Take one: Scotland sounded a loud warning to the Springboks with a win over the World Cup favourites! No, lets rather do take two: A young France team that didn’t look anything like the selection that won the Six Nations shook up the Scots on their home field in the first half.
So welcome to the World Cup silly season, where it is almost impossible to read into how the teams are shaping for the main event that kicks off just over a month from now by just looking at the results. There is fine print all over the place, and let’s start with Eddie Jones’ pronouncement that his team would, and he did actually use that word, well ‘will’ is an approximation of that, there was no ‘might’, win the RWC.
On the prima facie evidence, you’d say after his team Wallaby team was unlucky to lose a close encounter against the mighty All Blacks at the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin that he might be onto something. Not many teams push the Kiwis in their own back yard. If you look at the close result, with the All Blacks winning with a disputed penalty right at the end, then the Wallabies have certainly made some kind of improvement.
And make no mistake, they have. In the first half they were excellent and looked like a team that could challenge for World Cup glory. But the reality is that during the period when they built up a handy lead, the Australians were playing against an All Black alternative team.
I’d suggest it was a second string All Black team but then Eddie might phone me and accuse me of being a “smart arse”, like he did when one of my colleagues made such a suggestion about the Springbok team that thumped the Wallabies at Loftus a month ago. No smart arse here, it was definitely a team wearing the black jersey and the silver fern, and it performed the Haka before the game - that makes it an All Black team.
KIWI GUN PLAYERS WERE MISSING
But most of the All Black gun players were off the field when the Aussies were dominant, with Damian McKenzie again failing to transfer his Super Rugby Midas touch to the international stage. They, including the eventual match winner Richie Mo’unga, were on the field when the hosts turned it all around and fought back to win. It was to be fair a cruel blow for the Wallabies that they lost like they did, for a draw would have been deserved and that would have been worth gold to a team that has now lost four in a row and is set to play France in a few weeks.
Talking of France, lets irritate Scotland coach Gregor Townsend and see if he is as touchy as Eddie: The French team his side fell well behind to at their headquarters of Murrayfield was indeed a second string French team. There were one or two first choice players, such as the South African born second row forward Paul Willemse, but there were 13 changes from the side that played the last Six Nations game.
That’s a lot, and it was clear Fabien Galthie, the French coach, was just testing his depth and giving several young players a go. You could argue that he got what he wanted out of the exercise, for the fringe players would have gained plenty of confidence from their great start against the team ranked fifth in the world - and away from home to boot.
POSITIVE POINTERS FOR BOKS
In that period of French ascendancy there were in fact some positive pointers for the Boks, who’d have watched the game between a mostly first string Scotland team and a second string France team with interest - such as the way the hosts forgot the importance of accompanying a kick with a good chase. Do that against the Boks in the World Cup opener for the two Pool rivals in Marseille on 10 September and the likes of Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cheslin Kolbe, Damian Willemse or Willie le Roux - whichever mix of back three players Jacques Nienaber decides to go with - will capitalise on it in telling fashion.
But you have to remember that the Scots were mostly playing their first game of the season after their second string faced Italy last week, and weren’t very flush by the way. And they did look good when they came back so strongly in the second half to win. It requires passion and resilience to win a World Cup, or let’s be honest, in the Scot case their best hope is just getting out of their tough group, and they have that in abundance.
Given the history of warmup games, however, the likelihood is that we will see a completely different story unfold when the likes of regular captain Antoine Dupont and ace flyhalf Emile Ntamack make their seasonal debuts when Scotland visit French soil this weekend. No one really remembers who wins the warmup games once the World Cup starts, and it is because it is hard to remember which week which team was at full strength and which one was experimenting.
ENGLAND COACH MUST BACK UP HIS STATEMENTS
What we do know though is that some teams do need to make statements with results, which is why England should maybe be concerned after their defeat to Wales. Some of the English media have been apologists for coach Steve Borthwick ever since the man they hated, Eddie Jones, vacated the job and the former lock replaced him, and they kept that trend going this weekend, but more attention should be paid to what was said beforehand.
Borthwick did say in the buildup week to the Welsh game that it was a game he desperately wanted his team to win. They didn’t, in fact they didn’t come close, so he should be disappointed. And so should the England fans. We can’t ignore the fact that England were a mix and match team but at the same time they do need winning momentum, something they’ve lacked now for a sod of a long time. They will be looking to change their fortunes around this coming weekend.
PUMAS WERE A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT
Australia of course should be worried after losing four in four but there was noticeable improvement, and Wales also looked a much better team the last time we saw them play. Given it was an experimental selection, the Springboks might have come close to being the team of the weekend with their good win over Argentina in Buenos Aires.
After making good progress in the Rugby Championship following a big opening home loss to New Zealand, the Pumas were arguably the side that took the biggest step backwards and were too easily dominated, given they were at home, by the reigning World Cup champions. They were also a far more settled team than the Boks were and yet had Manie Libbok had his kicking boots laced on and the visitors experienced a bit more luck they would have hit the 25 point winning margin that some of us had predicted for Johannesburg.
WEEKEND RWC WARMUP FIXTURES FEATURING TOP TIER TEAMS
New Zealand 23 Australia 20
Argentina 13 South Africa 24
Scotland 25 France 21
Wales 20 England 9
Ireland 33 Italy 17
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