Australia wraps up its end-of-year European rugby tour with a test at Scotland, and England and Ireland look to complete a sweep of November wins by beating Samoa at Twickenham and Argentina at Lansdowne Road. Italy plays South Africa in hope that lightning can strike twice, and France will try to save coach Guy Noves’ job at Japan’s expense.
Here’s a look at Saturday’s games:
SCOTLAND vs. AUSTRALIA, Edinburgh (Australia leads 21-10, in Scotland 11-7)
Scotland has been all aflutter this week about a blown chance.
That was against New Zealand last Saturday when the Scots came within 10 meters of at least tying the All Blacks in injury time.
When you don’t know what beating New Zealand feels like, the tendency is to grasp at anything positive, and the Scots believe that was one test that got away.
The Scots dominated long periods, kept cool heads, and attacked New Zealand to the very end. But for all their ability, plus the entire last quarter with a man advantage, they didn’t have the wherewithal to deliver the coup de grace.
That’s not a problem with the next visitors, the Wallabies.
History says the Scots have it in them to win, that there’s nothing to fear about the Wallabies. The last six games between them have been won by six points or less, and split evenly. Scotland has won the last two visits to Australia, including in June in Sydney, and Australia has won its last two appearances at Murrayfield.
“We know Australia better than New Zealand,” Scotland coach Gregor Townsend says. “We’ve got to be better.”
To that end, the Scots have been reinforced by the return to fitness of lock Grant Gilchrist, No. 8 Ryan Wilson, and wing Sean Maitland.
New Zealand paid Scotland’s revival a compliment by choosing its best available combination. Australia has done the same. The Wallabies made one injury-enforced change to start blindside flanker Ben McCalman, and chose former captain Stephen Moore to start his 129th and last test before retiring.
Assistant coach Mick Byrne denied Moore was a token pick, saying he “has been itching to get on the field.”
Proving how much of an itch Scotland cause Australia, in Moore’s career his three losses to the Scots are eclipsed only by defeats to New Zealand, South Africa and England.
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ENGLAND vs SAMOA, London (England leads 7-0, in England 4-0)
Chris Robshaw is back as the captain of England. Wearing the No. 7 jersey, too.
Who’d have seen that coming two years ago?
Robshaw’s international career looked in ruins when Eddie Jones was hired as coach after the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
In a newspaper article during the tournament, Jones said Robshaw - then England’s captain - shouldn’t be playing at openside flanker for the team because “he’s a six-and-a-half at best” and “he’s not hard over the ball and he’s not quick.”
“Robshaw is an outstanding club player but at international level he just doesn’t have that point of difference,” Jones wrote, adding, somewhat damningly: “He’s a good workmanlike player.”
Robshaw was stripped of the captaincy, knuckled down, and managed to keep his place in the team, on the blindside flank instead. Match by match, he has won over Jones over the past two years.
Jones performed a huge U-turn on Thursday when, in resting captain Dylan Hartley, he named Robshsaw as one of two co-captains along with flyhalf George Ford for the test against Samoa at Twickenham. Even more surprising, given his past comments, Robshaw was selected as No. 7.
“Circumstances change,” Jones said. “Robbo has been great for us. He’s a selfless player, works hard. We’ve had injuries to (Tom) Curry and (Sam) Underhill. It’s an opportunity to show he can be third-choice 7; at the moment he’s first-choice 6.”
Hartley is not starting for the first time under Jones. Instead, long-time backup Jamie George is at hooker for his first start for England.
England is looking to complete a November clean sweep after beating Argentina 21-8 and Australia by a record 30-6.
Once again, Samoa’s buildup to a test has been overshadowed by questions about its rugby union’s perilous financial state.
England’s RFU is giving Samoa 75,000 pounds (nearly $100,000) as a goodwill gesture, but England’s players have chosen not to donate some of their match fee to their Samoan counterparts for ethical reasons.
Samoa has already lost to Scotland 44-38 this month.
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ITALY vs SOUTH AFRICA, Padova (South Africa leads 12-1, in Italy 5-1)
Italy flanker Abraham Steyn says he won’t have split loyalties when he lines up against his birth country South Africa.
