First up on Saturday, Ireland face Japan. The Irish will be looking for revenge, having suffered an embarrassing upset result to the Brave Blossoms during the last World Cup. My tip is for Ireland to win at Lansdowne Road but it will be a match of real contrasts.
Ireland like making things difficult on the ground; Japan will want to shift the ball. Ireland will need to be fit to hold them out.
At the same time, on Saturday, New Zealand take on Italy. The way the All Blacks are playing, I fear the Italian team might be facing a cricket score.
The All Blacks are a funny lot. Against rubbish sides they pile on the points; against the better sides, they can often be an enigma.
Then, England play Tonga at Twickenham. This will be another bloodbath.
The Tongans are paid a $1000 match fee; the Poms will earn $42,000 for the same match, contract plus match fee money. Many of the great Toutai Kefu’s Tongan players are not available.
Then Wales host the Springboks in Cardiff. That is always a brutally physical contest.
I fancy the South Africans will be too good but I am not too sure they will be playing my kind of football.
Last, but not least, on Saturday, the French host Argentina in another interesting clash.
Somehow or other, the Argentines always step up against Les Bleus.
My money will be on the home team in this one, but it will be a fiesta affair.
Then, on Monday morning (AEDT), the Wallabies play Scotland at the magnificent Murrayfield. What a stadium!
Australia should be too strong for the brave Scots, even without the mercurial Quade Cooper.
James O’Connor has had to wait patiently for his opportunity to be the Wallabies’ general.
I have no doubt he will step up and manage the game.
We are doubly blessed to have such talent and experience in the number 10 jersey.
Samu Kerevi will be missed, midfield, but Hunter Paisami is a cracking replacement and I can’t see Scotland stopping the attacking threats across the Wallaby backline if it is sensibly explored.
However, it would be remiss of me not to comment on the Japanese-club-versus-Australia-country row that has cast a shadow over this spring tour.
When you have been around the game as long as I have you quickly learn to smell BS.
And if it smells like BS and it looks like BS, you damn well know it is BS.
As it stands, we are meant to believe that Cooper, Sean McMahon and Kerevi have chosen to do their pre-season training in Japan, rather than play for the Wallabies on the spring tour.
The Japanese season doesn’t start until January next year and it is now early November.
How on earth would these players choose to get belted up in pre-season training instead of playing for the Wallabies?
Regulation 9.3 in World Rugby by-laws says the following: “No club, whether by contract, conduct or otherwise may inhibit, prevent, discourage, disincentivise or render unavailable any player from selection, attendance, and appearance in a national team or squad session.”
Are we really meant to believe that the Japanese clubs have not pressured Cooper, Kerevi and McMahon into pulling out of the Wallabies’ spring tour?
Have they threatened to tear up contracts or garnishee their wages?
Regardless of how well the Japanese clubs pay players, they don’t have the right to deter them from playing for their country.
This is a travesty and rugby Australia needs to stand up and insist on these players joining the Wallabies whenever they’re selected.
That is the agreement World Rugby have with all the unions and their clubs.
As many of you will be aware, England coach Eddie Jones is also a consultant for the Suntory Club in Japan and has been for 25 years.
I am reliably told that nothing happens at Suntory without Jones’ approval.
I suspect he has been instrumental in the withdrawal of Suntory’s Kerevi and McMahon.
Why would Jones want to weaken the Wallabies for the spring your?
Well, Jones’ England team was deplorable at the last Six Nations.
Not only did England finish fifth, they also lost to Scotland at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years.
They conceded the most points ever to Wales and were thumped by Ireland in Dublin.
As a result of the Six Nations debacle, Jones and his England program have been put through a root-and-branch review.
Many in English Rugby, including Lawrence Dallaglio and Sir Clive Woodward, are calling for his head.
So Jones is under the pump and he has a clear motive to use his influence at Suntory to weaken the Wallabies’ squad because they play England at Twickenham in a week’s time.
Rugby Australia should step up and call this for what it is, it’s BS.
Why hasn’t Rugby Australia boss Hamish McLennan fired up with Bill Beaumont, the President of World Rugby.
Scott Johnson and Dave Rennie don’t want to upset the apple cart in Japan because they may want to coach there themselves once they finish up with Australian rugby.
The players are earning a truckload of money in Japan and clearly they are in a very tough situation but it is not their fight to have.
This should be sorted out in the boardrooms not the changerooms.
Make no mistake, Jones is under enormous pressure in England.
He cleaned out his assistant coaches after this year’s Six Nation’s debacle. The gesture was designed to lay the blame for the team’s demise at the feet of the assistant coaches.
In addition, Jones has also cut loose a group of senior England players, many of whom were key players the last time the Wallabies played England.
Clearly, there is a lot riding on the Test against England next weekend.
If karma has anything to do with it, Australia will prevail.
My final comment this week is this: I am delighted that Kurtley Beale is likely to again be given the privilege of wearing the gold Wallaby jersey; and I know he will step up if given the chance.
He knows the conditions; he knows the opposition players, having playing for the Wasps Club in England only a few short years ago.
So come on, Rugby Australia, it is time to act on two fronts.
Give Beale the number 15 jumper and call out the Japanese clubs for their dirty deeds.
If the Japanese get away with shackling players, where will Test Match rugby finish up?
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This weekend there is so much international rugby on the television that I think many of us will be setting up camp in our loungerooms. This spring tour feels like a mini World Cup.