First a nod to the retirees. *Nods*
Tonight we have the Little Cup Final, Glasgow v Toulon. The French side are half-way down their league table while Glaes are fourth in the URC, and have home advantage … but I think it will be a close-fought affair all the same. The Home of the Big Yin by 4.
Then tomorrow there’s the Big Cup Gladitorialism of Leinster v La Rochelle. Ronan O’Gara will be rubbing his hands at the prospect, especially after his club side beat the Blue Meanies last weekend in the URC semi-final. But Leinster have made 12 changes to the B-team they put out last week – mostly to concentrate on this Cup, one assumes. BUT Sexton is still injured, which could be a big factor; one of they Byrne brothers is in instead.
It’s a tough one to call too, but I think home advantage will tell again. The Home of Leopold Bloom by 5.
Onna telly this weekend
Friday 19th May
| Glasgow v Toulon | 20:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 20th May
| Leinster v La Rochelle | 16:45 | ITV1 / STV / BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
A little show-and-go from Reiko breaks the ARG line and gets NZ behind the defence. Scott Barrett breaks the line into the 22 and he gives it to Coles, who opens the score. Conversion missed.
0-5
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Dane Coles scores the opening try for New Zealand, with Argentina looking disorganised in defence.
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Missed the second Kiwi try, but another missed conversion, so 10-0 to ABs.
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After the restart, NZ get a lineout in the ARG half. They work in-field. Scott Barrett comes close, before Ardie Savea picks the ball and dots over the line. DMac doesn’t have his kicking specs on.
0-10 10mins
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15-0 New Zealand inside 11 minutes. They’re ripping Argentina apart at the moment.
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Oh, NZ have scored again. Jordie passes to Beauden, who breaks down the wing. He passes it back and Jordie scores an easy one. DMac gets this one.
0-17
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17-0 with the conversion. Pumas really need to get a grip on the game.
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Caleb Clark ‘Ben Youngs’ the ball straight into touch. A chance for ARG to build something?
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Pumas try to set a 5 man maul. NZ defend it, but S.Barrett is penalised for swimming up the maul. 6 man this time, they move it inside, but Lavanini drops the ball over the line.
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Something I just realised about the SA/Aus match – not a single high tackle.
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Reiko scores the 4th try. Lovely ball from McKenzie. Reiko makes a little move sideways, rides a tackle and goes over to score.
0-24 30 mins
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NZ have the Pumas scrum on toast.
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Oh Argentina. They turn over NZ ball just outside their own 22, but Moroni boots the ball straight out on the full. NZ possession again.
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Argentina are now on a penalty warning.
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NZ line out, 5m in on the far side. They set the maul and crawl forward. Ref indicates advantage and Smith takes the ball and dives over. It’s a yellow for Bruni.
0-31 and it’s half-time.
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Can’t help feeling that Gardner is stuffing the Poomas at the breakdown, and the set piece. Need Ticht here, but ABs loosehead looks like he is doing a Mako, and getting away with it big time. ABs do look hot tho, Dmac has a really sharp pass on him.
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And Deebee, yes, the Aussies were shit.
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Arg get some points.
Bruni is back on and makes immediate impact, breaking out of his own half into the NZ 22. ARG recycle a few times, before it’s pulled back for a NZ offside. They take a quick tap, come close then Sardoni gets it over.
Bofelli misses the conversion. 5-31 50 mins
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and how the fuck haven’t the Abs had a card for killing the ball repeatedly ?
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Mr. Gardener, is there a phrase known as off your feet at the ruck in your vocabulary ?
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My word, that was quite the wrap-around by DMac off a scrum inside the ARG half. Outside the defender, a lovely pass to Beauden and another NZ try.
5-36
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SBT – that’s southern hemisphere refs for you.
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After having almost nothing to do all match, Narawa receives a lovely pass from DMac to score in the corner.
5-41 76 mins
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Creevy scores with the final play of the game. Arg get a penalty, stick in the corner and set a maul. It’s stopped, the hooker peels off, is tackled short but reaches out to score.
Final score 12-41
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ABs looking slick for sure.
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Hoggy retires completely from rugby. Sounds as though his body couldn’t take it anymore. Sensible decision if it means he isn’t risking permanent injury.
Not a bad career for a Hawick boy….
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Link to story:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/66148182
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Hoggy has had a fantastic career, it’s a shame he couldn’t bow out after the World Cup, but it sounds like he has made the right decision – you know he will have tried everything he could to be there.
He was a bright light after a long lean time for Scotland, I hope he does well in retirement.
Someone mentioned that he’s going into horse training or something in that, errr, field.
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Ticht – I’ve seen mentioned in interviews that he has horses, and that he was around horses when he was younger in Hawick. I think he and his family love the area around Exeter (it’s similar in some ways to the Borders and is also close to the sea).
I also wouldn’t be surprised if he went into media work too.
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For those of you who missed it, the U 20 RWC semi-final between France and England was a cracker. Quite unpredictable. Serious talent on both sides. England played some of the most ” un-english” rugby I’ve seen in ages. Brilliant game.
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Snowing in Joburg this morning. Actual real snow! Happens about once every 15 years or so. Really is lovely to see!
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Flair, missed the U20 semis, although I see Ireland hammered the Boks in the other semifinal. No surprises really, they’ve looked very strong and the Baby Boks pretty wobbly and scraped into the semis. Should be a very good final!
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Just stopped snowing, sun coming out, temperatures dropping. And started out very low to begin with!
