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 
England seriously lack pace
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Also, Flatman is an arse
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Hands on the floor by the NZ winger, before he latched on the the ball over May.
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I’m enjoying Flatman. He knows his stuff.
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Dab, he used to be good, he’s turned into a fan watching a game.
I think they must be coached to do this, John Barclay has done the same
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Come on now, he’s hardly Dayglo – now there’s a useless waste of space cheerleader, if ever there was one.
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BV butchered that!!!!
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Slade – I think it might be time to out BV out to pasture.
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Brian Moore’s head would have exploded by now.
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Farrell taking the lead there “It doesn’t matter” – get on with the next phase – good leadership from him
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I think it might be time to out BV out to pasture.
Nah, Eddie likes ’em big
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England’s work at the lineout has been appalling today.
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Should be pen try for Eng
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I have to say, after the early obvious errors, Raynal hasn’t been too had for the rest of the match.
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Oof, I think the officials might have been generous to England there.
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He got that wrong, the ball was taken back into the field of play
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See what happens when England take the ball at pace (and are a man up).
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Oh that was pretty good!
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So England CAN play rugby after all. Only taken them 73 minutes to figure it out.
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Mako’s a completely different player, from the last couple of weeks.
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Mako is a bloody liability! Awful from Youngs as well.
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What a difference a week makes, Savea won the penalty with the same “turnover” against us, but he doesn’t get the decision here
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25 all
What a finish to a game
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That’s odd, why didn’t Smith go for the win?
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Pleasantly surprised! A great 15 minutes from England there.
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I think England blew it there – all the crowd would have supported going for it in the Red: win or lose.
Pity.
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So I might have been right.
Lots of mongrel as the Aussies say.
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Sexton oot for Ireland.
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Amazon’s thing, of putting the backs and forwards ‘facing’ each other, in the team lineups, is really annoying me.
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I’m not sure what to make of that: 10 glorious minutes shouldn’t mask 70 awful.
Pastries: LC-D, Stuart, Ribbans, Steward, Slade, May, Porter
Not sure: Smith, Farrell, Simmonds, Curry, Tuilagi, George, Willis
Disappointing: Genge, Sinckler, Hill, Itoje, Nowell
Poor: Vunipola, Vunipola, Youngs (for his chip)
Arm round Shoulder: van Portfliet.
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“Arm round Shoulder: van Portfliet.”
He got very little/no support at the back of the ruck. The intercept was just one of those things.
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Someone needs to tell Heaslip not to talk all over the ref.
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Porter with the little niggle on White, right at the end, was lovely.
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Ref, “The game is being ruined by neck rolls, next player gets a yellow card”
Next ruck (practically) “Number 16, take ten minutes out”
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These props never learn….
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Ahem, number 16, BB
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Not the greatest game this.
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I’m kinda enjoying it. It’s a huge arm-wrestle.
And Saracens deserve some credit (*ducks*) for the transformation of Will Skelton.
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Refit, Sarries are a tremendous team who have developed and improved a huge number of players from kids to experienced pros.
Their academy and overall set up is one to be acknowledged as among the very best, if not THE best.
It’s just a shame they built it all through winnings and sponsorship gained whilst breaking the rules
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Very happy with the Boks display yesterday. Hopefully the box kick strategy is binned after seeing what our outside backs can do with a bit of ball and freedom to run. I hope Libbok starts at 10, but reckon they’ll stick with Willemse there for now. Libbok would be my starter permanently – he offers the side so much more than any of the others.
Would like to see Kwagga start at 7 with Mostert at 5 – he’s wasted at flank and Kwagga is wasted on the bench. Don’t think Orie or Moerat are long-term answers in the 2nd row and will definitely be out once de Jager and Snyman are fit (if ever), whilst PSDT and Mostert, along with Jason Jenkins and Ruan Nortje are also better for my money.
