What a weekend of International rugby as the northern hemisphere sides put their World Cup hangovers behind them to dethrone two southern heavyweights on their own turf. We’ll not get carried away just yet, but for now at least it appears the gap between the hemispheres – so vast in October – may well have narrowed.
New faces, same result
Wales and New Zealand began proceedings on Saturday at Eden Park and true to form the Welsh wait for a victory against the All Blacks goes on. Warren Gatland’s men were competitive, and showed greater ambition than during the Six Nations, but the greater class of New Zealand told in the end.
Once again the old failings were clear to see and the game bore a striking resemblance to the England test match the previous week. The visitors led that game at half time too, but in truth never really threatened to take the scalp they so desperately crave.
The worry for Wales is that the first test represented their best chance of catching the All Blacks cold. There was rust, notably in the new New Zealand centre pairing and an out of sorts Julian Savea, but there is no doubt they will improve. Of even greater concern was the injury to George North, who in his running game showed signs of the form that made him a Lions star. A tough few weeks lie ahead for Wales in the most unforgiving rugby environment in the world.
Man of the match: Waisake Naholo‘s pace is frightening. Hal Amos showed him the outside early on and the Highlanders man had no hesitation in taking it. A traditional finisher in the mould of Joe Rokocoko and will no doubt add to his try tally in the next two weeks.
England right World Cup wrongs
Next up Six Nations Grand Slam champions England took centre stage as coach Eddie Jones returned to his homeland to lock horns with World Cup finalists Australia.
The transformation since Jones took the reigns from Stuart Lancaster has been nothing short of remarkable. He has not re-invented the wheel, but has instilled a winning culture and is creating a fearsome pack to take on the best in the world.
The set-piece dominance the Wallabies enjoyed back at Twickenham in October was turned on its head and the much-vaunted back row trio of Fardy, Hooper and Pocock was kept in check, with an inspired James Haskell leading the way.
Australia will be smarting for next week and England will have to tighten up their wide defence ruthlessly exposed early by Folau and co, but the signs are positive.
England were excellent and Owen Farrell grows into a world class player with each game, but if Australia had taken the lead into half time it could have been oh so different. Kickers decide matches and there is no doubt Bernard Foley’s two conversion misses in the opening quarter gave the visitors the impetus they needed to win the game.
Man of the match: Without a doubt this was James Haskell‘s best game in an England shirt in recent memory. His 15 tackles and ferocious physicality laid the platform for a dominant forward display, which delivered a famous victory.
Irish courage creates history
No doubt the result of the weekend came in Cape Town, where an Ireland side bereft of key personnel and ravaged by injury shocked the Springboks.
Once again Joe Schmidt masterminded a Southern Hemisphere scalp and created history in the form of a first Irish victory on South African soil.
What made it even more significant was that for almost 60 minutes it was achieved with 14 men after CJ Stander’s red card, and then 13 men for ten minutes after Robbie Henshaw’s sin bin.
The Ireland supremo once again unpicked the direct, physical style of South Africa, while the appointment of Andy Farrell as defence coach looks another Schmidt masterstroke.
Every Irish player put his body on the line in Cape Town and Paddy Jackson made light of Jonny Sexton’s absence with a coming of age performance. South Africa will be better and the next game at altitude will give them a natural advantage, but with 15 men for the duration of the 80 minutes next week there’s no reason why Ireland can’t wrap up a series victory.
Man of the match: Devin Toner was the host broadcaster’s choice, but I plump for his second row partner Iain Henderson. Ahead of the match my concerns for Ireland centred upon a monstrous Springbok back five and their two gargantuan second rows Eben Etzebeth and Lood De Jager. Henderson and Toner stood up to the physicality and the former, on this form, looks a decent bet to line up in the engine room for the Lions next summer.
A new order in the Under 20s
The under 20s tournament in Manchester has also been notable for a Northern Hemisphere resurgence. First it was Scotland’s victory over Australia in round one, then on Saturday it was the turn of the Irish to turn form, pedigree and logic on its head.
