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 
And it’s good, and so’s the conversion. 20-13.
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Dyer goes down half the pitch and is within millimetres, but doesn’t quite make it. However, Australia knock the ball away from an offside position, and a man’s going to the bin.
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Clock’s red and Wales win a scrum penalty in the Aus 22.
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And another! Ref says next will be another card.
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Faletau picks it up off the back of the scrum but it’s held up, and that’s HT.
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Wallabies lose their replacement prop to the bin.
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And Wales score easily by mauling down the pitch, getting a penalty, then mauling again.
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27-13 with the conversion.
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Try Wales! The two top tier sides with the worst record this year and Wales are on top! 27-13. They do have one thing in common, these sorry sides, they both beat the Boks. Fuck!
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Wales maul half-way down the pitch from the restart, get an advantage, get shoved into touch but back for the advantage. Maul again.
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Maul down to the 22, get another advantage, try a cross-field kick and overcook it. Next pen will be another card for Aus, who are back to 14 for now.
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Line-out and maul, but Aus defend better this time and Wales have to use it. Dyer furra line!
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Anscombe with a great touchline conversion to put Wales 34-13 ahead.
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Anscombe now writhing around on the floor.
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He’s going off with a shirt-sling and Priestland is on. That seems to have been the result of an unfortunate (not illegal) tackle.
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Crikey. Just switched on. Thought Wales would edge a close one. Huh.
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Aus have a scrum in the Welsh 22 and win a penalty. They decided to scrum again!
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Ball gets played off the back of the scrum, another pen advantage is awarded, but not needed as the 11 scores in the corner.
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@Dab – Karl!
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Oh hang on, something else is being checked.
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Nope, that was just a bit of time-wasting. Try is good.
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Conversion is wide, though. 34-18.
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Tipuric sees yellow for tripping an Aus player who intercepted a pass.
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Daft by Tips.
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And the 11 with the unpronounceable name scores!
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Conversion is good and it’s 34-25. 68 mins.
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Tipuric gets a YC for a deliberate trip. Worth a red in football.
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Flair – yep, I reckon that was almost certainly a try, but hard to say for sure so far down the pitch.
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Australia’s turn to maul over the line, but the result is unclear.
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Ooh. No evidence of grounding, but yellow card and penalty try against Ryan Elias for collapsing the maul. 34-32, and Wales are down to 13.
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But Australia knock on from the restart!
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Squeaky bum time.
Error ridden but fun.
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Aus win a scrum penalty.
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Australian hooker runs it in to under the posts!
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34 – 39 with one minute remaining.
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Oh, Wales! Why? How?
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Wales win a penalty well into the Australian half with time for a line-out!
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After multiple phases, Australia somehow win the ball back and that’s that.
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I heard a rumour this afternoon, now confirmed by BBC Scotland, Doddie has gone.
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Some pretty full blooded singing of the anthems there! Both sides look up for it. My feed is a couple of minutes behind, so I’ll be checking in sporadically! Hope it’s a great match!
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@Ticht – sad, sad news. I giant of a man in every sense.
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Ticht – oh, that is sad.
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There is no point in Freddie Steward if he can’t catch the pill.
Comedy scrummaging from Mako as per.
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Good thing we’ve got got a good kicker. FFS!
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I remember being shocked when I saw Joost, I think it was the first time I’d seen what this horrible disease does.
I’m at a loss, actually, I don’t know what to say, I had only this afternoon signed up for the annual Doddie Aid fundraiser which starts in January. They are doing great work in funding research.
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Ah, so scrums are going to be a lottery – gotcha.
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/nov/26/doddie-weir-former-scotland-and-british-lions-second-row-dies-aged-52
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Can’t believe both sideschave gone in without recognized goal kickers!
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RIP Doddie. A great man.
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As someone who likes a good scrum, SA got robbed there, Marlherbe destroyed Mako
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