Eloise's Thoughts and Fancies

South Africa have named a hugely changed side from last week, Italy have to fancy their chances. Tandy et al will be hoping Wales can perform under new management, but missing Morgan thanks to a dislocated shoulder, and the disappointing Irish host the equally disappointing Australians. But some potentially exciting games too… Georgia v Canada Two relative minnows face off to start the weekend. However, Georgia are in 11th place, Canada in 24th, this is a huge mismatch. The commentators kept trying to big up the Canadians but, except for occasionally from set piece, and running empty metres after receiving a kick, they had the penetration of a wet noodle against a brick wall. The Georgian defence didn’t charge up fast by international standards, although faster than the Australians, concentrating on keeping their line straight, but the Canadians just bounced off it. The Georgian scrum was massively dominant, I’m not criticising the refereeing here, but a different referee could have...

This is the first week within the test window, when everyone has their full complement of overseas players. Even Japan. Who got Saito from Toulouse, benefitted from this. These comments are given in the order I watched the games, not the order they occurred. Several clashed and I caught up with them late, so they appear at the bottom of the list. Ireland v Japan The final score will suggest this was an easy win but watching the game says anything that it was but. At half time the Japanese were within a score, and until the last ten minutes or so they were in touch. Some of that was Saito keeping the Japanese attack much sharper than last week, to the surprise of the Irish, who went with a weaker team than last week and weren’t all over the breakdown in the same way that they usually are. But some of it was that the Irish were disjointed in attack as well. Now, in my comments on last week’s games I was forgiving of the AB looking disjointed with changes in personnel. I’m going to cut...

These internationals were played before the official test window began, hence calling it week 0. It made for some odd matchups, with really only New Zealand, Ireland and England playing with their full squads available (barring injuries and so forth), because they have agreements with their domestic leagues about releasing players (or in the case of NZ their domestic season is over) but overseas players do not get released. So Scotland played without Russell, Kinghorne and others, Australia were missing several of their regular starters too, and so on around all the teams. This is going to affect how detailed I go with my comments. Barbarians v All Blacks XV I’m not sure where an AB XV ranks compared to a NZ Māori team, but this was a lot of young kiwis, mostly names I didn’t recognise from the admittedly poor NPC coverage here in the UK this year, against a fun Barbarians team. Normally this wouldn’t get in here, but the AB XV were well outplayed at first then fought their way back ...

TRC New Zealand v Australia This was a game with a lot on the line. New Zealand have a crazy record of victories at Eden Park, and although it’s not quite as long, a formidable grasp on the Bledisloe Cup as well. However, both teams have been up and down this year and there’s little doubt that the Wallabies at their best are more than capable of beating this year’s AB at their worst. Will those records crumble? This was a game best described as swingy. For the first 20+ minutes the AB barely made a mistake, and the Wallabies hardly touched the ball. The next ten minutes were a bit more back and forth, and in the last ten minutes the Wallabies took the game to the Kiwis. The penalties flowed against the defending team, probably 5:1, maybe more. There was definitely stuff missed for both sides, but it was pretty even handed. That continued into the second half. At the break it was 20-17 to the men in black, and given that the Wallabies have had the best second half, by far, of any of t...

I’m going to do something a bit different with these. Because of circumstances I couldn’t watch the first semi live, and I ended up watching it in two parts, having slept in between. Then I watched the second semi more normally. But it felt very different. When Canada faced New Zealand it felt like a clash to decide who would get to face England. France had lost three important players to injury or suspension, England have not looked as imperious as perhaps they should, but have still looked good, and they’re welcoming back World Player of the Year from a concussion break. The two matches started, in some ways, quite similarly. The eventual winners scored early. However, for Canada that looked like something that came from work and building pressure, for England it was much more a case of a bit of luck then a magical bit of star play. No complaints about them taking their chances but they didn’t really work to create one. After that, well none of the sides were actually faultless of...

As last week we had TRC matches on Saturday, 5am and 8am, so I watched in the wrong order. Then we were down to two matches a day in the WRWC. TRC New Zealand v South Africa Where last week’s game started with all the momentum on the All Blacks' side, this game started just as strongly with the Bokke camped deep in All Blacks' territory. However, where the Kiwis scored early, the same was not true for the South Africans, a brilliant tackle by Jordie dislodged the ball from Kolbe's hands over the line then a knock on by Reinarch and two chances went begging. A penalty from that scrum to the ABs, and suddenly there was a fluid attack, first on the right, then a cross-field kick, then a sweeping move back to the other side to be finished by Carter on debut. It’s possible that not every AB touched the ball in the move, but it was the epitome of a team try. Despite that early pressure, and improved defensive pressure from the men in green, their frailties from last week remai...