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So much hype, so much build up, promising start, some wild flurries and then melted away to nothing. Now that I’ve finished analysing Eddie Jones’ Wallabies, back to the snow.
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The Bok side to face the All Blacks on Saturday is pretty predictable, given who was flown down there early and who isn’t available (mainly Siya and Pollard), but looks a lot less exciting than the side that thumped the Wallabies.
Libbok and Cobus Reinach, who both excelled in getting our backs moving, are out (Reinach out of the squad altogether), whilst de Allende comes back in for Esterhuizen who was fantastic last weekend. Faf back at 9, and Damian Willemse at 10 probably means a lot more box kicking from the base or crossfield kicks from 10 than last weekend or bulldozing up at 12 and resetting. Mapimps and Chessie will be chasing a lot of high stuff. I really hope that I’m wrong and that Willemse is given some leeway to get his outside backs going like Libbok did last week.
Forwards are as expected – and very strong: front row from last week, which is good given that the ABs are finding some backbone there, de Jager and Etzebeth back locking the scrum and a pretty good loose trio with Jasper Wiese to smash holes, Kwagga to contest the breakdowns and link, and Mostert to add another lineout dimension, a tackling machine and ball carrier.
The bench, predictably, is a 6-2 split with plenty of options: fearsome Malcolm Marx to wreak havoc, with du Toit and Koch very solid options on either side of him, whilst RG Snyman gave us glimpses of what we’ve missed last weekend with some powerful carries and offloads. PSDT and Vermeulen will certainly give us plenty of go forward off the bench as well.
Grant Williams covering 9 and wing – he’s got some gas and a great eye for the gap, with Libbock covering 10, and Willemse able to shift into midfield or fullback as needed. it’s a very strong side and after what we did to the Wobblies, you’d fancy we can turn over the Darkness this weekend, but both Australia and Argentina were so bad, I really have no idea where either us or the ABs are right now.
Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Damian Willemse, Faf de Klerk, Jasper Wiese, Franco Mostert, Kwagga Smith, Lood de Jager, Eben Etzebeth (capt), Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff.
Bench: Malcolm Marx, Thomas du Toit, Vincent Koch, RG Snyman, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Duane Vermeulen, Grant Williams, Manie Libbok
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Frans Steyn has retired from all rugby, after struggling to recover from a knee injury he picked up earlier this season. Great player on his day, a mercurial talent who often looked slightly disinterested in the game, but also added huge value to every side he played for. And his boot! Could knock them over from pretty much anywhere. Played 78 Tests, could probably have played more, but for disagreements with a couple of coaches and SA rugby’s blazers and also being the ultimate ‘utility back’, playing 10, 12 and 15, and possibly also covering wing a couple of times.
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@Flair
I missed it but……………………they conceded 52 points: not good (I thought that NZ would be the 4th qualifier)
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I see Ireland hammered the Boks in the other semifinal
Strange game – Ireland couldn’t string 2 phases together for first 35 mins. But decent defence kept SA scoreless. Strange to see score at 0-0 after 30+ mins
Ireland are a big team – was very strange to see an Irish scrum shunting an SA scrum backwards.
Lots expected of backrows Ruadhan Quinn and Brian Gleeson…. Time will tell. Lot of hype over 10 Sam Prendergast. Huge boot, decent pass …but gangly and awkward. Again, time will tell.
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The Baby Bok scrum struggled all tournament – got mugged a couple of times against Georgia as well. Not a vintage side from us, but Ireland really have shown the rest of the world how to use all your resources smartly. They’ll be up there with the best for quite a while to come yet.
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All Blacks to face Boks on Saturday have a pretty strong side. The back line is probably the strongest they can put out and is very, very good – the Bok defence will have to be absolutely spot on to cope with their pace and variation. The starting pack is also one of the better ones they’ve put out recently, albeit no Sam Whitelock, which is a big hole in their lineout and organisation up front. Front row has developed some backbone, so you probably won’t see much advantage either way there, at least until the benches are emptied, where you feel the Boks have a stronger bench through the replacements.
Back rows will be very interesting – not everyone in New Zealand is a fan of captain Sam and Shannon Frizzell has had his doubters as well, but I think the Boks have missed a trick by starting Kwagga Smith ahead of Marco van Staden, who was absolutely immense against Australia last week. We’ve onbly really got one big ball carrier in Jasper Wiese, with Smith more of a link player, although quite good at the breakdown. Mostert is effective ball in hand, not much more, really, but he is relentless on defence, and I think we’ll need that if we’re to stay in contention. Should be a great match!
15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Telea, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane (captain), 6 Shannon Frizell, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot
Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Tamaiti Williams, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Dalton Papali’i, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Braydon Ennor, 23 Caleb Clarke.
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I wonder if not having a specialist goal kicker will bite us on the arse? Back to Faf or Chessie, ’cause Willemse isn’t it! No news yet on whether Etzebeth is returning to SA after his dad died.
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Etzebeth staying.
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and playing.
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And hopefully winning!
Georgia are hammering the Baby Blacks in the scrums. Score is 33-14 to the Kiwis, which is the half-time score, but the first 15 of the 2nd half had largely been Georgia battering the Kiwis up front.
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36-26, with Georgia scoring two tries to the Kiwis penalty (I’m assuming) with 11 minutes to go.
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Wow! Some stepping, balance and pace from Che Clarke, the replacement Kiwi back rower! Look it up on You tube. 43-26 and game over.
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