Greetings from sunny Sydney, my final stop on this trip before heading home for the weekend. I watched the England v Australia match at 2am here, and they kept muting the ‘analyst comments’ from Sir Clive and Will Greenwood, which I found quite amusing – it may have been a technical issue, but I’m assuming they are still bitter.
Also, apologies for not doing these international predictions last week – I just forgot in the timezone confusion.
Italy v South Africa
The Springboks needed that win over France, and it should give them some more confidence to exact revenge on the Azzurri, who were well-beaten by the Pumas last weekend. South Africa by 13.
Scotland v Australia
The Scots have a few injuries, but so do the Wallabies. Come on Scotland, make it two in a row over Australia. Scotland by 2.
England v Samoa
Admittedly I’m not in the country, but this has a totally different feel to last week’s build up, with the air of an experimental charity exhibition rather than a full-throttled Test match. Yes, England need to be careful, but they really should win this very comfortably. England by 33.
Wales v New Zealand
I have a hunch that the All Blacks are going to finish their year with a blitzing performance to silence any doubters. New Zealand by 26.
Ireland v Argentina
Presumably the Irish cast will be changed once again, which may stunt their fluidity, but they should win this. Ireland by 9.
France v Japan
The French have lost all three matches in November so far, but you expect that they’ll have far too much for the next Rugby World Cup hosts. France by 23.
Follow Hutch on Twitter: @Hutch_James
I agree with all but one. My head says Wales will get demolished by New Zealand but I’ve got this niggling gut feeling they are going to do better than expected. I’m going to go for Wales by 1.
I would genuinely love to see that.
But I can’t see there being that many injuries in the first 20 minutes.
NZ by 15
There is more chance of EJ picking Danny Cipriani Ten Ton, and after their cynical exploitation of the scrum to save their bacon last week I sincerely hope Wales get a major stuffing.
WOW. I really, really hope you are right as I have tickets.
I agree with all of your predictions and hope Scotland can do it!
If the Scots play like they did last week, they can definitely win. Maitland on the wing is an improvement and hopefully Hamish Watson can stay on the pitch for a full game – he was very influential in his short time on the pitch vs NZ
Wales are in team in flux at the moment and have a few key players injured. They would need their best team on the pitch to come close to the ABs, so I think they are probably on for hammering, as much as I’d like it to be close.
Still, even if NZ do win comfortably over a weak Wales, I don’t think that in any way silences the doubts that the Lions, Aus and Scotland have raised over whether this Kiwi team is in the same league as its predecessors
Once again, same winners, but had the NZ game much closer, and have gone for a smaller margin for a France win. But it’s France – anything could happen!
In regards to, “it being France anything could happpen”. Unfortunately I think they have been consistently poor long enough now to loose that aura. Shame one of rugby’s great heavy weights a shadow of there former selves .
When I said anything could happen, still didn’t expect the draw!