The Rugby Championship and Women's Rugby World Cup, Week 3

We’re back to the men and women playing, plus the Top 14 starting but I won’t be reviewing that. Argentina are in Australia, South Africa in New Zealand. At the WRWC we largely have the top two teams in the pools playing off for bragging rights, in Pool A, USA are still in contention.

Because Argentina v Australia was an afternoon kickoff, their time, so still in the dark my time, I’m starting with second match.

TRC

New Zealand v New Zealand

At half time it was 14-3 to the AB and that might suggest the game was dull. That’s not what happened. This was a game where the Kiwis have worked out how to disrupt the Bokke machine and applied themselves to doing that. They’ve made everything except the scrum look very ordinary and they’ve taken a scrum penalty too, although they conceded a couple, but it’s far from complete dominance there.

As an example of how badly the AB are disrupting the Bokke, there was a penalty when, ok, Pollard was a certain three points, which he delivered, but the kick to the corner was equally certain and at 14-0 down you’d have expected them to take it and drive over. But no, it was take the three. At the end of half, they got free-kicked for delaying the throw.

The ABs were clinical, they created two chances on three visits to the 22, and scored two tries. The Bokke applied pressure but could never finish it off.

Although there were a lot of dropped balls from both sides, there was a brief, massive downpour and then pretty constant rain of varying intensity which made the ball very slippery, it caused the Bokke more issues at critical times. Under the high ball, and there were a lot of high balls, I suspect the stats will say that the AB knocked on more than the Bokke, but by eye I’m not sure, and that’s probably an indication of both the pressure and the conditions. A fortnight ago I don’t think, despite the conditions, that the Bokke spilt a single high ball.

It felt like the Bokke were just architects of their own downfall. They attacked and were crossing, they attacked and threw a pass in front of everyone to touch, they attacked and threw a forward pass. The ABs messed up a defensive 5m lineout and Ox Nche got held up over the line by the left wing of all people!

Finally, 63 minutes in, the SA scrum really flexed and struck against the head and that lead to a try. Straight from the kickoff the Bokke obstructed, the AB went to the corner. At the first attempt a cynical foul by Kwagga Smith led to a yellow, the next attempt led to a nice try. Rassie looked incensed at the obstruction call, hopefully at his player’s stupidity because it was a dead solid, should be in the referee’s guide, example of it. He settled into resignation after the try.

The ABs gave a debut to Preston at scrum half. He only got 10 minutes or so, but he seemed to do nothing wrong in his time. A good sign for the future.

The Bokke earned a 5m scrum and turned that into try. Seven points between them and five minutes to go…

The last few minutes were a furious, tense, physical contest. Everyone, including the referee, made mistakes - although his is hard to blame him for, he had two big bodies blocking his view. Savea got over the ball and earned a penalty with under a minute on the clock, game over? But in what should have been the last ruck, SA stole the ball and had a last few phases. Another turnover and Savea wins as he earns his 100th cap, Fortress Eden Park retains its hoodoo and SA are equal third with Argentina! (The table shows them above Argentina on about the fifth tie-breaker, tries scored).

Australia v Argentina

If you just look at the halftime and full time scores you’d be tempted to say “this was a game of two halves.” The first half ended 21-7 to Argentina, full time was 28-24 to Australia. Whilst that old cliché is obviously true to some extent, it would really be better to describe it as a game of three parts.

The first twenty minutes or so was scrappy, back and forth, and ended 7-6 in Australia's favour. Given the contrast in conditions to Eden Park, this was played in bright sunshine, it doesn’t feel unfair, although perhaps it’s ungracious, to say those points flatter the quality of rugby from both sides. In the second quarter that changed. Australia looked pretty much clueless and Argentina ran in two tries, a conversion and another penalty to stretch out the score. Honestly it looked like it might be a long day for the Wallabies.

