Autumn Internationals 2022, Week 1 (and Week 0)

29/10

• Scotland v Australia

The final score shows an Australian victory but most of the Aussies I know don’t regard it that way, it’s more of a Scottish loss - an easy last minute penalty kick that went awry that meant they lost - rather than the Wallabies winning.

Is that fair? Probably not entirely. However, when you stop and look, the list of things Australia did well is short - they largely kept Scotland to their own half, their own 22 even, especially in the first half. That’s it. In attack they looked ok for a couple of phases then, all too often, gave up a penalty or a more traditional turnover and the attack came to nothing. While their defence was strong enough to pin Scotland back, it was helped by the wind, and the fact that they were deep encouraging them to kick early in the phase count. The change of ends and the inability of the Wallabies to keep Scotland pinned back in the second half was telling. Scotland were not great either, but they were missing a bucket-load of players based in England because this was outside the November test window. Many are clear improvements on those we saw. And Scotland can count themselves unlucky to have lost.

5/11

• Scotland v Fiji

If Scotland were unlucky last week, they were somewhere between lucky and organised in this week’s victory. Fiji left 12 points begging in the first half, and a much harder 5-7 behind in the second, and lost by 16. Some of the points Fiji missed were because Scotland’s defensive system, and disciplined players forced Fiji to attempt miracle balls that didn’t quite work. Some of it is the difference between tier one and tier two nations. Scotland were just fitter, and over 80 minutes that showed as they adjusted to the ref, reduced their penalty count, while fatigue caused the Fijians to give away penalties and cards far too often.

This match will have settled Scottish nerves somewhat but there’s a lot to do…

• Wales v New Zealand

This game started, and most definitely ended, brightly for the All Blacks. 17-0 up after 15 minutes and stretching out to a 55-23 victory sounds comprehensive enough. But in the middle Wales were within seven points a couple of times and they can point to three tries where disruptions due to injuries, inexperienced players making inexperienced mistakes of errors that arise from players not knowing each other and not trusting each other gave up tries. Of course every coach and side has these problems but Pivac and Wales have been missing a rotating swathe of senior players for 18 months or more and that continued here and had a measurable impact. At the 60 minute mark I commented that, with a full strength Wales I felt the All Blacks were there for the taking. With the last 20 taken into consideration as well, I’m not sure that’s true but, with a more experienced team, the score line would certainly have been closer.

The All Blacks did what they usually do. The took all their opportunities efficiently and ruthlessly. They created some with outrageous dummie, some with outrageous stepping and some with superior power or quickness of thought. In terms of clear try-scoring chances they created more too, but in terms of applying pressure that might have led to tries it was much more level. That was the other big difference. NZ were really good at making those chances hard to convert, usually so hard Wales just couldn’t do it, at least not with this team.

Is everything fixed for the All Blacks? No but it is looking better. Is everything doom and gloom for Wales? Equally no. Fighting back from that start to get close and stay close for so long, especially with so many young players is good. But I hope Pivac had some luck with injuries soon.

• Ireland v South Africa

In my write up of the France v New Zealand women's match I commented that it should be held up as an example of just how great women's rugby, and rugby in general, can be. Well this match is the complete antithesis of that. It was close, sure, 19-16 to Ireland, but it was played slowly stylistically and it was played slowly in terms of how the game clock advanced - it took appreciably over two hours to complete instead of a bit over 100 minutes (including half time - the next game ran 106 minutes for example).

South Africa tried their normal tactics. Ireland weren’t impressed and, although it took a long time, they found the cracks and scored their points. However, although Ireland won, they had a mix of people kicking and none were super-accurate. Some of the kicks were hard, but they still left a chunk of easy points out there that, on a different day, they’d have taken and won the game.

• France v Australia

Where to start with this? It probably shouldn’t have been this close, but France were out of sorts - lots of their team hadn’t played much rugby this year and it showed. They looked like they had forgotten the defensive systems and that really showed. And while I usually try to avoid criticising referees Peyper was truly awful and it appeared to be unevenly applied. Australia didn’t really play well, they just played well enough to disrupt what the French were trying to do, most of the time. That said, they did produce one really good try, from their own 5m line, running the length of the field. And then, with 3 minutes to go, Jalibert produced a great pass to Penaud, who showed why he’s one of my Team of the NH Barbarians, he had a lot of work to do but made it look all too easy. France win.

There is a lot for Galthie and Edwards to work on, but France have maintained that winning habit, and the players (I think it was three of them that, between them, had played less than 80 minutes this season) how have that much more rugby under their belts. The players have a record of working with and delivering for these coaches but, just as importantly, the coaches have a relationship with these players and know how to get the best out of them. I expect to see big improvements by next week.

If you strip out that one moment of brilliance, Australia kept France interested by sloppy technique, giving away too many blatant penalties (and with a different referee many, some of which would have had cards attached IMO) and coughing the ball up far too often while not winning any turnovers of their own. The French played poorly and won. The Australians also played poorly, bar some odd moments, and kept the French in it when they shouldn’t have. This was, that first try aside, a worse performance than last week, because France were really for the taking and the Wallabies were not able to deliver. Scotland were up for the fight and some loose kicking cost them.

6/11

• England v Argentina

It had poured with rain before the match and while that didn’t obviously dramatically affect the handling it may have affected the ambition of both sides to some extent. Certainly it was a game dominated by kicking penalties, although both sides scored a couple of tries. Three of them were constructed and came from pressure, the fourth Farrell will tell you came from a knock on in the tackle but the TMO couldn’t find any evidence of it. I guess it was just a case of the wet ball slipping in his hands.

It would be easy to criticise Argentina for a limited game plan but for most of the game England struggled and strained to score, Argentina kicked off, and within a couple of phases gave them an easy shot at goal. Three points within two minutes, thank you very much. When England's discipline started to improve, Argentina started to play more, although they were still kicking their points rather than going for tries.

England had deliberately gone for big strong backs along with big strong forwards. I would say it didn’t really work. You have to remember that Argentina play SA trice a year, so they’re used to the power game.

Happy Coaches

Cheika. He came to Twickenham and beat England. It wasn’t pretty but it Argentina seemed to play within themselves, England looked like they were struggling. He also finally got one over on his old mate. Maybe Townsend, Scotland had a fairly comfortable win. Also, although I didn’t see it, Italy had a good win over Samoa, so Crowley should be happy. Farrell, Galthie and Foster relieved more than happy, Foster probably closer to happy with a big win despite a rough middle patch. Pivac probably happiest of the losers. Wales proved they could compete and fight for a while. Erasmus really annoyed at the missed kicks and chances. Ireland were there to be taken, and one or two of the easy kicks on target puts a whole different spin on that. Rennie has some serious issues - given how poorly France played, especially in the first half (and France have a lot of excuses with not having played together since March, lots of players really undercooked) - you have to ask how did the Wallabies lose? And it’s the same old issues, poor discipline, poor breakdown accuracy, poor kicking from hand, the litany goes on and is not new. The same players cause the same issues…