Final score: Wales 19 v 24 Fiji.

Wales' losing streak extends to 10 games in a row.

With Scotland facing South Africa to come....

We could reasonably have expected England and Wales to win their games. Ireland for me, NZ were less rusty, so was going to be difficult.

Not a good showing so far. C'mon Scotland ;-)

Match Thread - Scotland v South Africa | End of Year Internationals 2024

Venue: Murrayfield, Edinburgh | Weather: 11 C, Clouds

Officials: Christophe Ridley, Luke Pearce, Craig Evans, Ian Tempest (tmo)

Match Page: https://www.rugbybot.com/match/4722

Match Threads: https://www.rugbybot.com/mt

Time

Lineups

RugbyBot

RugbyBot was made by /u/paimoe. PM or post in /r/RugbyBot for assistance.

I don’t fully understand some warnings refs give. Maybe we need less chatter from refs?

Here are a few.

• Coaching teams by shouting “taken back” or “in front of kicker” to let a team avoid a penalty. Surely it’s up to the team to know if it’s taken back by them or if they were in front of the kicker and they should be penalized accordingly if they infringe?

• Tackle! Pet peeve of mine is when a ref shouts “tackle” and we get 3 seconds for a player to look at him, wait a beat and then let go of the player, which has often given the tacklers team mates time enough to get ready for the steal. I’ve seen it happen quite a lot. Surely the tackler needs to immediately release rather than get a warning from the ref, wait a beat and then release him into a good position for team team mates to poach the ball?

• Related to the above but at the ruck. “No hands!” Followed by a player holding onto the ball for 2 seconds, giving the ref a puzzled look and then finally releasing having already slowed the attacking team’s ball.

• This is just a bit of a dumb one but “Stay up” at the scrum. Just feels like something we don’t need to hear shouted at every scrum. I’m pretty sure the scrum knows it needs to stay up.

Couple of times in this Wales Fiji game, players have been sanctioned for head contact, yet the hit players have not gone for HIA? Often we will also see players go for HIA, with no one sanctioned.

If a player goes for a HIA, there must have been a high degree of danger, therefore there should be a sanction?

Am I the only person who thinks the Dr's and the refs need to be more aligned?

Match Thread - Wales v Fiji | End of Year Internationals 2024

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff | Weather: 13 C, Clouds

Officials: Luc Ramos, Pierre Brousset, Hollie Davidson, Eric Gauzins (tmo)

Match Page: https://www.rugbybot.com/match/4721

Match Threads: https://www.rugbybot.com/mt

Time

Lineups

RugbyBot

RugbyBot was made by /u/paimoe. PM or post in /r/RugbyBot for assistance.

Match Thread - Georgia v All Blacks XV | Tour Match 2024

Venue: GGL Stadium, Montpellier | Weather: 20 C, Clouds

Officials: Jordan Way, Jeremy Rozier, Aimee Barrett-Theron, Brian MacNeice (tmo)

Match Page: https://www.rugbybot.com/match/4720

Match Threads: https://www.rugbybot.com/mt

Time

Lineups

RugbyBot

RugbyBot was made by /u/paimoe. PM or post in /r/RugbyBot for assistance.

Can Scotland compete against the SA starting 15? Absolutely. Man for man we match up fairly well (albeit SA still have the edge). With home advantage I can see us ahead at half time and playing some smooth rugby getting the ball wide to Duhi and Kinghorn and scoring on the outside.

However, SA will dominate the last quarter and dominate it fairly simply with huge physicality up front. It will be too much pressure to handle and we'll concede points from the boot and leak tries close to our line.

Unfortunately the only way I can see a Scotland win is if we are 20+ points up before 50/55mins. But even then....

Wallabies win was great to see, but there is one what if that I'm curious what people would think.

Smith? Tried to intercept Jorgensen's try down the sideline. With the position he was in, at best he would have got a hand to the ball to knock it down. My question is: what do people think would be the result if he did get a hand to the ball? Yellow card? Penalty try? Send off?

I would think at least a yellow card, but can't determine anything from there.

So this is probably just me being completely out of the loop, but I had no idea what the TV situation was for the Autumn Internationals this year in the UK.

Okay, so nothing on the BBC, not even a Wales or Scotland game maybe? Okay fine, whatever. They'll be on Sky Sports then, like the summer series games. Nope, nothing there either. Amazon Prime? Nope, nothing there either.

Except an advert to go and pay £31 for TNT Sports to watch it, via Amazon Prime, a premium service I already pay for monthly, instead of Sky Sports, a premium service...you get the idea.

I guess I'm just depressed and frustrated at how splintered and stupidly expensive it all seems. Having to pay more and more money every month just to watch sport is depressing enough, especially when many people are struggling just to afford to live right now. But splitting it up across multiple packages is just unnessecerily complicated and extortionate. I know this isn't anything new, but it just feels like a fresh slap in the face - especially given how yesterday's England game was by all accounts an all-time classic, and yet despite having multiple premium subscription services already, I've still been paywalled out of watching any rugby this autumn. And as much as you love watching a sport, its amazing how quickly you can find other things to do on your weekends.

No wonder there's been so many mutterings about the Six Nations leaving FTA telly at some point - that'd probably be it for me as a rugby fan. And then inevitably some thinkpieces will come out wondering why viewing figures for rugby have tanked so much, or why illegal streaming and piracy is on the rise. Gee, I wonder...🤔

And before anyone counters with 'it's actually good value if you like XYZ sports' - I'm talking purely rugby here. Unless you're a diehard football fan watching games every single weekend and multiple in midweek, most premium packages aren't worth it on their own for one sport. Outside of rugby, I only really watch F1 on Sky, and maybe a bit of NFL. And especially if its just F1, that is not value for money whatsoever. Now with rugby on TNT it might be different now, and maybe if you get URC/Premiership/Champs Cup/Top 14 AND a lot of internationals on there, all in one place, then fine it makes more sense.

TL;DR: Grumpy man grumbles about not just sport behind a paywall, but multiple different paywalls to the point that he doesn't know which kind of paywall its behind anymore. Before grumbling some more and heading off to sail the high seas. Or sit in my armchair and listen to games on this new-fangled radiogram thingy 🤣

How has Italy been a part of the 6 Nations tournament since 2000 and have improved so little in over 24 years? A quick google-fu says they’ve finished last 18 times since joining, 18!

Any chance anyone has an extra ticket floating around for the game later today?

It’s actually great to see our Antipodean cousins back with a cocky spring in their step. World Rugby and Union in Aus needs a strong exciting Wallabies team.

Why did the English not have a singer for Australia or NZ anthems? Despite having one for theirs. Why did the Irish cut of the second verse of NZ anthem?

Keen to know if there is a context, becuase at face value seems disrespectful. Am I missing something? I was sure that full anthems and providing singers was the norm

Livestreams

https://youtube.com/@rugbyafrique?si=WCE2pjGY2E-fQrNE

https://rugbypass.tv/live/274191

https://www.facebook.com/share/1F7v1iEaP6/

How badly did Rugby Australia get fucked in this deal? Seems absurd that NZ get to play at a time suitable for their fan base but the Wallabies are playing all their games in the middle of the night for Aussie fans.