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Well done on beating me to the thread. Sadly quite busy this weekend, not certain what I'll be able to catch. There's the U20s 2nd tier in Edinburgh today also, hoping Scotland top that and get back to the big boys club
Italy by 5
Samoa by 20
Scotland by 50
Romania by 10
NZ by 10
Oz by 20
Georgia by 5
Portugal by 10
SA by 10
France by 10
A lot closer this week! And sorry to hear about the weather, think the game will be affected much? A scrum-fest?
Auckland is a further north than where I am and doesn't tend to get the extra frosty mornings we get here. The weather up there today is clear but not especially warm for the middle of winter. At kickoff it'll be around 10C, pretty much no wind. I could be a little dewy but Eden Park is usually a very good track so it won't be heavy underfoot. We're spoilt here in NZ; even at NPC level almost all of our rugby pitches are as good or better than most of the grounds up in the NH; often bigger capacity and usually much better lights too (partly bc a lot of them double for day-night Cricket matches).
Has Marcus Smith always been this good? He's having a hell of a game so far
I love that the England coaching team have finally given him the freedom to play with flair.
But why did they take him off!? When he got to come back on due to the Steward HIA England's attack changed back to being a real threat again.
Holy heck, what a first try in the Wallabies - Wales game!
I think the best match for fun rugby is probably going to be Australia-Wales again. I'm not a big fan of either Ireland or South Africa's style. But for silly fun Scotland wasting USA could be a good watch too.
I've put NZ-Eng as a close one, but over the last couple of years NZ have had a habit of bouncing back from a close win, or even defeat to put on a clinic. It happened against Argentina & Australia, but England are made of sterner stuff.
With a SH (and very good) referee in Nic Berry i'm hoping for a less stop-start match and a cleaner breakdown/offside line so it could be a pretty exciting match as England's backs are pretty good and Mitchell / Smith work very well off quick ball.
Just checking through the results and my average picking winners was bad this weekend. I'll hide the rest behind spoilers, but I think you could have flipped a coin & done as well as I did. But lets say 1 point for picking the winner & 2 for getting pretty close to the margin, I only got 7/20.
Mentions match results
Looks like I missed a couple of matches too:
I'm going to go with the South American teams in both matches given they're at home and I have a good competition to build experience and combinations now. Lets say Chile by 12, and going on Sco-HK in the U20s, Paraguay by 30.
Beauden Barrett making a huge difference to the ABs two weeks in a row. Perofeta has been good, but BB just brings so much control. I think he's earnt a start, possibly at 10 with DMac on the pine or shifting to 15.
In this series I think the ABs have been out coached, and for most of the match minutes outplayed. Razor's team showing all of their inexperience and not giving much confidence ahead of touring South Africa and the big games up north at the end of the year.
England have been growing, and second halves have both been won by ABs, so don't discount SA yet. BB was amazing off the bench too, such energy
Oh im not discounting SA, on the evidence of these two games I'm expecting them to sweep Razor's ABs this year. But, it's still early days and he hasn't had a lot of time with this team yet.
Did you catch the moment where a ruck had formed and one of the English players was doing the usual grab a leg to hold a player in, but it was Nic Berry! :)
Like a light switch. England had all the momentum at that point. Also props to Cortez what a time to come in on debut. Did the job.
Yeah he looked pretty composed and his service from the ruck was very Aaron Smith like.
I was hoping Scotland would pump the USA to get revenge for 2018 but 42-7 is a good result. Stayed up to watch it but was drinking with friends at the same time so not very clear on the specifics of the game.
I read that it was pretty hot, and if the Fiji Drua games in Lautoka have taught us anything its that heat & humidity are just as much a leveller as cold & wet!