International Rugby

[cdbearsfan]

World Cup draw looks fairly dull, tbh. I like expanding tournaments but it does perhaps make the group stage more boring.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c898pvndy7go

[UK Redsox]

England avoid France, NZ & SA until the final....if it all goes as seeded.

A bloke from my town, Jack Bartlett, will probably be in the Hong Kong squad.

He made his international debut in HK's recent defeat to Portugal

https://www.hkrugby.com/news/details/portugal-men-58-12-hong-kong-china-xvs-match-report

[Brazilian Villain]

Ireland to play Scotland for a change. Good draw for Ireland and England, and a decent chance for one of them to make the final.

[PaulWinch again]

Those groups are duds - which isn’t a surprise, but still when you see them.

[paul_e]

Pool E looks decent but the rest should go to form you'd expect. Always the same if you expand the number of teams but that doesn't stop it being the right thing to do.

[CorkVilla]

Ireland to play Scotland for a change. Good draw for Ireland and England, and a decent chance for one of them to make the final.

Cocky Irish rugby fans as usual plotting their way to the final or even winning it when we have never made it beyond the quarter final in history. It will be funny to see them lose to Argentina again.

[paul_e]

Update on the Etzebeth story if people haven't seen it. The heading was yesterday but they've delayed the decision until Sunday because the 3man panel couldn't agree on where to place the starting point for the ban. There's not many details but the debate is around whether it was reckless or intentional. The upper limit for a ban is 4 years as above but if it was judged intentional the minimum (before any mitigation) is 12 weeks and 6-12months would be the most likely. However because there's some disagreement I'm expecting it to be near the bottom end of that and for him to get a little leniency on top so 8-12 weeks, which would mean him getting off very lightly.