs – Weird role reversals in that set of highlights. England scored more tries and Itoje picking that ball up to stop NZ using their penalty advantage when the ref told him not to was very ABs. And then we have NZ kicking a drop goal instead of going for a try when they’ve got penalty advantage later on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope Rassie will gratify us of yet another enlightening video to explain how yet again SA have been hard done by.
You’re going to have to wait a couple of weeks, Flair. World Rugby with the banhammer again. Two weeks on the sidelines for the puerile prat. I’m seriously sick of him embarrassing our game and wish SA Rugby had the guts to tell him to shut up. He’s really becoming the Trump of rugby, and he has his base supporters (in every sense) here who lap up every word, find fault with the refs at every whistle, blame every defeat on something other than the other side being better (usually a combination of ref-baiting and racism: if a player who isn’t white has a bad game, then they’re just there to make up the quotas and there is always a better white player being overlooked). If I could be bothered with Twitter, I would tell him and SA Rugby to do one.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Your results for the weekend:
Tonga v Uruguay: Tonga by 14 – Tonga are enjoying playing against Spanish speaking sides, and will dish the pain once again!
Italy v South Africa: South Africa by 4 – Boks have had two narrow losses and will look to get their tour on the board, with four straight losses for the two sides so far. Bench to haul them over the line.
Wales v Georgia: Wales by 19 – good win for Wales last week and they’ll look to build on that (and cement their place in the 6N at Georgia’s expense).
Romania v Samoa: Samoa by 6 – just because I don’t have a clue, but Samoa seem to better at the moment.
Scotland v Argentina: Argentina by 3 – Did Scotland blow a gasket against the Kiwis last week? Argentina have some good scalps this year and will look to take a Scottish one on their own turf.
England v New Zealand: New Zealand by 9 – don’t think it’ll be a shellacking, but the Kiwis are cruising this November tour after a dodgy start against Japan.
Ireland v Australia: Ireland by 8 Aussies are one from three, but all their matches have been single point affairs so far. Ireland will put a bit of distance on the scoreboard, but not that much.
France v Japan: France by 24 Japan won’t be as bad as they were against England, but they also don’t have the ability to step up and close the gap that much either. France for win 13 on the trot and getting within touching distance of some serious records.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought the foul on Danty was evil AND life-threatening.
England’s performances tend to be better when their chances are rated low. It’s their nature.
I fear the NZ backs but feel England will win.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Slade, Dupont only got 4 weeks as there were mitigating circumstances. I wonder hat PSDT ‘s were. Flying straight into the head of a prone player on the ground, potentially injuring him for ever. I was really scared watching that in real time. Glad Danty didnt suffer the broken orbital floor as was first announced.
Still, this sort of way of “cleaning the rucks” should be completely banned and only serious bans can act as deterrents. Its not what World Rugby just achieved with an unacceptable leniency .
LikeLike
Flair, I haven’t watched it again since the live game, but I seem to recall that PSdT was shoved by Kwagga Smith, which led to him bashing into Danty.
Both should have been cited, imo
I read somewhere that PSdT will have a week chopped off his ban if he completes some “awareness course”
Ri hie Gray was banned for 3 weeks after the ribunal concluded that “on the balance of probabilities” he committed an act of foul play.
He pleaded not guilty and his representatives demanded that the initial charge against him be changed, This request was complied with.
Gray got a medium level entry point of 6 weeks which was reduced by 50%, plus he’ll get another week off after completing his “awareness course”
I don’t recall any other player getting 50% then upped to 66% off after pleading not guilty
LikeLike
Richie Gray, of course, not Ri hie Gray
LikeLike
Oh and one more point about Gray and the mysterious case of the “balance of probabilities” foul play.
One of the three-man panel was Argentinian, it convened in the days leading up to us playing Argentina.
To be clear, I am not suggesting he was in any way bent, what I’m suggesting is that it was a terrible decision by World Rugby to have this situation arise. The panel was held remotely by video link, they could have chosen anyone else – it’s just unprofessional.
LikeLike
Ticht, I think it was De Allende who dived onto Danty as well. Both reckless and dangerous, knowing full well what they were doing. PTsD didnt need the help of DeA as he rocketted there a bit later than DeA.
LikeLike
PSDT, PTSD, all Saffers look the same to me.
PTSD would be a better nicknamu for Dutoit though.
LikeLike
(sorry Deebs) ERasmus should be sacked.
LikeLike
Is it that difficult to get consistent and proportional rulings/punishments across offences in internationals. 3 weeks for PSdT?
And aren’t these judges supposed to be rugby savvie -missing Smith’s shove on PSdT?
Ridiculous.
LikeLike
PSDT does have some mitigation in that he was shoved into the contact by either Smith or De Allende, altering his course and potentially making it worse, which is the way the tribunal saw it, although I fully agree that this type of clean out should be banned from the game before someone’s neck is actually broken. I’m not going to defend him, he got the red, got a ban and needs to make sure he doesn’t do it again. Simple.
I have no idea why Dupont got an extra week, other than perhaps Kolbe came down on his neck/head from height, in a situation where Dupont was in no position to contest for the ball. Arendse also got 4 weeks for that, so it’s consistent at least in that respect.
Oh, and Rassie – fuck off, you national embarrassment!
LikeLike
Actually it’s getting worse. Apparently Wayne Barnes has received huge abuse on Twitter and even death threats after the Tweets. Not acceptable in any way at all. Even if Barnes was biased – he was not, let’s make it clear – the level of shit thrown at officials is way beyond the pale.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve just watched the highlights package of the Fra SA game.
It’s very rare that you get a sense of a terrific atmosphere and how intense a match is from these 12 or so minute features.
What a game.
The World Cup is going to be epic next year. I’ll be able to enjoy it once the pool stages are done and I don’t have to bother with hope for Scotland any more.
LikeLiked by 2 people
on the Danty injury, having watched it again now, Smith’s push on du Toit had no effect whatsoever.
[img] https://static.actu.fr/uploads/2022/11/boomtonplancher.gif%5B/img%5D
LikeLike
damn, I’ll have another go at that
LikeLike