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 
Ticht, I really enjoyed that game in Clermont yesterday.
ASM are way below where they were, they lost many seasoned pros and are now introducing lots of youngsters from their academy so an away win at Stade Michelin isn’t the rarity it once was but Leicester were a joy to watch.
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Jack O’Donaghue goes from hero to zero. Scores quite a lovely try, to extend Munster’s lead to 17-0, then throws his shoulder into a Saints player’s face and gets a red.
At some point, players will learn not to hit people in the head. Considering Mike Graham was lucky to only get a yellow himself, earlier, I’m not holding my breath.
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As a foot note, I was surprised Fritz Lee only got a YC for a hit on the head. It was clumsy and unfortunate but it was still a direct contact with the head of an opponent. Players won’t learn until there is consistency with the refs and the citing commissions ( see Farrell precedents. “S” not a typo).
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I’m not even nervous. Just wondering how badly we’re going to get trounced.
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It’s even worse than I thought. 13 players unavailable, including Burns, which means Madigan starts and we’ve no fly-half on the bench. No McCloskey.
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Mind you, La Rochelle are missing a few big players too.
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Well, we’ve lost our first line-out within the second minute.
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Thaum, out of the top of my head LaR are missing their 1rst choice front row ( Atonio, Bourgarit, Wardi) , Skelton, Danty (also Leyds and Rhule?). Dreadful weather on the Atlantic coast.
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Flair – yes, it’s filthy weather. Must be a bit more helpful to us, being more used to it!
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Thaum, our West is quite wet, especially in winter. The wettest place in France is the Basque country, about 300km further south.
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I’ve seen summer days in Belfast like that. :-)
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Hope the game will get better in the 2nd half.
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An exciting nil-nil at HT. Am fairly chuffed with how Ulster have performed; thought LaR would be out of sight by now.
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Flair – unlikely unless there’s a miraculous change in the weather.
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Weather’s better, the game is still awful.
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Nah, it’s fine: we’re not losing yet. ;-)
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I think Slade (not our one) can feel a little hard done by, for that red card – considering some of the other decisions that have been made today.
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POINTS!!!! 3-0 to Ulster.
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Stop the presses – points have been scored at La Rochelle!
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That is unbelievably shite.
La Rochelle score as the clock goes red (after Ulster give away a penalty).
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That is what is known in Scotland as a richt scunner
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Cruel for Ulster. You can’t deny the win to the only team that scored a try but Ulster deserved to win this. LaR were crap.
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Not impressed with the refereeing at all.
I thought we’d lose this match by a lot, so it was pretty heartbreaking to lose at the last second!
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Cruel for Ulster. You can’t deny the win to the only team that scored a try but Ulster deserved to win this. LaR were crap.
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And thanks, Flair! Somehow it seems it’s still possible for us to make the last 16. Not that we’ll go any further than that.
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Bloody hell, 24 mins played and Daly’s got a hat-trick against Lyon. 4 tries in total, 26-0.
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Sarries 6 tries to 1 up, after 35 mins.
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Glasgow leading 28-12 in Perpignan on 39 mins
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Lyon score just before half time. 36-14 at oranges.
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And Bristol are 6-0 down to Zebre.
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Zebre leading Brizzle 6 – 0 at HT
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All right Ticht, no need to rub it in.
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The come back is on, Refit, Thacker got a try
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Refit, I was told Zebre lead Bristol 6-0 at HT.
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Grrrrrr
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Looks like Refit can rest easy now. Bristol won’t be the first side to lose to Zebre this season…
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All in all not a bad result for Exeter – they got a LBP.
Henry is such a brute!
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Holy crap, I’ve just seen the score. “That escalated quickly” might be applicable.
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Come on the Stormers!
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Farrell’s ban was already ridiculously short, as expected. And yet on top of that, according to the Guardian, the RFU has intervened so Borthwick can have Farrell for the start of the 6N.
In plain English, this is called cheating. It’s not going to go down well with other federations and I wish there was a way they could appeal the decision. It’s getting embarrassing..
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Irish down to 13 – a yellow & penalty try for dropping a maul and a red for head contact. lol
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Cardiff up 21-3 (3 tries) at the half hour against Newcastle.
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RFU bringing the game into disrepute.
Tragic
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Looks like it might be a second red for Irish. Their #18 driving his shoulder/bicep into a Stormers player’s head at an attacking ruck on the Stormers line.
Yep, it’s a red. lol, again.
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Ugo Monye has actually suggested referees should attend tackle practice, to “get more of a feeling for the game”.
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Hell of an end to the Racing/Quins match. Racing have had 3 yellow cards (including Finn) and conceded a penalty try – which has give Quins a 2 point lead with 4 mins left.
27-29 to Quins
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Racing win. Good game, MoM one Marcus Smith.
Flair, I am disgusted by that decision about Farrell. I think it is a real shame after all the bullshit of the Jones era to start the new regime off with such behaviour. personally cant really see what harm a game ban would do to England, Smith needs game time at some point, and really Farrell should have been gone for the first couple of games as a repeat offender.
New broom, clean slate, reputation tarnished before a single match has been played. I think Borthwick would be wise to drop Farrell anyway, send him back to his club and tell him to work on his tackle technique.
It would be interesting to now if Borthwick requested clarification from the RFU, or is the RFU trying to tell him who he should pick.
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Cracking game in Paris. Sag wouldnt’ve liked the defending but there were some wonderful moves, from both sides.
Fin’s sloppy catching of the ball ( not even turning his body towards his own goal line), knocking it forward resulted in very quick succession in 3 YC for Racing. I can understand the frustration of his coaches . There is maverick and talented and there is carelessness. Finn’s dangerously sliding towards the latest.
SBT, completely agree with you. Even if Marcus wasn’t the better 10, Farrell should’ve been sidelined for a longer period. The RFU is actually bringing the game in disrepute. Shame.
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Fuck, fuck, fucking hell, we’re going to get knocked out by the Aussies.
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