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 
26-26 was the final score.
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Leinster score from a line-out maul
For all the rep for “Leinstertainment” – they’re a forward oriented team. Dan Sheehan is their leading try scorer
Saw last 30 minutes – Ridley lost his way along with Ulster. Hume yellow – not sure Ringrose turns back abruptly ( well he was never going to pass) – if its foul play and a yellow …why not restart with Blue penalty?
Timoney yellow – Marcus Horan on TG4* had this as a flying wedge VDF carrying the ball with 2 latched – not a maul, so legit to tackle ball carrier…..
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Second Ringrose try – who swallowed the dummy.???…When does Ringrose pass?
There was a point.at 24 -22, Ulster had possession in Leinster 22… you could see Burns moving from side to side – but no attempt to go for the DG …. just to break the flow of Leinster scores…..Leinster score from a line-out maul
You could see they’d given up by the time of Lowe’s try….
* Marcus isn’t speaking “as Gaeilge” – odd thing is …its when someone breaks into English that I internally acknowledge …”oh, yeah…”
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We have completely fallen apart in the second half
Afraid so.
On another topic – missed Lowe on Cooney… can’t believe that wasn’t picked…. raising elbow into contact tends to be a trait that’s almost automatic (a lad I’ve coached at U12 and U14, and watched at U16 and U18 still does it despite being penalised multiple times)
Ridley having given 1 red seemed unwilling to award another….
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Trisk – we completely dominated the first half, at least from the point where Healy was sent off (before that, we’d survived through some very uncharacteristic Leinster mistakes) and up until the Leinster try just before HT.
So, from expecting to lose but having a little hope before the match, I’d gone to thinking we’d win easily (for playing Leinster). I should have known better, really. And the realist in me did say that we’d probably still manage to lose, but the heart thought not.
The Lowe thing was really a turning point, though. It seems that refs won’t penalise an attacking side, most particularly the player who has the ball. Lowe smashed his elbow into Cooney’s face, and then gave him a shove for good measure. Cooney was out cold for a while. I’ve no doubt it will be reviewed and Lowe will get a suspension.
At that point in the match, if you check above, you’ll note that Burns was playing injured, and the logical thing to do was to sub him off, move Cooney to 10, and bring Doak on. That could no longer happen. We only had Doak and Stockdale on the bench for backs.
I suppose we could have brought Doak on, moved Lowry to 10 and brought Stockdale on at 15, but none of it’s ideal against Leinster, and it’s a bit early to use up all your backs.
I thought Doak looked a bit freaked out when he came on, and didn’t think he played well. I wouldn’t either if I’d seen what had just happened to the guy I’m replacing. May be a good learning experience for him, or rather temper by fire.
The game won’t have done Hume any good either, as he’d said before the match that he was struggling with confidence after his injury.
Finally, Hendo going off for an HIA and not returning was not good either. Vermeulen was unexpectedly crap as a replacement, too.
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I suppose we could have brought Doak on, moved Lowry to 10 and brought Stockdale on at 15, but none of it’s ideal against Leinster, and it’s a bit early to use up all your backs.
The more I think about it, the more this seems like the right thing to have done (why else make those particular selections?). Perhaps they weren’t rehearsed with this configuration but again, then why not, if you’re not going to have a replacement FH?
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Trisk
There was a point.at 24 -22, Ulster had possession in Leinster 22… you could see Burns moving from side to side – but no attempt to go for the DG …. just to break the flow of Leinster scores…..Leinster score from a line-out maul
You won’t normally catch me defending Burns, but as I’d said, he was ready to be shipped off. You could see him clutching his back after taking kicks. He’d had a couple of wallops prior to this point.
He shouldn’t have been on the pitch, and probably wouldn’t have been if Cooney hadn’t been battered.
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@Thaum
I’d missed the fact that Burns was playing on injured…. so some of my observations should be modified I guess….
As you say, seemed like Lowry to 10, Stockdale on, maybe Moore to FB might have made sense …. at least everyone is fit ….
And I wouldn’t hold my breath on any citing for Lowe.
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Well, that killed the blog……
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It did. Party pooper. Maybe everyone’s too stunned by England’s smooth progress in the World Cup to post. I wonder if the blazers have sounded out Southgate yet as EJ’s replacement?
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Deebee, I heard Brunel and St André are also available. Not sure about their quality but they could teach the players how to rebel.
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@deebee
well, they weren’t looking good – then 2 quick goals…. no way back really after that for Senegal.
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Pivac fired, Gatland returns. Hmmmm.
Eddie to be fired too. Think that’s a bad decision if it happens. But understand that someone needs to be seen to do something.
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And yes, it’s been a shit year. But I don’t see what firing Eddie now does for the team before the RWC. Apart from bringing in consistent selections and a sensible game plan.
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Been looking at Gatland’s recent results…. erm, yeah. Good luck Wales!!!!
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Been looking at Eddie’s recent results…. erm, yeah. Good luck Eddie!!!!
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And Gatland has 5 years locked in. Amazing.
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Yes, but Gatlandball is ok
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Marchant to Stade Francais; LC-D to Montpellier – both for next season
Good moves for both.
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It’s almost funny watching team news scoot around who everyone wants to coach their International team, but Scott Robertson just isn’t biting, he only wants one job.
I’d love to say that was the Scotland job, but no, that ain’t it
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Don’t worry Ticht, Alan Solomons is available. I think Pieter de Villiers is also at a loose end at the moment. Or Heynecke Meyer.
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What’s Andy Robinson doing these days?
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Don’t know, but Bernard Jackman could do a job for someone.
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Not sure what Nimble Phil’s up to.
Kingsley could probably be prised away from Canada, got a good win against The Netherlands just recently.
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Jones oot. Borthwick iiin.
TBH this is a mistake and no one can prove me wrong.
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Although, I think we should do alright with Borthwick eventually. But sacking Eddie now is just stupid. Give him a massive kick up the arse, sure, but fire him, no.
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Still this could be an amazing sporting story of how a team gets turned round in 9 months.
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I am not spiralling out of control. Repeat, not spiralling out of control.
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Stupid blazers.
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I got my wish! Jones had to go. The players looked like they didn’t want to be there this autumn, and that must be down to him. He’s not been able to hold onto any coaching staff and his tenure overall has contained more lows than highs.
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Cockers? I don’t think so……… Thankfully he’ll be just seat-minding.
It will be interesting to see if performances improve under Cockers – in which case it shows that EJ had definitely lost the players.
If they don’t improve, then:
a) The squad really is low quality
b) The players don’t rate Cockers
c) Cockers is poor.
All 4 options could be true at the same time.
If performance improves:
d) the players are better than EJ allowed/encouraged them to be
e) the squad is poor but Cockers is a genius
f) option d) plus Cockers is good.
Option d) most likely. Cockers must improve the scrum – are there players available?
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Interesting to see what happens with the scrum. It looks underpowered, is that down to second row and No.8 choices ? Best Props in the world are going to suffer if the second row is being picked for extra curricular activities over grunt in the set piece. Both Cockers and Borthwick should be pretty clued up here, so that is promising.
Craigs, I can’t get the Eddie love you are peddling. The players have been looking sad, lost and confused for a while now, There is obviously something horribly wrong with the man management, you could be the most brilliant tactician on the planet, but if you have lost the team, it ain’t going to work. Maybe down to overcoaching, it may be that you have seen guys that are obviously talented and keen get fired into the sun for showing independent thinking, or even having the balls to question the coach, but one way or another, the incredible turnover of assistant coaches pretty much says it all. Noone seems to want to work with Eddie long term, even if the job is the best in the world.
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So who are the England centres going to be? With two tight five plonkers being talked up as a coaching team, my money is on Faz at 10, Ford at 12 and Smith at 13. Manu at 15, Lawes and Itoje on the wings.
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Billy V at 9.
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SBT – I think he didn’t care about anything but the RWC. Which is unacceptable to me but there you are. I could understand firing him after the 6ns tbh but not now. It’s too late and all the shite results he was using to build to the RWC will be for nothing now.
Also, I thought Borthwick is going to be in charge. We will have about 9 months where he tries to build the team for the RWC implementing new stuff and then he will build properly for the next one.
So, yeah, don’t like Eddies approach recently but understand his motivation. I think he was badly managed by the RFU and the timing of the firing is absolutely ridiculous.
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Deebee at 3.
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That’s not to say we definitely would have won the thing. But the RFU backed him for the RWC and then fired him for other results.
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And we bloody won a series in Australia this year. I know we’ve been beating them for a while but winning a series there is hard.
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Excellent topic for an ATL!
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It’s too late and all the shite results he was using to build to the RWC will be for nothing now.
This is patently untrue. They’ve been of immense comedic value to the rest of the rugby world.
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………..Horan & Little………….
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Deebs – speaking from experience there buddy.
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I think the blazers have waited too long to fire EJ.
As one who does not rate the RWC as the ultimate goal in rugby, I think Eddie should’ve been fired several years ago, considering how long he had the job and the poor results he had. Not every bloody game is a dress rehearsal for the WC, the 6N, the summer tours and the AI matter. England not only wasn’t progressing but was pretty turgid to watch.
Even with their lucky draw, England have very little chance to win the RWC, with or without Eddie. Better fire him asap.
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I wonder which heartland Borthwick will use to satisfy his token Rugby League backroom staff appointment. If he goes for Wigan he needs to go for Gleeson, Farrell or Edwards. Or if he goes for Oldham he can pick one of the Fords, Sinfield or Larder (I assume Larder is too old, mind).
Edwards and Farrell will be too expensive/unwilling to make the move, and I can’t imagine any of the Fords being in the running. So it’s between Gleeson and Sinfield. Mining vs cotton spinning it is. Or Wigan St Patricks vs Waterhead
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Deebs – speaking from experience there buddy.
Yeah, England’s my second team by birth. Oh, you mean the Boks a few years back. Or every few years. Or half of every season. Or Rassie. All true, but let’s focus on England!
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It was obviously the worry that Scotland could win again at Twickers that made the RFU push Eddie out.
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BB, I think to be fair the RFU have far lower benchmarks than that. But who are they beholden to? Always seems ridiculous when the blazers fuck up over and over again and simply fire, wash hands and walk away. No accountability at the ultimate level.
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At least Eddie wasn’t Spain’s manager. Can we all now support Switzerland? Or at least stay neutral.
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DeeBee successfully jinxes Switzerland. (So far).
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