Viva Italia!
Another absolute belter of a weekend is in the books. What a treat these autumn tests continue to be and the state of the sport less than a year out from the World Cup is brilliant in my book. The top 10-12 teams in the world have never looked so evenly matched and competitive. Italy v Australia was a snoozer, right? Wrong! New Zealand v Scotland blowout? Nope! On paper, these end of year tests are very low stakes but try telling that to the players. Every game has the intensity of a World Cup knockout match. How lucky we are to be able to sit back, with an expertly paired pint, and watch it all unfold.
Italy 28 - 27 Australia
Yes, you read that correctly and, no, it was not a typo. Italy did it! They beat Australia for the first time ever and they did it with some of the hallmark magic Ange Capuozzo is known for. He capped off two well-worked backline moves to put his mark on this winning effort.
Even after this crushing result, I think Rennie made the right call with playing such an inexperienced group in this one. Part of the payoff in that approach is for the group to learn some hard lessons and I have to imagine they did. I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom for them to loose to a ripping Italian side by one point but the lack of a consistent standard is worrying. The big performances against New Zealand and France that should be lifting this group are being anchored by these lesser performances. Age and experience aside, it is time they locked in and turned out consistent performances or the wheels will start to come off what so far has been slow and steady progress under Rennie. But ultimately, this day belongs to Italy! They were the better team on the day. Viva Italia!
Ireland 35 - 17 Fiji
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell post-match: “I thought we were awful, I thought we were poor.” It was not the clinical performance Irish fans have grown accustomed to in recent months but all in all it was still a dominant one. And if breakthrough player of the year nominee Mack Hansen’s antics post-match are any sign, I’d say the playing group are in good spirits.
If I focus too much on this performance things will take a turn for the negative so I will just leave it at:
Lots of experience for some fringe guys
Stood strong and got the job done
Tadhg Furlong is undefeated as Ireland captain
As for Fiji it was more of the same - attacking brilliance, unstructured defense, and some ill discipline. A red card just after halftime made their job even harder. But don’t you worry… they still brought plenty of champagne to Dublin with them.
England 52 - 13 Japan
The Brave Blossoms sure were brave… but blossom they did not. A nice statement from England here after losing last week to Argentina. Marcus Smith was at his sneaky best pulling the strings and making defenders guess all game. Guy Porter bagged a double on his home debut and, not to be outdone, Marcus Smith added two of his own. Genge and Steward scored one a piece. Add on 6 conversions and a penalty from Owen Farrell and you have yourself a pretty lopsided game. England should be able to do this more consistently than they have been and I am interested to see how the rest of their tournament plays out.
Wales 20 - 13 Argentina
As we all know, all it takes to guarantee a Welsh win is to doubt them! Hard to say they looked “good” in this one but they did enough to make it count. This piece of individual brilliance from Tomos Williams gave them some breathing room to start the second half and they never looked back.
It is GREAT to see Justin Tipuric back doing his thing and the team does look a step better with Williams at 9. I can’t believe The Sherriff, Ken Owens, was considering retirement not too long ago. He makes a noticable difference to this team. Getting Dan Biggar back would do wonders for them but for now I think they will have to settle for these scrappy wins.
France 30 - 26 South Africa
Allez Les Bleus! This was one of the most enthralling pieces of sporting entertainment I have seen in a while! A red card a piece, a late yellow, and a whole bunch of hard yards being earned by both sides throughout. Neither group was willing to give an inch and that makes this French win even more impressive. These guys just do not seem to know how to lose at the moment and this one over the Boks makes it 12 straight. The way South Africa stayed in the game with a man down for most of this game against a side as strong as France was no small task! A week ago they had no kickers and this week they had two. de Klerk and Kolbe were lights out off the tee. This team fought hard and they fought well. And much of that work is currently being undone by their obnoxious Director of Rugby, Rassie Erasmus, who has decided to passive aggressively and sarcastically take shots at the refs on Twitter after the games are long over. It’s pathetic. It is not at all in the spirit of the game and he is making a joke of himself, his team, and the sport in general. I hope he somehow just goes away so the rugby world can get back to discussing the spectacle on the field and not the one he is making off of it. But I digress… back to this absolute cruncher of a test match. This sequence tells the tale of the game pretty well… SA went hard, but France went harder.
Scotland 23 - 31 New Zealand
What an atmosphere! Murrayfield was rumbling this past Sunday and for good reason. Their boys were putting on a show. Some brilliant solo efforts from Darcy Graham and Stuart Hogg along with Finn Russell expertly orchestrating this Scottish attack around the pitch made for some serious competition vs a New Zealand side that look to be slowly climbing back up to the peaks they used to permanently reside at. You can usually count on this Scottish pack to stand up and today was no different. But in the end, the All Black bench made up of some household names in Reiko Ioane, TJ Perenara, and Shannon Frizzell, were just too much for Scotland to hold off. The incredible start Scotland had was ultimately met by a heartbreaking defeat. Congrats to All Black debutant Mark Telea for scoring two tries on debut.
Another solid weekend of test rugby is in the books and we have even more to look forward to next week! Look for our weekend preview this Friday for the who’s who on the field and the perfect pint to go with each match.
Cheers!