The second half wasn’t quite as one-sided as the 21-3 score suggests. However, like the Bokke, before them in terms of my watching and review, Los Pumas kept making stupid mistakes at critical times and blowing scoring chances. Whilst that’s true, and they’ll legitimately be ruing their missed opportunities, it’s only one side of the story. The Wallabies, whatever Schmidt said at halftime, and perhaps more notably with a few important substitutions, stepped up appreciably. They deserved their win in the end, and Suali'i had a game, or at least a half, where he finally lived up to something close to the hype.

The pattern of scoring was such that Argentina went 24-21 ahead with under three minutes to go. It was towards a big group of Pumas fans who went mad as it went between the uprights. With the very last play, the Wallabies got a penalty and had a choice of drawing or risking it all and went for it. On this occasion, fortune favoured the bold. A string of penalties kept it going for the Wallabies until they crashed over with the clock seriously into the red.

JOC over Lynagh isn’t a disaster - he’s still learning test rugby, Tupou was not a complete waste of space but was definitely poor, McDermott brought something new and was a distinct step up from White. Some questions for next week.

WRWC

Canada v Scotland

Both teams are through but Canada have looked deserving of their number two world ranking. There are some questions here, can Scotland score? How long will it take Canada to rack up the bonus point? But they’re not healthy questions.

In the first ten minutes last week, Wales mounted almost constant pressure. In the first ten minutes this week, the Canadians gradually ramped up the pressure until, just after that period, hey scored a try and converted it. It wasn’t quite inexorable but there seemed to be a steady, slow advance by the Canucks until they scored.

The Scots tried to respond straight away, fairly easily getting down to the Canadian 5m line with a penalty, but then that almost inexorable drift forwards started again as defensive pressure told until, after back-to-back penalties, and ten minutes in total, the Scots scored out in the corner and answered one of those questions. No conversion left Canada ahead.

Canada applied pressure next, of course. It looked at first as if Scotland might have escaped, or at least delayed the inevitable, with an uncharacteristic knock on, but the TMO noticed that had been caused by a tackle from an offside position, yellow card for a cynical offence. I thought Scotland were lucky it wasn’t a penalty try too, but from the subsequent scrum there was a penalty try, so justice was served. Canada scored again during the 10 minutes, a lovely flowing move with lots of offloads. They were on attack again as time ran out in the half, denied another try by a knock on.

The second half started really messily from both teams. Missed kicks to touch, lineouts not straight, knocks on galore. Scotland were the first team to really grab the bull by the horns, although it was more a case of one player taking her chance. This seemed to wake the Canadians up, and after a long period of phase play, then a brief interruption, a penalty, a kick to the corner and a try.

This game was played at Sandy Park, where the wind is notoriously swirly, but you’d think the Canadians had the wind at their backs in both halves looking at the kicking. The difference was chalk and cheese.

The Scottish fans got excited about an apparent try to their 10 from a lineout move. The TMO pointed out that she’d started moving before the ball had left the hooker's hands, let alone before it crossed the 15m line. Canada marched down the pitch and scored.

This seemed to inspire Canada, but little mistakes prevented them scoring. Scotland ran in a third try, that did inspire a Canadian try, off a lineout steal. 40-19 the final score.

I don’t know how much Canada struggled in the first half because Scotland were the best team they’ve faced so far, how much they didn’t handle the conditions well and how much they just weren’t focused on this game, more focused on next week and the week after. This was the worst they've looked so far. Good enough for a comfortable victory in the end, almost certainly good enough to win next week too. But a semifinal win? There are doubts now, if they don’t lift from this. Of course a relatively poor performance now could be a blessing in disguise, the coach really has something to shout at them about, and they’re unlikely to play this badly again.

The assumption is that Scotland will go on to face England, and lose. Canada will face one of Australia or USA.

USA v Samoa

This is a game that everyone expects USA to win. The question is by how much? Assuming Australia don’t get a bonus point against England later, and USA do in this game, points difference decides who finishes second and third. Currently Australia have a buffer of +135 over USA, but they have a big win over Samoa, which USA are hoping to replicate, and don’t have a big loss to England, which USA are hoping they’ll suffer.

