Good and bad: NZ and Scotland
It is time for our weekly wrap up of who has their name in lights at the moment...and who is making the headlines for the wrong reasons.
They're on fire!
Southern Hemisphere nations: The All Blacks provided the final flourish of Southern Hemisphere wins this past weekend after protecting their 59-year winning run over Wales. Australia, South Africa, Tonga and Fiji also squeezed to narrow victories over Italy, England, Scotland and Georgia respectively to maintain the south's dominance of the November internationals in the third weekend of matches. And let's not forget the USA, who swept past Romania 34-3 in Bucharest.
Ireland and France: First Ireland ended their longest losing run in 14 years with a surprisingly heavy win over Argentina, with Test debutant Craig Gilroy scoring the first of the team's seven tries. Then France survived a scare from Samoa to clip out a 22-14 win and achieve their first sweep of November Tests in seven years, cementing their place inside the top four of the IRB's world rankings as Europe's highest-ranked side.
Richie McCaw: Delivered another superb performance in the All Blacks' win over Wales. McCaw was always in the thick of the action, be it on defence and attack and as captain he certainly led from the front.
Craig Gilroy: A star was born during Ireland's thumping of Argentina. Either by using slick footwork or bulldozing through tackles, Gilroy tormented Argentina throughout and - besides touching down for Ireland's opening try - was involved in the build-up of three more in what was an outstanding Test debut.
Census Johnstone's grubber kick: Apart from a solid performance in the scrums, the big Samoan prop showed that he has brains to match his brawn when he put through a beautifully-weighted kick for Robert Lilomaiava to chase. With little space to manoeuvre, the wing had the presence of mind to offload to David Lemi who scored under the posts.
Springbok line-out: The Bok pack can take a bow as they didn't lose a single ball on their own throw-in during their three-match tour to Europe! While jumpers like Eben Etzebeth, Juandre Kruger and Duane Vermeulen deserve credit for securing the bulk of the possession at the set-piece, a special word of praise must go to hooker Adriaan Strauss whose throws were accurate throughout.
Get these guys a cup of warm soup!
Argentina: The Pumas went from hero to zero in the space of two weeks. Their famous win over Wales in Cardiff a fortnight ago must seem a distant memory now for their fans who watched in horror as the men in blue and white hoops conceded seven tries in Dublin. Argentina did give themselves some respectability on the scoreboard with two consolation tries, but by then the damage had already been done.
Scotland: Slumped to another miserable loss which led to the resignation of head coach Andy Robinson. A season which featured early World Cup elimination and a Six Nations wooden spoon was revived by the June wins in Australia, Fiji and Samoa before New Zealand, South Africa and Tonga inflicted defeats which saw Scotland fall outside the top eight seeds for the 2015 World Cup draw.
Andrew Hore: The All Black hooker's swinging punch on Wales lock Bradley Davies was rightly labelled as a cheap shot by Dragons coach Warren Gatland. Hore's attack must rank alongside Dean Greyling's effort on Richie McCaw as the worst act of thuggery in Tests this year.
Chris Robshaw's decision-making: After opting to kick for touch when he should've gone for posts in the loss to Australia, Robshaw did the opposite with two minutes left on the clock in their defeat to South Africa last weekend. The England skipper must be doing a lot of introspection ahead of this weekend's clash with New Zealand at Twickenham.
Georgia: Saturday's defeat to Fiji saw the Lelos crash to their fourth consecutive defeat on the trot - their worst run since 2009.
By Dave Morris and David Skippers
Comments
LeftRightOut says...
"Hore's attack must rank alongside Dean Greyling's effort on Richie McCaw as the worst act of thuggery in Tests this year" - agreed, although I suspect he will punished significantly more than Greyling - I'm a kiwi but I hope Hore gets a lengthy ban, if only to shut up the whining SA conspiracy theorists
Posted 23:25 27th November 2012
RugbyLeRoux says...
BokAvenger, stop beig a retard and giving Saffas a bad rep. It was a fair shout Greyling's was an act of cowardice just as Hore's getting lambasted for his effort. Thought most of the rugby this campaign was dire except for the always excellent Kiwi's and the French. Why don't the northern hemisphere play rugby in the summer, it would make far more sense!
