RUGDAQ Weekly: Global rugby stocks in brief

Whose stocks are trending up and whose are going down this week? We take a look around the wide world of rugby.

BUY! BUY! BUY!

Germany
Remember Japan beating South Africa in the 2015 Rugby World Cup? On a rugby-shock par with that result is Germany’s 41-38 Rugby Europe Championship win over Romania at the weekend. And they came from behind to do it – trailing 24-6 in the first half and then 38-20 with half an hour to go. The result is their first win over their Eastern European rivals since 1938, and sees them climb to an all-time high of 22nd in World Rugby’s rankings. It has also given their chances of qualifying for Japan 2019 a solid early boost.

Jérôme Garcès
Referees rarely get good press, particularly Southern Hemisphere refs in the north, Northern Hemisphere refs in the south, and French referees just about everywhere. But credit where credit is due: the two best games in this year’s Six Nations so far have been officiated by Frenchmen. Jérôme Garcès handled Wales vs England at a fever-pitch Principality Stadium on Saturday with undemonstrative class. Yes, he made mistakes, but no referee calls everything correctly (Nigel Owens and the forward pass in the 2015 World Cup final, anyone?). He calmly handled a difficult game in a febrile atmosphere when many would have lost their heads. The result was an epic match for the ages that was decided by the efforts of the players rather than the whistle of the referee.

Joe Launchbury
An exhausting-to-watch Man of the Match performance in Cardiff from the Wasps lock, which was nearly matched hit-for-carry-for-glowering intensity by his part-time boiler-room partner Courtney Lawes. It has given Eddie Jones a Lions-esque second-row headache: if Launchbury and Lawes have made themselves undroppable, and Maro Itoje continues his steep improvement at six, what on earth should the England gaffer do when George Kruis – and, later, Chris Robshaw – return to fitness?

Jono Gibbes
This looks like a tremendous signing for Ulster – and not a bad one for Gibbes, either. The Clermont forwards coach, who was previously at Leinster, will be the ambitious Irish province’s head coach from next season, under canny Director of Rugby Les Kiss.

Shaun Stevenson
Reading anything into the Brisbane Tens is a mug’s game, to be sure, but one player who did his stocks no harm at the tournament was the Chiefs’ fleet-footed winger Shaun Stevenson. The New Zealand U20 rep made six Super Rugby appearances as a member of the Chiefs’ wider training group last year, and his newfound fans will be hoping to see more of him this year if he can keep shimmying past defenders the way he did at Suncorp.

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SELL! SELL! SELL!

Italy
The Italian sports media were savage in their reaction to the Azzurri’s less-than convincing performance against Italy in Rome at the weekend. And no wonder. They have conceded 96 points and scored just 17 in their opening two matches. With trips to Twickenham and Murrayfield to come, sandwiching a Rome date with France in March, a short-term upswing in Italian fortunes looks unlikely.

Dylan Hartley
England coach Eddie Jones has stayed true to his controversial choice of captain for the past 15 victories – and, pre-Six Nations discipline issues apart, it has on the whole been hard to argue with his decision. But Hartley has been virtually anonymous on the pitch in England’s opening two matches. He’s not carried, he’s missed tackles and frankly England have looked better without him. On Saturday, Jamie George made more carries, more tackles and more yards in 34 minutes than Hartley did in 46. In the opening encounter against France, Owen Farrell looked more assured as captain in the closing minutes, and was coolness personified against Wales as the clock ticked down with England chasing the game.

Rob Howley
Wales were epic on Saturday – they really should have beaten England – and no player was more epic than number eight Ross Moriarty. So why he was substituted after 53 minutes? It seemed pre-meditated and made acting head coach Rob Howley look a bit… by-the-numbers. Yes, the roof that wasn’t on came off the Principality Stadium when Taulupe Faletau trotted on to the pitch – but a more adaptive coach would have seen the impact(s) Moriarty was making and kept him on a little longer.

Alex Cuthbert
You can’t help but feel sorry for Alex Cuthbert – the bloke just cannot catch a break. Sadly, stocks operate on cold, hard currency, not pity, and the mere mention of his name anywhere near a Test team sheet has his rugby-loving countrymen screaming for the laudanum. Against England on Saturday, he was called up to the starting lineup just 90 minutes before kick-off. And he just had to be the player who came in too tight when Owen Farrell flicked out that perfect pass to Elliot Daly four minutes from time – never mind that seconds earlier, the ball should have been booted into row Z. Of the Principality’s neighbour Cardiff Arms Park. Cuthbert’s stock has been low for some time, but any wily RUGDAQ investors’ hopes of a rise have been dashed.

The Brisbane Global Rugby Tens
The inaugural ten-a-side tournament wasn’t quiiite the flop some reports made it out to be but it still didn’t make the greatest first impression. Being played during a freak heatwave probably kept the crowds down a bit (or at least away from the cameras on the shady side of the ground), then there was the brutal injury toll meaning even fewer top players are likely attend next year. But most of all, the novelty is gone now, and at the end of the day ten-a-side rugby – especially scrappy pre-season games between under-prepared or indifferent opponents – just wasn’t that fun to watch.