Happy Monday and welcome back to the G&GR faithful and those who may be new to this wonderful rugby site: created by fans of rugby, for fans of rugby. We have a new look and feel, but the same crew is delivering the weekly news (unfortunately for you guys on Mondays). RAWF (Reds and Wallabies Fan) will be back on Tuesdays, Yowie and our resident Kiwi KARL on Wednesdays, the Happyman on Thursdays, and the Big Novocastrian Hoss on Fridays! And let’s not forget the podcasts from the guys Talking Teams and the Dropped Kick-Off. As well as special articles from our resident underfed front rower Nutta, our Soap Dodger Keith (aka Butz), our Northern Hemisphere expert Eloise, and comments from the G&GR alumni Sully.
2025 is looking to be a huge rugby year for Australian and UK fans with the British & Irish Lions touring Australia later in the year. Super Rugby is likely to be a huge year with a bit of a changing of the guard with the Kiwi teams, and it not being all about the team from Christchurch. The Australian teams are on the improve and will hopefully start to see the Kiwi teams being challenged more. And let’s not forget the rise of the Fiji Drua. This is shaping up to be a huge year for rugby fans.
This week we have international rugby and the Super Rugby Pacific trial matches in the lead-up to the season kicking off proper on Valentine’s Day, 14 February. So let’s have a look at the Six Nations games and then a quick recap of some of the trial matches. So strap in, grab a big cup of that beautiful brown stuff ☕, and let’s do the G&GR business.
Men’s Six Nations Tournament – Round One
France 43 defeated Wales 0
The little French maestro, Antoine Dupont showed why he is arguably the best player in world rugby. This match was his Six Nations comeback, post his 7s stint during the Olympics, to guide the Froggies to a 43-0 shellacking of the Northern Hemisphere Sheep Shaggers (Wales) in the opening salvo of the Six Nations.
The hapless Welsh, to be honest, looked reasonably solid in the first half, compared to last year where they finished off. But, in comparison to their cross-channel opposition they were just not in the same league. The French on the other hand looked like a team that was a little rusty, were barely out of third gear, but still had plenty of gas and points left in the tank. They’ll be a serious challenge for the other teams when they get their game plan fully firing.
Dupont looked very much the conductor, orchestrating some marvellous play, and just having a totally unique view of time and space compared to those around him. The Welsh defence struggled at times, and their attack was pretty basic and one-dimensional. To see if there’s been any real improvement we will have to see them against the other teams. France does appear to be in a league of their own, and this is their tournament to lose.
Les Blues scored pretty much at will throughout the game with double meat pies to wingers Theo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey and a smattering of tries to Julien Marchand, Emilien Gailleton, and Gregory Alldritt. Thomas Ramos also put plenty of points on the board with some great kicking from the tee. Wales, on the other hand, helped themselves to a donut.
France’s first try was set up by a marvellous Dupont crossfielder. Bielle-Biarrey dotted down another try quickly for the French leaving the Taffs struggling. To further exacerbate things for the Welsh, Evan Lloyd was then 🧀 for a high tackle on Bielle-Biarrey. Dupont not wanting to have one or two pieces of brilliance, did it again to enable France’s third try, with the little master suckering in defenders to create the gaps before a peach of a pass to Attissogbe, who bagged his second try for the night.
Not to rest on his laurels, Dupont then completed his trio of assists before oranges with a huge pass to Bielle-Biarrey, who avoided a tackle before touching for France’s fourth. It was at this point that Wales were in a lose-lose situation, and France could put the cue back in the rack. Which is pretty much what happened. Babian ‘I wear the coolest glasses in the world’ Galthie, rested Dupont from the 50 min mark and got some game time for his backup scrum-half, Nolan Le Garrec.
It was then all about limiting the losses for Wales. France then scored their fifth try from hooker Marchand through a great set piece play off a line out, and then Romain Ntamack’s sweet little cross fielder sent centre Gailleton over the line for their sixth.
