A Hooligan's Game Played by Gentleman

The haka this weekend was interesting.

Breakdown of the teams I've seen after two games:

Ireland: I only saw one game, and they were unlucky to lose this one. The teams were pretty evenly matched and Ireland did pretty well despite missing some key players. Big props to Mike McCarthy, who brought Eben Etzebeth to a shuddering halt. Big game from him. They conceded because Heaslip went off and while they likely would have done had he stayed on, they might have had a better chance at striking back.

Scotland: brave as ever. They've taken two thumpings but that hasn't put them down. Against New Zealand a leaky defence let them down but they were encouraging in attack, scoring tries for the first time in ages. Teams, especially teams that far behind, don't often front up to NZ in that way and despite the scoreline the signs were encouraging. Against SA, things didn't go quite as well. The relentless hammering the 'boks dished out meant that they leaked in a couple of tries, and watching Adriaan Strauss run in a 20m intercept try has to be among the most depressing things an international defence coach can see (although I like Strauss). There are definitely signs of life in the Scottish team, but they did seem to have big problems when Gray went off.

England: only saw the Australia game. Now, while everyone will be shouting at Joe Marler over his scrummaging, Robinson was consistently binding on the arm and I wouldn't be surprised if the Aussies were jumping the hit early most scrums (I wasn't paying enough attention). There was also some chronic burrowing from the Aussies on one side in a few scrums, and the England front row had about three caps between them. They had something of a lesson in the Dark Arts.
Marler's round-the-pitch play, on the other hand, was bad. The rest of England, were good but not sparkling. The Aussies, particularly Barnes, seemed to have the measure of the rush defence and yet England didn't adapt to cover that. They also looked bereft of really good ideas in attack, and I'm still not convinced by the 10/12/13 axis. Tuilagi needs to start but I would peg him as a 12, personally, as long as he learns to pass. Ashton just isn't getting the ball.Waldrom- big carrier but that seems to be it. I think they might be better off, and I hate to say this, with Haskell there (assuming Morgan's still off-form). I heard he got so excited watching Australia v France that a neuron fired, and the ensuing rampage ensured he didn't get picked.

France: putting teams to the sword. Sadly the French team are only playing the most-depleted of the big three sides this time. Their slaughtering of Australia through their forwards was great to watch, and after both matches I'm prepared to revise my opinion of Szarzewski (sp?). Their back three are demons around the pitch and will only get stronger when Dusautoir returns (NO MORE HARINORDOQUY!); it was great to hear the commentators shout "Louis Picamoles; une machine!" last night. With the correct accents on the letters, of course.
On top of that, their new back-line set-up is working wonders. Fofana makes for a great winger, Mermoz is very solid and Florian Fritz has been playing an absolute blinder (MotM against Argentina for me, above Nyanga).
Problem is, as ever, that it's France. Hopefully this coach can bring forward this form to the 6N- as much as people love to hate France, no-one dislikes watching this sort of rugby being played.

Wales: too many problems. Short breakdown: JJD and Lydiate, no experienced TH yet, terrible line-outs, no attacking options, no good set-pieces, the worst breakdown work I've ever seen, leaky defence, Priestland lacking in all confidence and unclear as to what to do (God I hope Biggar's fit, he actually did well until that 'legal' (fuck off JD) clear-out), top-class wingers that we drift into the touchline, no real captain, Roberts regressing in his attack patterns (thank God he moved; Top14 will use his potential, I hope), headless kicking, no good 4/5 pairing available (best is usually AWJ/BBD; Charteris needs a scrummager with him and Evans can be a penalty machine), Warburton's form (I noticed he's got a lot of head padding now and he's complained of headaches. Shame; as a biased person I think that on-form he's World Class) and 1/2p not good enough to carry the team (bright side: he can always get parts in Peter Jackson films), Faletau needs some work (he's got skill but he got outmuscled). Gethin needs to get used to being an impact sub until his scrummaging gets better or he gets more game time.
Dire. Start to finish. AB will likely slaughter us.

Samoa: can reliably claim to be a Tier One nation since they turned the Aussies. Played with the usual PI gusto but had some tactics and tight/set-piece work to back it up. Still concerned that they're not quite clear on what arms are, but that might be the bitterness talking. They might also struggle against teams willing to match them physically. Go and win your other matches.
I still think NZ were silly not to try and nab Fotuali'i.

