Being short of time as I’m travelling tomorrow, I have shamelessly stolen Deebee7‘s prognostications.
But first, I’m sure we can all rejoice that Stuart McCloskey has kept his starting place on the Ireland team with Aki relegated to the bench.
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.
Onna telly this week
Friday 18th November
| Sale v Harlequins | 19:30 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 19th November
| Italy v South Africa | 13:00 | Amazon Prime |
| Wales v Georgia | 13:00 | Amazon Prime |
| Scotland v Argentina | 15:15 | Amazon Prime |
| England v New Zealand | 17:30 | Amazon Prime |
| Ireland v Australia | 20:00 | Amazon Prime |
Sunday 20th November
| France v Japan | 13:00 | Amazon Prime |
Ovally Balls 
Utter tripe from Edinburgh after a decent start. Munster haven’t had to try, the pressure on Edinburgh has come from our own mistakes, if it was tennis it would be huge unforced error count against us.
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Yes, this is proving just why Scots don’t get ecstatic before the match is actually won.
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@cmw
Well done on De Selby. Been a while – I must re-read…..
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@bb
Cooney gives you a decent place kicker into the bargain.
But as 32yo NIQ – non Irish qualified – his contract position wouldn’t be great ( not sure when he’s up for renewal) but a new contract would difficult to get at any decent level.
The provinces have to negotiate with IRFU on NIQs – having an NIQ as 1st / 2nd choice – which Cooney would be with Doak – wouldn’t be “supported”.
Basically, if you look around the provinces there are very few examples where an NIQ is 1st or 2nd choice in full strength team.
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Apparently, he and Sexton don’t see eye to eye and that is the reason he hasn’t been selected for Ireland for over three years
Yeah- this is a well known story – albeit I’m not really sure what the background is.
Now – there’s a school of thought that sees Sexton as the coach, and it’s true that he is the system. Without him, players who play well for Leinster and Ireland shrivel. Key example JGP vs Australia.
And certainly there are rumours/chit-chat that Sexton’s imprimatur has placed on some selections…. eg Joe McCarthy – promising THL but when push came to shove he played about 10mins vs La Rochelle and vs the Bulls in the big games last season. He was a penalty machine vs Maori, and went off early when playing for Ireland A vs NZ – but somehow got selected vs Australia
He is a promising THL but he’s played a handful of minutes – let alone matches – at high level. Leinster picked up Jason Jenkins this season as THL – which shows where they see the ranking and yet he’s odds on for the RWC.
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Trisk – the tragedy about Cooney’s non-selection is that he’s very well capable of running a game when Sexton is not available, which is often, and which the other half-back options currently favoured are not – and probably that is why Sexton doesn’t like him. And, as you say, he’s reliable in kicking the points, which is a skill not to be under-rated as it so often makes the difference between win and lose.
Doak is also the real deal. He’s only twenty, but shows a maturity well beyond his age.
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@thaum
Maybe something in that – in Irish / Leinster game play essentially the 9 just gets the ball to 10 asap . Gibson-Park does that well.
We saw vs Australia what happens when Gibson-Park starts to try to run the show – he passed to his 10 twice in the first half….
Sexton isn’t used to his 9 second guessing him and a second creator at 9 isn’t the Irish pattern. Essentially, Irish teams tend to operate with a quick passing 9 and a 10 pulling the strings. The French concept of “le petit General” is fairly alien.
Ultimately, it may be Cooney’s tragedy to be playing in the same era as Sexton but not being a complementary pair.
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Glaws Saints is quite entertaining so far.
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Ouch. Looks like the end of Jack Singleton’s season.
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21-12 to Glaws at oranges. Santi Carreras is pretty speedy as a wing, at ten he is electric.
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Bulls 17 – 9 Cardiff at HT.
Today, Viaplay are torturing us with audio that cuts out every second, as opposed to last week, when it didn’t work at all.
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Satisfying win for Beadles Boys.
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Thaum are you using viaplay directly? I mean as opposed to through Virgin Media like I am.
I haven’t had any problem with viaplay with VM, same as with Prom Sports before.
I’m thinking of ditching Virgin when it comes up for renewal, it’s a very good service but not cheap.
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No, still using the Premier Player. Haven’t downloaded the app yet. Will to have to soon, anyway.
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WTF. Hendo playing at 6. It’s catching.
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Cardiff aren’t exactly consistent this season, losing to us battering Sharks in SA and now 39-9 down to Bulls
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Ticht – just as well, because one of those Sharks tries convinced the mister to switch the match over. :-)
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JGP proving conclusively that he should never be in a green shirt. Keep him on!
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I’ve always liked yer man Jock Cooney, Thaum, and I’ve never seen what others see in Gibson-Park, that was a howler of a drop from him
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Two within a minute, Ticht!
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Bulls 45 – 9 Cardiff final score
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Red?
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Bye, Cian!
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TRY Herring after seconds on!
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Ooo, I thought they’d blown that maul but Herring in with a terrific break out from the maul
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It was quite funny because no-one seemed to realise that he’d broken off the maul.
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TRY Treadwell!
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Bee-yoo-ti-ful TRY McIlroy!
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Leinster actually looking a little panicky, which is very very rare.
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Leinster score from a line-out maul as the clock goes red for HT. 10-22.
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I missed the try just before HT as I was making “The Mrs” a G&T
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Burns is fucked. Take him off. Doak to SH, Cooney to FH.
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Oh hell, Cooney has taken a massive knock.
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James Lowe elbow to face. Should be another red.
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That is foul play, ffs
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Cooney off, looking rather dazed; Doak on. No card at all.
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The difference between Healy’s and Lowe’s tackles is that Lowe’s looked deliberate.
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Fuck. Ringrose over.
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Hume off for ten mins. Still not sure why Lowe is on the pitch.
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Ref playing to the crowd now
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We are going to lose this now.
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Hume’s one was fair enough to the letter of the law, but I don’t know how Lowe got off
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Yep. Ringrose over again.
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and another card
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Timoney’s now been yellow-carded too for reasons.
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Another Leinster try.
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And Lowe over.
We have completely fallen apart in the second half.
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Well, at least we’ve got a BP try.
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Fucking hell. 38-29.
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Bristol have scraped a draw with Tigers, helped by a red card to van Wyk in the 64th min. MacGintey missed a penalty in the 81st minute, which would have won it for Bristol.
Can’t complain though.
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