Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

Reviews of the matches I didn’t watch over the weekend Canada v Fiji This is a match, like so many others, that featured a giant v minnows. Canada are currently ranked second in the world, Fiji somewhere in the teens. Like the other matches in these categories, scrums tended to be an issue, although they weren’t as bad as some, and the Fijian lineouts were pretty good. As you would expect, ball handling was pretty good too. What let the Fijians down was mostly speed of thought and details of execution. Canada could easily concentrate the Fijian defensive line, and then run around the outside of it - it looked like a sevens defence but with more bodies - and worse than the scrummaging was the kicking from hand - it was usually really short, or out on the full, or both. Fiji had moments, and stretched Canada, they scored possibly the try of the tournament as well, and will trouble both Scotland and particularly Wales in their other pool games. But they’re just too inconsistent and giv...

Rather than splitting these up into separate reviews, I’m just going to review all the games in one huge list. One thing that is going to crop up in my reviews of the WRWC is talking about different groups of teams. Right at the top we have England, who are red hot favourites to win it all, being undefeated since the last final. Then there’s a second group, consisting of Canada, France and New Zealand who are the likely semi finalists. They may not all make it, but they’re the most likely contenders. They could beat England in the final, but it relies on quite a bit of luck. Then there’s a third tier that is too large to all fit into the quarterfinals but who are competing for that, and for some a chance at a semifinal. This group includes Australia, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, USA and Wales. With the exception of Canada, all of these nations have some sort of professional national team and may have a professional league as well. Under this there is a group of also rans, minnows if you ...

This year’s Rugby Championship starts with back-to-back matches in South Africa and Argentina, with the Wallabies and All Blacks visiting respectively. Smart money would suggest that the Bokke and the ABs should win both matches, the Bokke a bit more comfortably being at home. South Africa v Australia For the first 25 minutes, the Bokke looked unplayable. They roared out to a 22-0 lead and everything they did looked brilliant, everything the Australians attempted looked lacklustre, more a case of green behind the ears and fool's gold than pride in the G&G jersey. Even after Australia scored, making it 22-5 after 28 minutes, and until half-time, it felt like the Wallabies were having a good 15 minutes but the Bokke would regroup and kick on in the second half. That didn’t happen. The substitutes didn’t improve things for the Bokke either, the Wallabies defence was massive, their attack was potent, and whilst they had some luck: two intercept tries - good defensive pressure but...