Elpenor
a clown’s heart and a mandolin
The autumn international rugby kicks off on Saturday November 2nd and continue over the rest of the November weekends. Expect lots of terrible moustaches as it’s also that time of year 
Tv coverage is on TNT sports - this is a bad move I think. I am sure everyone remembers watching these matches on terrestrial as a kid. They are glorified friendlies and sometimes the matches are used to trial new players but the matches are often classics.
While it has been behind a paywall on Amazon prime video for the last few years, plenty of folk have that already for the deliveries and it was relatively easy to get a free month to watch the rugby for nowt. Not any more, so if you have TNT or discovery plus then you have access, if not you need to find another method.
There are a number of matches that stand out - full list below.
England have the big 3 southern hemisphere teams and Japan. I think they need to win 3 from 4 as a minimum and a statement win over New Zealand - having lost narrowly twice to them down under - would be a good start. Their squad is fairly well established now, so they need to start producing results. South Africa will be a huge challenge and an improvement from the World Cup semi final result would be huge.
Wales haven’t won a match this year and have a fairly callow squad as the rebuild continues. They simply must beat Fiji to get some momentum for the next two games. Australia who are their second opponent are also rebuilding, and beat Wales twice over the summer down under. I expect South Africa will play a more developmental team against them.
Ireland will want to exact revenge over New Zealand following their World Cup quarter final heartbreak. This will be the match they will target. It will be the last matches they play with Andy Farrell for a while as he will shortly be seconded to the British and Irish Lions. So a great chance for them to impress him ahead of the tour next year. The other games will be fairly standard, with Australia, been coached by their former boss, Joe Schmidt, the other game of interest.
Scotland have a lighter schedule with the mighty Portugal one of their games
this is a decent Scotland back line though who can turn it on if not quite back it up. I can see them beating Australia and giving South Africa a bit of a contest.
Of the teams coming up from the South, New Zealand have three big banana skins. Their new coach Scott Robertson is under a bit of pressure and his selection so far been erratic. Perhaps things will click on this tour.
South Africa have the strongest team, and a South Africa second team would beat most other teams too. They’ve started playing more expansively now they have a New Zealander as an attack coach; part of this is due to an exciting new fly half called Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, however sadly he is injured. Aphelele Fassi has broken into the team too and he is a wonderful runner at full back.
Australia are starting to show promise but not yet results. They have a big new player, a rugby league convert called Joseph Suaalii who is an outside back (wing, centre, full back) who is yet to play a game of Union. They also have ex Leicester winger Harry Potter in their squad which the commentators must be thrilled about, the jokes just write themselves!
A couple of rule changes and God knows rugby likes to tinker with the rules - they will be trialling 20 minute red cards. So basically if you make a high tackle and it’s at the yellow card threshold you leave the field and there’s a TMO bunker review while the match continues (as happened in the last World Cup and six nations) If it’s a yellow card you come back on as usual after 10 minutes. If it’s confirmed as a red card you are off the field for 20 minutes. You will then be replaced by someone off the bench and your team go back to playing with 15 players.
Of course you can still get a straight red card but this would be for punching someone rather than a high tackle.
What it means is that a high tackle in the 2nd minute that merits a red card won’t mean a team play almost an entir match
Confused? You should be. Rugby does this to you to test your loyalty.
More usefully, referees will explain certain decisions eg yellow cards / TMO referrals this will be audible in the ground. Finally!
Saturday, November 2
Tv coverage is on TNT sports - this is a bad move I think. I am sure everyone remembers watching these matches on terrestrial as a kid. They are glorified friendlies and sometimes the matches are used to trial new players but the matches are often classics.
While it has been behind a paywall on Amazon prime video for the last few years, plenty of folk have that already for the deliveries and it was relatively easy to get a free month to watch the rugby for nowt. Not any more, so if you have TNT or discovery plus then you have access, if not you need to find another method.
There are a number of matches that stand out - full list below.
England have the big 3 southern hemisphere teams and Japan. I think they need to win 3 from 4 as a minimum and a statement win over New Zealand - having lost narrowly twice to them down under - would be a good start. Their squad is fairly well established now, so they need to start producing results. South Africa will be a huge challenge and an improvement from the World Cup semi final result would be huge.
Wales haven’t won a match this year and have a fairly callow squad as the rebuild continues. They simply must beat Fiji to get some momentum for the next two games. Australia who are their second opponent are also rebuilding, and beat Wales twice over the summer down under. I expect South Africa will play a more developmental team against them.
Ireland will want to exact revenge over New Zealand following their World Cup quarter final heartbreak. This will be the match they will target. It will be the last matches they play with Andy Farrell for a while as he will shortly be seconded to the British and Irish Lions. So a great chance for them to impress him ahead of the tour next year. The other games will be fairly standard, with Australia, been coached by their former boss, Joe Schmidt, the other game of interest.
Scotland have a lighter schedule with the mighty Portugal one of their games
this is a decent Scotland back line though who can turn it on if not quite back it up. I can see them beating Australia and giving South Africa a bit of a contest.Of the teams coming up from the South, New Zealand have three big banana skins. Their new coach Scott Robertson is under a bit of pressure and his selection so far been erratic. Perhaps things will click on this tour.
South Africa have the strongest team, and a South Africa second team would beat most other teams too. They’ve started playing more expansively now they have a New Zealander as an attack coach; part of this is due to an exciting new fly half called Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, however sadly he is injured. Aphelele Fassi has broken into the team too and he is a wonderful runner at full back.
Australia are starting to show promise but not yet results. They have a big new player, a rugby league convert called Joseph Suaalii who is an outside back (wing, centre, full back) who is yet to play a game of Union. They also have ex Leicester winger Harry Potter in their squad which the commentators must be thrilled about, the jokes just write themselves!
A couple of rule changes and God knows rugby likes to tinker with the rules - they will be trialling 20 minute red cards. So basically if you make a high tackle and it’s at the yellow card threshold you leave the field and there’s a TMO bunker review while the match continues (as happened in the last World Cup and six nations) If it’s a yellow card you come back on as usual after 10 minutes. If it’s confirmed as a red card you are off the field for 20 minutes. You will then be replaced by someone off the bench and your team go back to playing with 15 players.
Of course you can still get a straight red card but this would be for punching someone rather than a high tackle.
What it means is that a high tackle in the 2nd minute that merits a red card won’t mean a team play almost an entir match
Confused? You should be. Rugby does this to you to test your loyalty.
More usefully, referees will explain certain decisions eg yellow cards / TMO referrals this will be audible in the ground. Finally!
Saturday, November 2
- 3.10pm: England vs New Zealand
- 5.40pm: Scotland vs Fiji
- 8.10pm: Ireland vs New Zealand
- 3.10pm: England vs Australia
- 5.40pm: Italy vs Argentina
- 8.10pm: France vs Japan
- 1.40pm: Wales vs Fiji
- 4.10pm: Scotland vs South Africa
- 8.10pm: Ireland vs Argentina
- 3.10pm: Scotland vs Portugal
- 5.40pm: England vs South Africa
- 8.10pm: France vs New Zealand
- 1.40pm: Italy vs Georgia
- 4.10pm: Wales vs Australia
- 8.10pm: France vs Argentina
- 3.10pm: Ireland vs Fiji
- 5.40pm: Wales vs South Africa
- 8.10pm: Italy vs New Zealand
- 1.40pm: Scotland vs Australia
- 4.10pm: England vs Japan
- 3.10pm: Ireland vs Australia
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