The Travelling Reserve

Situations like Jamie George coming back onto the field despite being knocked spark out 10 mins prior is why rugby is facing lawsuit. NOT because Dave from accounts tackled his opposite man slightly above the waist - rugby really needs to get its priorities right! #EDIvSAR

Sam Hill announcing his retirement in instagram today. After winning the Junior World Cup in 2013 alongside Henry Slade, Jack Nowell and Luke Cowan-Dickie I always felt like he’d end up with an 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 cap Sadly never to be, even though he was in an era of bog standard 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 centres

@T2Rugby @IntRugbyPlayers Player welfare apparently only applies to “tier 1” nations. Considering England/Wales/Scotland alll of whom have Fiji travelling from the UK to South Africa and back to the UK in 3 weeks under the premise of “player welfare”

How come @IntRugbyPlayers and all those who go on about "player welfare" are not saying a pipsqueak about players having to do massive draining levels of long haul travel every week in July to play tough tests at the end of a tough long European season?

@rugbyexpansion Also feels like with the Nations Cup announcement that a Samoa loss could kill off Union in the country. Aside from the Pacific Nations Cup games they’d be locked out of internationals agains the top 24 sides in the world - especially given the popularity of Rugby League

The result not only has World Cup ramifications for the two playing but also for others. If Samoa get an expected win, nothing really changes. However, if Belgium do pull off an unlikely upset, Tonga will be promoted from Pot to Pot 3. Chile would also rise a place to 17th.

By the end of today we’ll know all 24 teams at the 2027 World Cup. Samoa or Belgium will be the 24th team and they play today. Samoa are heavy favourites and should win. Belgium will have to be at their very best to even stand a chance in the biggest day of their rugby history.

Appreciate the clamouring for Georgia over Wales (sadly never going to happen with the 6N shareholder situation). Real question should be Georgia over Japan (ranked 2 places lower) in the invitational spot. Adds some spice to this weekend’s matchup for the Georgians.

The haka challenge that set the tone for the afternoon. Rode the initial storm in the first 20 and from there pulled away. One of the best atmospheres I’ve been lucky enough to be part of! #ENGvNZL

The haka challenge that set the tone for the afternoon. Rode the initial storm in the first 20 and from there pulled away. One of the best atmospheres I’ve been lucky enough to be part of! #ENGvNZL

Vintage 🇮🇹 at the end there. Brilliant throughout the first half, all they have to do is get the ball in and out of a scrum that’s been dominant and it’s a level game at half time. Instead concede a daft free kick and then a try to be a try down. Real kick in the teeth #ITAvRSA

Name a more iconic duo… I’ll wait

I’m sure Saffa fans will react rationally to this decision… #ITAvRSA

@JonnyLewisFilms @rugbyontnt Looks like they’re all on TNT Sports 2 per radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings…

Kicking off November in style 😎 Welcome to the 2025 Quilter Nations Series, live on TNT Sports & Discovery+ 🔥

@FrazerHerring Damn, knew there’d be one that I messed up on, supposed to be a France win by < 15! Actually makes a huge difference with Australia into the top 6 ahead of Argentina

@TravelReserve Fiji beating France?

Decided to predict ALL the upcoming internationals between now and the #RWC2027 draw to forecast how the seedings will look. Headlines: 🇦🇺 narrowly stay in pot 2 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 sneak past Japan in pot 2 🇺🇾 big movers into pot 3 🇼🇸 to be final qualifiers 🇹🇴 drop to pot 4 - one to avoid!

Some note on the above: - made use of the brilliant site: rawling.github.io/wr-calc/?s=mru… - ultimately all that matters in the predictions are a) who wins b) whether the winner wins by +/-15 - Hence predictions are winner and by 16 or by 1 Link should let you predict your own!

Really gutted by this news. Don’t think there’s another heavy traffic carrier to replace him for England, a real unique skill set. Could live with a Curry, Underhill, etc going as there’s similar replacements available. Huge loss just as he’d made the shirt his own

@cocker @DraftXVRugby Is there anyway as admin of a public league I can “force select” starting teams for players who haven’t logged in? Two people joined the league and then proceeded to not attend the draft or update their teams and it’s ruining half the weekly matchups!

Ruptured achilles, likely season ender for AJ Macginty. At 35, hope it's not career ender too! He was my 1st draft pick so my @DraftXVRugby team also screwed. Creative trading incoming. You can still start your Draft league - URC & Prem. Works same even though seasons started.

@Santamaria97Joe @Hugh_96 @WorldRugby @SuperRugbyAM If they can get into band 3 I’ve no doubt they’ll be able to make the last 16. Think that’s the most exciting part of the new format for me, the chance for the likes of them and the European teams to have a run at getting the business end of the tournament

@Hugh_96 @WorldRugby It will be the first WC cycle in which the South Americans have had 4 consistent years of @SuperRugbyAM so hoping that Uruguay & Chile can impress on the big stage

Sure it’s 2 years away but what a mix of countries. A fav part for me of the World Cup is the new players you have never heard of or may have heard of but haven’t watched play. Wonder who will be the breakout players?🏉 @WorldRugby

Given the timezone will almost necessitate there being games watched on delay, BBC iPlayer is sooooooo much more preferable go the shite that is ITVx Throw in the better stable of pundits, presentation and lack of adverts - I’m so keen for the BBC to get this!

I appreciate its not his normal position, but Hammersley is all at sea defensively. Not only making bad reads, but missing one-on-one tackles leading to line breaks for Saints Penny for the thoughts of Will Rigg and Zach Wimbush? Len Ikitau can’t arrive soon enough #NORvEXE

Hardly breaking news but Braxton Sorensen-McGee and Jorja Miller are absolute freaks! #NZLvFRA #RWC2025

Hell of a day for it! #RWC2025Final