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 
Top win Thaum……………………………good luck against Leinster(?)
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“good luck against Leinster(?)”
Assuming that’s the case then it should cover “all the matches are away”…
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Munster could still get the O’s a home draw, but more likely they’ll be 5th which in a way is a sort of throwback to when they used to sometimes make it out of the old groups while also making sure they didn’t get a decent draw by getting the bonus point side of things wrong.
Of course this time they’re if anything a bit lucky to have done as well as they have, some very close games. Nice to get one of our teams through for once though!
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Looks like it will be the case unless London (spit) Irish pull off a large upset (Karl) today.
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Not sure how that can be the case, Thaum ? Looks to me like Ulster get Leinster, and Glaws get La Rochelle ?
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Montpellier need to stop dropping the bloody ball.
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Aha, points difference ? Then you could get Exeter. In which case, does that mean you are supporting LI for a big win today?
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Just back from culture vulture morning. There is a “Coffee Concerts” classical music series out at the university campus which is set in a lovely park. Today was an hour and a half of solo cello.
A couple of the pieces were hardcore but overall it was a quite thrilling experience.
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SBT – yes, exactly. At one point, LI were 21-0 up and another converted try would have done it.
But I will never, ever support LI. Not even if it meant our dropping out.
Ticht – I love the cello.
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‘Wild’ celebrations in the BB household this weekend. Daughter 2 got engaged to boyfriend last night. Took him long enough, they’ve been going out for 12 years.
That’s another bloody speech I need to make up…
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Congrats to all concerned BB. If they been going out 12 years, guess the engagement will be fairly long too, so you got time to plan the speech. Summer 2027 ?
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Embra doing a bit of a number on Sarries, aided by two yellow cards. 10-6 at half time, but it’s been almost all Embra.
Also, that Bill Mata fella’s a bit of a handful.
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Jeez Louise ref, hows about penalizing blokes that grab the ballin a ruck when they are off their feet ? Earl had his head on the floor before he got his hands on it, Itoje held the ball in for a good five seconds after the ref told him to let go, and he still got away with it, and that last turnover was elbows down too.
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Deebee, am surprised noticed it but you misread OT post. The UK does not generate 0% power from solar.
What OT posted was the British electricity mix on the 20th of January at 7pm. Doubt the sun shines in mid winter in the UK at 7pm.
Good game in Toulouse. Munster were monstered for half an hour but slowly and brilliantly fought their way back into the game. It was quite close and save a few bad choices could’ve gone the other way.
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SBT, it’s infuriating, they’ve been cynical all game and they just get away with it.
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Ticht, many a ref would have carded both Earl and Itoje in that last 20 seconds, i am surrised the TMO didn’t get involved. Expect someone to have a word at halftime, and the ref will penalise it like mad in the second half. Unfortunately it will be Edinburgh getting the cards. I suppose you could say fair play to Sarries for exloiting it to the max, but I dodn’t think I have ever seen such blatant sustained outright cheating. Even Saint Ruchie never got away with that kind of stuff.
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SBT, Vunipola did it too, he should have been off for ten for cynically slowing the ball after being told to leave it.
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Watching the Edi/Saracens on TV in my favourite conditions. No bloody commentary, just the sound of the crowd and the refs. Itoje YCarded.
And the Scots just score from a ( bit of disjointed) maul .
Edimburgh lead 21/9 with 20 minutes to go.
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And now the crowd sings something that sounds like “Allez les Bleus!” Penalty for the Scots. Missed.
Very pleasant game.
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The crowd now singing something that sound like Allez les Bleus. Itoje finally YCarded. And the Scots score. 20/9. Quite pleasant.
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“The crowd now singing something that sound like Allez les Bleus”
Flair, it’s Eh din bruh
Good match, we have to go to Leicester now, one more point and we’d have a home game – grrr!
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Exeter to receive Montpelier, I think. Hmmm…………
Still, better than playing and losing to Munster again!
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Thanks Ticht.
Allez-les-Scots!
Only saw the last 30 minutes but it was a good watch.
Good luck vs Leicester.
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I’m sure you’re all delighted that the Lions’ carbon footprint was not in vain! Onward and upward!
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Castres club, their captain and especially Kockott should get banned. They are awful
@slade – there’s a gif out there out of Peter O’Mahony telling Kockott to do one….
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but hasn’t missed one yet
@thaum – you were tempting fate there…
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Trisk – indeed! He did miss one later on.
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So, Munster get a trip to the Sharks – while disappointed to lose… I guess to lose by 4 after the first 25 mins we endured was a great performance, but came away thinking we might have won that.
