Weekend Round-Up: England Play With 14 Men Just To Make It Interesting

Catch up on the best of the weekend’s games on Rugby Pass as England look to extend their winning streak to 12 against Argentina and Ireland look to add the Wallabies to their list of Southern Hemisphere scalps.

Autumn International: England vs Argentina
Watch: Full Game | Condensed
This game was shaped by something that happened after only four minutes. Elliot Daly became the first England player to be sent off in 11 years when he had what seemed to be a series of mini-strokes and decided it would be a good idea to tackle Leonardo Senatore while he was claiming the ball about a metre-and-a-half off the ground. His send-off paved the way for a different kind of England performance than the one Eddie Jones would have envisioned. A tenacious defensive effort and was needed to keep the game competitive, with England only just clinging to the lead going into the final 20 minutes.

Autumn International: Australia vs Ireland
Watch: Full Game | Condensed
Australia came into this game hoping to keep their Grand Slam hopes alive. Ireland wanted to claim another Southern Hemisphere superpower scalp for 2016 after beating the Springboks in June  and the All Blacks in Chicago three weeks ago. It was the Irish who started out better, forcing the Wallabies into some desperate defence inside their own 22, and prompting a stressed-out Dean Mumm to dump 134kg Tadhg Furlong on his head. But the Wallabies fought back through the frankly frightening running of Sefa Naivalu, and the unerringly accurate kicking of Bernard Foley. The game was within one with 10 minutes left, setting the stage for one of the best finishing stanzas of the Autumn season.

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Autumn International: France vs New Zealand
Watch: Full Game | Condensed
OK, so the All Blacks away kit didn’t look thaaat bad. In fact it almost looked kind of good on Julian Savea as he leapt to pluck Beauden Barrett’s cross-field kick out of the air on the touchline before setting Israel Dagg up for the first try of the game after seven minutes. As we’ve seen all autumn, though, an early All Blacks try doesn’t signal the opening of the floodgates any more; the rest of the half was tough and physical as France dominated possession but couldn’t cross the tryline. Instead they relied on frequent penalty kicks to keep in touch and set up a tense final 20 minutes.

Harlequins vs Bath
Watch: Full Game | Condensed
FYI: the Aviva Premiership is still going. Harlequins and Bath played a nail-biting match on Sunday. ‘Quins got out to an early lead only to be pegged back and eventually overtaken by the 3rd-placed side. The game turned on the play of Tim Swiel, who arrived on the field in the 20th minute as a blood replacement and ended up staying for the rest of the match, paving the way for some heroics in the last six minutes.