A Great Weekend of Rugby
While much attention will return to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa this weekend, there are other games which should not be ignored. In fact a total of eight test matches are taking place over the weekend, with games from Toronto to Lautoka and many places in between. A number of games will feature teams who are close on the IRB rankings so there is plenty at stake.
Canada hosts a young Italian side, where a win for the home side would see them overtake Italy in the world rankings. Italy has won the last three games between the two sides but is coming off a loss against Argentina last weekend. Martin Castrogiovanni will win his 87th cap and leads the Azzurri for the first time. The Canadians were rightly happy to beat USA last weekend but will find Italy a tougher challenge.
Scotland will be expected to add to their win over Australia when they take on Fiji, for only the sixth time, in Lautoka on Saturday – a match that will see Dutch-born Tim Visser debuting on the wing for the Scots. Andy Robinson will be keen to secure a win and improve his win ratio as Scotland coach from its current 43% and one hopes that Robinson has done some work on his team’s post match celebrations and they avoid the gaze of the citing commissioner this week!
Ireland has made four changes for the 2nd test against New Zealand and will be particularly pleased to see the return of tight-head prop Mike Ross. The Irish scrum held its own last week without Ross, though the injury-enforced introduction of golden oldie scrums was unfortunate. It would be a surprise if the AB’s don’t raise their game further this week though some of their attacking genius might be compromised by the poor weather forecast. The ever optimistic Irish will give themselves a chance but such is the gulf between the teams in skill and pace that anything other than a repeat of the rout of last week would be a surprise.
Wales will miss Toby Faletau when they take on the Wallabies in Melbourne for the first time, but will get much support from the presence of Warren Gatland. Still recovering from his window-cleaning exploits in NZ, Gatland will insist that Wales reproduce the efforts of the world cup and six nations. If Sam Warburton can wrestle back control of the breakdown from David Pocock, and the Welsh can keep a lid on the genius that is Will Genia, then this series may not be decided until the final test in Sydney next weekend.
The Leicester triumvirate of Flood, Tuilagi and Youngs has the challenging task of firing the English back line when they take on the Springboks at altitude in Johannesburg on Saturday. Mike Catt will be hoping this combination will bring Ashton and Foden into the game and onto the scoreboard. The tussle between Bismarck du Plessis and Dylan Hartley again has the potential to keep the referee busy while Patrick Lambie’s selection at full back is an exciting prospect. England’s pack has a 3kg per man advantage over the Boks forwards but a home win is on the cards unless England can unleash their backs – and wouldn’t that be great to see?
The USA takes on Georgia in Colorado and will be looking to bounce back from the defeat to Canada last week. Eagles coach Mike Tolkin is building for the future and has combined some old faces with young players who have come through the age grade and USA Rugby Seven’s rugby programmes. The USA face Italy next weekend which will ensure the next generation of players get a good introduction to the test match rugby.
Argentina coach Santiago Phelan knows that France will present a significant challenge when the two youthful sides meet in Cordoba this weekend. In time it will be interesting to see if the Pumas are successful in their efforts to score more tries – what advisor Graham Henry described as their “greatest challenge”. Argentina has won three of the last five matches between the two sides, despite only one of those games being in South America. Meanwhile, Philippe Saint-Andre will be aware that a big win over Argentina could see France leap from sixth to fourth, potentially knocking England out of the top four.
The physical play of Samoa will contrast sharply with the speed and guile of Japan when the teams meet in Tokyo this weekend. Japan is winless after two games of the Pacific Nations Cup, while the Samoans are unbeaten and a win for them on Sunday will secure the trophy they last won in 2010.
Mention should also be made of the semi-finals of the Junior World Cup which take place in Cape Town on Sunday. Hosts South Africa take on Argentina, while New Zealand will be looking to exact revenge for the pool match defeat when they take on Wales. The Kiwis have won the title in each of the last four years, and it would take a brave man to bet against them making it five in a row.