For the first couple of minutes the Eagles seemed more focused on scoring all the points instead of actually playing the game, which let Samoa get and keep the ball and look good. But a turnover, some slick hands and USA were on the board with five minutes on the clock. Five minutes later, another try.

It took until the 23rd minute to score their third try, this time it was more a case of little errors gifting Samoa the ball and them being good enough to play for more extended periods of time. However, USA were comfortably building into the game and three minutes later the try bonus point was secured. Part one of the job done. Fourth try, third goal kicker, first conversion.

USA barely paused before scoring from the kickoff, but that was it, two late efforts were disallowed for different sorts of obstruction. Halftime sacore 27-0.

The second half started with USA winning their own kickoff back and scoring under the posts with barely a minute on the clock. Two minutes later they were in again, Tafuna, the blindside flanker scoring her second long-range try out wide. At 39-0 the points difference gap is now under 100 points. Tafuna, hat trick! This one scored in a more conventional way for a 6, about 5cm out, pick and go. At 46-0, this is the most points USA have scored in over a decade.

Samoa were hard in attack and USA deliberately knocked on, yellow card! After the tap and go, USA held the attacker up, ripped the ball when it was over try line and ran it out. They reached halfway but went into touch. Samoa made a lot of easy metres after that but were then pinged at a ruck and USA were back on the attack. Although they didn’t go back and check, this was a massively long lineout to a back, like Scotland attempted, but this one looked fine and USA 22 carried the ball from halfway to about 10m out. Two phases later and another try, and the extras.

With ten minutes left, the Eagles are within touching distance of a positive points difference. USA messed up a lineout, Samoa attacked but knocked on millimetres from the line. From the scrum Samoa drove USA back, but they got the ball out into the field of play and Samoa dove over, too keen.

Taufuna added a fourth try, which was converted, and USA finished on 60-0, -2 overall. It’s basically a straight shootout, if England beat Australia by more than they beat USA a fortnight ago, USA are through. Otherwise it’s Australia.

If anyone wonders what playing better teams than you achieves, I think the answer is complex. If you look at the Italian men, they have infrastructure issues that definitely need to be addressed to go from low tier one up. But if you look at the Samoan women over these three games, they’ve never been in contention but they’ve improved by leaps and bounds despite getting thumped repeatedly - they’ve played and trained together for an extended period and they’ve seen the standards required and, if only for short periods, raised their game to meet it and know they can.

Wales v Fiji

Sadly, thanks to stupid scheduling, this match got sacrificed.

By the time Canada v Scotland was over, USA v Samoa was 20 minutes in. Given the potential significance, I watched that, by the time it finished the second half was about to begin. Tomorrow all being well.

Fiji ran out narrow victors, 28-25. Congratulations to them. Wales at least scored some tries.

England v Australia

Before the game the assumption was really that England would win at a canter, the question was really could they deny the Wallaroos a bonus point (almost certainly) and, more problematic, could they win by 75 or more to send them home and the Eagles through?

If you didn’t know what was going on you might think, after that preamble, that the team in green and gold were England, the team in blue were Australia. The Wallaroos started confidently, scored a nice try and converted it. England were making soft mistakes - passes low and/or in front and/or just forward - as well as mistakes due to Australian pressure - there was a great kick, Kildunne tried to tap dance and keep her toes in, but 5m lineout to Australia instead.

England had a try correctly disallowed, and took until the 32nd minute to sneak into the lead. In the last few minutes of the half, Australia seemed to fade a little, England upped their intensity and scored again, 19-7 at the break.

Just about the only thing that looked like England was their tight defence. The closer the Wallaroos got to the try line, the harder they found everything. They had, I think, nine entries in the first half, but only one try. But nine entries is more than England had given most sides in the whole game for years.

