Gary Lemke looks ahead to a jam-packed sporting weekend as the Springboks return to Murrayfield to kick off their Outgoing Tour against Scotland, while Manchester United await the arrival of new head coach Ruben Amorim.
NOT 44-0 (OR 62-0) BUT BOKS FAVOURED
The Springboks return to the venue where in 1951 they racked up their record Test score, 44-0, which stood for decades when they take on Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday. Given the points system, in today’s terms that scoreline would have read 62-0 and the Scots would still have been lucky to get nil.
The updated record Bok win is the 134-4 over Uruguay in 2005, while the 101-0 over Italy in 1999 remains the biggest whitewash. So, Scotland have got nothing to fear in terms of seeing lightning strike twice at Murrayfield. However, the bookies make the Boks around seven-point favourites to win their opening match of these Autumn Internationals. This is match No29 between the two. The Boks have won 23 of 28 so far.
IRELAND LOOK TO HIGHLIGHT NO1 STATUS
These year-end Autumn Internationals (northern hemisphere season) have thrown up an absolute cracker for a Friday evening – Ireland versus New Zealand. The Irish are ranked No1 in the world and I actually think they are indeed the best side. Yes, I know, I know. This has nothing to do with patriotism.
The All Blacks squeezed to a win over England last week, but the Irish are better than the English, despite that Rugby World Cup result (23-22), yet another one-pointer that could have gone the other way. On Saturday the eye-catcher is England hosting Australia.
UNITED TO FEEL NEW MANAGER BOUNCE
Leicester City are one two two sides in the English Premier League to have scored in all 10 EPL games so far this season, the other being Man City. Yet, they remain 15th, because they’ve conceded 18 goals themselves.
They visit Old Trafford on Sunday and it’s a game which I think Man United will win well, by two clear goals at least. There’s the new manager bounce expected for Ruben Amorim and the atmosphere will be electric. At 4-10 to win in the betting, I encourage you to include Man United as the banker in all your accumulators. The standout fixture of the round is at Stamford Bridge on Sunday where Chelsea host Arsenal. Fourth versus fifth on the log and London bragging rights are up for grabs. But, it’s even bigger than that.
PROTEAS TAKE ON INDIA IN ‘BEST OF FOUR’
The men’s Proteas are involved in four T20 matches, of course, they’re T20, in their latest series against India. It starts with Friday’s game at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead, before moving to St George’s Park on Sunday afternoon, and then SuperSport Park and the Wanderers next week.
It is a replay of the World Cup final, where David Miller came close to getting the Proteas over the line before a stunning catch by Suryakumar Yadav swung the contest. Being T20, it amplifies that the shorter the game the more chance of an upset. Both teams have a lot of fresh faces, and while the Proteas are considered slight favourites at home, India has a population of a billion-plus. Most of them play cricket, so whoever gets selected has to be a player.
DIFFERENT ‘VIBE’ TO ATP TENNIS FINALS
Tennis’ season-ending ATP Finals get underway in Turin this weekend with a round-robin stage, before the semi-finals which take the top two players from each of the two groups. In the one group there is Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur, while in the other section Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev take to the court.
Traditionally, these year-end finals don’t always follow world rankings. Since 2026 there have been six different winners – Andy Murray, Grigor Dmitrov, Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Medvedev and Novak Djokovic. It certainly does have the “feel” of a Grand Slam, But there’s always the money to keep the focus. Rewards are structured so that any player who goes undefeated will pocket $ 4.8 million, while if the champion loses along the way he’ll “only” earn $2.2m.
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