Well, Happy Monday my G&GR Homies. What a huge weekend of rugby. So much to talk about. The Rugby Championship, the Pacific Nations Cup. Wall-to-wall high quality rugby.
Let’s take a look at the games, and then the Rugby Championship ladder. So log onto your ‘puter, get comfortable, grab a big cup of you know what 
, and let’s get it on.
New Zealand 31 defeated Australia 28
If you haven’t already done so, make sure you read Hoss’s post-match review/live feed of the game here. And vote on the Wallaby players.
Another game of two distinctly and diametrically opposed halves for both teams. After the first 15 minutes, I was ready to turn the game off and walk away and run a warm bath, put on The Doors, light some candles, and slit my wrists. It was depressing. The Wallabies defence was passive, slipping off tackles and showing almost no defensive structure at all. Here’s a stat for you: 11 missed tackles in the first 15 min. But then something happened and the game changed.
It looked like NZ was going to run a train on the hapless Wallabies, but then the Kiwis developed a case of Wallabyitis. It was amusing, but also sadly disturbing to watch; New Zealand is now becoming remarkably fragile in the second half. An interesting stat (yes, I’m becoming the stats man), NZ against Australia, Argentina, and South Africa are 104-46 up in points for and against in the first half, and down 38-79 in the second. WTF! That’s not the All Blacks I’ve watched for decades.
The Wallabies still have serious problems with their restarts. Their lineout was pretty average at best, winning only 12 of 16. Dropped balls, stupid offloads, and complete failure to secure their breakdown ball enabled NZ to turn over at will in the first half. This enabled the All Blacks to dash away to a substantial lead in the first half. The second half was a different story and the Wobs were able to get back into it, and NZ nearly dealt themselves out of it. What a turn of events!
It’ll be interesting to see the player votes for the Wobs. For my two bobs’ worth Harry Wilson (besides a stupid offload) had a great captain’s knock. Fraser McReight had a good game, and Big Bobby V looked pretty good too. For once our bench players made the starters look average, particularly Langi Gleeson, LSL, and Tate McDermott. For me, Tate and LSL go into the starting 15 next week. Players who didn’t crown themselves in glory included Nic White (more about that later), and Marika Koroboite. Both had Barrys for different reasons and shouldn’t be in the squad next week. The ‘Rocks and Diamonds’ players were Tom Wright (no surprises there), Andrew ‘Ginger Ninja’ Kellaway and Hunter Paisami. They had some good moments and some really bad moments. But they weren’t on their pat malone there.
The real positive is that when they were 21 -0 down the Wallabies didn’t drop their bundle and roll over. They stayed in the game and fought hard. They went within inches of winning. But, alas, it wasn’t to be. But there are some positive signs there for Joe Schmidt to work with. They should take some confidence from that performance, but they will also need to be realistic. The Kiwis blew it out of their backsides in the second half. I don’t know how many tries they blew in that game, and if at least two of the ones they blew in the first half had stuck, it might’ve been a totally different story. This is probably more for KARL to speak to, but the Kiwis are having some serious issues. And we were lucky enough to play them on a bad day.
The Wallabies have a lot to work on, and I mean a lot. The first 25 minutes resembled the second half against Argentina two weeks ago. There’s a problem here, I don’t know if it’s structural or attitudinal. But there is an issue. Hopefully, the second half provides St Joe with some building blocks.
I do want to mention the refereeing. And before I say what I’m going to say, the adjudicating didn’t affect the outcome of the game. The referee was consistent both ways, but consistently bad. There were some perplexing decisions, and what happened at the breakdown was just a total shambles, arms on the ground everywhere, players sealing off, coming in from the sides. Just a dog’s breakfast. Australia didn’t do anything to help themselves on that front, but when Dirty Harry Wilson asked a few questions, I thought he was well within his rights to do so. In this Rugby Championship we seem to have one week of good officiating and then one week of bad. What were your thoughts G&GRs?
Argentina 29 defeated South Africa 28
If you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and check out Sully’s great match review here.
I’m not going to do a play-by-play review, but this certainly was a game worth watching. South Africa came out hard and were two tries up, and like in the Wallabies v ABs game, this looked like it was going to be a one-sided beat down. But then the Argies came back, and came back hard. It was a great game to watch.
