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 
Apparently Thomas du Toit is signing for Bath next season. Must be going on the cheap if they’re paying a million for Finn.
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Terry Hall RIP
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Always been a big admirer of Terry Hall.
Dreadful childhood that he survived (just) ……………
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England’s future back three: Hassell-Collins, Watson, Steward.
I’ll let Borthwick take it from there (so long as he includes Slade)
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For a second there, I thought you said Haskell.
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RIP Max Brito, the Ivorian winger who was left as a quadriplegic in the 1995 World Cup. By all accounts he had a terrible time after the accident and years of bitterness, but eventually came to accept his fate. I remember that incident vividly; it was horrible to see.
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What’s the Hask up to these days?
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Hunting Cat?
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“England’s future back three: Hassell-Collins, Watson, Steward.
I’ll let Borthwick take it from there (so long as he includes Slade)”
Arundel in there somewhere, Shirely?
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I’m a huge fan of Anthony Watson, but he seems to be broken a lot of the time
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Incidentally, Kyle Rowe looked to be really hitting his straps before injury overtook him on the summer tour to Argentina, but he did look very good.
Ldn Irish could put out a back three of 11. Hassell-Collins., 15. Arundell, 14, Rowe
Which wouldn’t be too shabby at all.
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Rugby values everyone
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Good interview with Eddie from 2hr 25min here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001g94d
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Refit – fuck that.
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Just watched the highlights of Quins vs Racing and Racing’s pack appears to have been done over by a mutant baby. Last scrum they get shoved off their own ball. Beautiful.
One to watch in for the future.
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Ticht
H-Collins is big, fast and good in defence and can ‘play’. Watson seems back on his game and injury-free.
Arundel to compete for the bench -his positional play / defence is not up to much yet.
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Maybe an unpopular opinion, but if that Lions test goes through, they’ll lose all trace of the ‘romance’ they had. It’s all about the shareholders now.
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That childhood thread of thinking rugby still had ‘values’ just died. This is fucking awful:
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Craigs, that is beyond despicable. Just don’t understand the mentality.
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Apparently everyone laughed when he opened it too. Parking Benetton alongside London Irish.
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Craigs, someone on the Glasgow forum said, “No Englishman called Baxter calls their son Fin”
He can expect an enquiring call from Toonie soon.
:-)
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“Parking Benetton alongside London Irish.”
it’s right across the game, lot’s of other isms and obias are too.
Exeter still have a section of fans who do the moronic chant, despite Rowe reluctantly changing their branding
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Ticht – hands off the fucker!!!! I hope Borther’s brings him in soon.
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Why? According to Kitson, England have 5 teams worth of players hanging about. You won’t miss one player out of that lot.
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Jonny won’t be pleased…..
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/22/world-rugby-union-time-limit-kickers
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Boffelli, and we Embra fans won’t be too chuffed at the either, BB.
Speaking of Boff, he won a Copa de something this week in Argentina, it’s a sports award for the outstanding performance in a particular sport over the course of the year, there are about 50 sports represented and Boff deserved his rugby one.
I would hazard a guess at who won the round ball gong, and he probably overshadowed his peers from the other sports in doing so.
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Every time I hear someone say Boffelli’s name I’m disappointed his name isn’t really Pwllheli
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The story behind Doddie’s portrait that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.
It’s a really good film, it made me laugh and also shed a wee tear
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While we’re at it
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I saw that earlier today OT.
It’s very moving.
I’m doing Doddie Aid again this January/early Feb.
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BB – just so you can’t have him.
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Eddie would have done that – as he nearly did with Redpath before Cam saw the light. Don’t think Borthwick will be so petty.
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I hope he is. For some Xmas cheer innit.
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I watched Zelinskiy’s (spelling?) speech to congress – so good!
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Currently, lying in a hospital bed after having a pacemaker fitted.
Will I now be the answer to England’s #12 shirt??
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Bloody hell, Slade! Will you be home for xmas?
(And the answer is yes, obviously.)
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……………yes indeedie: traditional French xmas eve feast scheduled at friends for 21:00 tomorrow!
Theatre nurse asked me; “do you hunt? – because if you do we will insert the ‘thing’ in the opposite shoulder to that which you rest your rifle against – the recoil would wreck it!”
Priorities…………………….
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:-D
Glad you’ll be home for the feasting.
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for anyone who is interested I have identified half a dozen bloggers on youtube to keep me informed on ukraine from different perspectives:
jake broe
anders puck nielsen
denys davydov
artur rehi
perun
vlad vexler
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Slade, hope you enjoy the feast and are fully recovered! You won’t make the England midfield though: anything that had pace in it is automatically discarded.
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A message for Slade from Albert Hammond:
You will take good care of me
I’ll be your caretaker
You’ll be the maker of the peace
I’ll be your pacemaker
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cheers Deebs
I see what you did there with ‘pace’
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Losing my mind! Completely forgot the Connacht Ulster match was on.
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‘Sokay, it’s 0-0.
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For the few minutes I’ve been watching, Ulster are shite.
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Ulster make a slightly lucky try.
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@Slade – hope the recovery goes smoothly.
One of the streamers I watch, Lonerbox, has had two conversations with a lady named Anastasiya, who is currently working in Ukraine and trying to help support people over there. This is the second chat they had.
I can also recommend a streamer called Dylan Burns. He actually went to Ukraine, from the US, to make videos from on the ground.
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Cooney’s conversion goes ridiculously wide. 5-0.
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Irish number 5 of with a straight red for a hit to the head. It’s his 3rd – all against Sarries. Maybe he doesn’t like them for some reason?
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And Glasgow score against Embra!
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