AA – want a woe is me contest?

We are missing

Frazer Brown Rory Sutherland Simon Bergman
Jonny gray, Scott Cummings, Alex Craig.
Blade Thompson

Byron McGuigan, Cammy Redpath Chris Harris, Finn Russell Adam Hastings, Duhan VDM Huw Jones Jaco VDV sean Mailand, Stuart Hogg

At least and many of them first choices

We are missing

And are playing Tonga
We have NZ

Oh and Blade is fit just not picked. Been a 1 man back row for Scarlets this season.

Will scarlets release him? IIRC welsh teams have refused release outside of the windows before

Back row is one place we have plenty of folk tho

Darcey at full back? Jings; he is wee enough to still get on the bus for a half! Are the games all on council telly?

I was away at the seaside last weekend, bumped into Josh Navidi in Saundersfoot.

He’s just had surgery on his shoulder that looks like a season ending injury for him. That was after a bump on the Lions tour prior to the tests that ruled him out until early October.

He’s had some shit luck for, in my mind, one of the best back row players in the northern hemisphere.

A quiet, humble, unassuming guy you could ever wish to meet. I went all fanboy at him. I think he was a bit embarrassed.

AA – you will be fine. Josh Adams says so

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/58988483

Duckman – amazon prime or like me you can watch on a dirty feed

I’m not sure Prime will give me another free month this year, worth a try though!

AA – you will be fine. Josh Adams says so

If all our players were as good as him we would be….. Jiffy Not So Junior Anymore v the pace of NZ in the 13 channel really does give me the fear!

Who is up for score predictions? You remember my excellent record at this 😉

Wales 3 NZ 240 000
Scotland 58 Tonga 12
USA 10 Ireland 64

I doubt Scotland will in as well as that – 10 pts maybe.

I think wales will do better than you fear. forwards should be able to control the ball fairly well even get the majority of possession but NZ to pull away in the final 1/4

forwards should be able to control the ball fairly well even get the majority of possession

Bit early to start drinking isn’t it? I’ll wait til Saturday, if I time it right I can have a few watching the Tonga Scotland knock about and be hammered by 5pm!!

🙂

Scotland tonga should be entertaining – Scots backline only know how to attack and attack at all costs from anywhere.

A_a you missed Patchell and Ellis Jenkins, no doubt there are others too.
The Scotland squad looks somewhat inexperienced, I reckon the whole 23 has about as many caps as AWJ and the sheriff combined.
I have a sneaky feeling Cuthbert is going to have a blinder if he plays. If all of the Wales players were still able to produce their best rugby then I’d feel fairly optimistic, but as it is I fear we could lose by 40+.

I reckon the whole 23 has about as many caps as AWJ and the sheriff combined.

Probably! 8 new caps!

A_a you missed Patchell and Ellis

I missed out Patchel as he hasn’t played in years and Ellis might be fit.

My predicitions:
Scotland 24 vs Tonga 30
Wales 15 vs Nz 20 (I have however put some money on wales to win)

Wales 15 vs Nz 20

Wow

I am going with Gauss1777’s optimism. Also my motto is “write off Wales at your peril” , lots of great wins have come from under strength Wales sides with a prop or flanker found down the back of the sofa. Annoying trait but one that needs to be factored in.

5plusn8
Free Member
My predicitions:
Scotland 24 vs Tonga 30

There is a surprise!

It doesn’t matter how many points Wales score, it might look doable at about 60-65 minutes, but then NZ will score a shit load.

Wales 23 v NZ 48
Scotland 43 v Tonga 10
Ireland 55 v USA 15

It doesn’t matter how many points Wales score, it might look doable at about 60-65 minutes, but then NZ will score a shit load.

Yeah well there is the pessimism. Which based on experience/odds/sensible thinking is bang on. This probs what will happen.
But who doesn’t want to see Wales beat the All Blacks? So if I am going to have a fantasy by pretending know the outcome, I’m going to enjoy it…
Scotland vs Tonga, I have no dog in the fight so trying to be more even handed, although experience/odds/sensible thinking disagrees with me. (I don’t think T have ever beaten S). However Tonga can put it together once every 10 years and Scotland generally only keep it together for short periods, so despite being much improved over the last few years, you keep expecting a stumble… I think now is the time.

Meanwhile England Legend Will Carling has been inducted into the world Rugby hall of fame along with Jim Telfer.

⭐️ Introducing the World Rugby Hall of Fame 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏

🇫🇯 Osea Kolinisau
🇰🇪 Humphrey Kayange
🇳🇿 Huriana Manuel-Carpenter
🇦🇺 Cheryl McAfee
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Will Carling
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Jim Telfer

👏 Congratulations and welcome to all our new inductees#WorldRugbyHOF pic.twitter.com/jphUDyWLHn

— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) October 27, 2021

Tonga beat Scotland in 2012. However that was dark days for Scotland and tonga at the end of a tour

While Scotland are weakened with no english / Freench players so are tonga and this is their first game on tour IIRC and also their first for ages

tonga could win but not in a high scoring game and you would get long odds on it happening Same sort of odds as Wales beating NZ

As I said the bookies and expereince make me wrong, eg Ladbrookes giving longer odds on Tonga to beat you then Wales to beat NZ.
However, just a feeling I have. It would pointless & boring if we all just looked up the numbers, agreed the odds and left it there right?

Sandy Carmichael RIP. Despite being 6″2″ and 98kg he got 50 caps and 2 Lions tours at tighthead. Famous for playing a whole half with eye socket and cheekbone fractured for the Lions.

I am going with Gauss1777’s optimism

Gosh, I wish I was. I have a bad feeling that Wales could lose by many many points. Ken Owens out now 😱. However, you never know, two red cards for NZ and we could pull it off.

Predictions:
Wales 11: NZ 43 (which is actually quite an optimistic score I fear)
USA 6: Ireland 63
I’ve no idea with Scotland v Tonga, too many Scotland players I don’t know, Kinghorn at 10, and a Tonga team I don’t know either. So, I’ll take a wild stab at
Scotland 30: Tonga 18

I went to watch Wales Tonga in 2017, it was a patchy Welsh team with uncapped/low capped players all over the shop and they put 74 points past them.

I’d imagine even a scratchy Scotland should be able to comfortably put away Tonga particularly given the current situation. And it’s the AIs when Scotland play well, it’s competitions where it goes wrong.

Wales: Johnny McNicholl; Owen Lane, Jonathan Davies, Johnny Williams, Josh Adams; Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Wyn Jones, Ryan Elias, Tomas Francis, Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones (capt), Ross Moriarty, Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright.

Replacements: Kirby Myhill, Rhys Carre, Dillon Lewis, Will Rowlands, Seb Davies, Gareth Davies, Rhys Priestland, Ben Thomas.

I would not have picked Anscombe, good player but doesn’t look fit yet. Hookers are a worry. Hopefully Basham can take his form with Dregs up this rather large step.
No backrow cover on bench FFS.

That Wales team looks better than I had feared. Not been convinced by J McNicholl nor Ryan Elias. It’s been a good while since I’ve seen J Davies play at his best. But, they’ve got little to lose, no one is giving them much of a chance, I’m going to cross my fingers hard until they go 15 points behind.

But, they’ve got little to lose, no one is giving them much of a chance, I’m going to cross my fingers hard until they go 15 points behind.

There’s that optimism.

1.Joe Moody (54)

2. Codie Taylor (64)

3. Nepo Laulala (37)

4. Brodie Retallick (89)

5. Samuel Whitelock (128) – captain

6. Ethan Blackadder (7)

7. Dalton Papalii (10)

8. Ardie Savea (56)

9. TJ Perenara (76)

10. Beauden Barrett (99)

11. Rieko Ioane (44)

12 David Havili (11)

13. Anton Lienert-Brown (54)

14. Will Jordan (10)

15. Jordie Barrett (32)

16. Samisoni Taukei’aho (7)

17. Karl Tu’inukuafe (23)

18. Tyrel Lomax (11)

19. Tupou Vaa’i (8)

20. Akira Ioane (10)

21. Brad Weber (14)

22. Richie Mo’unga (28)

23. Sevu Reece (14)

Autumn Internationals have crept up on me. But just clocked they are all on Amazon Prime – so that will fill a few rainy afternoons

Was at Gloucester vs Exeter last night and Glos missed a golden opportunity to put them away. Slow start but on top for most of the first half they got close to the line twice more second half and couldn’t get tries. Then reeece zammit had a shocker knocking on retrieving a kick from which they scored. He looked v short of form generally. Nowel played well 2nd half.

Then reeece zammit had a shocker knocking on retrieving a kick from which they scored. He looked v short of form generally.

Not seen him play but read about that, not surprising really, break through season followed by Lions tour, likely needs a calf strain about now to have a break. Normally he’s quite a good footballer for a speed merchant, I’d trust him going back to field kicks more than say a young Johnny May…

I watched him on the telly last night and other than two small errors he looked bloody threatening, not looking forward to facing him in 6N. I wouldn’t have called it a shocker, he was very close to scoring a few times. Exeter looked to have been outplayed in the middle of the field but I think their defensive experience shone through to mostly keep Glos out. The Exeter tries were scored via the old touchline melee. Glos did a great job of keeping Ex away from the touchline. Because if you let them enter the 22 its a huge problem. Also Hogg apears to be finding form again, his game was good. Punctuated with a great quality long grubber type kick which was what put LRZ under huge pressure. It was low and bounced funny and went a bloody long way. Very hard for LRZ to field which gave time for the attackers to rush him and he knocked on. Hogg with 5 times more experience taught LRZ a good lesson is all. That knock on was at 5 or 10m which gave Exeter the attack they needed.
It will be interesting to see how the Chiefs develop this year, everyone else seems to be working them out to a degree. The 5m bulldozer needs some other stuff to keep them up.

Question – LRZ played 2 or 3 games for the Lions, but none of them were tests against SA, do they count as Lions caps or not?

Also this:

Tonga look like a disorganised rabble, which given they have scrapped together a team and had four chuck abouts before the game is unsurprising.