De Allende is not a 13 and Am is critical to us if we’re to challenge next year. 12 is a bit of a conundrum at the moment, with de Allende a bit of a bosh merchant, but generally super on defence, Esterhuizen is similar, whilst Damian Willemse plays there outside Libbok for the Stormers. Which option?
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@slade
Watched the whole game – and yeah – celebrating a great comeback while ignoring why you were in a hole to begin with is very much how Irish rugby was before 2000….
Now, it was a great comeback – iirc England beat Aus a couple of times in similar circumstances…. so speaks to their conditioning, but I don’t see 4th quarter comebacks as a long term strategy….
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Trisk – you must be pleased with your young 10 from yesterday. Didn’t look out of place, especially after being chucked in at the last minute.
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Ireland vs Australia was pretty disappointing.
Highlights what a hole we’ll be in if Sexton breaks any time between now and RWC23. Our whole game plan is predicated on Sexton. Worse, it looks like other players don’t know what to do when he’s not there.
The whole circumstance around Sexton’s withdrawal was ludicrous. We knew during the week he was at risk of missing the game. Instead of taking a sensible decision to give your veteran 10 more recovery time, they were going to throw him up against Skelton! Sexton benefitted last season from having the whole summer off (thanks Warren!) – he didn’t get that this summer. My guess is general wear and tear will lay heavily on him this season. They won’t rest him in the 6N.
For a last minute replacement Crowley was grand. Didn’t get a lot of ball initially – Gibson Park kept passing to McCloskey (who was only ok yesterday) .
Kudos to Ross Byrne to kick the pen – that said, he’s always been a very good goalkicker. Main issue is that he’s no running game to speak of – but behind a dominant pack (like Leinster have had generally) he’s well able to run a game. Just not quite test match level.
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One other comment – the anthem was awful! The poor singer clearly didn’t understand any of the words and sang so slowly it just amplified it. Say to my mate that Faf had a short back and sides when they took to the pitch!
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@BB
Yeah, down here in Munster he’s been the expected messiah since his U20 days (see the try vs Scotland).
The issue has been the messing around at 10 – Carbery has never really recovered since 2019. Ross Byrne is plain vanilla, and the messing with Frawley is unbelievable – Stu and Leo think he’s a 12, Farrell wants him as 10 as he’s the nearest physical specimen to Sexton.
We think Crowley offers the whole package – kicks well, passes well, well able to run the ball, and a decent defender. Maybe too late in the cycle for him to become the #2 to Sexton. And possibly he doesn’t make RWC23 if Farrell opts for Frawley (who offers cover at 10/12) – albeit Frawley is out injured until April (I believe)
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21/3 at HT for France vs Japan. Low intensity game in rainy Toulouse. France forward power and excellent defence leave little room to Japan. Lucu deputizes well for Dupont whereas Ntamack has the same poor performance he’s had during the 2 previous games. Hope Jalibert comes on soon.
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Jalibert on and does more in two minutes than Ntamack did in the rest of the game. Although Ntamack was unlucky in that he did get nutted (accidentally – I hope!) by his own number 9 when they both went into a ruck.
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BB, had Jalibert played from the start it could’ve been a cricket score. After an injury, Ntamack had only played a few minutes in the T14 before the three tests. Galthié thought Ntamack would get up to speed quickly but he was wrong. Also Jalibert usually plays along Lucu with Bordeaux as Dupont plays along Ntamack with Toulouse. Jalibert should have started.
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Hmmm. National coach not playing a form 10 who plays in France. Where have I heard that before?
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Never mind. Galthié is a good coach and his record speaks for itself. Going a full year unbeaten, wins over the 10 best ranked teams in a row ( 6N + the big 4 of the SH) that never happened to France, and we could only dream of this sort of consistency during the dreadful years of St André, Brunel and al.
I certainly hope France go on to finally win a RWC, but ultimately it does not matter What matters is that I now expect to be entertained when they play. Incidentally, I don’t expect them to repeat a GS during the 6N , particularly as they’ll play away three times. But it should be fun.
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