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 
About Farrell:
“Selon que vous serez puissant ou misérable, les jugements de cour vous feront blanc ou noir.” It’s a quote from one of Jean de La Fontaine’s wonderful fables.
Roughly translates as: whether you are powerful or miserable, courts will declare you white or black.
Was always thus and will always remain thus.
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Perhaps playing to the limit of the laws should be matched by being sanctioned to the limits of the laws?
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Signed in espescially to like those last two comments from our very own French Connections.
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Slade – I’d have no problem with that.
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RIP Jeff Beck, a true great of the guitar.
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Craigs – I think perhaps players such as Farrell would have no problem either…………..
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DeeBee, that is really sad news
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SBT, I sometimes have to log in for every comment, but there is a button down on the right hand corner which allows you to sign in to your word press account, if you follow that you should be able to comment without having to sign in every time
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One thing about the Faz ban
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Refit, I read that one of several ways that Farrell could be loopholed is that if he is left out of the the squad, then brought in after the Bristol game.
Didn’t Sinckler have similar circumstances two years ago?
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Didn’t Hoops ‘play’ for a pub team or something?
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Anyone on here know how to prevent your current kitten kill your new one? Asking for a friend (kitten).
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Send it to tackle school?
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Hey! She hasn’t even conceded a penalty yet!
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For Slade
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@craigs
That’s Miaow Itoje’s job
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This is interesting:
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/what-owen-farrell-said-at-his-hearing-and-how-the-judiciary-reacted-england/
Describing his view of his tackle on Clement, Farrell told the disciplinary hearing: “He was expecting his opponent to run over him so he dropped his height to where he felt the tackle would be properly executed. He hinged both at the hips and at the knees. He said in hindsight he would have liked to have been a couple of inches lower.
“He said a number of times that he felt he had made primary contact through the chest area and that he had made a fair tackle. He said he believed all his force went through the chest area. He said he thought it would have felt different had he put the force through the chin.
“He denied the suggestion made by the RFU that he had caused the chin to be pinned backwards by his contact. The player helpfully talked the panel through the footage and, as he did so, he explained why he felt the force went through the chest area rather than the chin.
“He felt that the contact with the chin was not significant. It was described as fleeting. He said his opponent continued to contest the ball following the tackle and then continued to play the rest of the game.”
In its findings of fact, the judicial panel stated: “The panel accepts the player believed he had primarily struck his opponent’s chest. The footage, in our view, demonstrates he was wrong.”
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OT – she’s called Florence but I might float that name instead.
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From yesterday’s discussion of Faz, I totally get where those critical of him are coming from, and agree wholeheartedly that major changes need to be made, but I’m not sure the current approach is going to have the intended effect. Isn’t the biggest problem in rugby caused by the dozens of ‘mini-concussions’ players suffer from hard contact when their head wasn’t even directly touched? That isn’t going to be fixed until team weight limits are introduced and other measures are introduced that make dominant tackles and big hits less important to the game.
Faz is reproached for leading with the shoulder but another way of seeing things would be that Clement ‘led with his head’ into the tackle. Hasn’t there been some evidence that knees to the head of the tackler cause more damage than shoulders to the head of the tacklee? Is there a feasible way a player makes a tackle in that situation without risking either contact with the tacklee’s head or contact between the tacklee and their own head? Faz has a bad name for poor tackling now, but he was crouching going into the tackle so was making a reasonable attempt to make a legal tackle. I don’t think it’s possible to play full contact rugby without this occasionally happening innocently. If you reduce the power and frequency of head-damaging bodily collisions, the occasional accidental head contact is less of an issue.
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I’ve taken a screenshot of the point of contact, which illustrates how low Farrell was. Is there any way I can post it on here?
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Dab – Get an Imgur account and post a link.
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Fucking hell I really need to get rid of Sad Launchbury.
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Done, should see an improvement soon.
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Dab, you can see it here
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Craigs
A lot of very fit looking lads there, but – what is Jack doing – frightening the locals?
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Thanks Ticht!
You can see his knees are bent and he’s bent at the waist. For a tackle, I just can’t see how that deserves a red. Many other times I’ve had no sympathy for him, and there clearly has been something wrong in his approach throughout his career, but I don’t think he’s done much wrong there.
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Dab, I just don’t think Farrell was trying to tackle in the accepted sense. Crouching, flexing, aiming for the chest, whatever, he simply hit with his shoulder with no wrap in sight.