No Irish men’s side has ever beaten a New Zealand side at any level, but all that changed in the space of 80 magical minutes.
Now set for a semi final spot, who would bet against Ireland going the whole way. After an underwhelming Six Nations they have peaked at the right time and in captain James Ryan have an outstanding leader, who appears destined for international honours sooner rather than later.
With Argentina mightily impressive in taking the scalps of France and South Africa, and England looking in ominous form in their 44-0 drubbing of Scotland, it promises be quite a finale.
Try of the weekend: The opening try of the weekend and it was a beauty. Taulupe Faletau finished off a fine move in the left corner after Wales stretched New Zealand the full width of the pitch. Check it out (excuse the video quality):
Tongan Wales #8 Toby Faletau scored the first try pic.twitter.com/IbEs3PLylH
— Solomone Savelio (@SolomoneSavelio) June 11, 2016
Hero of the weekend: Part of a monumental Irish effort, Paddy Jackson was coolness personified for the majority of his test match return, but will want to forget the pass that gifted Pieter-Steph Du Toit a 67th minute try and South Africa a way back into the match. Despite the setback he dusted himself off and landed the crucial winning penalty to hand Ireland a famous win. Take a bow son!
Villain of the weekend: Inexperienced French referee Matheiu Raynal had a big decision to make in the 23rd minute and chose to red card CJ Stander for his collision with Pat Lambie. Whether the right decision or not in regards to the letter of the law, the rookie ref was clearly overly influenced by the impact of the injury rather than the offence itself. Would Stander even have been penalised had Lambie got to his feet immediately after the impact? His manner in dealing with Irish captain Rory Best following suspicions of obstruction in the Springboks first try is another black mark against the French official.
By Gareth McKeown (@GarethMcKeownIN)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
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What a fantastic weekend of rugby!! I thought the Saxons started it off in fantastic fashion on Friday night with Hepbuen, Taylor, Tomkins and Haley the stand out performers for me.
Unfortunately I didn’t see most of the Wales game but the opening twenty minutes were excellent from both sides. Wales took their opportunities well, but the defence looked a bit out of sorts.
England were pretty poor for the opening twenty minutes and Burrell especially looked all at sea. Ford came on and the game changed dramatically. Haskell, Itoje and Farrell were stand out performers and Ford was excellent when brought on. Burrell should not be anywhere near the starting 15 next week!! Also for me I thought Brown looked to be lost in defence, one missed catch under no pressure and some pointless running and aimless kicks. Is it time to either give Goode a start or have a Nowell, Yarde and Watson back three?
Ireland were outstanding with Paddy Jacksn proving that Sexton is not the be all and end all of this Ireland team. I personally thought the red was a tad harsh and in general the ref was out of his depth. The crossing/obstruction incident was pretty much the same as the Foley one in England’s game so no try. To hold out and win that game in SA with 14 men (13 for ten minutes!) was fantastic for NH rugby.
Add to this the 44-0 drubbing the England U20’s gave to Scotland and it was an excellent weekend!1
Thought the Saxons’ back row was excellent too, Armand was everywhere and Kvesic was snaffling ball pretty much at will. A hugely impressive physical effort too, given that they’d been training down in Durban and then trekked up to the high veldt to play the game, usually such a natural advantage for South African teams. Only potential issue is how serious Robson’s injury was – he was brilliant and hopefully he’ll force his way into the EPS next season.
Samuel H
Might have been interesting to have seen how England would have fared v Oz with Kvesic @ 7 & Haskell (or Robshaw) @ 6.
Might have gone better?
Esp so, as Haskell’s not torn up telephone books before.
Might have done – given that Haskell was huge and Robshaw was pretty good too though, they might have gone much worse!
