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Times in BST. Sorry SH. Wales already won by a point, so probably best match already done. Anyone want to predict score lines for the rest? Think I'll watch the Chile on iplayer later, not feeling the need to watch that one live
Los Lobos vs the Boks has been cracking so far
That end-to-end Georgia try was something special.
50
25
50
50
12
Cannot see any upsets sadly
NZ - 20ish Aus - 12ish SA - 50+ Sco - 40+ Arg - 20ish
Schmidt has kinda necessarily selected a team with a lot of changes as its the last chance to get some game time before TRC starts. It looks like a lot of changes but he has selected combinations together so cohesion should be better than you might think. Still, Georgia are a decent team and even after these Wales wins the Wallabies might be short on confidence.
Looking at the ABs performance at home against England, and the selections from Razor if its Lautoka style hot & steamy in San Diego I could see Fiji pushing the ABs - especially if the lineout is even worse this week and we have arguably 2 worse throwers in Aumua and Bell so it could happen. Matthew Carley is a decent referee but it'll be NH style breakdown so anything could happen, Fiji have really good forwards.
Unlike Schmidt, Razor hasn't really selected combinations either, Aumua is propped by 2 Crusaders, then when the front row swaps, Bell a Crusader will be propped by a Highlander & a Hurricane. Instead of playing Barrett-Proctor in the centres, he's split up the Hurricanes pairing to give Jordie a rest coming on from the bench. We've got no specialist playing 7 - Blackadder is very much a utility loose forward. And then in part due to injuries and perhaps favouratism coming on at halfback is Hotham who is for sure a prospect but couldn't even nail the starting 9 in a terrible Crusaders team.
Anyway, its very much Kiwi rugby fan style to rose tint things so i'm just trying to play devils advocate - but if i'm Fiji this is definitely not a team to be scared of. Get everything right, get lucky with the weather, a card or two due to some accidental head contact and it could be all on against a team which might not have the tools (in the forwards especially) to right the ship.
Experimental time really. First big post world cup window, and pre big tourney preparation, not a huge suprise to see new faces and combos, and testing olderones too. I wouldn't expect much of anything starting tomorrow to start for TRC on any side
I wonder if the ABs need to look to how SA use their forward bench; start Aumua, Williams & Tosi, for a bunch of size and grunt in the first half then bring on Taylor, de Groot & Lomax for the 2nd 40-45 minutes as needed.
Our usual method has been to bring those guys on later in the game when it starts to break up; but against teams like Ireland, South Africa, England they're not fatiguing (bc of all the pissing about referees allow) so the game isn't breaking up.
Its kinda how I see Schmidt using Tupou / Alaalatoa - that way he gets the most out of a big body and still has a great player to come on in the 2nd half when things might get tighter.
Spain - Tonga as well!
29-20 to Spain, Tonga have some good players but have really struggled to make much of an impact over the last couple seasons. I wonder if this one was played outside the international window so some of their big names were gone - or if they're just a bit poop at the moment.
Ooh, I missed that one. Great for Spain, would be fantastic to see them make a world cup, or challenge Georgia in the tier 2 european chanpionship
Well they've qualified for the last 2 and then been kicked out due to some dumbass book keeping around eligibility so arguably they're better than some of the teams that made it in 2019 & 2023!
Lol, I'd forgotten about that. Once is a mistake, twice a farce
Yeah I think some people have argued that Spain were treated a little unfairly second time around as other teams had had similar iffy eligibility or something. I dunno - I haven't paid enough attention but yeah pretty silly.
ABs-Fiji
47-5 to the All Blacks.
Scoreline flatters the ABs who had a lot of handling errors and turned over a bunch of ball (again). Kick-off receipt was terrible, but both scrum & lineout were very good.
Fiji played well in patches but not enough to put consistent pressure on the ABs; but their try came from exploiting the AB defensive pattern in pretty much exactly the same manner as England did twice last week. Bit of a concern.
Ratima looked really good but had to come off early after a sort of sling shot tackle planted him onto the hard surface - just an HIA but would have been negligent to let him back on. Hotham's delivery from the scrum was noticeably slower but he did have a few other good runs in him so wasn't bad by any means.
Of the other debutants, Darry played well, and should have cemented a position in TRC squad at the expense of one of the loosies. Bell & Tosi were good, and Sititi looked much the same as he had playing for the Chiefs.
Best of the bunch was Proctor who's distribution was great but also did some great runs - Reiko is probably not quite on notice given it was against Fiji and the defensive speed was much lower than the English but definitely gives the coaches something to think about.
Blackadder had a lot of effort throughout but was pretty error prone; as was the captain Barrett who also gave up a dumb breakdown penalty which scrubbed out an ABs try.
Fun enough game to watch but without much drama.
Can't believe Scotland aren't getting to play this ABs side this year, your review reads much better than the scoreline!
On the basis of the first 3 games this year it would be a surprise if the ABs win even 2 of the big 4 remaining - 2x SA, IRE, ENG all away.
3 weeks break, then 2 weeks at home against Argentina, then another 2 weeks break before the SA leg begins so if Razor truly is the coach we all think he is then they should be a lot better by then, but only time will tell.
If more time with Schmidt also helps the Wallabies the away game against them could be interesting too, but Argentina should be doable.
Oz-Georgia
40-29 to 'straya
Holy Heck what a fun game to watch as a neutral! I haven't seen very much at all of Georgia play so it was a wonderful surprise to see how good their backs were. If anything the Australian's bossed it up front and that's what earnt the victory.
Two brilliant tries in the match, one 105m effort from Georgia off a turnover on their line, followed by a 60m forwards only try from Australia off the back of a line out.
Loads to work on for Australia ahead of TRC, most pressingly working out who the hell can solve the problem at 10. For Georgia, justice would be some kind of competition between them, Wales & Italy to work out who gets to be the last team in the 6 nations because they were awesome to watch tonight.
Italy put Georgia firmly to bed last year, but certainly Wales haven't faced them in a while. And curious to hear about the backs - not often Georgia's strong suit. Can't wait to see them again either, hopefully next year in the flesh
Yeah, I guess to be honest that was my hot take while I was fizzing from the razzle dazzle of the last 20-30 minutes of the game. They look like a team that just needs more regular games against the big teams - similar to Japan.
Scotland vs Chile starting now. Didn't realise it was free to air on BBC Scotland until the last moment! Already had my dodgy stream lined up
Oh dear
Nevermind! Need to unbreak the glass on the Panic button now