It annoys me greatly how people are calling the Welsh loss an 'upset'. Argentina are awesome, an all action pack with the following names in the backs: Tiesi, Hernandez, Contepomi Camacho. They were finding their feet in the newly formed Championship this year but they pushed a few teams close and actually had some time to prepare for these autumn internationals unlike previous years. And unlike a lot of the Welsh team, they play in the Premiership and Top 14, are far tougher existence I think we can all agree. Not an upset, about right actually.
France put their hammering last year by the Aussies to bed in a brutal display of forward power against the waning star of Robbie Dean's side. It's hard to think this was the team that used to be simply breathtaking with their attacking prowess and Robbie Deans must be looking over his shoulder despite drawing with New Zealand only weeks earlier. No player sums up the French team at the moment like Picamoles. He is probably the most complete backrower in Europe at the moment and he when he is on the front foot he is borderline unstoppable.
England showed glimmers of potential against and undercooked and undermanned Fijian side. Some nice hands but ultimately butchering some very scorable chances will ring a few alarm bells, Joe Marler's howler being amongst the worst. However lots of positives too. Sharples finally got his chance and took it with no second invite. Flood looked back to his best and Alex Goode fulfilled all the promise he had shown at Saracens and will give Lancaster a genuine headache with Brown on fire too and Foden still to come back. Good all round but room for improvement.
France put their hammering last year by the Aussies to bed in a brutal display of forward power against the waning star of Robbie Dean's side. It's hard to think this was the team that used to be simply breathtaking with their attacking prowess and Robbie Deans must be looking over his shoulder despite drawing with New Zealand only weeks earlier. No player sums up the French team at the moment like Picamoles. He is probably the most complete backrower in Europe at the moment and he when he is on the front foot he is borderline unstoppable.England showed glimmers of potential against and undercooked and undermanned Fijian side. Some nice hands but ultimately butchering some very scorable chances will ring a few alarm bells, Joe Marler's howler being amongst the worst. However lots of positives too. Sharples finally got his chance and took it with no second invite. Flood looked back to his best and Alex Goode fulfilled all the promise he had shown at Saracens and will give Lancaster a genuine headache with Brown on fire too and Foden still to come back. Good all round but room for improvement.
Ireland put in a gutsy performance mixing it up with the big lads but ultimately came up short against the Springboks. They looked great going forward and went toe to toe with South Africa but they couldn't last the distance in a dominant and controlled performance from the away side in the second half. A lesson will hopefully be learnt by Ireland as they witnessed first hand what 'securing a result' looks like.
Scotland also showed a lot of heart. However, New Zealand ignored this for the most part and ran in tries at will and showed the world why they are seen as a cut above. They conceded a few mind and cracks were present in their defence, but its about who scores most and the Kiwis certainly did that. On the plus side for the Scots, Visser looked class and Denton and Gray seemed back to their rampaging best.
A great weekend all round with plenty to digest. 3 and 3 in the North vs South contest, counting the Italy vs Tonga match, so all to play for next week.
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