Autumn Internationals Preview week 3

By Nick Powell

2 weeks have gone in this exciting autumn internationals series and this week promises to serve up some classic encounters as well as some encounters that see minnows battle for huge scalps against some of the world’s finest.

After their pulsating clash two weeks ago, Ireland look to beat New Zealand for the second time in two weeks on Saturday in the pick of the matches. England, on an 11 match winning run meet Fiji for the third time in four years at Twickenham before Scotland take on Argentina, who complete their tour at Twickenham next week.

Wales lost their last encounter against Japan, who also famously beat the Springboks last year. They face each other tomorrow while France take on Australia and Italy and South Africa attempt to improve on last week’s results for them.

This week I take on Bradley Denison, after beating Mikey in the Premier League Predictions will back himself for more success.

England vs Fiji

England didn’t look the complete package against South Africa last week, but their 37-21 win was one that you have to say was pretty good on reflection. What will disappoint Jones if the defence shipping 21 points and conceding two soft tries, but to score 37 points against South Africa in those conditions was a superb effort. There is plenty to work on, but the performances of Ben Youngs, who threw two stunning dummies which led to tries and Chris Robshaw and Joe Launchbury who both worked so hard throughout and help England control the forward battle, will be very pleasing heading into Fiji next week. 

There has been a lot of talk this week about Fiji having their best players poached from them, especially given that England are fielding two Fijian born players in their 23 man squad, Semesa Rokoduguni and Nathan Hughes. Fiji are seemingly going places with their Olympic 7s win but other than the 2007 Rugby World Cup have yet to make an impression in the 15s game. That said they are taking control of the Pacific race to the next world cup and still play with a characteristic flair that can cause teams problems.

England will win, but it’s not necessarily going to be easy. They may have to labour to it, as Fiji will make it tricky for them to get into a natural rhythm, but I think they will have a good game plan and will be able to take their chances, that said I can see Fiji creating chances of their own and scoring a few themselves.

Prediction: England by 30

Bradley: England by 35

Wales vs Japan

Wales recovered from a lacklustre attacking display in the first half to score two tries in a 24-20 win over Argentina, it was nervy, never comfortable and their defence and attack still need to improve but they looked much more dangerous going forward through the return of Liam Williams and Alun Wyn Jones and Sam Warburton added some much need quality in the forward pack.

Japan have played really well this year at times but they’ve not managed to pick up any results like they did against South Africa this time last year. Of course they have the potential to be extremely dangerous but you have to question whether they can actually claim a scalp of this size.

Wales look OK, but they really aren’t anything special at the moment. I think they’ll win, but it won’t be that pretty and the forwards will be the key men in the battle. The second half is where I back them to take control and nudge to a decent victory.

Prediction: Wales by 28 points

Bradley: Wales by 20 points

Italy vs South Africa

Conor O'Shea's new look Italian side made a terrible start to their Internationals as they crashed to a 68-10 defeat against a much-changed All Blacks side who bounced back in the perfect way to their defeat against Ireland last week. 

South Africa looked pretty dire against England last week. They started brightly, but their defending for all four tries was really bad and in attack they offered very little until England relaxed. This is a good opportunity for them to put a gameplan in place and gain a bit of confidence against an Italian team which is really starting from scratch.

Alaistar Coetzee’s days will be numbered if South Africa fail to win both of these last two games, I expect they’ll win here but it is vital they give themselves the best possible preparation for the Wales match next week.

South Africa by 20 points

Bradley: South Africa by 25 points

Scotland vs Argentina

Scotland put in a pretty good display last weekend but once again had a brave but devastating defeat. It’s typical of Scotland and they will be extremely frustrated as first up tackles would not have resulted in Kuridrani inflicting the devastating defeat on them. They can be happy with the performance of certain individuals though. Huw Jones was excellent in the centre and he has a bright future, especially given the fact Gregor Townsend comes in next year.

Argentina have had a patchy tour. They played well against Japan with a convincing win but were pretty poor against Wales last week. They probably deserved to lose the game by a fair bit more against a Wales team that is struggling at the moment.

I think Scotland will win this. Argentina are missing a few world class players at the moment and Scotland do look like they are playing with a bit of class at the moment.

Predictions: Scotland by 11 points

Bradley: Scotland by 6 points

Ireland vs New Zealand
This should be the game of the weekend. Ireland's thrilling battle with New Zealand a few weeks ago was a quality game of rugby. Ireland played brilliant rugby, nailing the basics and causing themselves all sorts of problems on the ball. It was great to see them beat the All Blacks after 111 years of hurt, but they will have to put in an even better performance to win this time around. 

New Zealand's 2nd team were superb against Italy, with a 68-10 win. Italy weren't great but it doesn't detract from the fact it was a fine performance. They will have been planning how to beat the Irish for most of the seconds in the last two weeks. Hansen would be mortified at the prospect of his side losing twice in a row against any team, let alone a team that had previously never beaten them. 

I think Ireland will play well and push New Zealand all the way again. However I reckon New Zealand will just do enough. They will make sure they see it out and although it's going to be really tight, I just think New Zealand will do the job and re-establish themselves as the world's best

Prediction: New Zealand by 3
Bradley: New Zealand by 20