What a day of rugby we have ahead of us! After France trounced a poor Italy with some lovely rugby last night, we have a couple of palate-teasers in the form of Wales v Georgia and England v Samoa, either one of which might possibly throw up (not boak – well, maybe) an unexpected result.
Then we are on to the main course, where obviously what we want Ireland to do is quickly score four tries and then let Scotland have the ball undefended (see graphic). This is because I hope (for his sake) that Dupont will not be playing in the first quarter-final match, and the French squad has also lost other valuable players. Mind you, they are still a very scary team to face, and so far we’ve only seen the All Blacks against seriously inferior competition, apart from France. So perhaps we should go for the outright win after all.
Our chances of this have improved what with having one Ulsterman (Henderson) starting, and one on the bench: McCloskey, who will come on and show Aki how to play properly.
Pudding has to wait until Sunday, where we have the tasty prospects of Japan v Argentina, Tonga v Romania and Fiji v Portugal.
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Onna telly this week
Friday 6th October
| France 60 – 7 Italy |
Saturday 7th October
| Wales v Georgia | 14:00 | ITV1 / STV / RTÉ2 / S4C |
| England v Samoa | 16:45 | ITV1 / STV / RTÉ2 |
| Ireland v Scotland | 20:00 | ITV1 / STV |
Sunday 8th October
| Japan v Argentina | 12:00 | ITV1 / STV |
| Tonga v Romania | 16:45 | ITV3 |
| Fiji v Portugal | 20:00 | ITV1 / RTÉ2 |
Ovally Balls 
Gonna put JIT (Just-in-time delivery) on my CV.
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Ooh, Wales should really have finished that MASSIVE overlap.
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The way Wales set up the lineout drive there surely can’t be legal.
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Nice finish in the end, but Liam Williams may well do that when it’s important and won’t score.
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Wales already 14 -0 after 24 minutes. A bit ponderous but effective. So, not a repeat of last year heroics from Georgia. Too bad for the show. Hope England Samoa is a bit more balanced, but I’m not holding my breath.
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It’s not the greatest spectacle so far.
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Try for Georgia. Not sure what their 13 thought he was doing at the maul in the build-up, but there we are.
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Thaum, it’s like they try to invent walking rugby.
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Very funny, Flair!
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Not a good performance, lots of different kinds of mistakes, but at least they’ve got a reasonable lead.
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17-7 at the break. Would be good for the match if Georgia scored first in the second half, keep it close for a while.
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Thanks for the new post as well, Thauma-JIT!
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Except for the weather, this looks like a winter ProD2 game.
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So much for that!
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A kid in the crowd just sent the ball back on the pitch. He has a better pass than most players.
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This match is so boring that I decided to create a new page for tech issues that so far addresses the issues with having to log in for each comment and not being able to recommend posts or comments. I’ve also updated the ATL to reflect this.
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Another Georgia try. Think he must have shoved it up the Wales player’s arse to get it over the line.
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Two tries for Georgia in as many minutes!
‘Mon Georgia!
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Costelow is having a terrible game which is a shame.
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Splashton!
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And now a more exciting try for them by their 80s footballer. Could well lose this one.
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Costelow looks 12!
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That’s better.
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Faletau injured apparently. Doesn’t look like we’re going to lose now though.
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Closest thing to an actual fight in ages. Who said this game was boring?
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The fight was the most exciting thing to happen yet.
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Taine Basham being a bit of a coward there, hiding at the back.
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@Thaum – two tries to the underdog and a good one to the favourites in the last ten minutes and a card each for sort of fighting. It’s great stuff.
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CMW – and a very dodgy try awarded!
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Agree with CMW, much more fun in the past 10 minutes.
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Even more excitement!
Looked like he put his hand on the ball when it was on the ground so probably OK, but the viewing public weren’t exactly treated to a comprehensive set of replays.
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Poor from Grady.
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Hope Liam.Williams’ and Faletau’s injuries aren’t serious. Together with Georges North they carried Wales today.
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It’s raining tries. What a glorious game…
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19 points out of 20 – three games where the result was better than the performance and one where the performance was better than the result.
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Jonny W: We have that cerebral edge, the way we play in England.
Me: Fuck off! Maybe when you were playing….
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I expect this match to be a stodge-fest, but perhaps we’ll get more fights.
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You can have both you know.
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Commentator: It’s quicker to get to Lille than to Birmingham by train.
Well, maybe if you live in London.
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I can be in Birmingham by train in about 15 minutes!
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That’s not really anything to celebrate Thauma!
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It is when you’re catching a flight from the airport and don’t want to pay to park your car.
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Can also be in central London (Marylebone) in about 1h 20m by train. If I were to use bloody HS2, I’d have to travel north to Birmingham to catch the ‘high-speed’ train that won’t take you to central London.
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“That’s not really anything to celebrate Thauma!”
It gets her out of Cov.
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Are these the two dirtiest sides of the tournament facing off now?
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One of the English players digging the Samoan haka, or cultural expression: nodding his head in time and probably tapping his feet too.
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Think it was Billy V, who isn’t Samoan.
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Unlike Tuilagi.
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Oh no, not Brace on the whistle.
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Refit – ha, we thought the same thing about Raynal last match!
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