Ireland coach Andy Farrell said after his team squared the series against South Africa with what he admitted required an heroic effort that there wasn’t anything separating the teams and then added that there were another two or three nations that belonged in the same category.
The point he was making was that international rugby at the top has become very competitive and it is good for rugby. He may be being a bit kind to England though. They have clearly made progress under Steve Borthwick, but they did still lose both games they played in the southern hemisphere international window against New Zealand.
And the All Blacks don’t look after the two games against England like the force they were either. The departures of Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock for a start have left them without the necessary physical carry in the second row and there were times in both the Dunedin and Auckland games where they looked distinctly rattled.
It was only a phenomenal late match cameo from Beauden Barrett coming off the bench that prevented the All Blacks from relinquishing what is now a 30 year unbeaten record at their Auckland fortress, Eden Park.
The two games in New Zealand were both excellent test matches but it was hard to escape the feeling that they were between teams that were relatively lightweight in comparison to the sides that slugged it out to a stalemate in the battle between the No 1 and No 2 in the world on South African soil.
The tempo was good, actually quite furious at times, and the games were entertaining, but was missing the brutal physicality we saw in a Springbok/Ireland series that at times was quite spiteful.
BOKS BLEW THEIR CHANCE
The Boks had a chance to cement their status as world champions and leaders, but they blew it with the poor game management in the final minutes at Hollywoodbets Kings Park that allowed Ireland to steal what was ultimately a deserved win with two late drop-goals. Instead of the Boks building on what was already a sizeable lead at the top of the World Rugby rankings, Ireland gained 1.75 points, the Boks lost the same amount, and now the SA lead is a lot more tenuous as they head into the Castle Lager Rugby Championship after this week’s exhibition test against Portugal.
But the rankings as they stand now, with the Boks’ advantage over Ireland slipping from 4.5 points to just less than 1, do show a more accurate reflection on how things stand after two weeks of south v north action than might have been the case had the Boks left Durban with a narrow victory and a 2-0 series win.
The adjustments to the rankings will be made on Monday, but this is what the top five should look like at the conclusion of the four bigger series that were played in the southern international window: SA 93.11, Ireland 92.12, New Zealand 90.37, France 88.96 and England 85.40.
So the top two are close together and then there is a gap between them and New Zealand and France, with England, who have a chance to redress it when they host both the Boks and All Blacks in November, still some way distant in fifth. And on the evidence of what we’ve seen over the past fortnight, that is about right.
POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH
What is interesting though is the potential for growth, and that includes England, who have become a much better attacking team than they were in the buildup to and during the last World Cup but have arguably made their biggest stride in the defensive aspect of the game.
Felix Jones, the Irishman who won two World Cups while working for the Boks, has taken over as defence coach at England and he is successfully bringing in what the English media refer to as “the blitz defence system”. It takes time though to make international players who play a different system at their clubs comfortable and it is still a work in progress. There is potential for further growth by November, when the theatre of conflict switches away from the southern hemisphere to Twickenham.
Of course the All Blacks are also in a period of transition. They have a new coach in Scott Robertson who has effectively replaced a structure that was set since Sir Graham Henry took over from John Mitchell at the end of 2003. It isn’t a surprise that the change hasn’t been completely seamless.
VISIT TO SA WILL BE TESTING FOR KIWIS
The Kiwis have a chance to grow more under their new coach when they play in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, and their visit to South Africa for two matches in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively in the last week of August and first week of September is going to be particularly interesting.
The Boks are in transition too if you consider there has been an overhaul of Rassie Erasmus’ back room. The defence isn’t as connected yet as it was when Jacques Nienaber was in charge, and there is also an intent to evolve towards what we could refer to as a more total rugby template. Of course it could backfire in the short term if the Boks are seduced into being too wide against an All Black team that might love that, but there are three games that the Boks will play before that. It might be enough time for them to get to a point where there’s less of an element of risk.
What should have been clear after the southern hemisphere incoming tours is that the Rugby Championship winner will come from one of the Boks or New Zealand, because Australia and Argentina continue to lag.
SMALL GLIMMERS OF HOPE FOR WALLABIES
There were glimpses of hope for the Wallabies under former Ireland coach and New Zealand strategist Joe Schmidt in their series against Ireland, but they never won that battle convincingly enough to really justify any euphoria from what has now become a long suffering Australian rugby public.
Argentina ensured a 75 per cent success rate for southern hemisphere teams by winning in Buenos Aires and squaring their series with France, but France were way below full strength so there isn’t much that can be read into the result. The number of players absent from the French squad because they are either injured, being rested or playing Sevens at the Paris Olympics makes it hard to assess where the 2023 World Cup hosts and favourites stand right now, but the recent Six Nations suggested they are going through a bit of a hangover post their RWC quarterfinal defeat to the Boks that may stick around for a while.
All the top teams play tier two nations this week, with Portugal using the weekend to warm up for their clash with the world champions in Bloemfontein by beating Namibia. The All Blacks are on their way to San Diego, where they will play Fiji on Saturday.
WEEKEND INTERNATIONAL RESULTS
South Africa 24 Ireland 25
New Zealand 24 England 17
Australia 36 Wales 28
Argentina 33 France 25
Namibia 22 Portugal 37
Japan 23 Georgia 25
Samoa 34 Spain 30
Canada 35 Romania 22
USA 7 Scotland 42