IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
France did lose to New Zealand but there was context to the only defeat to be suffered by one of the top three in the first phase of the inaugural Nations Championship.
Fabien Galthie had to select an understrength team for that first game because of its proximity to the Top 14 final, which was played the previous weekend, with the Bordeaux-Begles and Montpellier players being rested.
France showed their class in the second half of their second game against the Wallabies, ending any realistic speculation of an Australian revival which might have been inspired by how close they came to beating Ireland. Ireland? They had Japan as their middle game and, quite ridiculously, didn’t have to travel away from Australia. So their coach Andy Farrell was able to use more players than, for instance, England’s Steve Borthwick did, or for that matter the new All Black coach Dave Rennie.
But Ireland don’t belong in any elite top three, even though they have two wins from three starts and are challenging on the northern side of the Championship draw. They may not even belong in the top four given that some might consider the jury still out on England after they beat Argentina having travelled around the world and back to do so. Plus of course their 20 minutes of vague hope against the Springboks in Johannesburg in their competition opener.
The reality is that neither Ireland nor England should be considered serious challengers to be viewed as members of any elite. That belongs to South Africa and New Zealand, both unbeaten after three matches, and France, who are arguably the one nation that might just be able to rival the South Africans when it comes to depth.
Rennie didn’t change his team much mainly because he’s new to his job and is bringing in changes to the All Black game that requires some bedding in for combinations and the promotion of familiarity with his concepts among his key players before they get to the moment in the season that everyone is waiting for - the 22 August clash with the Springboks at Ellis Park that will start Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.
THE BEST TEAMS WILL CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT IN AUSTRALIA
We will have to wait until that date before we know with any certainty whether the All Blacks have it in them to reverse the recent trend of the Boks winning the head to head clashes between the two traditional powerhouses of world rugby. There’s certainly a lot of confidence emanating from New Zealand and they were good against Ireland, but my take is that no team knows how ready they are to take on the Boks until they actually face them on the field, for the power and physicality of the South African game takes all teams out of their comfort zone.
But on the basis of what we’ve seen so far in the Championship the All Blacks, along with France, currently look like the only teams that may just be able to challenge the current Bok dominance. Which makes the draw for next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia look spectacularly poor, unfair and just plain dumb. If the Pool stage of the World Cup goes off as we would expect it to, and the expansion of the number of competing teams has, much like the same thing happening in the recently completed FIFA World Cup, taken away a lot of the jeopardy, then none of the top three can meet each other in a final.
Instead they will cancel each other out by playing each other in the quarterfinals (Boks v All Blacks) and the semifinal (Boks or All Blacks versus France), while the mediocre trio of Australia, England and Argentina battle it out on the other side of the draw. Whichever of those three gets to play in the final will have the advantage of being fresher than opponents who would effectively have had to play two World Cup finals to get there.
It’s idiotic and makes a mockery of all the fuss that was made last year of the need for teams to end high on the rankings so they’d get a favourable draw.
GOOD IDEA BUT TRAVEL DEMANDS MEAN CHAMPIONSHIP IS FLAWED
There appeared to be a bit of an about turn on some of the overseas magazine shows/podcasts after the conclusion of the initial leg of the Nations Championship over whether it was a good thing or not. There were questions asked over the previous weekends, but those were forgotten in favour of sugar-coating, perhaps because pundits were reminded that the concept is driven by the money made by those who employ them.
To be fair, it isn’t all bad. Fiji and Japan being part of a competition that gives them regular contact with top tier nations will make them stronger, and although they were playing against a much changed Scotland team, Fiji were already a lot better against Scotland last week than they were in their two games before that. And apparently there have been some really good games in the second tier competition among nations who might otherwise have been inactive.
However, as recorded here before, the fact Fiji had to play their home game against Wales in Cardiff, their home game against England in Liverpool and their home game against Scotland in Scotland surely undermines the authenticity of the competition. Eddie Jones had a moan about his team having to go to Newcastle in Australia to play Ireland and he was right to moan. And now England, on a different tack, have had a moan, and they are also right to do so.
In England's case, the sticking point is the travel. While they get to effectively play four of their six Nations Championship games at home because of the decision to play the Fiji game at Everton’s home ground in Liverpool, there was an inordinate amount of travel required for them to fulfil their three fixtures.
England started their Championship campaign in Johannesburg, flew back to Liverpool to face Fiji, and then recrossed the equator to play Argentina in Santiago del Estero. The England No 8 Ben Earl, who was talking on behalf of his teammates, questioned what he called the “brutal” travel when the squad returned to the UK, and considering they had travelled 25 000 miles (over 40 000 kilometres) in the space of three weeks, he was right to do so.
“It’s been brutal, there’s no two ways about it,” he said. “At the end of what has been quite a long season anyway for most of us, it’s been a tough way of ending; going back and forth, coming back to England to see your families and then going away again.”
Actually, England were lucky to be able to get back to see their families for that Liverpool week (were they not in camp?) as if the competition was to be run fairly, then they shouldn’t have gone to England at all, but to Suva, where you will find the Fiji home base.
I wrote earlier that it was wrong that Ireland had to play Japan in Australia and not in Tokyo given it was a Japan home game, but I understand that decision was made around a legality written into the Irish player contracts around a welfare issue related to how many air miles a player should be expected to travel within a tour or season.
At a time when welfare issues are rightly becoming a sticking point in world rugby, it does beggar belief that the organisers of the Championship have gone in the direction they have.
