2024 Autumn Internationals

[Donny osmond]

Also, I may as well put this here. Am posting from SA tonight and hearing some interesting stories! Won’t detail but being a complete gobshite/ shithouse, I reserve the right to come back and use this as an “I told you so”!

If you don't tell us now you can't say "told you so"

Stay off the Castle lager (Windhoek is better), there's a good lad

I did wonder what he was saying.... Zod mate, you may as well tell us the stories, we've nothing else to talk about now until February anyway

[Mikey Brown]

Can't be bothered to start a new thread but looks like it we are playing a test in Fiji next summer with one more test and maybe a couple of tour matches (maybe in New Zealand but not against the All Blacks).

That would be fun, and it's a joke how few home matches Fiji play. But it would also be a very tough tour if we are missing a bunch of players to the Lions. Based on the Drua's home results in Super Rugby, I am not sure our top team would be favourites against a full strength Fiji team in Suva if they play it in daytime.

Great experience for whoever plays.

It’s weird thinking we’re currently Sat 6th (especially after moaning for such a long time about early world
Cup draws) and have a good handful of players making pundits’ Lions squads (and starting 15s) and still doubting this.

Feels like we’re doing a lot of the work of top tier nations playing the smaller guys at the moment, I’d like that to be a bit more even overall, but 2 years out from the World Cup it’s probably another good chance for some young, second string guys to get a go.

We still really need at least 1 more option to stand up in most positions in the pack, and I don’t know how much experimentation we’ll do in the 6 nations.

[BaldiePete]

I’ve seen posts on Twitter with the All Blacks schedule for 2025 and they’re doing a Grand Slam tour in November. Praying the match outside the window is not our match against them.

[BaldiePete]

Looking at it again, I’ve just noticed the Ireland game is in Chicago and listed first so will probably be outside the window.

[Cameo]

That's a serious schedule! I think how we did it this year was quite good, alternating between easier and harder games.

It would be nice to have four tough tests, but think with our player pool, a mix suits us better.

[BaldiePete]

Due to the late finish of the French season I don’t think they’re sending a full strength squad to New Zealand so those might be less difficult than you might expect.

[Puja]

Due to the late finish of the French season I don’t think they’re sending a full strength squad to New Zealand so those might be less difficult than you might expect.

They've already said they're sending the 2nd XV to give their main stars a break. NZ are understandably getting shirty about it, although the French depth is so ridiculous that I wouldn't rule them out from being competitive anyway.

Puja

[septic 9]

Due to the late finish of the French season I don’t think they’re sending a full strength squad to New Zealand so those might be less difficult than you might expect.

They've already said they're sending the 2nd XV to give their main stars a break. NZ are understandably getting shirty about it, although the French depth is so ridiculous that I wouldn't rule them out from being competitive anyway.

Puja

thye did the same this summer for the tour to Argentina. Won one lost one IIRC
Also did same think it was year before, to Australia, and unearthed some real stars.
NZ can get shirty when they have humped them. If they can

[Mikey Brown]

Interesting to see how the Aus/Ire game went following our win against them. That's not to say we're at Ireland's level in general, but we did pretty well in our 2 big games. The concern is obviously still playing big games in consecutive weeks.

I'm curious how much anyone feels the 23 has changed, if at all?

I doubt the starting XV is going to change much, but I think Jordan has definitely forced his way in to the 23. Being able to play 10/12/15 opens up the 23 shirt a bit, probably making it harder for Redpath/McDowell to make the squad and improving the chances of Steyn or Rowe.

Ashman feels like he's become the starting hooker pretty much by default. He has some great moments but I'm not totally convinced. Richardson will probably continue to push him from the bench. Doesn't seem like Matthews is particularly highly rated or showed much in his one chance.

Elliot Millar-Mills has maybe played himself to the bottom of the pile of Sebastian, Hurd, Rae, rather than anyone particularly stepping up to claim the 18 shirt. Sutherland continues to underwhelm from the bench. What a shame he hasn't got back to where he was in 2020.

