Tier 2 June Internationals

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Why is it that teams like Fiji are never able to put out full strength sides. None of Tuisova, Botia or Yato included and as far as I'm aware none are injured. Surely they'd be selected if available?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I know a few top drawer Fijian players are with the 7s side

 

[Welshdragon2000]

I believe Tuisova is with the 7s but I know what you mean, their team is almost always missing a couple of their stars for some reason.
Best wingers in the world for me are Nadolo and Tuisova and we probably won't see them fielded together much if at all before the world cup.

 

[Toko_11]

Fiji vs Georgia is going to be brutal. Since we don't have a fly half yet, all we can do is batter them and play good defense as usual. Fijians like to get creative but that's a double edged sword, if they make mistakes in their own half, Lelos could force scrums and get free kicks. Unfortunately we're missing Sharikadze who is our best back and a captain of the team.


All in all this game could go either way. Whichever side makes less mistakes will win.

 

[Brigantine]

[Moved to the Japan vs Italy match thread]

 

[Welshdragon2000]

Kenya may withdraw from the Gold Cup due to a lack of government funding support. Leaves the door wide open for Zimbabwe and Uganda for the repechage

 

[Welshdragon2000]

Fiji 37-15 Georgia
Tonga 28-18 Samoa
Japan 22-25 Italy
Germany 16-13 Portugal
Results so far. Great win for Germany but Samoa should have no problems against them next week. Disappointing for Georgia as they were up 15-10 at the break and then just fell apart. Fiji are really playing well right now though, becoming a proper tier 1 nation now.

 

[Leinster Fan]

Great to see Italy getting a win. They deserve it given how they've been playing.

 

[Brigantine]

I got Germany right, but Canada got destroyed. They'll now be below Hong Kong in the rankings.

Zimbabwe vs Morocco is a draw!

 

[Welshdragon2000]

Canada got destroyed.

Do you think Canada have gone backwards or have they just stagnated and other teams around them have improved?

 

[Welshdragon2000]

So to round things off this weekend:
USA 30-29 Scotland
Canada 20-43 Russia

Joe Taufete'e is a an absolute monster, I believe he has 12 tries in 16 test games for the USA now which is remarkable especially for a forward. McGinty is looking good after having a spell in England with Sale. Germishuys is just brilliant, he's been outstanding in the MLR this season and looks excellent for the eagles. Dolan at 8 has impressed me also, wondered if he would be caught out in this game against better opposition but he stepped up well. Have to hope that the 7s World Cup in San Francisco is good for the USA so that the game is helped out even more across the Atlantic.

 

[amz]

I watched both games of Canada and USA and I was surprised negatively by Canucks.

Canada hosted a test which was a good preparation for Repechage basically in a cornfield. I get that RC wants to spread rugby in all areas but surely they could have done better than that. It was disrespectful for own players and for opposition too to play in such conditions. Many players were rested and I feel that it was a bad repetition for November and also disrespectful for own team to not give them the occasion to get together before a big tournament which will decide RWC participation. I've seen moments of Canada which reminded me of social rugby level...I really hope somebody else grab the chance at Repechage and go to RWC, Canada is consistently butchering tests and occasions and really I don't think they deserve to go further. Germany is not much under Russia as playing level so I expect to give them a good run for their money. Congrats to Russia for playing the best they could considering their missing players.

USA performance was huge but granted Scots handed them the occasion by playing a very young side. There are few good players in US ranks but I maintain my opinion, eagles are far of beating likes of France, England, even in their best day.

 

[Brigantine]

For 2018-06-23 - Quite a few competitive games!

Test Matches:
Fiji (9) vs Tonga (14) - Fiji favoured 98%-2%
Japan (11) vs Georgia (12) - Japan favoured 65%-35%
Canada (22) vs USA (15) - USA favoured 91%-9%

African RWC qualifying:
Namibia (23) vs Tunisia (42) - Namibia 100%
Morocco (38) vs Kenya (28) - Kenya favoured 68%-32%

Asia:
Philippines (58) vs Singapore (56) - Philippines favoured 61%-39% (and then a re-match 3 days later)

North America:
Cayman Islands (52) vs Trinidad & Tobago (51) - Caymans favoured 64%-36%
If T&T win this game, they win the Championship (they beat USA South), and then have a promotion/relegation match? with Guyana (47)? from this tournament I'd never heard of before.

 

[Welshdragon2000]

Fiji, Japan, USA, Namibia, Kenya and Singapore all to win. I believe the Trinidad & Tobago game is off as T&T have pulled out of the tournament. Cayman are playing Bermuda instead in a a decider to see who qualifies to play against the winner of Guyana and Mexico next year.

 

[Brigantine]

Are you sure it's the winner of Guyana/Mexico? Wouldn't it be the loser? Or do you mean the RANC final is with the winner, and there is no play-off match for promotion/relegation? Where's your info from?

I'm not so sure about Japan. We lost to Italy and I'm worried about Georgia. Though I agree Singapore is a better bet, despite the rankings.

