If Warren Gatland was struggling for positives after the
first week of the Autumn Internationals, it wasn’t about to get any better
after round 2. Losses for England, Scotland and Wales meant the only glimour of
hope for Gatland came from the Irish whose spirited display against Fiji saw
them romp home 53-0 winners.
I’ll start off with Wales who put in a very lacklustre
performance against Samoa losing 26-19 at the Millennium Stadium on Friday
night. It was a game Wales really should have won, but we must pay credit to
Samoa whose performance meant they ran out deserved winners. We have to
remember that the Pacific Isles are seeing increased representation across the
leagues in Europe meaning their squad is that much fitter and stronger. Players including George Pisi (Northampton),
Census Johnston (Toulouse), Paul Williams (Stade Francais), Maurie Fa’asavalu
(Harlequins), Ti’i Paulo (Clermont Auvergne) are all playing at clubs who are
at the top level for their respective countries. This means the quality of
rugby is better and victories over countries in the top 5 IRB rankings should
not come as much of a surprise. Jonathon Davies called the performance ‘flat’
with ‘no deception at the line-out’ and the scrum ‘just disintegrated’. It does
not bode well for Wales but with the likes of Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Sam
Warburton and Dan Lydiate all missing you can begin to see how valued these
players are in making Wales tick. Leigh Halfpenny continues to be a reassuring
presence on the field and his reliable kicking must mean he is in contention
for a Lions Tour place.
Ireland by contrast were without many of their key players
but still put in a very dominant performance against Fiji. Once again it’s hard
to determine a player’s real worth against a weak Fiji side, but Declan
kidney’s ambition to field his younger players has paid off with positive
performances across the park. Particular highlights came from Craig Gilroy who
scored a hat-trick of tries. His blistering pace was too much for the Fiji
defence and he caused problems all night. Darren Cave and Luke Marshall
performed well in the centres and Jonny Sexton’s protégé Paddy Jackson also
played well and showed that there’s still a strong emphasis in youth development
in Ireland. In the forwards, blind-side Iain Hendersen played particularly well
and when you end the game with the likes of Strauss, Healy and Zebo on the
park, the result was never in doubt.
Despite two losses, I feel Scotland can take some positives
out of their performances over the past two weeks. A narrow 21-10 loss to South
Africa was disappointing considering Scotland had 63% possession and 67%
territory throughout the game. They were ‘bullied’ according to Andy Robinson
but with dominance in the scrum, you’d expect more of a return. It goes back to
my statement about Scotland a few weeks back, that they lack a cutting edge in
the backs. It wasn’t until the introduction of Henry Pyrgos (ex-Loughborough rugby, standard - Ed) that Scotland got
any ‘go forward’ but already being 21-3 down meant it was too big a mountain to
climb. He reenergised the Scottish forwards and with the power of Euan Murray
and the ever impressive Ryan Grant they began to dismantle the South African
scrum. A well worked training ground move allowed Pyrgos to cross the line to
make the score line look more respectable. I feel that a strong performance
against Tonga next week would mean that they would enter the 6 Nations in a
much stronger position and hopefully avoid the dreaded wooden spoon.
England’s performance against Australia was quite simply
woeful. After witnessing my football team get dismantled in the North London
Derby, I knew full well that England would romp home to victory against a
struggling Australian side. Surprise surprise my afternoon of sport went from
bad to worse and is probably the reason I still have a headache early on Monday
morning. England gained no parity in any
area of the game on Saturday and were dispatched quite easily by an under
strength Wallaby side. It was not so much their attacking prowess and well
organised defence, but more a game plan which exposed England’s frailties.
The
re-introduction of Ben Alexander meant the Australian scrum caused England
problems, an area previously identified as a weakness. They remained calm throughout
the game and did the basics well. Cummins was strong on the wing both in attack
and defence and Hooper in the back row was monumental. Robshaw and Johnson were
second best all afternoon and despite his best efforts, Waldrom didn’t have the
cutting edge or dynamism to produce a try at the cost of 3 kickable penalties.
Lancaster will have to take a good hard look at his side over the next week as
the two strongest teams still await them. Ben Morgan was in imperious form for
Gloucester at the weekend and his hat-trick of tries showed he has real class.
I would put him in to the starting line up against the South Africans in an
attempt to nullify their big runners and create some attacking go forward. The
backs looked static and despite some industrious work by the centres, their
attacking game never got going. Goode once again showed some good glimpses as
to why he’s staking a claim for the number 15 jersey but it wasn’t enough to
stop a 20-14 loss at HQ. One area which did impress me was the use of impact
players.
Launchbury and Vunipola were both used to good effect for the second
week in a row and showed that they have the skills to play with the best in the
world. Launchbury has a great set of hands and is without doubt one for the
future. Vunipola carried well and was a nuisance at the breakdown all
afternoon.
Let’s hope Warren Gatland’s arrival back after his sabbatical to concentrate on Lions preparation spurs home nation players for bigger and
better performances in the coming weeks.
Let’s face it with the arrival of
South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina for England, Wales and Ireland
respectively, they’ll need it.
Once again I’ll pick my Lions XV based on the AI’s week 2
games and trust me, this week was difficult.
.JPG)
1. E. Murray 2. T. Youngs 3.
R. Grant 4. J. Launbury 5. T. Palmer 6. I. Hendersen 7. D. Denton 8. J.
Heaslip 9. H. Pyrgos 10. P. Jackson 11.
C. Gilroy 12. D. Cave 13. L. Marshall
14. L. Halfpenny 15. A. Goode
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