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 
Boks for Saturday, with some changes that make sense, and some retentions that don’t:
Willie back qt 15 gives us calm and some options on attack, where he’s been getter better and better in recent years. Kolbe back to his preferred spot on hte wing, which is good, with Arendse shifting to the left in place of Mapimpi, who drops to the bench. Not really sure about that, other than to give Arendse more time in the jersey. Centres the same (Trisk, Kriel is just warming the 13 spot for Am, who hopefully is fit for next year – he’s our best back), Willemse stays at 10 (not planning on scoring from the kicking tee, then!), with Faf back at 9. Is it just me, or do a lot of 9s these days seem to look much better from the bench than starting? What we do know is that there will be a lot of bombs, taking pressure of Willemse at 10, but also negating any chance of the outside backs getting much more than crash ball and kick and chase.
Loose trio is the same, and no real fetcher there, but plenty of endeavour, whilst Mostert is in for the injured Lood de Jager. Malherbe keeps his TH spot, but Bongi and Ox join him in place of Marx and Kitshoff. Still a decent front row and Bongi snaffles his fair share of ball on the ground and is a better maul manager than Marx. (Not sure Marx would approve of malls)
Bench is interesting – 5/3 split, with a very solid replacement front row, Orie the back-up lock, who has been very good for the Stormers in the URC the last two seasons and Kwagga Smith the loosie, to add dynamism in the latter stages, along with Marx and Cobus Reinach. Manie Libbok, a 10 who can actually kick, gets his first shot and well deserved it is too, with Mapimps also there.
It’ll be interesting to see what the coaches do if Willemse is having a nightmare again this week: hook him completely, and throw Libbok into something of a cauldron first Test up, or shift Willemse to 12, where he plays for the Stormers, outside of Libbok. Would De Allende shift one out and Kriel be hooked, or De Allende sacrificed?
South Africa: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Marvin Orie, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Makazole Mapimpi.
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Marland Yarde back in action for the Baa Baas. Apparently no charges were brought against him after he was accused of rape in January. Although, he is sorry that he put himself ‘in a situation where an allegation could be made’.
I’m not really sure what to make of that tbh.
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Tbh this probably falls into the cracks of one of those instances which can’t be prosecuted due to how the legal system fails women and girls. The ‘situation where an allegation could be made’ is telling.
So I feel sorry for the poor woman involved and fuck him and fuck the Baa Baas.
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And fuck London Irish too.
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And those Kerry fans sound like the prawn sandwich brigade at Old Trafford
Well, to an extent having won 38 All Irelands (aka national) championships since 1903 (technically 1905 as the 03 final got delayed by a year and a bit and went on after the 04 ch’ship), football folks down here are a little “entitled”.
In mitigation, Kerry (as in “Ring of…” ) is furthest county away from Dublin (where semi-finals and finals get played), so if you’re gonna have to go to Dublin twice in a month – and your team tends to win the semi-final more often than not (there have been another 20 losing finals alongside the wins) – you’ll probably chance waiting it out…..
M7/M8 motorways from Limerick and Cork respectively have reduced travel time to about 4hrs and train is a bit over 3 – but it’s not so long that it was 5+ and more hours from Dublin to Killarney – and you can add on another 60-90 mins to get the south and west end of the peninsulas. (Still an’all – not like trying to drive around Cork county – you can be driving a good bit and then the sudden explicit realization hits you – “this is the biggest county in Ireland…”
To an extent, the cooperation is slightly enforced – Cork GAA need money and Munster look better all round if money stays in the province than going into the coffers of businesses in Dublin.
Also Cork GAA got EU money for the redevelopment of PUC so, they can’t tell other sports to ‘sling their hook’ either. So, after the “jigs and reels” everyone gains – which is rare enough.
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And fuck London Irish too
after van Graan left Munster, there was talk – in the media – about Declan Kidney returning as DoR.
Apparently, this was never a serious proposition (or even an unserious one) – Munster were well aware it would generate exactly the reaction you’ve expressed here.
Milton Haig was sounded out but apparently dithered…
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Just when you thought Brewdog couldn’t get any worse
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Craigs, the Yarde story is horrible, to say the least. His wording of the event is about as damning as you can get without admitting something. Innocent until proven guilty is one thing, casually selecting someone with that kind of albatross around their neck is quite another.
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Trisk, the logistics of getting around Ireland sound quite strange. I’ve not been to Ireland (yet), so my knowledge of the geography is appalling, to say the least. I’ve taken Ireland on this website: https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTU3ODY5MzQ.MzIxOTMyOQ*MzUwMjk3MDU(MTU3ODUzMw~!IE*OTQwMDk2NQ.MzI1NTM1MTY)NA
and it fits neatly into the top tiny bit of South Africa, not more than a 3 hour drive to anywhere in that geography. Do you have lots of mountains to negotiate, or is it more a case of lack of major highways connecting the more far flung parts of the country? Not a completely superfluous question, as I plan on taking Mrs Deebee to the lovely land in the not too distant future.