Argentina: I'm still not convinced that all the talk of "one season of TRC making them better" is correct. Partly because it reeks of the sort of "SH is just better. Always" spiel that kinda helps no-one but those teams, and partly because they came into the RC performing at that level. It's more likely that the development the IRB have put into them and the time Argentinian players have spent in the UK and France has turned them into a scary unit. Their pack are properly terrifying and JMF Lobbe is turning into a Parisse-type high-performance talisman for his team. Except with a good team around him.

South Africa: battering all and sundry into submission since inception. They've got a good attacking option with Lambie, who will be Goosen's back-up when he returns. Pienaar is playing phenomnally well. They've got a pack of golems who never seem to be able to turn their monstrosity into good scrummaging technique (their tightheads beyond Mtawarira are not good) but will run the ball all day long. Adriaan Strauss may well fight BdP for his shirt (phenomenal workrate, but BdP is BdP). Alberts and Etzebeth in particular are not men you want running at your line, and JDV is still battering defences. Although they have a solid defence they do seem to be more manageable if you deny them the ball, but they have been doing a decent job retaining it and making turnovers.
Oh, and don't let them maul. Hilariously, Scotland refused the maul twice (clever) from a lineout and the 'boks just went for them anyway. BOKKE SMASH.

Australia: who the fuck knows? They blow hot and cold more often than France at the moment; despite being so badly depleted, they've got the mental strength to hold on and beat an England team who really should have stuck it to them. The France match they got destroyed; they couldn't get any clean ball or make an attacking platform for themselves and they didn't have much in defence. Against England they seemed to rely fully on experience to make defence and the breakdown easy on themselves (not convinced the breakdown wasn't iffy) and then Barnes had the measure of the English defence and was, with Beale, able to unlock it.

New Zealand: battered Scotland. Great support lines, incredibly quick at the breakdown with a good pack. Still New Zealand. I hear the Italy game was, scoreline permitting, not quite as good. Dan Carter still the best player around for international games; something in his head just makes him sublime when he's on form. Likely to go 4-0 this time around, unless England cause an upset.

Right, that's me done. What does everyone else think?

Italy was very game and kept it respectable for most of the match. They took their chances to attack but lacked composure when doing so, several times throwing the ball to the ABs after running it. Unfortunately they pretty much stopped defending in the last 10 or so, which predictably resulted in the ABs getting a handful of tries.

It wasn't a quality AB performance by any stretch, despite the scoreline. Gear and Cruden were sloppy at times, we didn't dominate in attack, and we kicked it away more than we should have. Yes it was a side with many replacements but we should have been much better. If we try to coast on our success against a better team we could be in for a shock. All it will take is for England, say, to have a really good game, and for us to play like we did against Italy, and we could easily be humiliated.

You understand we can't lose to England. Not when Australia beat them. That would be insufferable. So I'm hoping for a strong showing against Wales, and given their disappointing form recently we have no excuses.

Marler was great in defence, but his hands let him down. He never (ok almost never) gets pinged for binding issues because he has such a long bind, but that works against him when someone's on his elbow.

The Aussies had done their homework on our defence and our breakdown technique. Flooded the breakdown, chippped over the defensive line. It took England way too long to work out how to counter it and our lack of skills showed up; we also really should've just TAKEN THE FUCKING POINTS ON OFFER Jesus Christ

ahem

Yeah, I'm not sure why Robshaw kept going for territory instead of playing the clever game.

You're not wrong about Marler, I don't think, but I'm sure I spotted him in the wrong place at breakdown time a few times and given the ref already thought he was giving away too many penalties...

I see he's been dropped which will do his confidence wonders; everyone's forgotten that if this Aussie pack is winning engagements, they're not doing so fairly. Also congratulations on not biting on my Haskell remark.


I see the Wales game is before the watershed. Rather hopeful programming by the BBC there.

Marler's dropped because he's injured - he got a knee injury early on. Corbisiero is rightfully first choice when fit anyway.

Aussie rugby site did a pretty decent job of analysing the scrums:

Nice, looks like I wasn't too far off the mark. You can see the momentum the Aussies got in the last four scrums.





Where: Firenze
When: 1400 GMT, Saturday, 24th November.

What: a bunch of Australian sportsmen visiting a town in Italy. THIS CAN ONLY END WELL.