Japan: (changes to 23 with asterix* non-Sunwolves in bold)

1. Inagaki
2. Horie
3. Koo
4. Anise (Canon Eagles)
5. Makabe*
   
6. (C) Leitch*
7. Nunomaki*
   
8. Mafi (Rebels)
9. Nagare
10. Tamura
11. Yamada*
    
12. Tatekawa
13. Lafaele
14. Lemeki
15. Noguchi*
    • Reserves:
16. Niwai
17. Ishihara
18. Asahara
19. Van der Walt
    
20. Himeno
21. Nishikawa*
22. Tanaka
    
23. Matsuda (Panasonic Wild Knights)

Sunwolves hooker Jaba Bregvadze is also starting for Georgia, so there will be 21 Sunwolves playing.

 

[Welshdragon2000]

do you mean the RANC final is with the winner, and there is no play-off match for promotion/relegation? Where's your info from?

I read this on another forum. I'm pretty sure it's the winner as Mexico and Guyana are ranked higher than the other sides I think.

Georgia's scrum has been so disappointing lately and that will certainly play into Japan's hands. 3 tries against Fiji came directly from the the scrum so Georgia have problems there after this new forwards coach came in. Japan then have the backs to run them off the park so I can't see anything but a Japan win personally

 

[Brigantine]

It looks like the betting markets agree with you. Japan is only paying $1.30.

 

[Brigantine]

Test Matches:
Fiji (9) vs Tonga (14) - Fiji favoured 98%-2% - Tonga win! 19-27, taking the lead after Fiji get yellow carded. 1.96 RP
Japan (11) vs Georgia (12) - Japan favoured 65%-35% - Decent margin, 28-0 to Japan. 1.05 RP
Canada (22) vs USA (15) - USA favoured 91%-9% - USA win 17-42. 0.27 RP

African RWC qualifying:
Namibia (23) vs Tunisia (42) - Namibia 100% - Cricket score! 118-0 to Namibia. No RP.
Morocco (38) vs Kenya (28) - Kenya favoured 68%-32% - A close one. 24-28 to Kenya. 0.65 RP

Namibia and Kenya are becoming more and more established favourites.

Next weekend: Samoa vs Germany!
(and Cook Islands vs Hong Kong, Kenya vs Zimbabwe, and Morocco vs Namibia - all RWC qualifiers)

 

[Welshdragon2000]

Great result for Tonga, they've done very well over the past few years and I thought they were very unfortunate to lose against Georgia a couple of weeks back.

Japan have done well to hammer Georgia, that's no mean feat but Georgia have been very disappointing this June and there needs to be serious changes in November. I would bring in Aprasidze and Abzhandadze at 9 and 10 and sort out the wingers. The forwards coach needs to go to and if the poor results continue in November then Haig's position may be under threat. All being said, the Japan game came after the PI tour which would have tired the players and the only reason the margin of defeat to Fiji was so big is as a result of 3 tries being scored directly off a scrum going backwards (which is a disgrace for Georgia given the talent in their forwards).

USA continuing good form with a professional win over Canada. It's looking very positive for them going into November especially given they will be playing 4 very challenging tests which will benefit them going into the World Cup. My only worry is the lack of depth outside the squad of 23, hopefully the MLR can help build some depth.

Namibia apparently played excellent (obviously) but Tunisia only had 5 subs and I'm not sure if they had 2 props but the scrums were not uncontested despite that.

Kenya looked pretty poor against Morocco who deserved to win and their goal kicker left too many points out there that would have won them the game. Kenya's union is in complete turmoil right now and they have serious issues there which would affect players' morale and the performances as a result.

I'll post my thoughts on the upcoming games later on in the week.

 

[Welshdragon2000]

So as previously stated the games for this weekend are:
Samoa vs Germany (World Cup play-off)
Cook Islands vs Hong Kong (repechage qualifier)
Kenya vs Zimbabwe
Morocco vs Namibia

I really hope Germany can pull off the shock result but I see it as highly unlikely. The Samoan PM was making very arrogant statements which will hopefully fire up the Germans to pull off a big performance. It seems Samoa think they have won this game before it has even started which could hurt them. I predict Samoa by 20.

The Cook Islands seems to have a decent pack with a few French based players named in their team. There are only 6 players remaining from the game against Tahiti a year ago. I originally thought HK by 50 but I will tone that down to HK by 25.

Kenya-Zimbabwe is very difficult to predict. I look forward to watching this one and I am predicting Zimbabwe to win by 3 but that could easily swing the other way if Kenya turn up.

Morocco-Namibia should have Namibia as winners but this game will give us an indication of how strong Namibia's challengers are.

On the topic of African rugby, I read a very interesting article stating that Algeria may well be a force in Africa for the 2023 WC. Apparently there are lots of players in France of Algerian descent and Algeria could therefore field a strong team IF they are able to persuade these players to choose to play for them. You can read the article for yourself here: http://tier2rugby.blogspot.com/2018/06/could-algeria-become-future-challenger.html