Italy vs Fiji 15:00
England vs South Africa 14:30
Scotland vs Samoa 14:30
Wales vs New Zealand 17:15
France vs Australia 20:45
Sunday , November 28
Ireland vs Argentina 14:30
Coach Watch
The autumn internationals are drawing to a close this weekend, with the final match set to define the season for more than one coach. Here’s a quick look at some of those in the hot seat.
Pieter De Villiers
The unpredictable South African needs his aging, tired troops to get their A into G one last time against a formidable English side. Their last decent performance was against France, and that was in June. Could make for an entertaining after match interview
Warren Gatland
No wins so far this Autumn – it’s the captain’s fault! Sack him! All he has to do is work out how to how to beat his countrymen, the mighty All Blacks. Do you think the WRU has checked the buy-out clause in his new contract yet?
Martin Johnson
One win over the Aussies at home, and England and Martin are the best thing since sliced bread. Cracks even appeared in his face after that match, in what some commentators described as a smile. A win over the Springboks and he’ll rightly be on top of the world.
Declan Kidney
It’s not often that Declan finds himself in such a difficult position with a recent string of losses only broken by a patchy win over Samoa. Argentina are a final massive stumbling block to circumvent to put a bit of a gloss on a tough season. And he has to give the whole country something to smile about in the midst of an economic melt down.
Robbie Deans
A win over the All Blacks and he was hailed as the new messiah. But after a good thrashing by England and a freezing defeat to Munster his disciples have deserted him. Now he has to motivate his boys to get their S%&t together and find a way of beating the French. Not going to be easy.
Graham Henry
You smug bastard! One solitary loss to the Aussie is the only blemish on his record this season. Wales should succumb to Black magic. But if you don’t have the Webb Ellis trophy in your cabinet this time next year, no one will remember.
Ireland vs Argentina 14:30 Sunday
Oh boy this is a tricky one! If Ireland play like they did against the All Blacks, they’ll win easily. If they play like they did against the Boks and Samoa they could easily lose as well. They also have injuries to Carney, Fitzgerald and Best out. To me, the performance against New Zealand was a corner turned, combinations clicked and players like Cronin and Earls came on and delivered as well as the players they replaced. Irrrrrrelaaaaand by 5!
England vs South Africa 14:30
This is the new boys on the block England flexing their muscles against the Springbok old boys who have made it a habit in recent years of kicking English butt. The best bit of this clash is that through a convoluted set of circumstances I’m going to catch it live at Twickenham! The last time I was there the Boks hockeyed England 42-6. Sweet! It’s not entirely impossible I’ll be laughing on the other side of my face this time. In fact, it’s highly likely. England are a seriously mean looking team at the moment, while the Sprinboks, in short, aren’t. I just hope the English fans are as gracious in victory as I was two years ago. England by 10.
Wales vs New Zealand 17:15
On recent form the All Blacks have this one in the bag. I don’t like the way Gatland sacked his captian in the dressing room after the last match. Wales are underperforming at the moment, but it’s the coaches job to find the right motivations and combinations to unlock the potential that Wales have in spades. Wales hope might lie in the obvious belief by the All Blacks have they have that this one is Grand Slam thank you ma’am in the cabinet already. Like they’ve had the World Cup trophy in the cabinet for oh, the last 4 or five World Cups. Not much hope of a trip up though so New Zealand by 15.
Kevin Mealamu returns after a risible 2 week head butt ban – if nothing else he should have got more for not following the accepted etiquette of head butting as used by noted enthusiasts like Bakkies Botha of pumping your fist in the air and shouting yesss! afterwards.
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