Neither team seems to have done much since last week. Geldenguhys and Barbieri get a start after the shellacking the Azzurri got from the All Blacks last week. They've had a tough time, Italy. They squeaked past Tonga and they gave some All Blacks a run-around. Still, they're not favourites for the Wooden Spoon in the 6N this year any more.

Australia are trying out a new (33 year old, so a development hope) scrum-half, Brett Sheehan. I see he's the Force scrum-half. How curious, I watched at least one Force game and have no recollection of either him or the Western Force team. Otherwise there's not a lot to report on the Australian bench. Ioane's not starting. Blimey.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Aussie pack can come up with this week, particularly as they're on the bounce. Aussie critics would be eating their words, but we've all heard Australian pundits at some point (although I like Michael Lynagh). The Italians traditionally enjoy the scrum and tight work, and I'm sure Parisse has Hooper and Palu in his sights. The issue here is that the Italian defence can, on occasion, be a bit leaky against certain team. The pack engagements should be fun; on paper. The big difference here comes in the form of Michael Hooper, who's going to make like absolutely miserable for the Italian pack.

I don't think there's that much in this one, to be fair, but the Australians have some wind in their sails now. Whether they use it is a different matter. Australia by six.

Where: Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road
When, 1400 GMT, Saturday 24th November.

Man alive do Ireland not want to lose this one. I mean they really don't. Gilroy earns himself a start on the wing after their free-scoring run against Fiji, Other than that, this is the team basically that Ireland have available to them, and I'm terrified for them. See, that's a good chunk of the pack that fully capitulated to England last 6 nations, with a bit less weight. McCarthy has, so far, earned his stripes in starting with Ryan and they haven't been scrummaging badly. The front row have been holding up much better than in previous times, with Strauss filling in for Best nicely. Sexton and Bowe are, as ever, stand-out performers and we'll see what Gilroy's got in a bigger match.

Argentina are going to be really hurting after that defeat to France. The French felt, to me, like they had the upper hand all game and for this Argentine team, coming in off their first RC and just having beaten the 6N champions, that will smart. I fully expect the experienced and able back row to get the upper hand on the much younger Irish pack. They're still scrummaging like wild beats despite losing the grizzled warrior Roncero and Mario Ledesma and Leguizamon is dangerous at breakdown time. The back-line I expect to do their work; they'll defend hard, but I'll be interested to see what Ireland do to change their gameplan.

I expect this one to be really tight. If Argentina sniff a weakness, given their performances against Wales and France, they'll gun for it hard. On the other hand, Ireland are equally opportunistic, maybe a bit more nimble and playing at home. Both teams are, on balance, pretty close but I have to give the advantage to the home side. Ireland by three, Sexton to get a penalty to clinch it (75th-ish, last five will be brutal).

Where: Stade de France.
When: 1700 GMT, Saturday 24th November.

Strangely Szarzewski isn't starting for France. He's been playing better than I've seen him recently. Admittedly, comparing him to Cervat is a little less than fair. They've also brought in old hand Domingo to start instead of Forestier, who goes to the bench. Forestier's impressed me, but I can see why Domingo's starting (Jonhston). Parra also gets himself a start; Machenaud was a little off last week, and Parra's experienced (despite being the same age as Machenaud. They're both 23.). I think that's what's on Saint-Andre's mind this time around. This Samoan team are dangerous and they've got an lethal-looking front row. They should also know most of that pack.

The French are on the up and it seems like the change of coaching staff might actually be steadying the ship. Samoa are also on the up, and they really, really want to take that position in the rankings away from another team. They'll certainly be game for it, but my money's with France. They can match the Samoans physically, they're playing very well and they've got plenty of experience to help them out. I can see this game charging around and across the pitch like Spies after creatine, and with similar vigour. It'll be relentless and gritty and that's the sort of game where the French can potentially shine. I would absolutely love for Samoa to win despite the ramifications, and I don't want to claim their last performance was a blip but I'm going with France by ten. They're just a bit too strong at the moment.

Where: The River of Grass, Cardiff.
When: 1715 GMT, Saturday 24th of November.

