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Weekend Round-Up: No one puts Scotland in the corner
After an intriguing Six Nations weekend and the explosive start of the Super Rugby season, here are the highlights you don’t want to miss.
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Super Rugby: Blues vs Rebels
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Super Rugby kicked off for 2017 with last year’s 11th and 12th-placed teams meeting on a Thursday night in the rugby stronghold of Melbourne. Whatever the logic behind the scheduling, those who showed up or tuned in were rewarded with a surprisingly enjoyable game of early-season code. The first try of the season was a ripper, eventually finished off by Rebels halfback Nic Stirzaker, but the star of the show was Blues 19-year-old wunderkind Rieko Ioane. Have a look at the highlights if you want to see the future of rugby.
Super Rugby: Sunwolves vs Hurricanes
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The Savea brothers aren’t going to give up their title as rugby’s most dangerous brotherly duo to the Ioanes without a fight. Julian and Ardie were in another class as the Hurricanes swept aside the Sunwolves in Tokyo on Saturday. Watch the highlights if you like tries and Lomu-esque barnstorming runs, but this is one to avoid for the purists who think teams being humiliated does nothing for Super Rugby’s reputation.
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Six Nations: Scotland vs Wales
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These days the Scottish international side is a different animal from the one that other nations – Italy apart – have fed on for several Six Nations tournaments. Just ask Wales, who have become accustomed to beating their Celtic rivals, after winning nine of the previous 10 encounters. At first, it looked as if Rob Howley’s visitors would notch another victory as they ruled the early roost – but they were to discover that, these days, there’s bite in them thar Bravehearts. Odds against a Triple Crown in a fortnight?
Six Nations: Ireland vs France
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It was a grand, soft day in Dublin when Ireland entertained France at the Aviva. It was a day for discipline. It was a day for territory and tactical nous. It was, in short, a day for the fit-again Johnny Sexton. For all that the pre-match talk in Ireland was about whether Ulster’s Paddy Jackson should keep his place at 10 ahead of the gametime-shy Leinsterman, Sexton set about showing the Irish – and the French, and every other rugby-playing nation watching, for that matter – just what they had been missing. After a frenetic opening quarter, in which Les Bleus were denied what looked a nailed-on try, he set about restoring Irish order. Truth is, he was masterful. Conor Murray may have won the man-of-the-match award, but Sexton was the rock on which his honour was built.
Six Nations: England vs Italy
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That the England bandwagon marches on – 17 straight wins now – should come as the square root of no surprise to anybody. But this was not the walk in the park that almost everyone predicted. For an hour, Italy did more than just hang in there. Using the anti-ruck tactic shamelessly borrowed from Super Rugby’s Chiefs, they nullified England’s attack and infuriated the Twickenham crowd. The Azzurri deserved to be in front at halftime. And they deserved to still be within two points of England with just 18 minutes to go – before Eddie Jones’s men belatedly worked out what to do. This game is worth rewatching for referee Romain Poite’s response to James Haskell’s question about how England should deal with Italy’s greatest rugby trick.
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
24 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
24 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
24 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments