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 
OT – would love Edwards to come to England now.
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@craigs
He wouldn’t go down very well with the blazers.
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OT – that’s why we need him. Although, maybe the WRU are on to something. Bring back Lancaster!!
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Fuck it, get Faz, Catt, Lancs and Edwards. Screw over the French and Irish in one stroke.
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Pay Galthie millions to do an admin role. Maybe get Neinebar(?) as a tea boy.
We’ve got this!
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Nienaber
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Craigs – I thought you meant DCC for a minute there.
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If DCC is also known as ‘Ninebar’ then that’s part of his past I hadn’t come across before.
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Refit – him too. Gats can be director of rugby, Foster can manage oranges, Wayne Smith attack coach and Toonie will be social secretary.
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Well, looks like I thoroughly jinxed Switzerland. At least waking up this morning and running my eye over the scorers, there was no Cristiano Ronaldo on the sheet.
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I see that Ronaldo slunk off the pitch at the end when the rest of the side was celebrating on it. That’s pretty graceless, especially when he’s the captain of the team!
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Where is George Ford, by the way? Discarded, injured or just not in the frame with Faz and Smith in the hot seats?
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Deebs – discarded and injured I think.
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Bit like Eddie then. Herewith his vision for English rugby:
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Given his recent super human efforts in support of his good mate Rob Burrow I’m rather optimistically hoping Kevin Sinfield will have a similar impact on England the way Faz Sr has on Ireland and Sean Edwards has had on both Wales and France.
Having said that the way the RFU blazers operate he’s probably more likely to lead Scotland to a world cup win.
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Declares Ultimate Rightness
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@thaum
Healy red card downgraded to yellow – no citing for Lowe.
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Trisk – jaw drops.
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Jake White throws his hat into the underdogging championships:
“We will be coming up against teams packed with internationals. European teams do not just draw from the player pool of their country – they have stars from all the top rugby nations.
“I fear South Africans are a little naive about what lies ahead. Champions Cup teams are much stronger than those in the URC.
“They boast packs that weigh more than a thousand kilograms, they have brilliant backs. I think we are in for a bit of a wake-up call from this weekend.”
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I assume no citing for Scannell either.
At the time it looked to me that he came in at the wrong angle, hit unnecessarily and held on a little too long, the upshot of which means Darcy Graham is out of rugby until February
He’d already scored one by the time he was taken off on 25 minutes and he’s been the most prolific try scorer in the league this season.
I think he got four from four games in the AIs too
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I didn’t realise just how prolific EJ was in the hiring and firing stakes: 112 players and 80 coaching staff in 7 years with England. Not sure how many players have been capped by other top sides over the same period, but it sounds huge!
Now that TomP isn’t here, who can name all 112?
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If England start with Genge and Sinkler they start from a position of strength. I don’t know who the best hooker available is, is it still George? The second row used to be the beating heart of England, even in recent years with Launchbury and Kruis alongside Itoje, with Lawes coming in too. That was a fearsome team of locks. Eddie picking an ice cream van at 8 is killing them, add in an out of form Itoje who seems happier indulging in gamesmanship, rather than his core duties (maybe it is just because he is being played out of position?) and you have a very sluggish back three. Curry is not exactly hitting his straps either. Dombrandt or Mercer can replace Mr Whippy, Earl and Willis (?) on the flanks, or stick with Curry and play Earl as an out and out flier of an open side.
Smith thrives at Quins behind Dombrandt, get him playing on front foot ball and you are half way, three quarters, of the way there.
Tuilagi left his best games behind him several injuries ago, he wasn’t just about the bosch, he had series pace but he doesn’t seem to have that now. May isn’t nearly as quick as he was, England have eleven teams in the top flight now, they must be able to find a backline from them. I haven’t watched enough Prom games this season to name names, other than if England don’t want Frazer Dingwall I hope Toonie gets him on board – oh hold up, Arundell, he is superb, having his pace will definitely help Steward at the back.
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@Ticht
Smith at Quins is closely supported by:
– Dombrandt
– Esterhuizen
– a set of very fast backs who are all tuned in
Perhaps, as a result, he gets more space and can play differently?
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Plus, I forget, Care at 9 and a good pack – with top props.
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Slade, it’s all about the pace. Eddie has been picking on scale rather than tempo.
I still see people taking about how the Boks won the last World Cup with a huge pack, I say that is less than half the story, just because they mullered the England scrum in the final (which actually got some of its own back later in the match) doesn’t mean it was all about the forwards.
The South African backline was superb in that tournament, full of pace and good rugby nous. They never really got the credit they deserved as everyone was talking about the bullies up front, plus the bomb squad.
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Really looking forward to the Euro matches this weekend! As posted above, Jake White thinks the Saffer sides are in for a rude awakening, saying they’re basically like Test matches. Methinks he’s overegging it slightly, gushing about how all the teams are stacked full of Test players from across the globe, because half the sides play in the URC every week anyway, and our sides are doing okay there. It’ll be good to see how our sides stack up against the top English and French sides though.
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Ticht, it still amuses me that for much of the last decade and more the Aussies have regularly put out heavier packs than ours, but it’s always characterised as Bok brawn versus Aussie nous. I was hugely encouraged by this year’s November Internationals, even though we lost to Ireland and France. The Ireland match was just a bloody-minded arm-wrestle from memory, with a couple of decent scoring chances apiece. The France match saw a bit more ambition and better structured backline play and then the shackles were truly removed in the Italy and England games.
