Rugby 2020: No Gatland or Schmidt

[Diable Rouge]

How strong or not was the Ireland side today?

Tries that are better than Johnny May's - number one ;

https://twitter.com/c4sport/status/1333054046714912775?s=21

Pretty much a B team alright, but they'd still have expected to put more than 23 on the board, all the same.

[Antepli Ejderha]

How strong or not was the Ireland side today?

Tries that are better than Johnny May's - number one ;

https://twitter.com/c4sport/status/1333054046714912775?s=21

That's a fantastic try, evoking Dominici a little with that.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Three games in two weeks is a big ask, for Georgia not to be beaten badly is a great step up.

7 Nations with a game in Tbilisi sounds good.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Autumn Nations Cup: France will not revise player rule for England final - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/55124478

I've not seen the squad of 31 but it appears that the warm up game against Wales also counted so France have got a very reduced team, no Serin, Ollivon, Vakatawa, Thomas, Alldrit or Fickou and Ntamack is still injured.

[Ray de Galles]

That really underlines the lack of real status the competition has. I'd applaud the French commitment to player welfare if I didn't think most of the missing players will be hammering away on Top 14 duty next weekend.

[Ray de Galles]

Oh, for fuck's sake :

Argentina dump rugby captain Matera after racist, xenophobic tweets resurface

The UAR clearly had no choice but to take this action.

[Ray de Galles]

It obviously does not matter one bit why the tweets surfaced but this is an interesting aspect of the story :

https://twitter.com/samphillips06/status/1333696785944956928?s=21

[Flynnie]

He said some pretty shit things, but it's astounding that people would try to merk their country's captain for not paying tribute to Diego Maradona enough.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Oh, for fuck's sake :

Argentina dump rugby captain Matera after racist, xenophobic tweets resurface

The UAR clearly had no choice but to take this action.

The UAR seem to have acted quickly and decisively and I'm not going to condone his tweets at all, they are horrific, but his response has been swift in condemning his own actions and they are from the time when he was a teenager.

On the Adios Diego thread it's been mentioned that Maradona was referred to as black a few times, others would know more, but that's also my experience of Argentina. A racist country where the ruling classes see themselves as being superior to all other Latin Americans, and rugby fits in with this too.

[Ray de Galles]

Lots of changes again for Wales, understandably so. North gets another try out at outside centre, a new front row, Hardy & Sheedy as half-backs and Tipuric & Liam back are the main items of note :

[Antepli Ejderha]

I don't get it, at all.

Sam Parry discarded and replaced by Elliott Dee gets a start. North at outside centre not Tompkins. I could go on.

[Ray de Galles]

Italy u20 win 7-17 in Colwyn Bay and that scoreline flatters Wales immensely. Italy totally dominant in every aspect of the game : set piece, attacking play, vision and the basics of running, handling and passing.

Italy's man of the match is Stephen Varney of Gloucester, born and brought up in Wales and son of former Neath flanker Adrian and an Italian mother.

Varney will make his senior debut against the country of his birth on Saturday. A lovely piece with his parents here.

[Ray de Galles]

Matera reinstated as captain and he and his team mates' suspensions are lifted , though none of the three will play against Australia on Saturday.

Fuck knows what's going on here, it apparently the result of a threat from the squad to go on strike.

Argentina's Tri-Nations has been one of the few highlights of this fucking awful sporting year and now it's all turned to shit as well.

[Antepli Ejderha]

The players aren't even in the squad for the match despite them lifting the ban.

[Ray de Galles]

I missed this news the other week. Could be interesting but I doubt we'll see it televised over here :

New Zealand Māori to play prospective Super Rugby entry Moana Pasifika in December

This is indeed televised in the UK, Sky Sports Arena at 5:30am tomorrow. It's followed on the same channel by Australia v Argentina in the final Tri-Nations match.

With Georgia v Fiji on Amazon Prime at noon it could be a fantastic few hours of rugby that I suspect Ireland v Scotland and Wales v Italy in the afternoon will struggle to live up to.

[Ray de Galles]

England's side for Sunday has 813 caps to France's 68 (and 30 of those are the full back Dulin's).

Ben Youngs alone has 30 more caps than the entire French side and even England's least experienced forward Underhill has more caps than the whole French pack put together. Farcical.

[Antepli Ejderha]

England's side for Sunday has 813 caps to France's 68 (and 30 of those are the full back Dulin's).

Ben Youngs alone has 30 more caps than the entire French side and even England's least experienced forward Underhill has more caps than the whole French pack put together. Farcical.

France cannot really lose unless they ship 40+ points and with Shaun Edwards there that shouldn't happen.

[Sporting]

So far the missing Argentinians not being missed.

[Ray de Galles]

Nadolo makes an instant, and literal, impact on his return for Fiji with a typical wrecking ball try, I love him.

Recorded the earlier games as been busy this morning, though frustratingly heard the Aus v Arg resimt
on the radio news.

[Ray de Galles]

3-19 to Fiji after 19 minutes. Gawd, I wish they'd played the whole tournament.

[Ray de Galles]

10-19 but Georgia really putting pressure on Fiji. This is already the best game of the ANC. Two teams playing attacking rugby of contrasting styles.

[Ray de Galles]

Finishes 24-38 and a great game despite atrocious conditions.

Nadolo MOTM with a hat trick but Saghinadze, Jalaghonia and 18 year old sub full back Niniahvili had excellent games for Georgia and had they have made more of their dominance of the second quarter of the game it may have been a different result.

[Tony C]

Just come away from the France - England game on Amazon Prime with less than half an hour to go and France just four points ahead. Don't care who prevails here. It's an unutterably dull game with constant and tiresome long kicking from both sides designed only to see if your opponents make a mistake rather than attempt anything imaginative yourself. A moment ago a French player knocked on and England celebrated. Then Farrell missed a penalty snd the French were joyous. No thanks.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Referees handing out utterly arbitrary penalties at the breakdown is a fucking pain in the arse in all games but in the heated situation of a golden point sudden death extra time it's worse than a bloody coin toss. Even if Farrell did provide potentially the most hilarious moment of the season by missing the first one.

[Ray de Galles]

I've been at my son's rugby training for most of the afternoon so have only seen snatches of extra time which was unsurprisingly risk-averse rugby trying to force errors from the opponent. It sounds like the whole game might have been the same.

It should be chastening for England to squeak past a French 3rd XV and only underlines what's been clear all year that France are clearly the best side in the world right now, including New Zealand, with the caveat that we haven't seen South Africa play since they won the World Cup.

The ANC was always going to be a deeply unsatisfying tournament, effectively a second Six Nations in a year (and a post World Cup year at that) and starting when the last 6N only just finished. Add to that the 19/20 club season rumbled on through the summer and there was little close season before the current one started. Perhaps most significantly of all it was without spectators and pretty much all the sport this year behind closed doors has been abysmal viewing,

That doesn't mean that all the bollocks talked about the sport being "in crisis" to fill column inches in the last few weeks is accurate though, most of it is crap. We're a year in from a fantastic, vibrant, thrilling RWC far away from rugby's heartlands and hopefully the sport and stadia can get back to normal over the next 6 months as we approach a Lions tour. Let's just forget 2020.