The Argentinian crowd was going apeshit, it would’ve been deafening. It was also fun watching Rassie in the coaching box in the last 10 minutes. It looked like he was either going to have a heart attack, a stroke, or potentially both. You have to love his passion.
Well done to Argentina! They showed resilience and determination and played some smart rugby at times. The South Africans had their chances, but let themselves down. A victory would have sealed the Rugby Championship for them, but it goes to the final round, and what a cracker of a match that’s going to be.
The Pacific Nations Cup 2024
Fiji 41 defeated Japan 17
The Flying Fijians came home with a wet sail in Osaka from 10-10 at oranges to win the Pacific Nations Cup final 41-17 on Saturday. Fiji ground down the always energetic Japanese with brute strength and speed, bagging five tries (plus two disallowed) for a record-breaking sixth PNC title, and the first since 2018.
Unlike the usual Fijian outings, as well as their attack being brilliant their defence was absolutely rock solid. “We just had to stay in there, work hard to set ourselves up in the second half by maintaining good pressure in that first half,” Mick Byrne said.
The game started with a blistering pace, and then Japan centre Dylan Riley nailed a magic 5 pointer by tearing a beautiful line off the back of a play inside three defenders to slam down a meat pie. His counterpart Inia Tabuavou tried to follow suit, but a knock-on in the buildup had the try ruled out. However, Fiji kept plugging away and levelled the score when Harumichi Tatekawa’s handy little grubber kick bounced off Eroni Mawi, and winger Vuate Karawalevu blitzed the field to pick up the ball and banged it down. After that, both teams head off to the sheds for oranges.
The Bula Boys started the second half well, and then after a brain snap Mamoru Harada, Japan’s hooker, was given a nice chunk of cheddar 
. Fiji’s dynamic young 10 Caleb Muntz, hand his hand in everything. He had a try disallowed but his penalty kick put Fiji into the front, and then they never looked back. The Fijians, seizing the front, gained momentum and their piggies really started to put the squeeze on the Japanese.
With tries to Ponepati Loganimasi and Albert Tuisue the Fijians powered ahead. They crossed twice more through Karawalevu and Loganimasi for his second. These tries were ably assisted by Caleb Muntz who was 6 from 6 from the tee. Japan ran in a consolation try, but alas it was too little too late, with Fiji taking the choccies. Well done Fiji!
Samoa 18 defeated USA 13
Manu Samoa has downed the USA Eagles in an 18-13 victory to sew up third place in the Pacific Nations Cup. Although they’re the new kids on the rugby block, it was the USA Eagles that came out of the gates at a blistering pace to grab a 10-0 lead. Demonstrating a really solid attacking game, the US put themselves in a great field position to grab a penalty to take a 3-0 lead.
Manu Samoa attempted an adventurous cross-field kick to Theo McFarland, but it didn’t quite go to plan when USA’s Toby Fricker flew like an Eagle and grabbed the ball, turned on the afterburners to bolt away, and scored. The first half then deteriorated to an error-riddled game, as both teams had difficulties in putting any passage of play together.
The handling errors and poor execution continued aplenty, not allowing either team to do anything let alone score. Samoa, through Rodney Iona dragged the USA lead back to 10-6 before oranges. The Eaglues lead didn’t last long into the second half as Samoa scored a great try through Iakopo Petelo-Mapu taking the lead for the first time in the game.
A lot of back and forth ensued, with both teams trying hard to dominate the other. However, it was Samoa who managed to score the winning try with less than 2 minutes on the clock to take the choccies.
The Rugby Championship Ladder
So the Championship isn’t over and goes down to the final round. While it’s over for NZ and Australia there’s pride still on the line. But the game between the FISMs and the Dutch Dirt Farmers is where the results will rest. And after this round, I can’t wait for both matches.
Old Man Shouting at Clouds
My ‘Shouting at Clouds’ is aimed at one person!
Nic White, you’ve been a great warrior for our nation, so I say this with the utmost respect, “shut the fuck up!” Australia has long had a problem with getting the pea blower offside, we were renowned for it. I was hoping under this generational change that we would forge a respectful relationship with those who adjudicate our game. But Nic Whites’s carry on was disappointing, unprofessional, and disrespectful. Time he sat out for a few games. There was nothing that he did that made him indispensable. But he really pissed off the referee. And that does us no favours, none at all!
Anyway, enough of this old man ranting and raving. Over to you G&GRs. Have at it.
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