If there’s one thing this tour showed, it’s that the Boks now have a thrilling backline when they use it – and they did to superb effect against Italy and very good effect against England. And we were still without Lukanyo Am at 13 who is arguably the best in the business there. Whisper it, but if the Boks keep playing this kind of rugby over the next 12 months, we may not have to to add to the carbon footprint to the Webb Ellis trophy’s wanderings.
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Typically underdogging from Deebs there… Wait, what?
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Graun currently live streaming the Harry and Megan documentary on Netflix. Peak 2022 journalism.
This show is going into the same ‘fuck off’ bin as the John Lewis Xmas advert and Avatar 2. Not watching that shit.
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We’ll see them on Celebrity Big Brother within 5 years, mark my words.
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Craigs, my starting XV for the Boks would look something like this, fitness and form allowing:
*TH: Malherbe – Bok rock
*Hooker: Mbonambi or Marx – Marx better in open play and jackling, Mbonambi the rolling maul
LH: Ox Nche – does his bit before the ginger ninja takes over
*Lock: Etzebeth – hope his 2022 form carries through
*Lock: de Jager – if recovered and firing
*Openside: Kolisi – superb form this year and wonderful captain
*Blindside: Mostert – Massive engine, can lock, giving the option of two loosies on the bench.
Number 8: Wiese – owns the jersey now, sorry Duane
*Hero: Faf – getting back to his best
10: Libbock – an actual proper placekicker; Willemse on the pine to cover 10, 12, 15
11: Kurt Lee Arendse – 7 Tests, 7 tries, Marcus Smith still looking for him
*12 de Allende – pivotal on defence and bashing it up, slowly learning to pass
*13: Am – superb on both attack and defence; marshalls the Bok backs
*14: Kolbe – lethal in space, can step you in a phone box
*15 le Roux – increasingly influential coming in as 1st receiver or joining the line.
Replacements: *Koch, *Kitshoff and *Mbonambi/Marx; *RG Snyman or Jason Jenkins; *Kwagga Smith, Evan Roos; Jaden Hendrickse and *Damian Willemse.
No spot in my side for Duane Vermeulen, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, PS du Toit or Elton Jantjies from the last World Cup (and starting 23 at the beginning of the year), or Canan Moodie, who suffers form a surfeit of excellent wings at the moment. So 11 starters played in the last World Cup, with 6 on the bench who also won last time out.
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Meant to say the * denotes 2019 World Cup winner.
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@deebee
You really rate Jenkins? Jury is out over here – and Munster view is that he’s a flat track bully. Played big in early season URC games for Leinster – but was quiet enough when SA played Munster in Cork – Munster had a recent signing (McDonald) and a 19yo Edogbo at SR.
Obviously, if RG gets back in any form he’d be ahead….
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hah! -you’re toast!
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Libbok makes sense – had a few yips in some Stormers games I saw but nailed that difficult one vs Ulster in the URC SF. Willemse does look like the guy you still at 23 and know he covers 11-15 (and 10 if you ‘ve any kind of a kicker elsewhere)
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Ticht, Billy V has never really been a good 8, what he had was incredible bosh, but that seems to have waned a little. I still love watching Ben Morgan play, he is a superb example of the organisational skills that a classic 8 needs. Faletau is the same. Both Dombrandt and Simmons are close and improving. England need a real 8, and also at least one heavyweight second row. I suspect that Maro is not all about grunt in the pack. Maybe if Maro has to play,we need a big ugly old fashjoned second row to go with him. Lawes fits the bill. I suspect Borthwick will be looking at this area closely.
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Trisk, the thinking down here regarding Jenkins is that he’s better than Orie or Moerat, who both played in the November internationals. It may be because of the assumption that being at Leinster he’s pretty good. Must be said though that the Stormers won the URC with Orie and Moerat, so they can’t be all that bad! Fans here moan that neither one has the physicality of Etzebeth or de Jager, but then not too many do! There’s also Ruan Nortje at the Bulls being talked up as world class (by Bulls fans) who toured with the ‘A’ side. Got a good turn of pace and hands for a big man, which is probably why he’s been overlooked.
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The HASK was DJing in Dubai?? Oh to be a fly on the wall…
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woo-hoo!
not the / the Heini coming riiiight up !
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It may be because of the assumption that being at Leinster he’s pretty good
Yeah, that seems to be how it works with Ireland – all things being equal the lad in blue gets the nod
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Irish are playing well, that was a cracking try
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Couple of cracking tries from Irish, a very interesting call for Montpellier’s try on half time and Creevy sent off.
Entertaining half.
I have no idea on the Montpellier try, I can see an argument for both sides
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Just a little bit of better game management and LI would have won that.
Lack of control of the last seconds of the first half and missed licks to touch in the second cost them.
Creevy was just cynical and his innocent expressions continue to fool no-one.
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This is worth watching right through
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Ticht, some of the reaction videos to that are just priceless. The ones where the person actually knows what they’re talking about are really good
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Lions and Dragons play out a 31-all draw at a virtually empty Ellis Park. Great stadium for Tests, but its in a horrible part of the city and people simply don’t want to risk going there for a Lions match. Need to find an alternative.
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Match itself never really reached any great heights. Drags actually looked better conditioned for the altitude even if the Lions had a speculative 60m penalty attempt to win it at the death.
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Refit, yeah I went down a bit of a rabbit hole watching reaction videos to her voice, the vocal coach and the musician ones are the best
I actually got the hairs on my arms standing on end when I first saw it
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Leinster are, well, being Leinster, the machine is well-oiled and purring along nicely.
Racing aren’t in this at all
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Racing putting in a very error-prone performance.
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