So a great weekend is in store for rugby lovers and the prospect of some tight tussles. The Southern Hemisphere big three had a clean sweep last weekend but that may not be the case this week. Scotland, Wales and France will fancy their chances. How many Northern Hemisphere wins do you think we can expect this weekend in games against teams from south of the equator?
Posted under News & Opinions
11 months ago
Italy and Georgia look the most likely but wouldn’t surprise me to see SH clean sweep with NZ, Aus, SA, Samoa, and Fiji. NZ and SA to meet in the final of under 20s.
11 months ago
Enjoy the weekend guys. All the best of luck to all of you. May the best teams on the day win.
11 months ago
Great Test match in Christchurch this morning. The real Ireland turned up and shook the AB’s all the way down to their boots. Whole macth tuned on a 50-50 scrum penalty that could as easily have gone the other way.
Ireland dominated the breakdown for the second week running and their scrum got on top as the second half progressed. They deserved at least a draw if not the big ‘W’. But credit to the All Blacks for sticking in and making it count in the last 5.
I expect guys like Healy, Best, O’Brien and Sexton should get recognised by NZ supporters as top-drawer players in any company. All outplayed their opposite numbers today.
But all-in-all, a great advert for Test match rugby.
11 months ago
Superb performance from Ireland. All Blacks were terrible and I feel nothing but relief. Far far too many mistakes and its been a long long time since our scrum has gone back – not the front rows fault but a poor effort from back 5. I thought Owens was very poor and nearly had a heart attack when he blew the whistle at that scrum. Like you say Jack that could have gone either way and a huge moment in the match. Will write more later but really dissapointed how bad we were at the ruck and mauls. Conditions played a big factor and stoked we dug deep and got the win for ChCh. Go All Blacks
11 months ago
I fyou want to see an awful ref James, take a look at Chris Pollock reffing the Aus-Wales game right now. He penalised Gethin Jenkins for competing at the breakdown when all the Aussie forwards just fell flat on their faces!
11 months ago
Once again the standard of referring has been very poor across the board. Too many big decisions called wrong and a massive inconsistency in the rulings from one game to the next. Personally I would kick most of the “elite panel” to the curb and bring the next batch through.
11 months ago
Sadly James the ref panel seems to live in a world of its own. At least the refs on Saturday didn’t ruin the theatre of the games, even if they did get some game-changing decisions wrong.
I think there some signs you’re already missing GH and WS, and let’s face it who wouldn’t? It will be interesting to see how Hansen goes in the rugby championship.
11 months ago
A major factor in international rugby union which has contributed to unfair results is the controversial refereeing of collapsed scrummages by a person who has never ever packed down in a front row in his life! If scrums are to remain a feature of rugby union as competitive areas and not as mere ‘collection points’ for forwards to congregate to give running backs more field space (as in rugby league) then these scrums have to be refereed by a specialist front row TMO. Yes, I am advocating a neutral front row TMO to rule on each collapsed scrum!
The one thing that soccer and rugby league have over rugby union is the fact that their referees are more knowledgeable about their own games, more professional and less liable to ‘interpret’ a law (or rule) differently to other referees. In rugby union five different international referees could give you five different perspectives on the same incident and give five different penalties to either side!
On Saturday Chris Pollock underlined my point. Replay Oz v Wales 2nd Test and analyse each scrum where a penalty or free kick accrued and you will see that Mr Pollock ‘shares’ penalties and free kicks ‘in turn’ to either side because he does not understand front row play. If scrums are to remain an essential feature of rugby union and not become the ‘sham’ event that rugby league has made of them then another front row specialist TMO has to be called upon to judge who, if anyone, was at fault in a collapsed scrum!!!!
11 months ago
I totally agree Vance – its a crap shoot each and every scrum and it looks like they are guessing most of the time. As silly as it might sound surely it wouldn’t be that difficult to have independent scrum refs at international level who run out on to the pitch just for that purpose?? The NBA, NFL and even the NRL (recently trialled) have specialists or share the responsibilities.
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