Welsh fans had some good news this week. Firstly, the sublime Jonathan Davies is back. He's a key player for the Welsh team and is turning into one of the more complete 13s playing the game. Also, the All Blacks don't publicly consider this one a foregone conclusion, which is good of them. Lastly, we have some heavy lock and flanker cover as Shingler's on the bench On the bad side, Biggar's injured (supposedly) and NORTH IS GONE. Balls. That means we give a young Scarlet (doing well in the league) his second cap playing against New Zealand. Against Cory Jane. Whee. Also Warburton's starting again. Tipuric had some problems against Samoa- no-one else was making tackles so he had to fully commit and doesn't have the physicality to make a big tackle and then steal. That's not a good excuse for starting the extra-padded Warburton, but that's the best I could come up with. Oh, and Matthew Rees, a man who couldn't hit Rebecca Brooks with a corruption charge, is starting due to Hibbard being injured.

New Zealand put out their full first XV save for the injured Dan Carter. Cruden steps in. I think Cruden's a good fly-half, I really do, but he doesn't seem to have the experience or head for big games. Otherwise their team, bench and all, look pretty solid. Current form they're streets ahead of everyone else, to the point that I swear I saw Owen Franks seagulling one game that they still won handsomely. Not that that makes a difference, I just think it's funny seeing Franks basically running between wings in an attempt to do less running. I wonder what he was thinking.


Wales have been dire of late and are going to ship a lot of points. New Zealand haven't. Wales save around twenty points due to Carter, who's once again on stunning form but turning into more and more of an injury worry. New Zealand by thirty.

To be fair those last 4 scrums were all on Aussie put-in :p

I'll do an England one in a bit.

Once again, I assume that Jam will do England. If not, then a precis:

Manshaming. That's what England have to avoid. I see the so-far better Corbisiero is starting so they'll have the upper hand in scrums. The SA back-row, on the other hand, are going to eat the English one alive. It'll be brutal. If England manage to achieve parity against South Africa in the forwards they can win it as long as they don't then try to play crash ball or a kicking game (shush).



On a lighter note, I ended up watching the England game with Australian commentators last week. They spent a lot of time marvelling at the cauliflower ears on the (very young) English pack and were curious as to how Robshaw obtained his as a flanker (answer: by scrummaging).

I wonder what their comments mean?

Where: Twickenham Stadium
When: 14:30 GMT, Saturday 24th November

England are probably sick of the sight of the South Africans. After being beaten by the much-derided Wallabies where their ruck and defensive gameplans were completely broken down and their scrum successfully disarmed, England now have to face the one side in world rugby who simply will not be outmuscled. These sides played each other three times in the summer, SA winning two and England drawing the final match against a side depleted by injuries.

South Africa are still playing a fairly negative gameplan, with Heyneke Meyer's beloved Bulls the blueprint for their attack. They've picked the silky Pat Lambie at 10 and told him to kick the leather off it, and the fans aren't particularly happy. They won't fear playing England, knowing that Alberts has their number and Pienaar's tactical kicking is unmatched, but they may struggle to put them away. Adriaan Strauss is having a whale of a time playing hooker, and if he fails then we all know what Schalk Brits can do off the bench. Brits is probably the best attacking centre in English rugby, but he's a hooker.

England have reacted (possibly overly so) to the Australia defeat by making 6 changes. Despite having a pretty good game at 8, Thomas Waldrom drops out of the squad and Ben Morgan replaces him. Morgan's already shown he can turn a match with his slaloming fatboy runs so it's an aggressive move; it's up to Morgan to show he has Waldrom's workrate in attack and defence. Tom Wood comes in for Tom Johnson on the flanks, meaning England lose a bit of pace there but gain a lot more nous and work in the tight spaces. Joe Launchbury is the replacement for the injured Tom Palmer. Launchbury 6 months older than SA's new enforcer Eben Etzebeth in the second row, and looks to be something pretty special. He's speedy, has a massive workrate, great hands, and really made a big impact when he came on against Australia. The last time he met his opposite number was for the U20s when England won, and hopefully he'll remember that.

England's first choice loosehead Alex Corbisiero returns with Joe Marler going out injured - it's good to see Corbs back but by all accounts he had a torrid time in his last match against a Leicester tyro, so fingers crossed it goes OK. Charlie Sharples is dropped to accommodate another fullback - Mike Brown - who starts on the wing (a dangerous call really), and finally Ben Youngs' dreadful 20 minute cameo of fuckups and retarded plays against Australia is rewarded with a starting berth at scrumhalf. Thanks, Lanny.

