Apparently, there's other games of rugby on today!

Losty Dublin

And there's series riding on them all as well, the cheeky tykes!

First up is England away to the Wallabies in the Sydney Cricket Group at 11AM. Geed up after a somewhat unexpected win last week over a poor first test, England are looking good for a series win today, provided that discipline holds firm over the full 80.

Australia: Hodge, Wright, Paisami, Kerevi, Koroibete, Lolesio, White, Valetini, Hooper (capt), Wilson, Philip, Frost, Tupou, Porecki, Slipper.

Replacements: Fainga’a, Bell, Ala’alatoa, Leota, Samu, McDermott, Ikitau, Vunivalu.

England: Steward, Nowell, Porter, Farrell, Freeman, Smith, Care, B Vunipola, Ludlam, Lawes (capt), Hill, Chessum, Stuart, George, Genge.

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, M Vunipola, Heyes, Isiekwe, Willis, Van Poortvliet, Joseph, Arundell.

Wales vs South Africa is in the Drop it Hide it Lose it Stadium at 4PM. After a heartbreaking loss 2 weeks ago, Pivac's clung on for dear life last week after a surreal yellow carding of AW Jones but came up trumps, having well deserved their win. I can't see the Books losing this time but they'll work for it today.

South Africa: Damian Willemse; Cheslin Kolbe, Lukhanyo Am, Damian de Allende, Makazole Mapimpi, Handre Pollard, Jaden Hendrikse; Trevor Nyakane, Bongi Mbonambi, Frans Malherbe, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Siya Kolisi (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese.

Replacements: Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Franco Mostert, Kwagga Smith, Elrigh Louw, Faf de Klerk, Willie le Roux.

Wales: Liam Williams; Louis Rees-Zammit, George North, Nick Tompkins, Josh Adams; Dan Biggar (capt), Kieran Hardy, Gareth Thomas, Ryan Elias, Dillon Lewis, Will Rowlands, Adam Beard, Dan Lydiate, Tommy Reffell, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Dewi Lake, Wyn Jones, Sam Wainwright, Alun Wyn Jones, Josh Navidi, Tomos Williams, Gareth Anscombe, Owen Watkin.

And finally there's Scotland and Argentina. It's fair to say that on paper Scotland were the unexpected winner last week; equally they deserved it on the balance of things. However they were poor in the first test and well the hosts know it. I'm looking at a home win for Los Puma's.

Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Matias Moroni, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Santiago Grondona, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Joel Sclavi, 2 Agustin Creevy, 1 Thomas Gallo

Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Tomas Albornoz, 23 Lucio Cinti

Scotland: 15 Ollie Smith, 14 Rufus McLean, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Blair Kinghorn, 9 Ali Price, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Hamish Watson (c), 6 Rory Darge, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Scott Cummings, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Rory Sutherland

Replacements: 16 Dave Cherry, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Javan Sebastian, 19 Glen Young, 20 Andy Christie, 21 George Horne, 22 Ross Thompson, 23 Sam Johnson

And go.......

eagle eye

Clear forward pass for the Aussie try but not even checked.

kowloonkev

England are just so boring. It really is a mental challenge to watch a whole game.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119345197#Comment_119345197

Good!

Also on today are:-

Fiji 20 - 23 Samoa

Georgia V Portugal (15.00)

USA V Chile (20:00)

and tomorrow we've got Uruguay V Romania!

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119345358#Comment_119345358

The latter of which is a play off for a place in the RWC finals next year. It could be interesting.

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119345358#Comment_119345358

Samoa beating Fiji is a major upset , wonder is the new elligibilty players helping them , would think so judging by this result, as they have been pretty poor for 20 years and Fiji have made big strides.

Digifriendly

England win, so 2 up for NH, 2 games to go.

kowloonkev

I'm confused. In NZ the rule was that you must complete the scrum even after the hooter. In Australia, it's not necessary?

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119345505#Comment_119345505

Because the scrum came from a crooked throw.

