Can the Springboks make history and win two in a row? You wouldn’t have thought so when they lost to Ireland in the pool stages, but you also wouldn’t have the All Blacks could do it after their opening-night loss to the hosts (and first pool loss ever).
Rassie’s gone with a ‘courageous’ 7-1 split on the bench again, so it could well come down to injuries – or, indeed, cards.
As for the other match, it seems like a foregone conclusion, but Argentina will be out for revenge, and can this England put together two good performances in a row? We’ll find out soon!
All in all, it’s been a fabulous World Cup apart from the idiotic draw. Merci à la France for an excellent tournament!
Onna telly this week
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates free-to-view.
Friday 27th October
| Argentina v England | 20:00 | ITV1 / STV |
Saturday 28th October
| New Zealand v Wales (women) | 04:00 | S4C |
| Ospreys v Zebre | 13:00 | BBC1 Wales / iPlayer Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Connacht v Glasgow | 15:00 | TG4 / Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Stormers v Scarlets | 15:00 | S4C / iPlayer / Viaplay Sports 2 |
| Bath v Leicester | 15:05 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Leinster v Sharks | 16:55 | RTÉ2 / Viaplay Xtra |
| Edinburgh v Lions | 17:00 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| New Zealand v South Africa | 20:00 | ITV1 / STV / S4C / RTÉ2 |
Sunday 29th October
| Treviso v Munster | 14:00 | Viaplay Xtra |
| Dragons v Cardiff | 14:30 | Viaplay Sports 1 |
| Newcastle v Northampton | 15:00 | TNT Sports 1 |
| Ulster v Bulls | 17:00 | BBC2 NI / iPlayer / TG4 / Viaplay Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Ben Whitehouse can fuck right off.
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Well. I refer back to the draw.
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Well, Argentina probably played the better rugby, especially in the second half. England played a very conservative game and managed to do just enough to scrape a win.
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Well, at least the Poomas tried to play some rugby. Would have been an ideal opportunity for England to show a bit of something, but with an eye on the future, at least Henry Arundell has learnt what it is like to be Jonny May with Faz at 10.
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Can we have a replay of the fend on Owen ? Thoroughly enjoyed that.
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At least Rob Andrew was just boring when he represented England, and only became thoroughly unlikeable after his playing days.
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Damn, missed Gloucester Saracens hoping to see the Poomas win.
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England can either play Farrell at 10 and kill the life out of a match, or play Smith at 10 and maybe get the ball to the wingers and play some actual rugby once in a while. But make up your damn mind; Smith at 15 is terrible. (Mind you, feel free to pick like that against us.)
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I read a lot of grumpy comments, perhaps a bit of sourness too? – I thought it was a good match-up with plenty of history. Two teams with naturally different styles.
I’m reasonably happy with the way England played – some tired folks on both teams. This England squad aren’t great but I admire their heart.
Tomorrow’s game will be better / more meaningful but equally close, I think.
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Slade – I’m certainly somewhat grumpy/sour, but that’s down to the wrong teams ending up in the play-offs due to the draw. Argentina had their chance and blew it.
I’m also not-grumpy because I’m floating on painkillers thanks to a dental issue. :-)
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Why are UK dentists not allowed to prescribe painkillers? It’s mad. But I got a top tip from the dentist: you can take Solpadeine Max as well as Nurofen Plus to get a near-prescription amount of codeine. You’ll just have to go to different chemists’ to buy them, as they won’t sell you both at once.
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…….it is what it is and there are far far worse things to get honestly upset about happening in the world.
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England have a pretty good pack. That was a solid effort.
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Sympathies Thaum – I was on Co-codamol and ibuprofen earlier this week due to a back spasm, now it’s just Aspall’s cider.
The co-codamol is a bit spacey.
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Slade – you are very right. Probably not the time to get into the I/P situation.
Ticht – thanks! Sympathise with the back, too – I have one of them as well.
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England South Africa next time out is going to be a bit spicy.
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…. and who can guess what the two line-ups will be?
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Well I quite enjoyed the game even if it got a bit messy at times. And who knows maybe it benefitted from being a game between two teams that were perhaps slightly happier to be there than France or Ireland might have been. I guess the chargedown won it really in the end.
In any case on results (which ultimately are what matter) it’s kind of fair enough that England got 3rd as they couldn’t have got any closer to turning the Boks over in the semi-final and otherwise won every game however close and ugly some of them were.
Disagree that it having been a good World Cup is ‘despite the draw’. If anything I’d say it’s been a good World Cup because of the draw as we’ve had a lot more close games than we might have done otherwise. Even then of course England at least can point to results and legitimately claim that there is evidence that one quarter-final would have been close and might not have gone to ‘form’ even with a ‘perfectly seeded’ draw. And it’s going to end up with a deserving winner one way or the other.