Lots of changes. And yet most people think the biggest problem is in midfield, where Barritt and Tuilagi just don't create anything. Tuilagi at least represents a try scoring threat and will bust some tackles, but we'd much rather see him picking a line off Barritt. Trouble is, neither of them seem capable of doing their jobs as centres in attack. Frustrating for England, and it's where we really see the lack of development since the start of the 6N.

The weather forecast is pretty dreadful, SA have a couple of fantastic kickers and some world-class players under the high ball, they've got a big midfield and a huge pack. They should walk this one. The only threat to them is if England somehow take a decent enough lead to force them to chase the game.

Prediction: SA by 7. It will be ugly.

OH LOOK IT WAS UGLY


The marginally less retarded team won. Too many England players were piss-poor. SA got a bit fucking lucky with their try. Oh well.

Pretty much covers it. Odd game. One point all that was in it. Bet Robshaw takes a kicking from the English press; damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Wales, on the other hand, got themselves reamed. Well played, New Zealand. Too good.

The Good: well, New Zealand, obviously. They kinda coasted today but they still ran the tries in.
Sam Warburton turned up today. Maybe he can regain his old form.
Liam Williams is going to be good.
We actually drew the second half.

The Bad: We shipped too many points.
Flooded the breakdown after the debacle the previous two weeks. Opponent ignored it.
Terrible, terrible hands. Truly atrocious. How many knock-ons did we give away?
The Millennium Stadium pitch. Cuts up, gets slick. Poor.
Too many missed tackles.
Rhys Priestland.
Players isolating themselves.
Poor kicking, from the hand and the tee.
Too long to recycle the ball.
Falling for really basic plays. That Woodcock try should have been obvious.
We still look a bit shot in attack and we're missing far, far too many players. We were running with, what, our third choice front row and an ageing flanker as a lock?

The Ugly:
13 man lineout try. The most embarrassing thing I've seen in a while; I actually had to stop myself rolling around on the floor.
Andrew Hore.Our ball carrier being taken off (conspiracy theory that it was premeditated) meant Warburton had to carry, so he'll have a six week headache.
We can run two sevens but it's not pretty.
Everyone but Mike Philips and Tavis Knoyle running scrum-half in the last ten minutes.
I think Faletau needs more muscle.
Jonathan Davies is clearly rusty in defence (although he did pull off one of his patent read-the-defence blitz tackles).
Craig Joubert's passport application. To be fair to him, the second half was a bit better. (moan moan whinge; we lost the game on our own terms and on balance Joubert wasn't so bad).


I think that covers it. Our breakdown work was a bit of a head-scratcher. I know we're worried about McCaw flopping over the rucks like he usually does, but flooding them meant we didn't have enough people left over to attack. Tactical kicking was, once again, poor. Attack was lacking for a variety of reasons. Some really basic defensive errors and far too many failed tackles. The link-man factory hasn't produced a 1st-team ready scrum or fly-half (Biggar's our best bet at present). I'm going to giggle every time I see that try, too.
On the plus side, we were running a B-team and didn't lose by the thirty I predicted. DAMAGE LIMITATION, CHAPS. We're going to be third pool for the World Cup seeding.


Other games I haven't seen. I hear that France nearly lost, Australia nearly lost (hope) and Scotland actually did lose. Ireland seem to have destroyed the Argentinians. I was not expecting that.

Without having seen the rest of the game that hit by Hore looks indefensible to me. Per usual it's hard to be sure about intentions, but it's disgraceful either way. Even under the most charitable viewing (which I see little reason to grant) he had no business swinging his arm around that high. I don't know what's got into the ABs these past few games, we aren't usually the team to pull idiotic stunts like that.

Well, you know, it ain't tiddlywinks.

There have been more than a few incidents of late from several teams. Bradley Davies himself got 6 weeks last year for this, although hitting a man from behind by surprise is a world away from that for many reasons.

Discipline starts and ends with the coaches:

I shall leave that with only one comment: in what seems like a fit of cosmic irony, Meyer is attempting to clean up the 'bok game, at least publicly (but he needs to stop Etzebeth turning into yet another South African enforcer). He apologised for Greyling's attack on McCaw and officially dropped him from the Springbok squad.

I reckon the pundits will have written a fair bunch about this, so I'm happy to leave it there and say that it probably made less of a difference to the score than the loss of Dan Carter.

