Well, Happy Monday my G&GR boys and girls. Don’t you just love it? International test rugby is back in full swing and my cup floweth over. And a cracking couple of game to get us started this weekend.
So let’s have a bit of ‘looky-loo’ at those games and dissect our thoughts on those ones. Pretend we are working, get comfortable, grab a big cup of the elixir of life ☕, and let’s get it on.
New Zealand 24 defeated England 22
Wow and what a cracking start to the Northern Tour matches. For a full review, check out our resident Tasweigan Soap Dodgers (Butz) review of this game here. So I won’t re-hash the game but talk through some of the key issues I saw.
Angus Gardner – I thought Gus had a great game. He communicated well and was very fair to both teams. He let the game flow, and let go minor infringements that really didn’t affect the game. I, for one, thought the English players were given a good listening too. Personally, I would have carded one or two of them for being ‘whinging bastards’ but, hey, that’s only my opinion. Great to see Aussie Gus getting the big games. Well done that lad!
England blew that game – England had every opportunity to win that game, and they blew it. They’ll look back on that game and be pissed off. Gus didn’t lose it for them. They had their opportunities and failed to take them. Their scrum was powerful in the first half, but their bench from row struggled. New Zealand were indisciplined, and yet they couldn’t take advantage of it. And two shots at goal that were makeable shots were very costly.
The Kiwis got lucky – The Kiwis looked good in patches of the game, but in the first 20-25 mins the Pommy rush defence bothered them, and then they adapted, chip kicking over their heads and turning them around. When their attack got together they looked good. Sittiti was on fire. BB really steadied the ship. Their discipline was problematic, and their offloads didn’t stick as often as they would’ve liked. If they do start sticking teams will have a significant problem on their hands.
Rush Defence – The Poms rush defence was good for the first 30-odd minutes. But after that, they ran out of gas. And that is where NZ started to get good graft.
Scotland 57 defeated Fiji 17
After watching the Poms v Kiwis, I was really excited to watch this game. And boy was I let down. It ended up a one-sided beatdown. The Scottish right winger Darcy Graham helped himself to four of the Haggis Eaters’ eight tries as they smacked the Flying Fijians 57-17 at Murrayfield on Saturday evening. Huw Jones also chipped in with a swag of tries, with Kyle Rowe and Duhan van der Merwe bagging the remainder.
Scotland made the Fijians pay for their poor discipline as both Frank Lomani and Apisalome Vota were given some 🧀 inside the opening 13 minutes. And that cost the Fijians for the rest of the game. When Huw Jones scored the fourth try without the Fijians bothering the scorer inside 20 minutes the Scots looked like they were going to run a train on the Fijians. However, Fiji managed to wrestle some momentum just before and after oranges, with Armstrong-Ravula, Meli Derenalagi and Tevita Ikanivere all dotting one down.
The Haggis Eaters managed to get some control back, with Graham scoring two further tries to put the kilt wearers out of the reach of the Fijians. This was certainly not the game Mick ‘the Kick’ Byrne would’ve wanted for his boys. And to be honest I thought the Irish pea blower (well at least I think he was Irish, I was having a little trouble understanding him) (ed. Craig Evans is Welsh) seemed at times a little harsh on the Fijians, and not as equally harsh on the Scots. But the Scots well and truly deserved that one.
Anyway, isn’t it great to have international test rugby back. So enough of my crap, over to you G&GRs. Have at it!