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Deebs – my initial reaction was anger. But I’ve been trying to cool my initial reaction to news stories recently because, inevitably, more information comes out and he is innocent until proven guilty. Take a breather and look at it again.
My initial reaction was right (imo). It would have to be something extreme to remove said albatross. That statement is awful (complete lack of remorse) and there is something wrong at the Baa Baas for selecting him.
Fuck them (and LI). I hope Saints thump them.
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Like – literally the fucker wasn’t there. She thought he was, but it was proven he wasn’t. Which isn’t consistent with what he said. That’s the only thing that could remove the albatross. Unless they have more information than is being reported the comments from Alex Sanderson and Geordan Murphy leave a lot to be desired.
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the logistics of getting around Ireland sound quite strange
Geography of the country can be compared to a saucer – mountainous around the edges, flat /low-lying in the middle
Dublin as primary city is main transport hub – so a lot of stuff requires going via Dublin (UK isn’t so far from this with London at times). All the motorways radiate from / focus on Dublin.
Add to that the Irish equivalent of Beeching on railways in the 1960s – and for many years a constant flow of emigration – there was nothing to promote internal communications. (as the old joke went “the only good thing about X is the road out of it” – substitute chosen town for X)
I’m about 75 mins from Cork (90km) and 90 mins from Limerick (120km) by road – with better roads/bypasses those should be reachable about 1hr and 75mins respectively. To be fair – I use Cork airport often and it’s about as close (in time) as LHR was when In lived in north London!
EU money has made big changes – cohesion funds etc – have been a big contributor to infrastructure development.
Could still do with improving rail links – when part of UK, island was heavily developed in the 19th C railway boom – but skeleton network remans and improvements and redevelopments fall foul of same UK issues now – planning, low bridges, twisting tracks. One upside is gauge is 5ft 3 – and loading gauge is wider than UK railways – so journeys on Iarnród Eireann are more comfortable. Same goes for DART vs TfL trains.
BTW the app/website is cool – should be compulsory for everyone to be aware of relative sizes…..
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Apologies in advance to English fans, I’m about to rant about your team.
I watched the match on Sunday and wasn’t too surprised about the result. On another forum the England supporters have been ranting for ages about the lack of pace in their back three, that along with Young’s selection. I’d add that picking one of the best locks Europe on the flank, or Lawes when he’s available, along with the meat truck that is Vunipola, is going have your pack wheezing around the park.
What’s mad is that the likes of Simmonds, Dombrandt, Underhill and Earl tear up trees in the Premiership, Dombrandt, imo, is almost personally responsible for Marcus Smith being brilliant.
Then you pick Farrell along side him and play him as first receiver most of the time – it’s madness.
Farrell couldn’t catch hooker Stuart McInally in a run in from the halfway line, he’s a first class kicker and passer, but he is also lacking in a bit of toe.
This is criminal – Farrell has the ball dislodged and immediately appeals to ref a la Tony Adams, Nowell jogs along as if nothing is happening and Steward is outpaced by a stand off.
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@Tich – couldn’t have put it better meself!
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Trisk, thanks for the geography lesson! Now if the lottery would just play along, I’ll be able to see it all for myself!
Ticht – in two weeks we’ll be having The Treacle Test™ as England’s plodding backs take on South Africa’s plodding forwards. Should be a match for the ages! Or perhaps will feel like it’s taken ages.
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This is criminal
Yeah – saw that on Twitter.
General consensus was bad match lit up by 1 good try?
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Confirmed that Kitshoff is heading to Ulster next season, for a well deserved pension cheque. Actually, just looked him up – he’ll only be 31, so a few good years yet for him.
Mickname is the Spicy Plum, for Thauma and others of the Ulster persuasion.
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FFS, nickname, not.. ah, too late. I can hear the woosh of the banhammer approaching at sickening speed.
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Big red head on him – “mickname” seems apposite…
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Kitshoff is 31!
I remember when all this was fields, and when Kitshoff was my favourite player at the Under 20s World Cup, I think he was 18 at the time.
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Trisk, the game wasn’t all that, Boffelli scored a nice try and there was that breakaway one.
Boff also potted 6 penalties and a conversion.
I think/hope we got him on a three year contract, before the French sides come knocking.
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Suspect the Ulstermen will give him a new mickname.
Deebs, it’s only 2 hours from Dublin, if that’s where you’re flying in to, to Belfast or to Newcastle (where the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea…). You should definitely visit the Mournes, and also go up the Antrim Coast Road and do a wee detour into the Glens of Antrim.
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@Ticht
Well spoken.
I would add that Smith owes his esteem to the support of Dombrant plus Esterhuizen who, between them create the space and threat in which Smith prances . Plus, Quins have some great outside backs.
If you don’t support Smith in this way, then he is not your man as he stands too far back currently and there is no boshed space ahead or alongside him. Plus, of course, he has Care being a bloody nuisance alongside him.
Apart from Farrell’s accuracy off the tee, the current Quins team would beat England – which can’t be right.
It really is all down to EJ – who is truly an enormous twat.
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“Mickname”………………………………………………..just great, Deebs
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Mild-mannered Jack Nowell starting to show frustrations:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/63573419
EJ really has got this wrong.