Posted 21:34 27th November 2012
Trinats2 says...
Not sure Australia should be in the hot section after their performance against Italy. They were so cold last week I'm surprised rigamortis didn't set in(well at least after Deans half time talk "OK Bro's, we are up by nearly 20, lets kick the ball away now and practice our defence for the second half").
Kevin83:
Argentina doesn't count on PLANET rugby.
BokAvenger:
You have a point (for once !)
Posted 20:17 27th November 2012
Sasquatch says...
@BokAvenger:
Sorry boet, but Greyling's attack on Richie was one of the dumbest acts I have witnessed in the modern game (Bakkies Botha's headbutt on Jimmy Cowan is right up there). In the age of multiple camera BC, you've got to wonder about what is going through the minds of guys who resort to illegal acts knowing they are under scrutiny. I met two Highlanders a couple of years ago in a Cape Town bar and they were saying that they build themselves up mentally to "kill". Fantastic guys, and yet when they run out they are conditioned physically and mentally to inflict pain upon their opponents. I watched Hore's "cheap shot" thinking the same thing I was thinking when I watched Greyling; WTF were you thinking?
Posted 20:10 27th November 2012
NHsaints says...
@3in4 good point, what goes around comes around. I wouldn't argue much against this except PR are very good at making this sound very one sided...England should have beaten SA, very few people are denying that. Australia only just scraped past a team ranked 3 tiers below them, USA are NH and won, France are NH and won and Ireland are NH and smashed the 3rd or 4th best SH side (a team ranked only 1 place below them) by a 5 try margin!
Posted 18:16 27th November 2012
jmanngod says...
Hore was clumsy for sure. But frankly that wlesh lock is running a deliberate lone of obstruction and kinda gets what he deserves IMHO
Posted 18:08 27th November 2012
Kevin83 says...
"And let's not forget the USA, who swept past Romania 34-3 in Bucharest."
Ah yes that well known southern hemisphere country, USA.
Isn't Argentina in the Southern Hemisphere? Weren't they beaten by Ireland?
Wasn't every pundit saying they would beat Ireland?
Posted 17:28 27th November 2012
Lucasrg says...
@dan73
Damn right!
..and hopefully Robshaw will learn from his mistake.
Parisse's decision was pretty similar, 2 minutes to go and they decided to go for the draw, instead of a line out and rolling maul to follow.
Togheter with Richie MC I would include Conard Smith.,..he was technically perfect!
Posted 17:12 27th November 2012
KiwiLad says...
Bokavenger, I bet Hore gets a greater punishment than Greyling, even though hes has played far more tests with a relatively clean record.
So how can you continue to cry bias?? Insanity??
Posted 16:58 27th November 2012
dan73 says...
Last week there was first half Italy, how about second half Italy this week?
Posted 16:22 27th November 2012
Phill_Moore says...
Please guys, no feeding of BokX trolls... Or you actually take what they babble about seriously?
Posted 16:14 27th November 2012
Stellenbosched2 says...
I suppose professional rugby was always going to be a threat to certain nations while helping others. NZ was one of the nations I thought may suffer due to obvious limitations in income/economy size, but they have done very well to date. Good luck to them.
Here's hoping that Scotland can turn things around. I don't know how the Scots find players prepared to train in the middle of winter. Plus their player base must be limited by population size and better offers down south (am I swearing in Scotish?).
I think the AB's and Wallabies should re-think their policy to not pick foreign based players. Their players are more in demand precisely because of that thinking. Pick your foreign based players and watch how quickly the European clubs change their minds about raiding player resources due to reduced availability and the threat of injury.
Posted 15:18 27th November 2012
BokAvenger says...
Typical PR. Couldn't bring themselves to lambaste Hore's act of cowardice without dragging a Saffa into it
Posted 14:42 27th November 2012
3in4 says...
Not condoning Hore's actions or anything, but isn't this just a case of cosmic justice being meted out to Bradley Davies after his cowardly attempt to break Donnacha Ryan's neck in the Six Nations match last year?
Posted 13:38 27th November 2012