I do get a little bored of all the drama when NZ come up here. Normally there's at least one spiteful attack on each side, one citing fuckup, one excessive ban, and a whole lot of bleating from the media on either side. And we lose.

It's just dull. We play NZ every year and I'm genuinely getting tired of it.

Sorry. From our perspective I wish we'd play all the top NH sides in a row. That would be a real challenge, would raise the chance of someone toppling us as we would have to play our best players more often, and would make for more exciting viewing from both sides.

I'd rather (as a neutral when you're not playing NZ) you played a series instead. I'm a big fan of treating it like cricket - having Test series where each one is relatively rare and eagerly anticipated.

Are you suggesting that we have them as replicas of the summer tours but in reverse? I did wonder why they haven't tried that recently.

Fully agree with you, by the way, and I'm aware that I'm guilty twice above.

Yes, pretty much.

It's not like we don't know that NZ will win 95%+ of their away matches up north in any given decade. What I'd like to see is if home advantage actually counted for something. Imagine NZ playing in Paris, Marseille, and uh somewhere else. Or Australia playing 3 Tests against England, with maybe a chance to take it somewhere other than Twickenham once in a blue moon. What about Samoa v Wales as an actual series?

I loved the fact that we toured SA for 3 matches in the summer, but boy oh boy was I sick of the sight of them by the time they got to Twickenham. It used to be that playing the SH sides was pretty rare; now we seem to be playing them every 10 minutes.

I know from a financial perspective this will never happen. It's nice to dream, though.

My heart rate is fine, thanks.

In all seriousness, I do like the idea of proper to-and-from tours in different stadia. Moving the matches away from the Millenium would be a good idea. On the flip side, the more we play the different SH sides, the better we get at playing them.

I do have one concern about the amount of international rugby, actually. Some of the players just seem exhausted. I believe the SH have a lighter schedule than NH teams. I believe our seasons have more matches and tournaments at the high level and the conditions are tougher and more energy-sapping. I'm starting to wonder if the amount of time players spend playing at the highest level is starting to take a toll.

Look at the Welsh regions. The WRU chose to have four games including one against New Zealand for financial reasons and they've cost the regions a lot of players. I'm not just talking about the training time and the test window, but the number of players that have dropped out injured. Ospreys lost a good number which is going to damage their position and jeopardise their precarious HEC position.Which is probably going to cost them ticket sales and therefore money.

On a lighter note, here are the try of the year nominees.

Eh, no.

Damn you and your statistical facts, I was trying to be optimistic.


It's never going to work, is it? The sentence is definitely missing the word 'theoretically'.

Hehe. Yeah I'm all for the idea that for some teams - like Argentina - regular exposure to these sides will make a big difference. But we play them a lot and all it's doing is exposing the structural problems in our game in comparison to theirs.

Yeah, I'm not sure what we can do to match them. I've never ventured to SANZAR but it seems like they have some natural advantages, mostly cultural but some around their basic set-up, that mean we can't compete.

I say we, France and England have historically been able to by dint of wealth, population size and a few other factors. Edit: or in the case of England, by a "gnarled gargoyle" selection program. See: 1999 to 2007.


I wonder what we do about it? A re-focusing down at the basic level? Changing the way it's taught+? Re-structuring our seasons? Re-focusing away from gym work and fitness to skillsets, which is probably an overblown complaint? Cultural re-evaluation?

+We were both forwards, right? I'm sure we know what that entails at school level, or at least what it did for me.

The Kiwis (and possibly the Aussies) split by weight for schools rugby IIRC. But it's also a question of teaching them to enjoy playing with the ball. I don't think the gap is that wide when it comes to the kids though - England have produced some bloody good U20 sides that played some awesome attacking rugby, and despite the aberration in the last tournament, the JWC usually sees a good showing from us. The previous team with George Ford, Joe Launchbury, Joe Marler etc were the better team in the final and desperately unlucky to lose; sure, the Kiwis have a conveyor belt of talent but we were almost matching them and regularly giving the Aussies and Saffers a bit of a hiding. The academies are bearing fruit and I have no real issue with how that's all working.

That talent gets misused at club level pretty badly. You look at the AP, and Quins are champions (and play the best attacking rugby) despite having at best the 5th best squad in the league. We just developed the offloading game, have some seriously smart coaches willing to put in the hard graft over 18 months to develop a proper attacking gameplan, and are lucky enough to have a touch of genius at 10 in Nick Evans.