Recent memory? That was the best performance Haskell has put in since the start of his career. Absolutely phenomenal, and one can only hope that he has more of that in him
talking of the Scotland England U20 game, surely in this day and age the broadcaster (are sky the host broadcaster or do WR do it themselves?) could’ve shown two different angles simultaneously for that england try in the corner? in the end it made no real difference to the result, but at the time, Scotland were still in the game.
My “potential villain of the weekend” goes to Connor Murray. Less than a minute left in the game, your team has possession and are 6 points up and a man down (and inside your own half) and he decides to kick the ball. What is it with Scrum halves and brainless decision making?! IF Ireland had lost that game, the blame would’ve been solely on Murray and not Stander or Jackson (for the intercept pass).
I thought that try in the corner for England U20’s was a bit dubious, but I think the referee gave the attacking team the benefit of the doubt as there was no angle showing him in touch when he put the ball down. It did look like he was in touch, but they didn’t have an angle that showed it.
Again it comes down to the question asked by the ref. Any clear and obvious reason why I can’t award a try.
they had angles of him scoring and being in touch, just not in the same picture. Surely they could’ve shown two simultaneously to show without doubt either way? They manage it fine in cricket with DRS (specifically with the Snicko), so why not rugby?
It depends how colossal you thought the gap between the north & south was in the first place – NZ are without doubt streets ahead of everyone but Aus & SA IMO have claimed a bit too much ground on the basis of two quarter final victories that could’ve gone either way. Ireland have won five of their last seven v SA; England three out of four v Aus – that isn’t domination. Indeed, SA on Saturday looked like the side most lacking in basic skill, execution and composure out of everyone. Developments at U20 level over the past few years have shown the gap closing there too – the first all NH final in 2013, England going to four finals & winning two of them, Scotland and Ireland’s victories over Aus & NZ in the current one, where a (highly unlikely in fairness) situation is developing in which none of NZ, Aus and SA could reach the knockout rounds. In terms of backline play at least I still think Aus are still comfortably ahead of the northern sides but the real gap is between everyone else & NZ, & the ‘southern hemisphere’ label has been used as a bit of a comfort blanket by fans of Aus/SA rugby.
Samuel Honywill
Regds SA, for instance, they came within a couple of NZ in the WC semi.
That they lost to Japan in that aforementioned WC, is surely likely to have been a ‘1’ off as was, possibly similarly, the case v Ireland last Sat.
In respect of the U20’s, the SH, whilst not disregarding this event, put more stock into S Rugby from which they pick their (mostly) winning WC teams.
You may be reading too much, too soon into more recent events.
Also, see how the SH tours pan 1st methinks.
NZ were pretty much always in control of that semi though, Carter had that game under his thumb. And it isn’t reading too much too soon when as pointed out recent trends at both U20 and full international level do suggest a bit of a narrowing of the gap. And of course it’s only after one game and SA and Australia could still turn it around – but that doesn’t massively change my point, which wasn’t that the NH had already caught up but was that Australia and South Africa were never as far ahead as we were told after the World Cup, and they’re both chasing NZ as much as anyone else – the new world rankings for example have Australia (at 2) much closer to England in third than they are to New Zealand in first, which strikes me as about right.
Just realised there is no mention of the Saxons game on this post?
Regds the Ref in the SA v Ireland match, he simply applied a law which is designed to PREVENT serious injury. Intent is irrelevant.
Surely the author isn’t suggesting that we wait until someone is permanently maimed or worse before applying an actual law!?
The sending off looked absolutely fair enough to me. Maybe the ref did look a bit overwhelmed, but that doesn’t mean he made the wrong call.
If Stander had chosen to represent SA he would have only got a yellow at the worst.
Cathal
Subjective call.
When i saw it i thought it should have been a yellow but can understand the argument as to why it should be a red.
Problem is the laws have been applied so inconsistently that we could all find examples of similar offences where the punishment has varied from wave play on, to a red card
Harsh yes but he applied the letter of the law
McMurphy
Objective call.