In the second half, England hadn’t cured all their ills. Their back three in particular were not working well together (I can only assume this was a deliberate defensive strategy) and Kildunne was typically alone covering the whole backfield rather than seeing some version of the pendulum with two players back, one close to each touch line. This continued even after Kildunne failed her HIA. But almost every other facet of the game had improved from the English perspective, probably aided by a continued fall off in the intensity of the Wallaroos. Even when they did lift their game briefly and disrupt the odd play, at the next play the Red Roses just turned it up and pressed on.

In the first half the set pieces had been a contest, probably shading in England's favour but close. In the second half the scrum became a penalty machine for England, the lineout a constant source of possession. Australia may have shown as, in fairness, many other teams in WXV1 and the W6N have over recently years, that you can make England look ordinary for a while but the energy to do that for the full match is just too much and they’ll wear you down. However, ther efforts were enough, although England won comfortably, they were nowhere near the 75 points required for USA to go through.

In the last ten minutes England finally passed the ball quickly and accurately along their backs. Sadly Breach put in the wrong kick and it all fizzled out but normally you see that sort of move throughout the match, not only in the last few minutes. Honestly, I don’t think Australia set out to win the game, they must have known they couldn’t have kept up the pace for the full 80, but they knew that more or less stopping England for one half would be enough. And that’s what they did. Congratulations to them. A 47-7 success for Australia.

Next week we’ll see England v Scotland and Canada v Australia in these quarterfinals.

Japan v Spain

According to the commentators Japan and Spain are two of the teams with 100% success rates at scrums but, as always, you need to be careful with what that means. For scrums that complete, i.e. don’t end in a reset, penalty or free-kick, they get the ball out on their put in. I will tell you that the Japanese scrum had the Spanish scrum under all kinds of pressure, with the subsequent effects on their play, at least in the opening stages. Japan converted that early dominance into a try out wide, but Spain responded with a nice trick play at the lineout, and a very fluid backs move with nice offloads to runners in space and a try under the posts, giving them a narrow lead.

This largely seemed to set the tone of the game. Japan's forwards were bigger and whilst not always dominant (the Spanish lineout worked pretty well, but mauls from it tended to be awful), certainly had the upper hand. They managed a 15+m driving maul for example, which then fell over, apparently legally, to great Spanish delight and the confusion of everyone else. The Japanese backs looked slow and clumsy compared to their opponents however and, as we’ve seen in their previous games, the Spanish defence was fast and physical.

As against the Black Ferns, the Spanish spent almost all the rest of the first half under pressure, mostly in their own 22. Unlike that match they didn’t leak any points and forced errors, turnovers and won penalties. In the last five minutes of the half they escaped, applied some pressure of their own, and although it wasn’t perfect, they piled over for another try under the posts. A good kickoff drill by Spain and a complete brain fade by Japan made the Spanish fans excited but it was just a bit too much. 14-5 at oranges.

In the Black Ferns match I was asking how long the Spanish could keep the intensity going. This match doesn’t have that feeling. They’re defending successfully, which is still tiring, but there’s no scrambling which certainly helps. They may still fade, but they could last as they did against Ireland.

Japan started the second half much as they did the first, with a bit of pressure and a quick try. Spain started leaking penalties which led to that try, and almost straight after it the pressure being back on them, but another error and they escaped. However, the string of penalties continued and, as both sides started to bring their subs on, the Japanese forward dominance only grew. Japan scored again, Spain were warned for general discipline and Japan scored again. With missed conversions it was only 22-14, not yet out of reach, but the Spanish were starting to feel the scoreboard pressure and push passes that earlier on had gone to hand.

A yellow card to Spain for a high tackle effectively ended the contest, even though Japan only managed one try during the ten minutes.

Having clearly lost, Spain calmed down a little, the passes that had been too frantic turned back into things of beauty and Spain finished off the scoring. Final score 29-21.

I try not to criticise the referees too often, and a lot of her decisions were great. But there were quite a few, for both sides, that had me screaming at the TV in disbelief. One of them was a “not straight” when the opposition didn’t jump, which was changed a couple of years ago now FFS. Did it affect the outcome? Probably not, but it’s still not a good look at a World Cup, that many big errors.