Properly coached, Tigers, Saracens, Bath, and Saints would probably overtake us fairly comfortably. But instead they mostly get trained to play by rote, safety-first bullshit where they struggle to chase matches because breaking open games no longer comes naturally to them. It's no surprise Quins won so many matches late on - they have absolute faith in their ability to go all-out when it's needed. Poor fucking Robshaw's beginning to understand that Quins are not the national side who are a million miles away from being in a position where they can expect to march up the field with a few minutes remaining and win the game.

Good point. The easiest difference to pick out between New Zealand and the other sides is how they counter-attack and how they force games. The best indicator of that is their support play and their offload game. It's actually one of the reasons I rate the full-strength Aussie team. When they've got the ball they're not afraid to try things and they actually seem to enjoy what they do, albeit they have consistency and execution problems. Cooper has... issues but his attacking play is outstanding. I think South Africa have the talent to beat New Zealand, too. I probably don't need to go over what Wales have been as a side traditionally and how they've been developed again, but the biggest thing I took away from the last year is that very few of the players look like they're enjoying themselves.

I think you've hit the major point, I thought that was a grassroots/teaching issue but it might be a coaching and mentality issue at the senior level.

JWRC this year was an interesting one, actually, following on from your point. All Blacks were turned twice in the same year. We might actually end up playing one of those guys on Saturday although I hope not. A 19 year old prop, no matter how good, is going to have his head pushed into his pancreas by anyone with decent experience.

NH Club level I should make an effort to follow more closely than I currently do (I watched most of the SXV, shame on me) because I'm really struggling to figure out why the Welsh teams under perform at HEC level. Aside from money. Technically my local professional team are Sarries and sleeping in stadiums is really bad for the back so I don't bother.

+Did some quick checking of that backline at the Scarlets, and I didn't know JJD was born in Solihull. If they'd stolen him and Lydiate...

...and North...

From what I can see a lot of the 'top' Welsh players no longer give a shit about their bread and butter regional matches. Which is problematic.

Now, now, he's a good Anglesey boy.

They don't seem to care about internationals either. MrSnaffles told me Gwyn Jones wrote a good article about the top- heavy structure in Wales at the moment. Sounds like the root of it.

So, yeah, problematic.

If by Anglesey you mean Norfolk!

Born in Norfolk, raised in Anglesey. Poor kid/Godzilla hybrid.

You still can't have him.





They've now announced the IRB Player of the Year nominees:

Dan Carter.
Pretty solid. He had an unremarkable SXV season, I thought, and he's been missing a bit with injuries, but he's still Dan Carter. Body-of-work nomination?

Richie McCaw
Does not stop. I think he's slowed down a fair bit, both in pace and in subtlety but he's had a good year.

Freddie Michalak
Returns to the French side after the Lievremont years, plays three tests, gets nominated for IRB Player of the Year. Toulon are top of the table but only by a couple of points. Almost justifiable.

Owen Farrell
Has photos of the selection panel.


That last one should be one of: Read, Lydiate, Etzebeth, Lobbe, Picamoles probably isn't far behind either. Any other nominations?

Club form isn't included so no way should Michalak be there. Read or Lobbe.

Fair enough.




Where: Cardiff.
When: 1430 GMT, Saturday 1st of December.

I don't think anyone much cares about this one. Wales are playing the Australians for the fourth time this year and, to be frank, they'll be sick of the sight of each other.

Wales are missing a lot of players. Probably as many first-team players as the Australians are. We've also had a number of our better players return to their clubs as this test is outside the usual window. So, out goes Paul James and back comes Gethin, Ian Evans is not starting due to an injury so we've got Lou Reed coming in and Shingler finally displaces Jones the Elder from the pack. Other than that we've got a nineteen year old on the bench as prop cover, Rhys Priestland starting again and no real hope.

The Aussies lost Timani to a citing this week, but they got Pocock back. That's a problem. Pocock does really well against us because we're bad at clearing the rucks when Alun Wyn-Jones and Bradley Davies (still concussed) aren't playing. Kurtley Beale is slowly proving that he's not a fly-half but he's frankly the best they've got (who will they go with if Cooper goes permanently? Lealiifano or O'Connor? Lealiifano looked better at fly-half last SXV, I think). This is also Nathan Sharpe's last match.

