Ireland's front row have chiropractor appointments for after the Georgia match!

Marmion (picture http://bit.ly/111ECPa)

After the heroics of last weekend, Ireland have to attend to Georgia next. They famously nearly beat us a few world Cups ago, so you wouldn’t want to write them off totally. Fortunately for us, Gorgodze is not playing, but they’ll know a fair amount about us from Michael Bradley, who’s part of the Georgian coaching set up. And Georgian head coach Milton Haig is a Kiwi who Joe Schmidt replaced at Bay of Plenty in New Zealand! How big is this gene pool? I’d expect there’ll be a fair amount of changes, keeping a few of the big guns fresh for Australia, and also giving the squad some game time. Popular wisdom is that Marmion and Madiagn will start at half backs, and the front row will be new (and should have appointments with the chiropractor for Monday morning!). Let’s hope we get some dry weather, and that the crowd will be treated to some running rugby. I think Our Joe will have all the plans in place for a good victory over Georgia. Good news for us with Kearney and Bowe both signing up for 3 more years!

Things are a bit better spread out this weekend. My plan for Saturday is England V South Africa first. The Boks have replaced Hougaard, who’s only a part time scrum half for the Bulls, and Pollard, who played in the U20 World Cup this year. In come the Sharks pair of Lambie and Reinhard. If the Boks play to their potential, this will be theirs, but it’s too close to call.

Then I’ll move onto Scotland v the All Blacks. The Scots are unchanged, the All Blacks have only two from last weeks starting 15. So this should be close as well, you’d be brave to bet against New Zealand, but c’mon Scotland!

Finally, I’ll power through the pain barrier of remaining seated for 8 hours in front of the telly,  and catch France Australia. France are unchanged – that sentence hasn’t been written for about 10 years! and Australia are going to be sternly tested.  But I think Australia will come through, then French agents will descend on Australia like locusts!

International Match
Saturday , November 15
Italy vs Argentina    14:00
Wales vs Fiji    14:30
England vs South Africa    14:30
Scotland vs New Zealand    17:30
France vs Australia    20:00
Sunday , November 16
Ireland vs Georgia    14:30