A game can't be ended on a line out

Quality try from Wales there; after it seemed to take South Africa an age to eventually get over. Nick Tompkins had a couple of nice involvements in the lead up to it, and George North's hand off right into the mush of Cheslin Kolbe was fantastic.

The surface of the pitch in Cape Town is a shambles though, and impacting the game in a big way so far.

That's very harsh.

South Africa are utterly turgid and going to get a card here.

Clegg

South Africa has some of the most gifted backs in the world, but over this three test series they've had no idea how to use them. There's no sophistication in their attacking structure. They don't fix defenders before passing the ball, which leave the backs with no space to attack.

They don't need an intricate attacking system like Ireland, which allows for multiple carriers or passers. But something would be far better than the nothing they have currently.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119346157#Comment_119346157

Yeah; they're awful to watch. Like I respect how tough they are to beat, but if the whole game of rugby was the way they played it (or the way England play it) I don't know if it would appeal to me as much.

Confrontational to a fault; they actively seek the contact all the time.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119346157#Comment_119346157

Is Felix Jones still their attack coach?

That pass back inside from Hendrikse to Am looked 2 yards forward.

Pitch actually looks dangerous in some parts; cutting up really badly.

Jacovs

Its always been piss poor surface. Designed as a football stadium, not rugby. Looks like a sand pit near the Wales line.

I've been impressed by Taine Basham almost every time I've seen him play, looks a really nice player. Small for a backrow, but seems impactful.

Very flat atmosphere, poor game overall. South Africa much stronger but poor continuity of play, if they're going to play one dimensionally they need to at least be accurate but haven't been able to manage that.

I wonder are they changing up their style of play one year out from the World Cup because they're poor here against a deeply average Wales.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119346311#Comment_119346311

Nah, couldn't see it. It may be ugly but it's still brutally effective, particularly in a cup scenario.

Jacovs

Local radio stations gave away loads of free tickets to the game but there was still loads of empty seats. Surprised at that since its the first big game in Cape Town since the 50% capacity was lifted after the URC final.

Glad we bucked the trend of nothern teams taking the series.

Bokke Bokke !!!

Roxxers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119345486#Comment_119345486

wasn't a full fiji team

PTH2009

France playing it cute and not playing any of the big guns and off on the holilers prior to this weekend

brokenangel

I flicked on the English game. I watched for a good few minutes of kick tennis and turned it off.

Maybe English fans find it exciting but at this stage I can't watch it....maybe Jones has a plan but I can't see it

He was on Sky later on saying the squad was young. He is making that excuse 3 years now

Dillonb3

USA and Chile on a knife-edge

Clegg

Grandstand finish for Argentina vs Scotland.

Scotland winning 27-31 in the 80th minute, but Argentina have a scrum 5m from the Scotland line.

eagle eye

Gotta love the Argentinian fans.

Yurt2

Chile beat USA in an absolute classic back-and-forth match to qualify for their first world cup.

Their front row look like they were dragged out of a pub to tog-out for the national team.

USA had a penalty to win it at the death but the ref went to the TMO and spotted a headless bit of foul play from the Eagles. The Chile performance was all heart, rugby at its best.

Clegg

Argentina win. Scored a try in the 81st minute on a scrum advantage.

Very poor second half from Scotland. They were 15 points ahead with 30 minutes left to play and blew it.

Dillonb3

Delighted for chile, they go into England's group and their neighbours Argentina.

AbusesToilets

Such a shame Spain fucked up qualification. There's some brilliant rugby being played by them, Uruguay, Portugal and Chile. Wish the WC had a plate competition for the teams who don't make the playoffs.

Digifriendly

Highlights of USA vs Chile. here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ro0CF83FWc

Some celebrating at FT. Ignore the USA TV adverts!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119346177#Comment_119346177

I was wondering that too. We saw a few close ups of him (I think) in the coaches' box, but the commentators didn't seem to know who he was.

If so then he badly needs to improve his coaching because the bok backs were woeful.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119349121#Comment_119349121

In fairness so were Munsters when he was there.