Italy v Brazil

The schedule strikes again! I could probably watch the first half of this game then switch over to watch the rather more important NZ v Ireland match. But I’m going to save it for during the week sometime if it’s a close game.

Final score 64-3.

New Zealand v Ireland

In common with everyone else, I’m going to remind you that Ireland beat NZ in WXV1 last year. However, Ireland have fallen back since then, and that Black Ferns side was young, searching for both new players and new systems. Ireland will believe they can repeat that historic victory but I have my doubts.

Ireland started by applying pressure, basically camped on the NZ 5m line for the opening 7 minutes but unable to score. As soon as they made a mistake, suddenly they were back in their own half. Granted that Black Ferns' attack came to nothing, but the next Irish attack was trying to build from halfway, and a penalty put the Kiwis inside the Irish 22.

We had a brief, unusual, interruption to play to allow the test alerts on people’s phones to stop ringing around the stadium. Fun.

Ireland kicked long from a free kick after that and probably regretted it. The Black Ferns looked at a line of defenders, carried in hard a couple of times and then went around the edge. Wakka scored a lovely try. They tried again moments later but Ireland gave up a penalty at the breakdown to stop them, then another at the driving maul that followed. New Zealand pulled a lovely lineout move, the first strike was within millimetres of the try line, the next phase had a prop at full speed from 5m and a very passive Irish defence, there was only one outcome.

We're just over 20 minutes in, and this looks like it could be a blowout. Ireland are not really in this game yet, despite that early pressure. They’re still leaking penalties, when they have the ball they look flat footed and dull, in defence they are often - but not always - chasing shadows. That can change of course, look at the previous game I watched, but NZ are a bit better than Spain.

The Kiwi forwards are starting to exert some dominance over the Irish. Scrum penalties, good lineouts, fast breakdowns, and messing with the opposition ball. It’s not perfect yet, some passes are going astray, but it’s building.

For the next 15 minutes or so this was quite a frustrating watch. New Zealand strove, Ireland just contained them. Sometimes that was by fingertips, sometimes by a loose pass or a slip in contact. Then Sorensen-McGhee got the ball wide, skipped out of a tackle and, zoom, try. 19-0 at the break.

Ireland need a team talk like Japan had, but New Zealand have a lot of areas where they’ll be looking to improve.

Ireland started looking sharp, driving to within 5m of the NZ try line, but then driven back to the 22 and before the defence conceded a scrum. Which the Kiwis won against the head, and suddenly its back to halfway. A couple of phases of to-and-fro and NZ have a lineout on the 22, and somehow blow the chance with a really poor crossfield kick. Ireland get a lucky bounce and try to force the Kiwis back, but lose ground, another kick with all the Black Ferns up in attack and the ball bounces into touch in goal, a massive loss, emotional as well as territorial.

Portia Woodman-Wickliffe got subbed. It felt like she had a quiet game but 6 carries, 72 metres and 5 broken tackles is not a bad day.

It took just over 15 minutes and, from a lineout and then a nice backs move, Sorensen-McGhee crossed again. She was so far outside the last Irish defender that I could have hobbled it in, which is taking nothing away from the skill of catching and running at speed, nor the beauty of the pass.

Ireland tried to attack again, and again the NZ defence just drove them back and back, until Ireland conceded a penalty. It didn’t go out, Ireland tried again, won a penalty, lost the lineout.

“Ireland win it back to the delight of the bananas in the stands.” An unusual piece of commentary, apparently there was a row of Irish fans in banana costumes and this happened just in front of them. It was a penalty, leading to a 5m lineout and again they just went backwards. Another penalty, another lineout, Ireland finally crossed the line but… held up. Another penalty and a warning. A quick tap got Ireland close but a turnover, a kick and chase, and a lengthy of the field try… or not, a tiny knock on, but scrum NZ because the first knock on by Ireland.