Players who receive £20k a pop are hardly likely to commit financial suicide – but things are clearly not right ‘in-camp’.
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Thauma, lovely recommendations, although I suspect our journey will be forged in the fires of distilleries and famous pubs, perhaps with a bank breaking nod to Waterford crystal along the way and the retracing of Irish film plots. If I can get a game or two of hurling, Gaelic football and rugby along the way, it’ll be a grand holiday!
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This’ll get you fired up for a rugby match
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@Refit
A pity they’re not world-beaters at rugby yet.
Some great tattoos compensate.
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Oh – and I liked the hand-shaking / embraces afterwards! I thought ‘a bunch of 5s’ was more likely!
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Yeah, it got suddenly wholesome at the end.
But then the phrase I heard to describe the match was “they ran into each other, like they were trying to create singularities”.
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Deebee – well, when you get to the top of Antrim after following the coast road / going through the Glens, you get to Bushmills.
Don’t know if you’re a fan (I haven’t seen it), but Game of Thrones was filmed in the Tollymore Forest on the Mournes and in the Glens.
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@Deebee – ” If I can get a game or two of hurling, Gaelic football and rugby along the way, it’ll be a grand holiday!”
I think it would be a pretty dodgy selection in the first place, but if you do get picked then I don’t see you making it through one game of hurling let alone two.
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I lasted all of five minutes till I was whacked across the knees, dragged to the touchline and left for dead.
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That was back when your Waterford crystal came from Waterford though.
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Deebs, I went to Ireland for a two week road trip to tour some Phil Lynott related venues with a mate on bikes, stayed nearly a year. Didn’t get to Dublin and Phil’s grave until nearly 20 years later. Never saw a GAA game either.
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Refit, the hakas were okay, I suppose. Just felt they were a few players short of having a decent impact.
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CMW – strictly as a spectator! Although I played hockey in the army here for a couple of seasons, and the ball was largely optional and a sideshow to sorting out various Army versus navy and air force rivalries. I mentioned before as well that the touch rugby we played in the evenings was brutal: got a broken nose and cracked ribs from that.
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Thauma, the Bushmills trip sounds great! We would also need to visit a place called Skibbereen, in West Cork. It’s where Pogues Whiskey is distilled and Mrs Deebee has a soft spot for it. I prefer the music, myself.
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According to Google maps – I kid you not – there is a place called Potatoland close by as well, near the Castlehaven GAA Club. Mary Anne’s Bar and Restaurant isn’t too far away either and gets 4.5 stars. Think I need to start planning something. We have our 10th Anniversary next year, which may be a good excuse.
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I’m not watching that, OT. I’m worried Bojo may appear somewhere.
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Cricket is going well.
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OT – Mr Potato is one of the most inspired characters in children’s animation.
‘Remember to eat your vegetables kids!’
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2 English teams in 2 world cup finals this weekend. Not bad.
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If England RL beat Samoa this weekend they’ll be in a wc final the following Saturday as well
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near the Castlehaven GAA Club
Castletownsend is a funny looking place – steep road running directly to the pier and a big tree in the middle of the road….
Have to say I’ve not heard of Potatoland. Skibb is nice – home of Paul O’Donovan the rower and of Munster player Gavin Coombes. Not a bad junior team.
Distilleries have sprung up all over Ireland in last 10-20 years. Once upon a time it was Jameson in Cork, Bushmills “oop north” and couple of smaller ones (Cooley, Kilbeggan) that provided spirit to a bunch of freelance bonders and finishers…
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Seem to recall there were several ,ahem, distilleries in the Macroom/ West Cork area 30 years ago too, Trisk. Altho one of them did close down while I was there, as the guy who ran it with his brother managed to flatten himself with his truck after a tasting session, and the subsequent Garda investigation discovered the still. I will swear that after a few of the local brew one night I was understanding gaelic for a couple of hours.
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There’s been an explosion of Irish whiskey in our shops over here in the last couple of years. Mrs Deebee prefers them to the Scottish whiskies, as they’re smoother and less peaty (according to her). I prefer the Scottish ones myself, but to be honest, I don’t drink whisky that often anyway.
England won’t qualify for that final this weekend either.
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Samoa have a pretty good side out. England did put 60 points on them in the first round, but suspect that had a lot to do with training /coaching set ups and preparation time.
https://www.nrl.com/draw/rugby-league-world-cup/2022/semi-finals/game-2/#tab-team-lists
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Starters
15. Freddie Steward
14. Jack Nowell (VC)
13. Guy Porter
12. Owen Farrell (C)
11. Jonny May
10. Marcus Smith
9. Jack van Poortvliet
1. Ellis Genge (VC)
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie
3. Kyle Sinckler
4. David Ribbans
5. Jonny Hill
6. Maro Itoje
7. Tom Curry
8. Sam Simmonds
Finishers
16. Jamie George
17. Mako Vunipola
18. Joe Heyes
19. Alex Coles
20. Billy Vunipola
21. Ben Youngs
22. Henry Slade
23. Manu Tuilagi
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