What can we expect? Well, both sides are at the end of a long year, both are missing a lot of their players and both are sick of each other. Both have points to prove; both technically like to play broken field rugby. Robbie Deans is under fire from just about everyone in Australia, Gatland has his eyes on the Lions squad. It'll be loose. It'll be scrappy. It'll look like a slap-fight between two concussed squirrels. No-one will kick for touch. There will be mistakes from here to Sunday. It's tricky to tell which Australia team will turn up but after last week's scare it'll probably be the one that held off the All Blacks. The Welsh, most likely, will be the ones that still have massive psychological issues whenever they play a Southern Hemisphere side.

I really want to say something useful or optimistic about this game but I'm struggling. The Aussies know they can win this game and they most likely will. The scrums will be a farce to the point of becoming dangerous, that I can probably say. Australia by five, Welsh to make a second half come-back. There's just no way we can turn our current form around.


The other match, I predict England 15 - 12 New Zealand (also Steve Hansen keeps opening his mouth and saying stupid things that's enough of that).

Congratulations to Australia managing to find victory.
Many things to say about Wales but I shall spare you the boredom. Turns out we're terrible and this is likely another false dawn.

I also hear the English won, which genuinely delights me. Was it the stomach bug or were they simply better? I'll have to watch it to find out. Well done England.

holy fucking shit


OK so we were genuinely really, really good. 12-0 up at halftime after the pack had eaten NZ for dinner, NZ score two tries thanks to some uncharacteristically weak tackling (and, it must be said, a howler of a reffing decision - not that he was bad!) to make it 15-14 to England, and I thought it was all over. England then proceed to repeatedly tear NZ a new one and score 3 tries and make several breaks to get an unassailable lead, before emptying the bench and letting the impact players have a shot. NZ scored a couple late on and butchered some moves but England were absolutely dominant for 70 minutes, which is mystifying and totally awesome.

I imagine NZ were pretty poorly affected by the bug if only in their preparation, but in the rush to slaughter Robshaw's captaincy last week the press failed to notice how we won the armwrestle with the Boks and edged the physicality battle. NZ had no answer to what we did to them.

So very proud :)

Huge congratulations to England, unambiguously the better team. No excuses for playing like that. When we're good we step up to a team who's firing and batter down their confidence by blunting their attack and killing them with penalties. When we're not either the other team manages to play worse or... that happens. Hopefully this is a leaning experience for new coach and somewhat new team.

Just finished it. On the plus side, the English defence in the first half was brilliant. I haven't seen anyone stop NZ that hard in ages. Really solid play.
England also took their points very well, and scored a predatory try. They were completely the better team from start to finish. I did not expect them to smash NZ at the breakdown the way they did. I've got very few answers as to how they pulled that game out and how they were so dominant.Absolutely the better team and I pray this was a one-off. :P

New Zealand looked flat. I don't think they've got out of first gear since they played against Scotland, and while I think the stomach bug had some effect (they looked knackered at the end. When's the last time you saw a tired All Blacks side) it doesn't matter. They butchered so many moves and got so comprehensively tonked at the breakdown that they had no answer. Carter had an absolute nightmare, Nonu was hugely exposed, Smith got rattled and Conrad Smith made the wrong decision a couple of times which is a real puzzler.

How do people feel about the past year of international and domestic (including US rugby, bloo)?

We've ended the year with two teams rebuilding (Ireland, England), one burnt out (Scotland), one wasting some stunning talent (SA), one whose performance I feel is flattered by the general standard on display (NZ)+, two on the rise (Arg, Samoa), one going down in flames (Wales; got a big long post cooking about them but I'll probably spare you the moaning analysis), and France.

Hey, at least we've got a Lions tour to look forward to. My personal team selections based on this below:

+Still the best, still streets ahead of everyone else. I don't think they're playing to potential though, because they have no need to.

If we're going to lose, I'm genuinely happy for it to be against a team that played as well as England did yesterday. There's tonnes of potential reasons why we didn't play as well as we could have, but fuck it, well done England!

Also (tongue very firmly in cheek here!), see what happens, England, when you show up in a FUCKING WHITE JERSEY LIKE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO?

(ok, I probably shouldn't be browsing the Guardian)