The latest RugbyPass Form XV - 5 French, 4 English, and 2 each from Pumas, Wallabies and Wales
After their opening round Autumn Nations Cup match with Fiji was cancelled last week, France got their campaign started with an away win over Scotland on Sunday. Fabien Galthie’s side staked their claim for being the form side in Europe, with a Nations Cup final against England now looking likely after their win over Ireland.
Meanwhile, struggling Wales registered their second win of 2020, beating Georgia, and Argentina salvaged a gutsy Rugby Championship draw against Australia after their game-winning heroics against the All Blacks the week before.
Here is the latest RugbyPass Form XV, plenty of new faces chosen in a team consisting of five French players, four English, and two players each from Argentina, Australia and Wales.
1. Wyn Jones: Against a Georgia side famed for their love of the scrum, the Wales loosehead certainly came out on top, winning two early penalties and proving he is Wayne Pivac’s best scrummaging option at No1.
2. Camille Chat: In an attritional battle up front against Scotland, the French hooker tirelessly threw his weight around for the first 50 minutes.
It was Maro Itoje that took most of the praise on the weekend, but captain Farrell deserves a fair share too. #ENGvIRE https://t.co/swxc3WJkM8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 24, 2020
3. Kyle Sinckler: His tremendous workrate was exhibited against Ireland. The England tighthead made 20 tackles and proved to be a tough Nations Cup opponent for Cian Healy at the scrum.
4. Maro Itoje: Another man of the match performance for the lock against Ireland. His standards never seem to drop.
5. Bernard Le Roux: He typifies the new industrious and ferocious French defence under Shaun Edwards, topping the tackle count against Scotland.
6. Pablo Matera: The Argentina captain put in another excellent shift against Australia, contributing in all aspects of the game.
7. Sam Underhill: England’s tackling machine shone in a monumental defensive effort by his team at Twickenham, while also proving to be a nuisance at the breakdown.
8. Gregory Alldritt: A vital member of the France XV and part of their burgeoning new generation of players, the No8 was happy to make the hard yards against a Scotland defence that proved hard to break down.
9. Antoine Dupont: A quiet game by his usual high standards, but there are few players in better form than the scrum-half currently.
10. Nicolas Sanchez: The scorer of all of Argentina’s points so far in the Tri-Nations, his boot was crucial in the win over the All Blacks and last weekend’s draw with Australia.
And the winner of Player Of The Round for round 2️⃣ with 46.7% of the votes is… 🥁 Jonny May!
Congrats 👏#AutumnNationsCup
— Autumn Nations Series (@autumnnations) November 24, 2020
11. Jonny May: Scorer of two tries against Ireland, including one of the great solo efforts seen this year. He is rightfully receiving plenty of plaudits from his coach Eddie Jones.
12. Hunter Paisami: Argentina struggled to handle Australia’s midfield combo of Paisami and Jordan Petaia last Saturday, particularly in a dominant first half.
13. Virimi Vakatawa: France’s midfielder was at the end of his team’s scything strike move at Murrayfield. He came close to scoring twice before that as his purple patch continues.
14. Louis Rees-Zammit: A try and an assist for Wales’ new winger only tells half the story. The 19-year-old came close to scoring a second and showed on a number of occasions how dangerous he can be when given space.
15. Tom Wright: Although on the wing against Argentina last the weekend, the rugby league convert highlighted what a classy and dependable prospect he is for the Wallabies in just his second outing.
Tri Nations 2020 | Argentina v Australia – Rd 4 Highlights
A tryless clash in Newcastle has seen the @lospumas and @wallabies draw for the just the second time in 34 matches between the two countries.#TriNations2020 #ARGvAUS pic.twitter.com/ZJaHcqCrt9
— Super Rugby Pacific (@SuperRugby) November 21, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments