It is here. Long talked about, semi-enthusiastically embraced, and definitely not a cash grab. The not world cup is here in non-lions, non-world-cup years for the first time with the winner getting not even a trophy! A replacement for the summer and autumn tests (as the NH call things), and formalising what teams were already doing, now with a finals weekend in London. I do fancy heading down myself, I like the idea of a weekend of north vs south in Twickenham.
So lots of matches to kick things off, a long day of rugby if you want! And they honestly all looking a cracking fixture. Will an ascendant Italy take on Jones' Japan? Will Wales scrape a win vs underfunded Fiji? Will stuttering Ireland bash the underperforming Wallabies? NZ vs France. South Africa wanting to smash the English. And Argentina wanting to cement their smash and grab from last year against Scotland
That's 14 hours of rugby, and all should be top quality. As always, predictions before, reactions during, and analysis after all very welcome, and shit-posts and pitch shots very much saught
Happy international rugby eve!
HT in NZ and what a half so far. I can't call a winner here, such attacking shapes we have!
I'm gonna predict:
Italy by 10
Ireland by 8
Fiji by 6
SA by 14
Scotland by 4
In the pub for the last match, how many minutes of rugby can I watch today?
(end your newline with a backslash to see it, two new lines is a new paragraph)
Well, it's been a better day so far for the home nations, Fiji just seemed to run out of steam. Not sure about this England line up...
Yeah, England have a soft underbelly that was exposed in the 6n. Rassie will take no prisoners
What a shambles, time for Bothwick to go.
Shambles, yes, but I'm not sure another coach is the answer for England. SA are another class
Maybe, but he keeps playing left field teams instead of focusing on form. I'm not saying England would have won, just that they could have been on a note even keel.
Thinking your 14 point clear from SA might be conservative...
What a game.
3 minutes to go, and I don't write off France!
Fantastic finish, little disappointed with the all blacks defense at times but France on form like that would test anyone. Few to many handling errors for my liking but great to see them play with that fluidity again. Need to go calm down now!
France tear apart all teams with their unstructured form, they are wonderful to watch. And Japan currently leading Italy by 7, so another cracker in the making there
Yeah switched right over, love seeing both Japan and Italy play, they've both come so far in recent years, Japan doing well!