PREDICTIONS FOR 3RD NOV

My predictions for today's games are:

England v South Africa
SA by 10 pts

Wales v Scotland
Wales by 5 pts

Ireland v Italy
Italy by 5 pts

And a second string AB's have just put 69 pts on Japan...

Game on!

TIMES & S.TIMES AUTUMN INT DEBATE LONDON

2018 Autumn Internationals Preview - 1st November 2018
Honourable Artillery Company EC1Y

On stage were Stephen Jones, Stuart Barnes (with a glass of red), Lol Dallaglio and (Big) Jim Hamilton. Not one of them thought England will win tomorrow - enough said. When asked who would they have in England matchday squad, nominations ranged from Cips, Don Armand, Dave Attwood and Elliot Stooke to those injured plus many Wasps players (Lol obviously). And Stuart Barnes said Scotland will not win the World Cup but they could win the Six Nations LOL

Barnesy we love you!

ENGLAND S.AFRICA MATCHDAY SQUAD REVEALED

Farrell at 10, Te'o at 12, Daly at 15, Hartley at hooker, Kruis in second row, Shields at blindside and Wilson at 8. The three quarters look decent, especially with Manu Tuilagi on bench but will need quick ball. Can England's pack physically compete up front with their South African counterparts? The England back row looks light and inexperienced with Curry, Shields and Wilson up against Kolisi, du Toit and (probably) Vermeulen, plus Itoje and Kruis will also have their work cut out against Etzebeth and de Jaeger. England have recalled Hartley to combat Malcolm Marx at hooker, and support two inexperienced international props in Hepburn and Sinckler.

Mark Wilson starts at no.8 versus South Africa

Out wide, it looks like England may have the edge, with Daly, May and Nowell forming an experenced proven try scoring trio at the back, plus master distributors and creators of space in Farrell and Slade - only the fitness of Te'o is a concern. South Africa are without Faf de Klerk and Willie Le Roux in key positions, which puts more pressure on Pollard to prove his undoubted potential. Still, if they select Kriel and de Allende in the centres, plus Damian Allense and Dyantyi out wide they will have a good balance of brute force and lightening pace.

England need to win, both, to stop the losing rot setting in, especially before NZ visit next week, and to gain a psychological edge over their Southern Hemisphere rivals ahead of Japan next year.

Aphiwe Dyantyi - 6 tries in 9 games

ENGLAND AUTUMN SQUAD SELECTIONS ANNOUNCED

Is the rest of the world meant to feel sorry for England and Eddie Jones following the squad announcements this week for Autumn internationals? England have more registered adult rugby players than any other country and 12+ professional teams - there is no way they should be struggling for front or back row options just because of injuries. And with the RFU set to make some community coaching staff redundant in a cost cutting exercise, the situation may get worse not better. I guess as an Anglo Scot, being asked to empathise with England's position in rugby is a bit like being asked to shed a tear for Jose and Man Utd.

With the Vunipola brothers, Chris Robshaw, Joe Launchbury, Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson, Sam Simmonds and Dan Robson injured, Nathan Hughes banned and Joe Marler retired, Eddie Jones has been forced to name eight uncapped players in the 36-man England squad, including Joe Cokanasiga and Zach Mercer from Bath. Other new faces include Ben Moon, Nick Schonert, Val Rapava-Ruskin, Ted Hill, Mark Wilson and Michael Rhodes, who is the latest Southern hemisphere schooled player, selected for England along with Brad Shields and Ben Te'o. Winners include Dan Cole, Elliott Stooke,  Chris Ashton and Ben Morgan at the expense of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Dave Attwood, Alex Goode, Don Armand and the unluckiest man in the world, Danny Cipriani. Another leap of faith is that good players like Ashton, Te'o and Manu Tuilagi have not played much (or any) rugby this season, plus Alex Lozowski is banned for two weeks prior to the first game.

Alex Goode - one of the unlucky many

In Robert Kitson's excellent article in The Guardian, he sums up public frustration with Eddie Jones and his selection decisions - "...the English public badly want reassurance that key combinations in crucial areas of the team – front row, back row, half-back, midfield – will be settled before the World Cup in Japan next year. And above all they want to know if England will be reborn next month or are destined to under-perform, relative to their resources, for a third World Cup in a row".

Yes these internationals are a phoney war, as what counts is form in second half of 2019 in Japan, but no major international team wants to be tinkering with partnerships and units less than a year out. And with England's poor form in 2018, the pressure is on England to win at least 2, if not 3 out of the 4 matches in November. Eddie begs to differ and deserves the last word (as ever) - "But what I do know about World Cups, and this will be my fourth, is that the only time you need to be at your best is at the tournament itself. All the leading up to it is sparring. Sometimes the scoreboard doesn’t tell you you’re moving forward.”

