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 
This Dry January malarkey is getting a bit tedious now
LikeLike
Why January? If I were going to do it, I’d pick February, and not in a leap year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
To be fair I did go at it like a bull at a gate over Christmas and New Year
LikeLike
Lowry furra liinnneeee! It was a lovely try.
LikeLike
Nice
LikeLike
Was there a cow on the other side of the gate?
LikeLike
I’ve gone over to Scarlets Bulls, Ulster are very comfortable.
Bulls have got back to 30-28, 11 mins left
LikeLike
Damn! Stormers try.
LikeLike
35-5 at FT. Pretty happy with that!
LikeLike
Thaum, it was a proper tonking, Stormers weren’t in it much at all.
LikeLike
It was gratifying to nearly nill last year’s winners. But at the 77th minute…!
LikeLike
Sale beat Bath in the 82nd minute
LikeLike
Sobering results for the Saffer sides last night. Stormers got belted out of sight, showing the lack of real depth in their squad, much like happened to the Bulls a couple of weeks ago against Exeter. I’m not sure any of our sides have the financial resources to buy that depth (or pay enough to retain it), certainly in the short to medium term. The Heineken I think is beyond our guys, as much as I’d like to think otherwise. But it’s still great to be in the URC and HC.
LikeLike
Three premiership games and no comments ? Lordy. Well. Exeter and Glaws both looked off their games, tbh. Careless errors, missed opportunities, wrong options. Glaws looked flat and energy free after their win last week in Bordeaux. Poor Jonny May hasn’t seen the ball in space all season.
Tiggers Saints first up was a cracker, lots of biff and bash, lots of niggle, some really nice rugby. Burns last game at Welford Road I think, looked good, but just edged out by Saints. Then Bears carried the game to Sarries, and really should have won it, but having them boxed in their own 22 with about 30 second left, and a 4 point lead, they managed to march themselves backward up the pitch with a series of silly penalties, and the dark ones snuck it with a try in the corner and the clock well in the red. Harry Thacker had an almost supernatural first half, and then got injured :(
LikeLike
Thanks SBT! Almost saw the first half of the Leicester match. Managed to catch the last 20 minutes of the Embra – Sharks match. Sharks clung on for the win. Fine win away from home
LikeLike
Munster beat Treviso. Glasgow beat Drags. Leinster Leinstered a poor Cardiff, but they managed to score two tries after looking like getting nilled.
LikeLike
Lions players looked puffed. Hopefully they can make it to the kick off.
LikeLike
“Leinster Leinstered a poor Cardiff,”
My excuse for watching the first 25 minutes of that was that it was something to have an eye on while making the dinner. Switched it off in favour of silence. Can’t understand why anyone would pay to see games like that and there are so many of them.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Having a birthday on a Sunday is fantastic for the party you can have, especially in mid-summer here around a swimming pool with the fires lit, meat sizzling and beer and wine flowing. The problem is, it’s too good and the flowing flowed too much, when you’re faced with a Monday afterwards. I suppose having a cracking hangover is the best way to approach a Monday though. Can’t get any worse!
On the subject, does palindrome only refer to letters, or can it be used for numbers too? If so, I have reached a Palindromic Age.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Expro wins a contract for LNG Pre-treatment facility for ENI in Congo
screamed the headline at me this morning. In breathless anticipation, I clicked on it. Turns out it’s actually a company in the US, not our erstwhile contributor.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Happy Birthday Deebs!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
HB Deebs! 101 already! You don’t look a day over 90.
LikeLiked by 3 people
FULL ENGLAND SQUAD
FORWARDS
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers, 5 caps)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 95 caps)
Ben Curry (Sale Sharks,1 cap)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 9 caps)
Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby, 3 caps)
Ben Earl (Saracens, 13 caps)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 43 caps)
Jamie George (Saracens, 72 caps)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers, 7 caps)
Jonny Hill (Sale Sharks, 19 caps)
Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 8 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 62 caps)
Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 14 caps)
David Ribbans (Northampton Saints, 3 caps)
Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks, 2 caps)
Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, 18 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 56 caps)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 74 caps)
Jack Walker (Harlequins, uncapped)
Jack Willis (Toulouse, 6 caps)
BACKS
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 101 caps)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints, 3 caps)
Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish, uncapped)
Dan Kelly (Leicester Tigers, 1 cap)
Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby, 7 caps)
Max Malins (Saracens, 14 caps)
Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 13 caps)
Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints, 1 cap)
Cadan Murley (Harlequins, uncapped)
Fin Smith (Northampton Saints, uncapped)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 17 caps)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 17 caps)
Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 50 caps)
Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 7 caps)
Anthony Watson (Leicester Tigers, 51 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 121 caps)
Looks alright!!
LikeLike
Looks weak!
@Thauma, still just the two numbers, thanks!
LikeLike
99 is 2 numbers.
LikeLike
Obviously he should try fire eating next. Immediately in fact.
LikeLike
What about sword swallowing?
LikeLike
The best two English backrows I know both play in France: Willis and Mercer.
LikeLike
Any decent rugby on this weekend? Haven’t seen any fixture lists.
LikeLike
There is only one match. Wales v Ireland, of course.
LikeLike
Whilst I have your attention, I’d just like to say that the TV adaptation of The Last of Us is bloody brilliant. Even if you’ve never played the game.
