The Rugby Championship 2022, Week 5

When I write my reviews of the Six Nations I normally do a happy coaches section because with the different development stages and injury states a loss is not necessarily a disaster and a close win against some sides is not necessarily good news. In The Rugby Championship I don’t bother so much because it’s typically the case that a win is good news, a loss is bad news. This week though, all four coaches should have frowns. Those that lost will be deeper, probably, but there are serious issues for all the coaches to look at. Rather than spoil the reports, let’s dive in.

Australia v NZ

This is a match that Australian fans will feel, in my opinion wrongly, the referee stole from them. More on that in a minute. At about the 60 minute mark the All Blacks were 31-13 ahead and it looked like cruise control for a win, probably a big win. Then the Wallabies clawed their way to a lead, somehow. This is why Foster will be unhappy, how did the All Blacks let that comfortable lead slip? With about three minutes on the clock penalty to the AB and rather than going for the draw, they kick to the corner, win the lineout but mess up the maul. Penalty Australia. Victory is in sight! Foley wastes time, a lot of time. Raynaud calls time off, tells him when I call time on you must kick immediately. Then says “we play!” As an isolated call you might think “wtf?” but he’s used this as the “play on” call all game (it’s the direct translation of the French term, so it’s understandable that it’s what he’s using). Players all around Foley understand it, Foley wastes more time. Reynal pings time. Scrum to NZ, try in the corner, AB win.

Rennie might be saying he’s never seen that given before but we see the clock stopped for time wasting regularly, and after that the play is rapid or there’s a free kick usually at lineout and scrum. It happens more rarely with the ball at the base of the scrum or ruck, but it certainly has at club and test level. It only needs to happen once or twice for all the teams to be sharper. Raynal directly told Foley what to do, everyone else understood he'd called time on. What planet was Foley on?

Rennie has to deal with that, and a team that played some really dumb rugby for most of the game. Those are his frown reasons.

Next week the AB welcome the Wallabies to Eden Park. One of the last true fortresses in world rugby. Even in their disappointing series against the Irish they won here.

Argentina v South Africa

If you look at the score line you’ll wonder what Rassie and Jacques have to worry about. 36-20 sounds great? In the first half, Los Pumas exemplified everything that’s bad about having the Ass Clown as your head coach. They played like headless idiots with no clue what they were doing and WAY too match aggression that, luckily, only saw 15 penalties and 2 yellow cards, no red. I’m not saying they should have seen red, but uncontrolled aggression on the rugby pitch often tips over that way. In the second half they played like Cheika, the guy that turned Australia around and took them to a REC within 18 months of taking over was their head coach. With five minutes to go it was 22-20 and the Boks scored twice late to make it look much more lopsided than it really was. Cheika should be worried about his side’s first half performance. Rassie and Jacques about the Boks overall performance. Apart from the last five minutes they had the penetration and incisiveness of a blunt spoon. If Argentina hadn’t gifted them a penalty try and a load of territory and driving maul chances those 22 points would have been 3 for a long range penalty and that’s it. (I know you can’t really say that, they adjust how they play to the scoreboard and so on, but that’s how poorly they played.)

Next week is the return leg in South Africa. While it’s hard to imagine the Boks blowing it, it could just happen.