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 
Nice one Owen, stop chatting and take the fucking kick.
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Dab, seriously?
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Piper – yep, me too!
I saw one run out earlier in the tournament, but no mention was made of it. Possibly it was missed anyway.
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And to think, I’ve got England by 24 on the ‘Bru.
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Why all the standing around after the timed-out kick? Time has been wasted, let’s waste some more…
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It feels weird that they get a yellow for that, but not the no-arms off the ball.
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I was happy to see England trying some 9s other than LFB, but I don’t think Mitchell is it.
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Get the fucking ball out you dicks.
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Fuck me, clean channel one ball against a team a mam down in the backs.
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Scrum again ? well use the fucking ball then. Are this lot on heroin ?
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Happy now SBT?
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Got me Ireland shirt on now. That should help Samoa.
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There you go, on the fourth scrum. Why not do that on the first ?????
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Care scores! Glad it wasn’t a messy scrum-based score. Took it well. Can Samoa scramble a score?
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No Refit, tbh I was hoping for a penalty against England, and a break away try by Samoa. Would have served the brainless assholes right.
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Been laughing at your posts, SBT, but I am likely to be similar in about 90 mins….
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Apparently fucking Tong-ah are on the pitch now.
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Why the actual fuck did Steward kick it????
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Well, I’m not sure the team that deserved the win got it. But I’ll keep my mouth shut until later!
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Jesus Christ, how did England only scrape a 1 point win against Samoa? By all rights, we should have lost that.
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@Flair – yes that looked like a yellow to me. It was dirty. And yes I think England have been treated very unfairly with the red cards over the last two seasons, compared to other teams.
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No way Thaum. If there was any justice in the game, Brace would have penalised England for continuously flopping off their feet there,and Samoa would have scored.
Bravo Samoa for playing rugby.
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Terrible performance from England. Samoa should have won. That overruled try cost them dearly.
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Dab, if we put your one eye with my one eye, we’d end up with … some kind of self-hating mutant hybrid.
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Dab, it might’ve been worth a yellow, but to write that if it was an England shirt, it’d be a red is over the top.
As for England being treated very unfairly, I don’t think Farrell for instance can complain much about his RCs and subsequent suspensions.
As a “neutral” always supporting the minnows, I really enjoyed the game. Some great skills and plenty of drama.
I have no doubt the best team won but FFS, England have to learn to trust their abilities and run the ball rather than always kicking it away. That won’t work vs any of the big 4.
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As we get the news break … why are Palestinians ‘militants’ and Israelis aren’t?
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“I have no doubt the best team won”
I do.
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Well, that was a hard watch!
Samoa did what Samoa do (good and bad).
I’m almost past caring but, at the highest level you can’t play Ford and Farrell together – there’s no balance or speed. Just pick one or the other (I prefer Ford now).
Unfortunately it looks like Stevie B. has made his mind up.
I have no idea whether this is Wales’ preferred outcome. I fear that the Fijians will be looking forward to next week-end.
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@Flair – no disputing that England were terrible in that game, and I also always cheer for the underdogs when it’s not my team involved. No complaints about the Faz RC but the circus around it was ridiculous. Steward had one overturned; Curry’s one very harsh compared to how similar incidents have been dealt with this tournament.
Of course I was exaggerating about that hit today… This is the internet, after all!
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Unless the ref has taken an extravagant decision too close to the end of the game ( and don’t take me there, it happens) , then the team that scored more points was the best. England did.
Samoa almost scored at the end, just like Fiji vs Wales (although in that case Carley had too mch of an influence).
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Nervous nervous nervous nervous….
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England are hopeless incompetents, do they not understand that the most important part of doing all that is to actually lose at the end?
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POM’s got his match face on. Apparently he’s known as the ‘haggard badger’ in the squad.
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Perhaps England were just having a dry run in preparation for doing it properly against Fiji when they can actually go out.
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Lets face it, CMW, another abysmal performance exactly like that will see England in the semi finals of the rugby world cup. Good fucking grief.
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@SBT – They’ll probably do it. And lose respectably to one of the big boys leaving Borthers with something like a pass mark.
Still a possibility of the full Toblerone if they lose horribly in the QF though.
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the full Toblerone
You’re going to have to explain that one. I have unpleasant visuals.
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morenervousthanThaum morenervousthanThaum morenervousthanThaum morenervousthanThaum morenervousthanThaum morenervousthanThaum
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BB – pah.
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Thaum – you are the number one team in the world, you beat the world champions, we haven’t beaten you since 2017, what the hell are you nervous for?
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@Thaum – When you get knocked out by Fiji in World Cups in France, sack the coach ‘in the carpark’ etc there are traditionally Toblerones involved:
“He knew the Press would be at the hotel reception. The bus slowed to a halt. Gareth stood up, with his bag of duty free in one hand — a couple of Toblerones and a bottle of whisky — and he bade us farewell. No valedictory speech. Just a brief thanks, and he was gone”.
It’s actually all rather sad, but there we are.
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OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE SCOTLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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BB – because you are perfectly capable of beating us, never mind our ranking or what you’ve just done!
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Ireland didn’t seem to have to do too much to create that mismatch for the try.
Early signs when Scotland have had the ball are that Finn may get a little bit more time to play than against the Boks?
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3 kilos between the packs. That’s a very small dug.
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Kick your goals!
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Very nervously scanning the permutations. It’s all Scotland so far except for the try I didn’t see in real time cos I was feeding the dug.
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That should have been our throw – his foot clearly hit the touchline.
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Don’t like to see Ritchie going off. If we’re going to beat Scotland, I want to beat the best side.
(And I still would like to see both sides go through, improbable as that is.)
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That’s Kinghorn and Ritchie off in the first 20 minutes.
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