WELSH JOURNALIST ECHOED MY VIEW
Probably mainly because of the amount of travel required, we didn’t get to see many visiting journalists at the Championship games played in South Africa. There were a smattering of England hacks when England were here, but not nearly in the numbers that they used to come here, and if there was a Scottish journalist following the Scots in Pretoria I missed him or her.
There was a Welsh journalist in Durban covering the South African leg of the Welsh journey around the world for the Championship, and he hit the nail on the head in conversation when he spoke about how difficult it had been not just for him but the players to make the quick adjustments needed when moving from Argentina to South Africa, and only being in each country for a couple of days.
He spoke about how enjoyable the Welsh tour here in 2022, when three test matches were played, had been in comparison to this latest whistle stop tour and how sad it was that players (and journos) were not getting a proper taste of the cultures of the places they visit.
The Championship concept was born out of a perception that all rugby should be played for competition points and there should be no friendlies, but there was nothing friendly about the series played between, for instance, the All Blacks and Ireland in New Zealand that same year, 2022, or the one here in South Africa.
And given the numbers that turn up at places like Twickenham and Murrayfield for one off test matches against the Boks or All Blacks in November there wasn’t any lack of status for those games either.
ENGLAND SHOULD THINK TWICE ABOUT RETAINING BORTHWICK
Actually, the inception of the Championship might have achieved the opposite effect than what was intended, certainly when it comes to some nations. If the Boks had played a three test series against England over the past few weeks, would Rassie Erasmus have been quite as bold with his selections as he was in the follow up games against Scotland and Wales?
The introduction of points and a competition format made no difference to some nations, with Rassie still keeping his eye firmly on the All Black series and beyond that the next World Cup and even, in the case of some selections, the next World Cup cycle. And France were understrength in their game against New Zealand, just like they were last year.
I’m not criticising those coaches. This is the time to experiment. My point is rather that introducing a competition hasn’t driven a change in attitude, all it has done has added to the travel load and the carbon footprint.
The one obvious exception when it comes to coaches looking to grow their depth was England’s Steve Borthwick, who went with a virtually unchanged team across the three games his team played in a journey that entailed four separate crossings of the equator. Not even the much hyped (but entirely capable) Henry Pollock got to start for England, and yet their schedule included a game on home soil against Fiji! If you don’t experiment against them, who do you experiment against?
Sorry, but that complete lack of ambition only adds fuel to those who feel that Borthwick isn’t forward thinking or bold enough to be entrusted with the England job until the next World Cup. Rassie said before the Ellis Park game that Borthwick follows trends, but he was blind to the modern trend over the past three weeks and it is hard to tell what was gained by an England team that does appear to have the mockers on Argentina but which was well beaten by the Boks before their light hearted romp against Fiji.
NO-ONE CRIED FOR ARGENTINA THIS TIME
Mention of Argentina cues where I watched the FIFA World Cup final this past Sunday night. It was at Northwood Crusaders Sports Club in Durban North, where there wasn’t just one big screen but several. And several were required for the huge crowd that turned up.
It was certainly the best atmosphere I have experienced when watching a televised game, and it was quite a heated one too, with Argentina clearly not the most popular team on the planet, certainly when it comes to the round ball game. Their individual players were loudly jeered as the teams lined up.
Most of the very multicultural audience were supporting Spain, and bedecked in red, so the game also saw the right result - although the Spaniards did make heavy weather of it.
It was also a good experience for me to be part of a crowd that vehemently booed Donald Trump and his acolyte, the FIFA president Infantino, every time they were shown on the screen. It was heartening as confirmation that the world hasn’t gone completely crazy and there are indeed others who share my global view.
RWC MUST AVOID THE AMERICANISATION TRAP
So money makes the world go round blah, blah, blah…which is the reason an All Black tour to South Africa is being concluded in Baltimore in the USA. That game might even be the decider. By all means play an exhibition game in the USA, but not the conclusion to a New Zealand tour to South Africa.
The USA is where the Rugby World Cup after next year’s in Australia will be played, 2031, and rugby’s administrators will hopefully have watched the FIFA version for what not to do five years hence. Let’s call it Americanisation - the half hour show at halftime should be avoided at all costs. If you want to watch Shakira, go to one of her concerts.
Ditto the so-called hydration breaks, that were really advertisement breaks. Trump won’t be around in 2031, but let’s also hope that whoever is ruling that country then won’t have the same inclination to try and become an expert, and arbiter of fact, in a sport he (or she) knows nothing about.
Yes, money makes the world go round, but no sport should lose its soul. Which the round ball game has come very close to doing over the past few weeks.
DEW FACTOR IS AS BAD AS HUMIDITY
It was great to experience the vibe of Kings Park last weekend and witness the old Mexican Wave that, from my memory, first made its appearance at that venue in the 1990 Natal Currie Cup winning season. However, it was a scrappy game, with a blight of handling errors from both sides.
Rassie and his players used the post-match press conference forum to pinpoint the slippery field and conditions as the main reason why so many balls were dropped and why there were so precious few multi-phase attacks. You don’t expect humidity in KZN at this time of the year, certainly not to the extent you would in the summer months, but there is dew factor, which has a similar effect.
If we hadn’t listened to Rassie explaining it in the press conference, myself and my colleague Brenden Nel would have had an answer as to why so much ball was dropped when we arrived at our car on a Kings Park outerfield two hours after the match ended. It was coated in moisture, as was the field where we were parked.
The winter months are definitely the months you should play rugby in Durban, playing there in summer is just silly, but the best time to play is in the daylight hours. In other words, the afternoon. Not after dark.