Kleyn and Beirne played all 80 as we’ve only a couple of academy second rows available. Yellow against Healy seemed a bit harsh – TMO was saying pen only then Dickson ignored that and the TMO acceded.
Anyway, all that criticism that Healy never takes it to the line seems misplaced after the try vs Ulster and hammering into the Toulouse tacklers.
As Flair says – couple of better decisions at key points (and that’s always the case, I guess) and it’s a different result. Oddly, I think a win – even with a BP – still left us vs Sharks (after Edinburgh beat Saracens)
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AND
@slade
There’s another one where he’s caught on ref mic telling Kockott – “Don’t you start ….. Piss off”
video/
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There are gobby 9s and there is Kockott. The man, although a good player, made few friends in France. He’s now retired (except for that game, due to so many injuries) and became a coach with Castres. Doubt his coaching style will improve their likeability.
They are a pain in the butt to play, contest every ruck, both verbally and physically, show very little flair or panache and are incredibly hard to defeat at home, at least in the Top14. A siege mentality help them punch way above their weight. Commendable but so dull.
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@flair
I’d guess they are up there with Munster’s least favoured clubs. Although, I think fans have a certain grudging respect for that ‘in your face’ attitude, they aren’t someone we look forward to playing.
Played them last EPCR – won a scruffy, game in Limerick and eked out an equally scruffy on away with Crowley at 10. Certain joy to be had a beating them at their own game.
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Buttering up the disciplinary committee for when he puts the shoulder into Finn next week ?
Guardian :-
Farrell, who is serving a three-match ban for a dangerous tackle, said: “In terms of where the game’s going and trying to make it safer, the RFU are trying to make sure it’s going in the right direction and we want to be at the forefront of that. We want to play as hard and safe as we possibly can and I want to be part of that.”
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Trisk – having watched Bath on Friday, I can understand why Munster fans weren’t particularly enamoured of Van Graan. They weren’t the most exciting side I’ve seen.
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@bb
I think people liked Van Graan as a person – he was straight and respectful. However….there’s always a “however”…. the thinking is that his previous roles as an analyst left him with a tendency to plan for what the oppo might do rather than try to make them react to his team….
As well, although he introduced a lot of the young players we’re beginning to see emerge, his tendency was to fall back on the tried and trusted . Although to be fair – some of the tried and trusted (Scannell for example) are playing a lot better under “Wig” .
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So, the WRU look pretty fucked
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64271627
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Every time you read something like that it beggars belief that there are still arseholes not only holding views like that, but confidently spouting them in public. And the worst part of that confidence, is the assumption (apparently correctly) that you won’t get held to account for views like that! The actual worst part is that this happens across boardrooms across the world, in every sphere of life and work. Just. Holy. Fuck.
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Ollie Lozzie (yep you heard that here first) and Jamie Blamire to replace Elliot Daly and Jamie George in the 6ns squad.
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Blamire’s darts worse than McGuigan’s. I would have shipped in Harry Thacker. Superb hooker when he isn’t broken, like a hyperactive Underhill around the park, with better handling, and can actually throw in.
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Refit, I have absolutely no idea where to stand on the transgender issue. Too complex for my brain.
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From what I’ve seen, most people playing the game don’t care. It’s people outside and (unfortunately) in charge that have an issue.
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Refit, I’m probably naive but I’m lost like Deebee about the issue of transgender women playing the game. Can you elaborate?
Are transgender women not allowed to play with women because they’d be considered having an unfair advantage, like being too strong?
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The tackle height is merely going back to what it used to be. We were never coached to hit someone in the chest, you were taught to tackle around the waist and legs. The like of Josh van der Flier and Hamish Watson, Justin Tipuric etc, the guys who go for years without missing tackles, they don’t do the big chest hit
There must be an age where the tackle height creeps up, because I do not believe for one instant that mini rugby players and older children are taught to tackle upright with a leading shoulder.
There was a guy that CJ used to know, iirc, Beardmore is his name, the guy runs the egg chaser podcast, he’s come out all in the huff about the new rules being brought in and he got a right facting here
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From listening to their podcast, JB has never let facts get in the way of a good knee-jerk. It’s one of the reasons I stopped listening to it
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I hear he’s a bit of a reactionary nitwit when it comes to covid, vaccination, conspiracies etc
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On a lighter note
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he’s a bit of a reactionary nitwit when it comes to covid, vaccination, conspiracies etc
CJ or JB?
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Ross Tucker is very good on this stuff, especially around injuries. In fact, I might have posted a thread from him a while back.
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