I think there needs to be serious introspection from WR to revolutionise the game so that this kind of thing is less likely. Do you ban pick and go from rucks and mauls? Tackle only below the waist? Certainly arms should always be in front of the shoulder going into a tackle, but not sure that’ll be foolproof. It’s incredibly difficult on all levels, but ultimately no-arms shots have to be eliminated.
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@Deebee Problem is anything you do ends up having unintended consequences. Banning pick and go would lead to defences fanning out, smothering any space available for the attacking team. I do take your point about the lack of arms in Farrell’s tackling, but the ban was for the contact between shoulder and head, not for the position of his arms.
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your Exeter team to face the Bulls:
Hodge, Nowell, Slade, Kata, Woodburn
Simmonds, Maunder
Sio, Innard, Williams
Dunne, Jenkins
Ewers, Tschiunza, Simmonds
bench: Yeandle, Kenny, I-Scott, Kirsten, Fisilau, Maunder, Skinner, O’Loughlin
Looking forward to it, but always feel more confident when Vermeulen is fit and playing.
Unavailable include: Hepburn, LC-D, Schickerling, Keast, Street, van Heerden, Gray, Vermeulen, Capstick, Townsend, DeVoto, Hogg (looks like a ‘missing’ XV could be pretty good on paper!).
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Banning pick and go would lead to defences fanning out, smothering any space available for the attacking team
I guess there’s a solution that a related game has adopted – to get rid a a couple of players to create that space…
Although, it’s really only at top level that the game is “crowded” – To encourage clubs with small squad we had a local rule that you could start at U14 with 12 and opposition had to match – there’s vast amounts of space, the local “Billy Whizz” wreaks havoc….
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This is quality. Watch out for the classic commentary reference towards the end
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Nice little story about young Christ here (you may get born with athletic potential but it has to be realised and that takes a lot:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/13/christ-tshiunza-rugby-union-exeter-wales-interview
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Matt Scott with an intercept and Tigers are 7-0 up inside 3 mins, against Clermont.
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Clermont have been very poor so far
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Fritz Lee is lucky to only get a yellow, after clattering Ben Youngs in the head at a ruck. He entered high, chest/head first and at speed, but Youngs had been knocked to the side by his opposite number.
Tigers score their 3rd shortly after, from a driving maul, Dan Kelly peeling off the back to dot down. 7-24 after 35 mins.
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My comment aged well
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Scarlets 10-3 up at the break against the Cheetahs. They should probably be a fair bit further ahead, but for some scrambling defence and the odd bit of poor finishing. Cheetahs haven’t been composed in possession though and have left a few points out there themselves. Tuipoulto with a yellow that could have been red (but correctly called in my view) at the break. Cheetahs lack of proper rugby is really sad.
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I can’t help but call Dan Kelly “Danny” cos that’s what we called his Dad at school. But I have it on good authority his Mum (who was also in my year at school) calls him “Daniel”
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Cracking win for Tigers, especially after their last 2 weeks!
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“Expro once put a photo up of his latest band and I compared it favourably with Right Said Fred”
If I remember rightly the guitarist used to be in Sleeveless Behemoth.
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Happy New Year and all that to everyone still here (and those that aren’t), I seem to have been a bit absent.
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Good to see you, Clyde! You all right?
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That’ll teach me to turn over to the rugby 3 mins late – I’ve already missed the first Leinster try.
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Poor game in Manchester. Sale lead 5/0 but were dished a RC for foul play, a direct contact to a Toulouse player’s head in a ruck.
5/3 now.
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HNY CMW.
Flair, I probably won’t switch over then, it looks like it may be a regulation win for Leinster at Gloucester, but it’s a reasonably good watch.
Nothing against the Dubs, but it just gets a little dull when the outcome is so predictable,
Clermont may be well below their best but last night was a good game for the neutral.
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Glaws 7 – 28 Leinster at HT.
Brutally efficient.
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Glaws’ body language is very poor – apart from Chris Harris, whose defence is excellent, as ever.
Morgan ate all the pies at xmas by the look of his waistline………………..
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Leinster so enjoyed giving away a yellow card & penalty try, for collapsing a maul, in the first half, they’ve repeated it in the second.
Glaws comeback? 14-35 after 65 mins.
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er, no
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Some of the attacking from Leinster was brilliant, they are some team.
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