LikeLike
Or any computer game tbh.
LikeLike
Never heard of it, Craigs.
But I used to love the King’s Quest games. Probably enjoyed the earliest ones most, where the interface was typing a command, and you had to guess the correct syntax even when you had a good idea of what was required.
They were probably before your time, but they were based on fairy tales. You were a handsome prince who had to rescue a beautiful princess. (Nauseating, I know, but it was slightly of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales bent, or at least Hans Christian Andersen.)
You encounter a frog in a pond. What to do? Should the handsome prince try to kiss the frog? Nope, we all know that frogs can only be kissed by beautiful maidens, when they will turn into handsome princes. That’s not a desirable outcome for our hero (at least not in the 80s). You try many commands, and possibly even get frustrated and type fuck the frog, at which point it tells you that you should be playing Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards.
Then you remember that you’ve picked up a golden ball from somewhere. Some vague childhood memory stirs as you try to remember what to do with the golden ball: throw at frog? give to frog? do a no-look pass with it to frog?
LikeLiked by 3 people
There is only one match. Wales v Ireland, of course.
Pretty drab fare, to be honest. Not sure this is what we signed up for when we went north.
LikeLike
Leisure Suit Larry ……………………………..now you’re talking
LikeLike
No wonder he never finished his review of the Final!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thaum – I remember Kings Quest and Leisure Suit Larry. Things have move on a tad. In this game you can choose whether to smash the man rushing you with a brick and stamp on his head or expend one of your precious shotgun cartridges into his stomach.
Or maybe you need to sneak up behind someone and stab them in the neck.
Or maybe you want to set fire to some infected, the world is your oyster.
But the story behind it is genuinely good, and the TV adaptation is doing it justice. The third episode is a proper tear jerker (not me though, obvs).
LikeLike
It’s like he’s never been away…
15. Leigh Halfpenny (Scarlets – 97 caps)
14. Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby – 43 caps)
13. George North (Ospreys – 109 caps)
12. Joe Hawkins (Ospreys – 1 cap)
11. Rio Dyer (Dragons – 3 caps)
10. Dan Biggar (Toulon – 103 caps)
9. Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 40 caps)
1. Gareth Thomas (Ospreys – 17 caps)
2. Ken Owens (Scarlets – 86 caps) captain
3. Tomas Francis (Ospreys – 67 caps)
4. Adam Beard (Ospreys – 41 caps)
5. Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys – 155 caps)
6. Jac Morgan (Ospreys – 6 caps)
7. Justin Tipuric (Ospreys – 89 caps)
8. Taulupe Faletau (Cardiff Rugby – 95 caps)
Replacements
16. Scott Baldwin (Ospreys – 34 caps)
17. Rhys Carre (Cardiff Rugby – 17 caps)
18. Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Rugby – 45 caps)
19. Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs – 1 cap)
20. Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers – 4 caps)
21. Rhys Webb (Ospreys – 36 caps)
22. Owen Williams (Ospreys – 3 caps)
23. Alex Cuthbert (Ospreys – 55 caps)
LikeLike
Craigs – I can’t be bothered with games that mostly involve killing everything in sight.
Ireland don’t seem to have named their match 23 yet.
LikeLike
……..still wondering which Leinster squad player to drop in order to make room for a token Ulsterman on the bench.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The big question is whether McCloskey or Aki starts at 12. https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/64448130
LikeLike
Things have move on a tad.
Not sure your ensuing description of a standard Friday night in Coventry is really ‘progress’?
Craigs – I can’t be bothered with games that mostly involve killing everything in sight.
Ireland don’t seem to have named their match 23 yet.
And not even a flicker of irony in those two sentences.
LikeLiked by 2 people
:-D
LikeLike
I had a conversation today with 3 guys from Coventry who compared stories from their youth. A few weeks ago one of them told me about when he used to queue up outside the Locarno nightclub and a young lad used to come up to him and mug him for 10p every Monday. I sent him the link to the video below and 10 mins later he called me back to tell me that at the beginning of the documentary Neville Staples of the Specials mentioned how he used to go up and down the queue on Monday nights at the Locarno and get 10p off people. He never realised it was Neville until then
LikeLiked by 4 people
The same guy was a bass player in a band as a teenager with a guy called Sam McNulty. One day they assembled in Sam’s bedroom to audition a very shy young lad called Ted to be their lead singer. Ted was too shy to sing so they all left the room except Sam and they did the audition in private. The next day my mate had a telephone interview with Sheffield University to do Materials Science which was successful, so he left the band before ever playing with Ted.
Ted is, of course, Terry Hall. That story is corroborated somewhere on the internet as well.
LikeLike
Mr Angry is back
LikeLike
Cor, the cover- and tap-tackles in this
LikeLike
So I thought that I’d get round to reading the Gulag Archipelago but it’s like, well long and shit. But what about that Audible subscription? I could listen to it in the car when I come back from the school run. 24 hours of narration? That’s fine too. Getting my bang for my buck innit.
Started listening and it’s being narrated by JBP. He also wrote the foreward. It’s been an hour and he’s not finished his bit yet. 24hrs of Kermit the frog…
LikeLike
@Craigs – at least it wasn’t his recipe for steak
LikeLiked by 1 person