Game on!

HEINEKEN ROUND 1 REVIEW

The first weekend of the Champions Cup saw five teams secure that all important away win, and more importantly, five teams lose a game at home. The stand out performance was Newcastle turning over Toulon, a great achievement, but symbolic of the French team's decline. Cardiff at Lyon was almost as impressive, especially with only 40% possession, with Saracens (at Glasgow) and Racing (at Scarlets) also winning away in tight games, thanks to some inconsistent refereeing.

Toulon are being left behind in European rugby

Teams "kicking themselves" include Bath, who lost another tight game against Toulouse, courtesy of Freddie Burns inability to ground the ball, when Maxime Medard knocked the ball out of his (one) hand just as he went to dot down. Many have fallen foul of the decision to head for the posts once over the line to make the conversion easier, even I have been guilty, getting a haematoma in my stomach courtesy of not seeing the fullback in my blind spot, before he hit me hard forcing me to drop the ball - luckily my team won. Edinburgh will also be feeling that "one got away" by butchering a simple late try against Montpelier, but were clearly the better team, evidence of their dramatic improvement under Richard Cockerill. Gloucester and Ulster secured home victories over Castres and Leicester respectively, whilst Exeter and Munster neutralised one another in a 10 - 10 draw. The only mismatch was Leinster's 50 point drubbing of Wasps, ominous for other teams in their group.

Round 2 up this weekend, where those losing teams face must win games if they are to qualify for later stages. Ones to look out for are Wasps v Bath and Edinburgh v Toulon.

MARLER PUTS FAMILY (AND CLUB) AHEAD OF COUNTRY

Well done Joe Marler, having won 59 caps for his country, he has taken the brave decision to retire from England Rugby with immediate effect. This will allow him to spend more time with his young family going forward, especially this year, with World Cup looming, and also prolong his club career at Quins, where he can add to his 170 appearances. It appears he has been thinking about this for sometime, even going to the extremes in the past of getting sanctioned to avoid England duty.

This does not help Eddie Jones' prep for important Autumn Internationals, as whilst Marler has a disciplinary track record, when on the pitch, he has been an asset for his country in the front row, and was in form, having made the Lions Tour last year. This leaves Mako Vunipola as first pick loosehead, but with Ellis Genge injured, there is a gulf in experience as other options, Alec Hepburn and Ben Moon, are talented but raw. How Kieran Brookes doesn't get a shout is beyond me.

It highlights once again the age old club v country problem in the English Premiership, where, without central contracts, like in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, international players are constantly pulled between their employer and England. The inevitable outcome is player fatigue, injury, burn out and early retirements. If Joe Marler, like Sexton, had been allowed time off from his club post international matches, to fully rest and recover, he may have made a different decision.

ROUND ONE: PREM AND PRO14 REVIEW SEP 18

So here we go again for another rugby season, with the added spice of a World Cup in Japan right at the end of it. First up was a tight win for new boys Bristol over Bath in the West Country derby, which was high on entertainment, low on quality, and Bath will need to do better. The stand out player for Bristol was the Aussie, Luke Morahan, who meant the Bears did not miss Charles Piutau as expected. There were also wins for Gloucester, Quins and Wasps, who beat Worcester by a point, in a game that Worcester should have won, and may rue missing their chance, come the end of the season.

Matt O'Connor lasted just one game of new season as Leicester Tigers coach

Exeter thumped Leicester, resulting in the first managerial casualty of the season in Matt O'Connor, although reading into the reasons for his sacking, from dictatorship management style to losing the dressing room, it appears that Leicester's poor pre-season preparation seemed made the match result inevitable. Leicester is a proud club, once a heavyweight of European rugby, but they have no right to remain at the top table on reputation alone, and the players and management need to step up and support the temporary coach, Geordan Murphy, to ensure the club does not miss out on Champions Cup for a consecutive year.

In the Pro 14, the Irish teams were denied a clean sweep by Glasgow, who beat Connacht by one score, thanks to a late Stuart Hogg drop goal. There were also victories for Ospreys and, unusually, both the Italian teams. Benneton and Zebre will be more competitive this year, not sure the South African teams will be, as other clubs appear to have pinched some of their stars, having seen them in action last season. The favourites for play offs remain Leinster, Munster, Glasgow, Scarlets and the improving Ulster, Edinburgh or Ospreys.