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 
How would you know with all that fog?
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Munster fans told the ref. :-)
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Well, Edinburgh cocked that up at the critical moments
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Bloody hell, the Os kit is hideous.
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Brookter pleasing result today! I’m sure he’s dancing in the streets of Crewe.
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Sag pleasing result too. I’m sure he’s smoking in a park somewhere.
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Dayglo is the world’s worst commetator.
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@refit – I don’t think the Os kit is so bad. It’s not like the terrible Glaws one, or even the horrid yellow Ulster were wearing today.
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Well, all the wrong teams have won today.
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Except Toulouse, and Clermont.
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And the Scarlets
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Clermont was on Saturday. I’ll agree with Scarlets being okay to win, though.
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When the blog is dead, cometh the man…
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Do you think it would be amiss to ask some co-workers what their grip strength is like?
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Depends what the nature of the work is. If it’s lifting and delivering beer barrels it’s not a bad metric
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Deebs – same as saying that they might be fired soon in front of all their colleagues I guess.
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Craigs, you’re absolutely spot on. Your grip strength is impressive!
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Deebs – I probably shouldn’t admit to this but I do grip strength training for Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. I bet I could crush Expro.
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Wow!
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Altrad, Montpellier’s owner and France and ABs sponsor (altrad) is also convicted. Corruption etc…
As Laporte contests the verdict, he may unfortunately remain the FFR boss. Full judgment, after appeal, won’t happen before a good two years. Only the Sports Minister can demote him. Will they, with the RWC only a year away? I doubt it.
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Today I learned that Eddie Jones doesn’t have a non-compete clause against England. 🤦♂️
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Well, I’ll be damned!
The Minister of Sports, although paying lip service to formal justice by acknowledging that Laporte is innocent until definitely proven guilty, is asking for new elections at the FFR.
That’s a very quick reaction, it doesn’t bode well for Laporte keeping his job. Paint me sorry.
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Craigs seriously? Jiu-jitsu? You’re already hanging on by a thread. Crush **Pro? No doubt. Just don’t get into a debate about it.
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Pau coach has been naughty
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I understand that too many people would be dragged under for a certain French rugby administrator to be convicted of anything substantial. This is going to be dragging on for many years with no real conclusion.
The video there of the Pau coach is bad, you cannot put your hands on the ref, that goes for the players and the officials.
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The fog is so thick in Munster
Yeah – it was ludicrous. On South Terrace we couldn’t really see what was happening at the other end.
Not a bad performance from Munster – just a little below what’s needed to beat the very best.
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Munster fans told the ref. :-)
Much good it did us. We didn’t expect much, anyway (Ridley was in charge last season when Toner’s ruck side entry wrecked Coombes knee).
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Deebs – you should see my 40m sprint times.
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Refit – Eddie has shown how good he is at getting revenge.
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Craigs, what about the box jumps?
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DeeBee – you supporting your fellow Africans in the semi final, or are they too far north for you….
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BB, I was in something of a bind about this one. I would generally support any African team, but the five North African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) generally regard themselves as Arab, first and foremost, Muslim second (or first), Mediterranean after that, clutching at European in the case of Morocco, and only when it comes to World Cup and Olympic qualifying do they consider themselves ‘African’. There’s been quite a bit of chatter across the continent about Moroccan players posting how proud they are to be the first Arab side into the SF, so I was a little ambivalent about it. Would love to have seen another upset, but this France side is too polished for that.
I’ll probably support Argentina in the Final, in the hope that Messi adds that last piece of silverware to his collection and finally, resoundingly, puts C Ronaldo in his place.
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Think I’ve found the perfect Xmas present
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The ‘artist’ has taken some liberties with Trump’s actual shape!
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Deebs – over a pub to win the quiz innit.
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Fuck off Rassie
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Speaking of refs, may I recommend a very, very good article in today’s Planet Rugby about the huge amount of work international refs put in daily. Fantastic report by the lone Georgian ref. Really excellent stuff.
Hope it keeps Rassie’s and his clones mouths shut.
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Continuing the theme, in the lead up to the Glasgow game they’ve said that the Pau coach was handed a 10 week ban, quite what that means I don’t know – he can’t coach the team for that period?
How is it checked?
The John Barclay and Ryan Wilson say that 10 weeks is a joke, it should be much longer.
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Hmmm. Do I watch the inevitable win by the Blue Meanies against Glaws, or do I suffer Bordeaux against SAle Sharks. While keeping an ear out for Glasgow’s close defeat to the Perps.
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Bloody hell, just seen the Leinster bench. Could win the Champions Cup on its own. Think I’ll stick with Bordeaux.
Also just realised my mistake – it is the actual SA sharks, not the Sale SA Sharks. Too many bloody sharks about. And Etzebeth’s just chucked a prop into touch….
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I’ve just realised I have the BT app on my tablet, so I can watch both matches.
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Glorious resistance by Glaws 2’s against the Blue Meanies. 8 mins no score, massive moral vistory. May yet keep the score below 50.
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Two tries for the BMs!
SBT, are you still having sign-in issues? If you’ve got the box ticked to remember you, then you or some utility must be deleting your cookies.
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Three!
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Glasgow two tries up 14-0, Vailanu is skittling players every time he carries, he’s a beast
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And there’s the BP try.
Gloz deserve their nil due to their horrendous kit that pains the eye.
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Oh hang on, the BP try got chalked off while I was feeding the dog.
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It’s either back again, or they’ve scored another while I wasn’t looking.
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