Steyn was born in Cradock, Eastern Cape Province, and won the Under-20 World Cup with South Africa in 2012 before moving to Italy that same year.
After becoming eligible for Italy through residency, Steyn made his debut against England in the 2016 Six Nations. He has 16 caps.
“I feel more Italian than South African,” Steyn says. “I am very proud to wear the Azzurri shirt and be part of this team rather than the South African one.”
The 25-year-old Steyn, who plays for Benetton Treviso, is looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.
“I know them well,” he says. “Most of the players played with me at school, different levels of youth team rugby in South Africa, so we are friends.”
He played the last 20 minutes of Italy’s famed first win over South Africa last year in Florence. He’s won only one more test since then.
Italy has lost 10 of its 11 matches since beating the Springboks, and slipped to 13th in the rankings, below Georgia.
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IRELAND vs. ARGENTINA, Dublin (Ireland leads 10-6, in Ireland 7-0)
Ireland represents the Pumas’ last chance to put a little shine on a poor year.
Argentina has won only twice in 11 tests, against Georgia in June and Italy last weekend. The Rugby Championship was a chastening experience, losing all six tests, all by 17 points or more. Plus, there were three losses to England.
But coach Daniel Hourcade was happy to consider the big picture - the 2019 Rugby World Cup - and believe his Pumas were doing OK.
“Sometimes that progress didn’t appear so frequently because of the quality of the rivals who you are playing against,” he said in Dublin on the eve of playing Ireland. “We are midway now (in the four-year cycle) and we have a long way to go until the World Cup.”
Hourcade cites the logistical difficulties Argentina faces playing in the southern hemisphere, and having just one professional team in Super Rugby, the Jaguares.
“Last season we travelled 186,000 kilometers, so four times around the world,” Hourcade said. “We’re used to that, and it is our reality. We want the competition, to play week-by-week.
“We have only just started (in Super Rugby), two seasons, and we only have 34 professional players. Our problem is not the amount of players we have, it’s the competition we have. We only have one tournament with one team, so few players can develop at the top level. We would be better to be in the northern hemisphere, but we are not allowed to be there.”
The other struggle has been executing a game plan. The Pumas have adapted their previously forward-based power game to an allround attack, on the go against the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks, plus in a Super Rugby tournament that favors open play. They are still learning.
“We used to play with the forwards, now that’s not enough to win a game,” Hourcade said.
When they last met Ireland, in the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarterfinals, the Pumas were primed from their annual experiences with the southern hemisphere’s big guns. Add in injuries which depleted Ireland, and Argentina blew away the Irish 43-20. Hourcade doesn’t expect Ireland to fall into the same trap twice.
“Probably two years ago you were surprised at the way we started playing,” he said. “Perhaps nobody expected Argentina to play the way we did. But against the top teams, you only surprise them once. Now it’s harder, that is our challenge.”
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FRANCE vs. JAPAN, Paris (France leads 3-0, in France 1-0)
Morale is low at France’s training center of Marcoussis, in the suburbs of Paris, ahead of the test against Japan.
Frustration has been growing for weeks inside Guy Noves’ squad on the back of defeats that have been piling up since March.
“There is a negative atmosphere,” Toulon center Mathieu Bastareaud said. “We have been laughing less lately. We are tired of being taken for fools.”
Following France’s sixth straight loss to South Africa last weekend, when France delivered a lackluster performance marred by 18 turnovers, other prominent French players have voiced their disappointment.
“There is anger inside of every one of us,” prop Jefferson Poirot said.
Whatever the result against Japan, France’s autumn campaign will be remembered as another failure for Noves, who has managed only seven wins with France since he took over after the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The former Toulouse coach has been incapable of injecting life into a team still lacking its own style and identity. The losses have caused Noves to tinker with his lineups, and few have been given time to settle. Against Japan, he’s made eight changes including new halves and centers.
France has beaten Japan handily in all three of their previous tests. But if the changes don’t pay off this time, Noves could be on his way out despite a contract through to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
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AP sports writers Steve Douglas in Manchester, Daniella Matar in Milan, Nathaniel Cope in Dublin, and Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed.
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