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 
That was a maul and a half.
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That’s disappointing. England score.
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What the fuck was that Samoan kick?
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BB – rude (but fair).
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Nice score from England, well constructed, and unusually, not butchered. Well done Manu. Then back to normal. Dumb penalty in front.
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Can you imagine if Mullins *didn’t* mention that Manu has Samoan heritage, every time he gets the ball?
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Kinell, Jonny had a pass already.
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Oh, that was lovely by Samoa. Game on!
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Really nice by Samoa.
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England are in a bit of a game here!
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Ooh, that was tight, but excellent by Samoa. And they’re in the lead.
England had about 5mins of decent play, and it’s been almost all Samoa since then.
8-14 29mins.
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Really nice by Samoa. Again. Stupid again by England. Again.
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And again. England imploding here.
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Good grief.
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Samoa in again! England’s box kicks now going backwards.
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Oh, I don’t think you should be able to TMO check *after* the conversion attempt.
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Harsh on Samoa, I would be miffed if that was England.
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Ah. TMO saves England.
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This is more like the Samoa that we played in Bayonne.
Such a shame they left it to their last game.
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Jeez, the team in white are rubbish.
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Fuck me, that was a dire half by England. They’d better come up with an actual game plan, if they want to win this.
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Samoa making errors creatively in attack, England just making basic errors, time after time. Rugby by numbers is very disappointing to watch, Mitchell being wasted playing like this. One overlap wasted by kicking the ball away about 15 mins in, and its been all Samoa since then. They look by far the better team.
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I thought the last penalty to England on the line should have been the other way round. Itoje was the second or third in, no right to go for the ball there.
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That first half was embarrassing from England. What does Steve Borthwick actually do for his salary??
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@SBT – Obviously the ref had a better view, but it looked like the player Itoje was fighting for the ball with was the Samoa scrum half who surely has at least as much right to try to pick it up as him?
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Think England are a little unfortunate to have run into a much better Samoa performance than anyone else has.
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Mitchell’s having a bit of a nightmare so far.
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Impressed with Lawes getting back to dive on that loose ball.
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England on a warning and Samoa extend their lead to 8-17.
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Tuiliagi’s just a liability at the moment. He keeps shooting out the line and leaving huge gaps.
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I’m getting flashbacks to the Johnson era.
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I don’t understand the Laws in this area. I saw Chessum move the ball from under himself, to the line, with the rest of his body not moving.
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*bangs head on desk*
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England finally do a good play, but there’s a forward pass.
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Just wonder if Samoa are tiring a bit.
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Gaah TMO is doing my head in!!
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Two perfectly good tries have been disallowed – one each for England and Samoa. But that last one was rightly ruled out.
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Cunning England. Saving all their tricks for the QF.
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Samoa have played some great rugby tonight. It’s a pity they didn’t manage it earlier in the tournament. That said, the change on eligibility rules is proving very promising for the likes of Samoa and Fiji and hopefully Tonga too.
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Thats the second tie Faz has kicked away turnover ball with a 4/5 to 2 outside him.
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That slide to gather the ball, then pass to his team-mate, by Ah Wong, might be one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen on a rugby pitch.
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Can you imagine if England put the people that can run really fast, on the edges of the pitch?
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I’m with Faz on that one, there was definitely no arms in that last one.
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Nice one, Faz!
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Not even a yellow?? Do that in a white shirt and that’s red.
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They have, Refit. And they’re carrying flags so you can identify them!
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I would have put money on Sexton being the first to fall foul of the shot clock.
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(I meant letting the shot clock run out, not the tackle thing.)
And a hilarious crowd shot of a woman with her mouth open, then checking her watch!
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*sigh*
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That was a bit funny!
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