France v Black Ferns, South Africa v New Zealand (RGR 4)

First, sorry this is late. I wrote this at the normal time, then life got in the way.

Before I dive into the reviews properly, the Top 14 has restarted. They have reduced the time on the shot clocks for penalties and conversions, this is a local variation, the global experiment stays the same. I’ve seen one kicker timed out, that’s in two weeks, I think I saw one other kicker in all the years since it was introduced, so it feels like it has bite. But, also, the elite kickers seem to have adapted just fine. Those who are “merely” excellent - and in that group are names like Hastoy and Jaminet who have both kicked for France at test level - seem to struggle. The easy kicks mostly go over, but longer and wider kicks that you would have expected them to make are being missed. For example, last year Jaminet kicked 75% from over 50m, out to about 58m straight in front of the posts. Yesterday he missed from 48m straight in front. Conversions on the 15m line were missed, and there wasn’t a wind. With a bit more data, the picture in a bit more confusing. In week one, Ramos kicked them all. In week two, he missed three in a row (for comparison, in this year's M6N I don't think he missed three in five games, although he did miss the odd one), and the kicking duties were handed to Ntamack. Was he carrying a niggle from the first game? It's hard to imagine that kicking got harder? Was he just lucky in that first game, all the kicks in the second game were really wide, and I don't remember the first game that clearly now.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out and things settle down. Can the kickers adapt or are the new times slightly too short for most of them?

I’m aware that England played Australia. I didn’t watch it. I thought about it, but England are still depressingly good, Australia aren’t. I watched some Top 14 instead. It was a close, good game until the last ten minutes, rather than the 48-15 blowout that a rusty England inflicted on the Wallaroos. No Regrets. 

France v Black Ferns

This match really divided into two parts, one was about 30-35 minutes long, the other was the remainder of the match. The difference between those parts was the quality of the French attack. 

Throughout the game the defences were on top for long periods. You would see phases being strung together in attack, certainly, by either side, but then a great tackle, a turnover, a dropped pass or whatever, and play would start to run the other way. 

After that 35 minute mark, the score was 14-all, and that looked pretty reasonable. The Black Ferns found a couple of holes in the French defence, the French offloading game punched holes in the Kiwi's defence, or ran around the edge of it. 

However, in that first half an hour the difference in the build up between the teams was very obvious. The Black Ferns played the Wallaroos and South Africa. Les Bleues played… no one. The Black Ferns scored 14 points, the French couldn’t buy a pass. Ultimately that was the difference between the teams. 

It must be said that all the tries were really pretty. This was a fun match to watch, certainly in the second half. 

South Africa v All Blacks, Test Four and RGR Reflections

Several different things, as long as they don’t contradict each other, can all be true at the same time. I think that’s true of this match. 

• The referee was sure, before the match, that the SA scrum was dominant, and pinged the AB scrum for things like the brake foot that, in the words of the (always biased) South African commentators the Bokke were doing just the same. The Bok scrum was superior, but not that dominant, and really didn’t need the helping hand!
• Both sides played at massive intensity and mistakes in contact were inevitable. I’m not going to blame anyone for those, honestly I’m shocked there weren’t more. (A few of them were poor, but accumulated fatigue and all, I’ll forgive them.) But the AB's kicking game to touch from penalties in particular, box kicks a bit, was terrible. Enough to cost them the game? Maybe.
• With the return of Willemse and the loss of Carter, the high ball game swung back to the Boks.
• Both numerically and in terms of impact, the ABs lost more, better players for this match. Starting ALB and bringing on Ioane rather than having Tupea was a big step down. Missing Savea was huge. There were others too, but those two, plus Carter for the high balls, were felt all night long.

Before this season started I thought one win would be a successful tour the AB. Technically that’s what they achieved, job done. But, on the scoreboard, they were close in two of their loses, and whilst I don’t think they really had it in them to win the third test (they might have been closer if Savea hadn’t been injured though), the second test was genuinely close and there would have been a few squeaky bums in SA. 

It’s tempting to say that the Bokke have learnt more from these games. After all, they’ve improved most clearly, from losing, through scrapping a win to ultimately a comfortable victory. The Bokke have certainly improved, it would be silly to say otherwise. But they have put out a very settled team, and have an equally settled coaching team. The All Blacks, up to the appointment of Razor, had the luxury of some continuity in the coaches box and on the field for as long as anyone can remember: they always promoted an assistant coach to head coach so there was some continuity of relationships, and an evolution of styles rather than a rewrite. Razor and his assistant changed both parts of that. Rennie and his assistants have changed both parts again. The coaches and players have now had seven games, four away against the Boks, together. They’ve always had some serious fundamentals to work on, and we’ve seen improvements in them: scrums, lineouts, tackling and the like. There will be a bit of time now for the coaches and players to look at the deeper systems stuff and improve that too. They need to work out how to cope with the Boks next September, yes, but they can plan the systems and test them under less stress against Australia, England, Wales and Scotland this October. And let’s not forget, the ABs put at least four tries passed the SA defence in every match. They actually scored more tries than the Boks. They’re doing something right out there. They need to improve, but they have a year to do that, and more headroom than the Bokkes.