For all the little inaccuracies (I’m not blaming Miller for the knock on, that was really hard), but the drops, the penalties, the missed lineouts etc, the game nearly ended with a gorgeous first phase try: scrum, little look one way, lovely move the other, Sorensen-McGhee ht-trick. Ireland kicked off and the clock went red. The commentators said “surely they’ll kick it out?” But no, length of the field and boom, another try. Final score 40-0. Only one missed conversion despite almost all the tries being scored out wide.

France v RSA

This started looking like it might be a contest up front but less so in the backs. Which was kind of what I was expecting. However, from the second or third scrum it became apparent that wasn’t the case. South Africa could challenge but it was rare, and Les Bleues started to dominate every facet of play, with odd moments from the women in green.

As the half went on, that became more and more evident, the French started to offload at will, they created chaos in attack, but the South Africans created it in defence. Mignot and Ortiz have been coaching France to play like this for a while now but this is probably the first time it’s really completely clicked. Perhaps that’s the relative inexperience of the SA players against this sort of thing: in the W6N even the sides they’re beating well know what’s coming and have ways to try and contain it.

The South African cause was not helped by a card - deserved - that the bunker upgraded to red - that seemed really harsh.

France ran in four tries, South Africa scored a single penalty, that was early and they never really got out of their half after that. 24-3 at half time. Queyroi's kicking is, again, a concern. Both kickers struggled with kicks to touch on occasion, she adjusted, mostly, to that, but kicking for goal was still poor, although the conditions were too. But NZ missed one from seven, 50% is not good enough.

The second half carried on in much the same way, SA had more prolonged periods of possession but didn’t really threaten. The French got the ball and scored pretty much at will. The TMO served as a spoilsport again, the tiniest of knocks on called back a lovely solo try where Bourdon-Sansus stole the ball and ran it in, but moments later she went almost the distance until a prop finished the move, running in from maybe 10m out, but it will doubtless stretch to halfway by the end of the night. South Africa finished the match scoring a try that I was surprised to see stand. I think there was clear obstruction, the referee thought no interference. But Roos, who scored, had been brilliant and she probably deserved it.

Final score 57-10.

So France will face Ireland, New Zealand will face South Africa.

Looking Ahead

The full lineup of quarterfinals sees England v Scotland, Canada v Australia, NZ v SA (their men play on Saturday in TRC round four) and France v Ireland.

The higher placed seeds are first, and the matches are in seeding order.

Whilst strange things, cards and so on can always happen I have to say I’m not really seeing it. I thought France v SA might be a bit of a grind until France eventually overpowered the South Africans, but that took about three scrums and then they cut loose. I don’t know where a France v NZ contest ends up, but NZ v SA (women) I expect to be equally short-lived as a contest. The other matches have a bit more intrigue. The teams play each other regularly, either in the W6N or the PNC. Some of those games have been close recently, an out of form and still experimenting France beat a much better Irish side than we’ve seen in this tournament by only 12 points for example. But if you look just at winners and losers, it’s years since that’s not been England, Canada and France.

In the men’s games, Australia v Argentina is hard to call. Both sides can improve, but Australia have some key injuries, I think Argentina will edge it. In the NZ v SA game, again both sides can improve, but for NZ that’s largely a case of working on some individual skills (and dropping Ioane). For the Bokke, their problems are much more systemic. An appreciable number, not all, but many, of their core senior players have tipped over from senior to old. Ireland have the same issue. Now, Rassie has blooded lots of youngsters, but if you compare this to, say France, there are a lot of players with maybe three caps who have always had senior players to rescue them. The French have a battery of players with 3-10 caps, and many of them are just thrown in, most recently against the All Blacks, and told to get on with it. Yes, they lost all three of those tests, but in two they put in performances to be proud of. The players, despite only having three caps, have more of an idea about how to perform under extreme pressure and slot them in to the French senior side and they’ll perform. We’ve seen that with Jegou and Attisogbe who were in that position last year and played in November and the 6N and performed. But the Bokke don’t have that. Their second string almost gave up a big lead against Italy in South Africa. They may become a team but they’re not there yet, and trying to gel against an AB team looking to improve in front of their home fans and prove a point… tough gig.