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 
On the one hand this is a great bit of kick chase play, on the other, it might be the sort of thing that kills our sport. No one was injured but Jebus…
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As long as boxing and cage fighting and variations thereof are considered sports and not assault I don’t think rugby is in danger of being snuffed out.
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he’s come out all in the huff about [x] being brought in
That seems to be his general attitude… ” [game/country/what ever you’re having yourself] has gone soft”
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More pressure on the WRU
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More here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64416671
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Just gets worse. Sounds utterly toxic. Sad thing is, looking at the blazers running the sport in most countries, I doubt it’s all that different anywhere. What the fuck is wrong with men?
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Corrupt Laporte has finally resigned from his top job at FFR. Unfortunately the small print in the FFR status allow his croonies to remain in place until 2024, nothing can reverse it, not even the sport minister. Plus ça change…
If you think the WRU is in trouble, our three main sport federations are in turmoil. The boss of the football federation (LeGraet) just had to resign after accusations of bullyism, sexism and sexual harassment. The handball federation’s boss (Martini) resigned yesterday after being convicted of exchanging pedopornography with a 12 yo boy. A year ago it was the ice skating federation boss who had to leave, after years of clinging to power. Can’t help but see a pattern there, old farts with too much power and no accountability.
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Deebs – UFC fighters tend come out fucked. I know they tend to be brain dead going in, but the toll on their brains and bodies is incredible.
That’s why I said no to Dana White when he approached me. Could have choked out Kabib but what would my kids think if they saw that?
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Wrote a note about Laporte’s resignation and our other sport federations’ deep problems. Gone to limboland I guess.
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Italy prop Ivan Nemer has copped a hefty ban following an investigation into his racist secret Santa gift to Benetton and Azzurri teammate Cherif Traore. It was in the week before Christmas that Traore took to social media to explain his disgust at receiving a rotten banana, and his public calling out of the racist gift eventually resulted in the Treviso-based URC franchise suspending an unnamed player on December 22.
This is good but it shouldn’t end here. People laughed.
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Deebs
What the fuck is wrong with men?
Trust me, it’s a lot better now than it was 30 or even 20 years ago.
Ulster match kicks off in 20 minutes or so, and I have managed to mis-time the dinner such that I will be putting the finishing touches on it and dishing it up shortly after that.
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Craigs – that is absolutely disgusting.
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That’s why I said no to Dana White when he approached me.
Got mistaken for Dana White by two Brazilian guys in a Spanish restaurant close to Covent Garden a few years back. I was wearing a black hoodie-type top and had the sleeves rolled up, which made it look like I was quite buff in the low light of the restaurant. I had no idea who Dana White was, thankfully, because they were pissed and looking for a scalp. Food was good.
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Thauma, I know it’s better, which is good, but it’s still far too prevalent across all parts of society, which is deeply frustrating.
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I have managed to mis-time the dinner
Outrageous! Just don’t make them like they used to! 🤣
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‘deeply frustrating’ sounds like a shitty politician. It’s bullshit
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Ooh! Ulster spend a couple of minutes on the Stormers line, rolling mauls and go over – but penalised for obstruction. Stormers clear but Ulster have a scrum 30m out.
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The food is surprisingly good. It’s a lamb curry I’ve never made before, and I thought it would be shite while I was cooking, but it’s not!
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TRY Doak!
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Doak must be at least half Scottish I would have thought
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Ulster score! Doak with the try and conversion! 7-0 to Ulster in heat has been a bit of a scrappy match so far.
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test
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TRY Moxham!
Actually, that curry was bloody delicious.
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I’m back to having to sign in for every comment again, so I won’t say much (hooray)
Good straightforward rugby for Ulster’s second there
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Roos is huge loss
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Stormers two forwards down and have been 2nd best in most facets so far. Lots of changes to the side, but not getting the basics right, so no excuses.
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Ticht, make sure you’re using your WordPress account and have the ‘remember me’ or similar box ticked.
When I saw your ‘test’, I went to check the spam bin and found some posts from Flair. One on the transgender issue here and one on Laporte and corruption here.
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Best Capetonian on the field so far is Duane Vermeulen.
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I’ve tried that Thaum, it’s almost like it it only works when it wants to – can’t blame it really, I do the same.
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Vermeulen’s been a bit of a penalty machine since he joined us. With some good things too.
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Ticht – are you on a phone or a proper computer (or a tablet)? The chances are your cookies are getting deleted.
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I have the same issue as Ticht, it only seems like I have to turn my back for a second and I’m not logged in anymore – but only on my laptop. On my phone, I have no issues.
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Test number 2
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Huh. I never get that.
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Well, that’s weird, I’m on a version of the site that I’ve never seen before and it seems to remember me now
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What OS are you both running, and what security software if any?
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TRY some Ulsterman just before HT!
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Windows 10 / Firefox / Avast.
The weird thing is, I don’t have any of these issues on another WP site I spend a lot of time on. And my NoScript/Adblock settings are the same on both sites.
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Stormers not at the races today. Don’t know what the wind is like (if any) but they don’t seem to be able to get out of their last third.
I also had to sign in a couple of times. Strangely enough after I was taking the mickey out of Thauma…
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I think we might have cracked it.
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21-0 at HT! Didn’t expect that.
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I’m on a mac, and after I closed the window that version of the site I was talking about disappeared and now I have to sign in again, if this pic works it shows the site version I hadn’t seen before
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Fixed it.
I keep forgetting this, but the little link thing down to the right of the screen has an option to log in, that is the only thing that keeps me logged in after I post
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Good lord, I don’t like that view of the blog! Hopefully the linky thing will work for Refit and SBT too.
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Stormers at sixes and sevens here
Ulster are playing well, but Stormers are looking poor
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Bonus TRY Toomaga-Allen!
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Thaum, you missed out “furra linee”
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I want Engelbrecht to be his first name, with Humperdinck obviously his second
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