Does Jonny Gray come back in? I'm not sure if his absence was purely about being a new arrival at his club (and only just fit after a long time out) or a sign of him being less focussed on Scotland. I wish we'd got to see a bit more of Williamson, Brown and Muncaster.

I'm wondering too if I've misjudged Bayliss. I'm still not sure how great he is at the nuts and bolts but maybe he's the sort of player we can look at as a bench specialist. He made some great impacts coming off the bench for Bath at the weekend. I just can't imagine him ever owning a starting shirt to be honest.

I'm still not sold on Horne at international level but I guess he's still ahead of Dobie for now.

Italy first up should be great. I feel like we expected to cruise through this game last time and got a bit of a shock. It's been a while since that's happened so hopefully that provides some motivation to get out of the blocks quickly this 6 nations. Playing England first up has seemed to be the only way we get fired up in recent years.

[BaldiePete]

I agree with pretty much all of that. In particular, the form that Jordan showed coming in at full back has been a revelation. However, the fact that he can play 10/12/15 might doom him to the bench unless one of the regular starters is unavailable/injured. He would certainly strengthen the bench. Similarly for Josh Bayliss, not a starter but a very strong bench option.

As ever we are struggling for depth at prop, both tighthead and loosehead. For years the tighthead position has been fine with Fagerson and Nel but with the latter’s retirement the drop off behind Zander is huge. They all seem pretty much at the same level, although I thought Hurd was just about OK. Similarly on the loosehead, we could really do with Sutherland regaining some form.

[septic 9]

I agree with pretty much all of that. In particular, the form that Jordan showed coming in at full back has been a revelation. However, the fact that he can play 10/12/15 might doom him to the bench unless one of the regular starters is unavailable/injured.

an injury is almost inevitable at some point. So where Jordan fits is a question we do not need to answer until we have to, Same if we saw a clear form issue with someone.

[septic 9]

As ever we are struggling for depth at prop, both tighthead and loosehead. For years the tighthead position has been fine with Fagerson and Nel but with the latter’s retirement the drop off behind Zander is huge. They all seem pretty much at the same level, although I thought Hurd was just about OK. Similarly on the loosehead, we could really do with Sutherland regaining some form.

At LH, for all of last season and early this one, for me Bhatti has been our best. Schoeman is not the influence he was - he is giving away fewer scrum pens by being less aggressive (some might say stupidly at times). Ditto his ball carrying - he gets attention because the crowd shouts (shooo) every time, not because he is making big inroads of his first few seasons. To be clear he is a very good option still, but not as out in front as some would have.
Agree re Sutherland, not been the same since he left Edinburgh, hopefully he settles at Glasgow and gives us few top seasons.
And I will mention Nathan McBeth. Injured currently but pushed Bhatti hard last season, I honestly think he is a genuine option now

TH a bit different. EMM seemed to play himself out v Boks. Hurd was ok-ish against much inferior scrums but I have seen him humped a bit for Leicester when he gets some minutes. We are waiting for Blyth-Lafferty to grow up or Norrie to evolve; meantime Fin Richardson did well enough on his debut v Scarlets to suggest his time playing Eng Championship may have been well spent

[Cameo]

Can't be bothered to start a new thread but looks like it we are playing a test in Fiji next summer with one more test and maybe a couple of tour matches (maybe in New Zealand but not against the All Blacks).

That would be fun, and it's a joke how few home matches Fiji play. But it would also be a very tough tour if we are missing a bunch of players to the Lions. Based on the Drua's home results in Super Rugby, I am not sure our top team would be favourites against a full strength Fiji team in Suva if they play it in daytime.

Great experience for whoever plays.

Match against NZ Maori confirmed. Haven't confirmed tests but one expected in Fiji.

Shaping up to be a tasty schedule given it's a Lions year. Much tougher than this year's tour.