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 
Bordeaux/Sharks game has been (surprisingly?) OK. Not a try-fest, more Sag-pleasing.
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And now there’s a fifth.
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Am going to miss the second half of tomorrow’s Ulster match due to a dinner engagement. Was reluctant to accept, but there were enticements. Also, I’ll probably be too depressed by half-time to want to watch the rest anyway.
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Leinster get yet another try and Gloz another yellow.
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Glasgow are playing badly, they’ve been through, or close to it, about four times since their second try and have dropped the ball.
14 – 8 now
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May yet keep the score below 50
Looking unlikely – might keep the margin below 50 …..
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There’s another. 45-0 at 55 mins.
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Glasgow have been awful in this second half, 14 – 15 now.
Perpignan are not a good team by any stretch of the imagination.
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Posolo Tuilagi for Perpignan (nephew of Manu) is 18 years old, 1.93m and 150kg
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I don’t know why Gloz went for the corner at 45-0. You’d think you’d want some consolations points on the board; they’re obviously not going to win it.
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Ticht – had to look up what 1.93m is in feet (6’3″). Holy shit. The mister is 6’2″ and 95 kg, and he’s big (ie broad-shouldered). I’m 5’7″ and 60 kg, and also big-boned. So he’s 2.5 times my weight.
I wouldn’t stand a chance!
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50-nil. With about 3 mins to go.
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Not sure how Gloz managed not to score there.
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Assuming the 50 point handicap, Glaws leinster 0-0 at 77 mins, and Glaws valiantly pushing for a moral victory.
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And a ninth try for Leinster in the 82nd minute. 57-nil.
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Christ, the Ulster match has been moved to Dublin because of a frozen Ravenhill! Any last chances of victory now shot.
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generally regard themselves as Arab, first and foremost, Muslim second (or first), Mediterranean after that, clutching at European
Yeah, I guess I wouldn’t think of those countries as immediately “African” – geography apart. Although the Berbers of Morocco and Algeria are as much part of north Africa as any of the well known ethnic/cultural groups of the other parts of the continent – though I also suppose the Mediterranean aspect goes back to Roman times and beyond……
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Trisk (and, indeed, Deebee, who brought the subject up) – I reckon French colonialism has a lot to do with the North African nations feeling a bit less African a bit more European. They’re also (perhaps another consequence) a lot less religious than the neighbouring Gulf states, and perhaps even Turkey.
No doubt racism about skin colour has something to do with it as well.
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@thauma
Think it goes further back than that. Take a look at the Roman Empire – there’s been some genome work done and people in North Africa are genetically far more similar to those in South Spain, Italy, Greece, Lebanon etc than in sub-Saharan Africa. Suggests they historically have closer ties.
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What’s with this facting of late-night bollocks?
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Exeter giving the Bulls B+ team a working over by the looks of it. Just tuned in 22-7 Chiefs with 8 to go to the break.
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29-7 after a combination of woeful tackling and good support lines from Exeter. And a shot at posts to wind down the clock for the 1st half. 32-7 at the break.
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Bulls finally get a few phases going in the right direction and get a 7 pointer. Far too late, at 39-14.
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Exeter not taking any chances with winding down the game and holding on. More crap defence/good hands and support and they’re 44-14 ahead with plenty of time left. 22 minutes, to be precise.
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Bulls got bullied.
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Dave Ewers gets a yellow for a no arms shot to the neck/head area. It was coming; I thought there were a couple of borderline shots in the last five minutes that weren’t called. On both sides. Bulls have a last shot at making the scoreline more respectable but cock it up. 44-14 final score. Sobering for the Bulls (and SA sides in general) the depth you need to contest on two fronts.
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One way traffic in Dublin, losing Ravenhill is proving to be a big handicap for Ulster
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0 – 29 at half time.
La Roch have been very good, they are not letting Ulster into the game at all.
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Apparently Ulster had a miraculous second-half come-back! Not enough to win, but at least got 2 BPs.
Thank fuck we didn’t get nilled again.
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Full 30-man rumble in the Saints/Munster match.
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Drama at the end of the Toulouse / Sale match. McGuigan almost scores, but knocks on in the process. Toulouse break down field and score themselves. However, while that’s all happening Tomas Ramos has been in a scuffle with McGuigan, Curry and some others and during that, he sticks the head on McGuigan.
After much viewing of replays, the Toulouse try is scrapped (they had to call players back onto the pitch), Ramos gets a red and it’s a penalty to Sale – from which they score.
Final, final score is 45-19.
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Too bad the last Toulouse try was scraped for that RC, it was one of the best this year. From Sales not grounding the ball properly to Toulouse counterattacking for the entire lenght of the field.
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Finn to Bath apparently confirmed.
One million smackeroonies per season
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Hard luck Flair/France – that was a cracking final.
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BB, am completely sanguine about it. France were crap for at least 75 minutes, were saved by a couple of Mbappe’s miracles, coud even have snatched it at the last minute of ET, but ultimately didn’t deserve it. Best team won, no problemo. Not everyone of them is likeable but Messi is the real Silk. BTW, who got this fabulous nickname- and branded by whom on the old blog?.
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It was Quade Cooper I think, can’t remember who gave him that nickname. Cat maybe?
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BB, IIRC, it was Larry who gave Quade Cooper the name because if the happy coincidence of his initials QC, ie Queens Council, who “take the silk”
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Ticht gets a hundred Internet pints for getting it spot on! Larry was so proud of himself for that, that he’s still basking in the glory and waiting for the applause to die down so he can write his match report of the 2015 Final of something or other.
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Deebs, it no longer works of course, as QCs are now KCs
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And rugby has moved on from the staid legalistic to thrill a minute fun! fun! fun! So KC and the Sunshine Band it is then.
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Borthers to Engerland!
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Kevin Sinfield as well. That’s England’s 3rd defence coach to be associated with Saddleworth School. Phil Larder taught Mike Ford PE at that particular bog standard comprehensive.
St John Fisher in Wigan is responsible for Andy Farrell, Sean Edwards, Martin Gleeson (and others) mind.
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Will be interesting to see if he can change much by February. Who’s first up for England?
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Scotland innit.
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At Twickenham. Not been beaten on our last two visits there. That’ll probably change.
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BB – I fucking hope so!
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yay. Actually looking forward to six Nations now, instead of dreading it. Need something to keep my interest until the new NRL season starts. New coaching team with only a month to go, surely we must be underdogs against everyone, including Capuozzo’s Azzurri.
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Still having to sign in for every comment, Thaum.
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SBT – your cookies must be getting deleted!
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Scotland by 23.
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