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Lots of positives for England, Earl has really developed, and Underhill has improved as an all round player too, Lots of good youngsters got some really good experience, Chessum and Dan did well today, and I do like the apparent heft that Martin brings. Also good experience all round for Smith, I thought Lawrence has still never had a decent run to be given a chance to show his mettle, pretty much did what was asked of him, but Manu spent too long on the pitch, imho.
Love just about everything about the Poomas, Santis charged down and Sanchez miss will be really painful for them. Really good players across the squad, Lavinini, had a great world cup, and deserved a rest today. Really sorry for Pablo Matera, but his understudies, probably Isa and Bruno ? both played their hearts out.
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Morning all!
I made the mistake of reading BtL on the Brauniad!
For what it’s worth, I thought Farrell had a really good first half but was exhausted in the second but would not give way to another………………….
Roll on tonight’s fun-fest…………..
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Argentina’s first try came from a very forward pass. Ref asked tmo to check and they said it was fine. Starting to feel like a vendetta against England on the part of the officials! Mistakes like these should not happen once, let alone every frigging game!
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@Dab – was there any issue of it being too far back in play? I’m not sure what the rules are on that any more or if there even are any.
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Dab – I think it’s more an issue of Ben Whitehouse not being great. He also decided that the elbow into Faz, towards the end was nothing. I’m pretty sure they didn’t show replays of several alleged no-arm tackles (from both teams), because they would be very contentious.
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To be fair, they also didn’t look at Theo Dan having a pop at the defender as he scored a try.
The forward pass I’m talking about was the last pass before the try though. And it was blatant, not contentious!
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Dab – if you scroll back, I think you’ll find I mentioned it during the match!
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@Thaum – indeed you did. When I said “officials” I was referring to those refereeing matches, not illustrious hosts of the notablogs, who are invariably even-handed and non-partisan in all things.
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:-D I was just saying that to confirm that yes, there was indeed a forward pass!
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@Dab – It definitely looked like a forward pass and it made the position from which they scored, but I’m pretty sure the try was scored maybe two or three rucks later. As I say, not sure that matters anyway these days and it might have been soon enough when there was a rule of some sort in any case.
I’m not sure we know if they looked at what Dan did after he scored, all I know is that we didn’t get to see it again.
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@CMW – you’re quite right – it was the crucial line break, but a bit back from the try itself.
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Afternoon all! Was reading back on the comments from last night and realised I’d read them last night. Probably why I felt a little wooly-headed this morning.
Going through every rise and fall of the roller-coaster right now; every time I think, yep, we can do this, a voice somewhere inside the dark recesses of my mind says we’re going to lose.
Every time I look at our 23 and think that it’s how we duffed the Kiwis at Twickenham, something reminds me that they tore strips off us in the opening 20 minutes in Christchurch a couple of months before that, negating the impact of the bomb squad.
And then every time I think it’s not possible for the Boks to take it after their draining quarter and semifinals, I think that this squad just keep raising the bar internally. I’m a wreck.
Ospreys 31-26 Zebre with 15 to go.
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At Bath (or with the weather, in Bath), Finncam shows him making a lovely cross kick for Bath’s first try ( not scored by Finn – amazingly there are other players on the pitch).
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Deebee – yesterday, when I was writing the post, I felt that your Boks would win.
Today, I think it’s going to be the Blackness.
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Connacht have gone with a 6-2 split, and now Hanrahan’s injured. Still over 30 mins to go.
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The Glasgow 7 has done a couple of very silly things. Not a great rugby brain.
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Ha, play has just been stopped because Connacht had 16 men on the pitch.
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Commentator: I don’t think we’ve ever seen this before.
Oh, yes, we have!
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Connacht thumping Glasgow. They’re better than Leinster!
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Hopefully we’ll get to see some rugby tonight in spite of the foul weather. The SFs and the little final have been a bit underwhelming.
Made the same mistake as our Slade. Lots of ignorants and bad temper BTL on the Guardian (on Planet Rugby it’s even worse).
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Leinster have scored at 4m24s. Slow off the blocks.
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Beautiful thunderstorm to break the heat, rainbow out – is this the omen we need for the rainbow nation? Is that Siya I see with the pot of gold at the end of rainbow?
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Double rainbow!
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real rugby update:
Exeter gone bonkers again: 43 – 0 vs Sale
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Sharks now leading with two penalties.
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12-6 at HT, Leinster having scored again. Not the greatest match of all time.
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…. must be better than watching England, surely? :-)
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Leinster hooker has been binned for head contact.
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Slade – not the last couple of matches!
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Prendergast has come on at fly-half for Leinster, and he is some player! The Byrnes, Crowleys, Frawleys and so on can perhaps step back.
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Needs to work on his kicking off the tee though. :-)
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