Wales at this point were desperately trying to stem the flow, of what was shaping up to be their worst defeat to France in decades, and seemed more hell-bent on trying to salvage some reputational gain than playing rugby. They were then strangely assisted by Ntamack who was 🧀 for a shoulder charge to the head. This tackle was reviewed by the TMO and upgraded to a fine glass of 🍷, and not surprisingly either. There was little mitigation in that one. However, this means Ntamack will likely have a couple of weeks in the naughty corner, seeing the return of ‘Are you there Jalibert’ who was dropped by Galthie over reports the two do not see eye to eye. Watch this space.
Just when we thought the Welsh may find a way to get some points on the board and save their ‘trousers’, Freddie Thomas helped himself to some 🧀 for repeated Welsh infringements, allowing Alldritt to slide in the corner scoring the Frog’s 7th try and their sides biggest winning margin since their record 51-0 victory in 1998.
After the game, the French coach stated, “We adapted to the conditions in the rain and managed to get the bonus point, and a nice points average.”. The Welsh captain Morgan felt his side was not disciplined enough. “It was a tough night, obviously we are disappointed with the result. Discipline probably let us down quite a bit in that game, and against a team like France, they capitalise on your ill-discipline and your mistakes, and that’s what they did today.”
France has plenty of game left in them and has really thrown down the marker to the other 5 teams, but particularly the Oirish. Wales, well I just don’t know.
Scotland 31 defeated Italy 19
The Haggis Eaters got their Six Nations tourney off to a flying start with a great victory over Italy in their match at Murrayfield on Saturday, which included a hat-trick of tries to Huw Jones. Joint captain Rory Darge got the ‘Braves’ on the board with less than 5 minutes on the clock. Then in less than another 5 minutes, the kilt wearers were over the try line again with the very Scottish-sounding lad Duhan van der Merwe being a good team man and offloading to Jones for his second try. With a Finn Russell conversion, the Scots were up 14 – Bagel.
From here the Scots discipline started to waiver a little and with two penalties, Tommaso Allan was able to edge up 6 points to Italy and get them back in the game. The Scots attack was looking sharper as the game progressed and the pressure that they were applying to the Italians got paid with Ben White crossing for the Scots third.
What was starting to look like one-way traffic was reversed when Garbisi managed to snaffle a penalty when the Scots were deep into the Italian 22 and on the attack. At 19-6, the Italians were able to get back into the game, and just before oranges, the Italians nabbed a nice little penalty to send both teams into the sheds at 19-9.
Straight after some time in the sheds, the Italians started the way they left off, gaining a convenient penalty and leaving them a converted try behind. And lo and behold they picked that up after hot and cold Finn Russell screwed the pooch with a cut-out pass that was picked off, and a length of the field try ensued. This had the Italians back in the game and their confidence high.
The Scots managed to sneak back ahead with a great team try involving Darcy Graham and Huw Jones (again) to gain the lead back at 26-19. Then Jones nailed his hat-trick in the 67th minute barging his way over the line for a well-deserved three-peat. With around 10 minutes left on the clock and a 12-point lead it was looking like Scotland was going to ice this, but it didn’t stop the Italians from giving it a red hot go.
But alas it wasn’t enough and the Scots sealed out the game. “I’m pretty happy,” said Jones. “It’s not every day you manage to get on the end of three so thanks to the boys for setting me up. I don’t want to say that our confidence is sky high, we’re happy with the win today but our focus is on taking it week by week.”
Italy skipper Michele Lamaro said there was a sense of disappointment they hadn’t performed as they had hoped against a side they beat last year. “They put us under a lot of pressure in the breakdown and we were unable to solve the problem,” “They prevented us getting quick ball and playing the game we wanted to play. Honestly, we didn’t perform.”
It will be interesting to see both teams form against other teams, with some really strong points in both of their games, but also some points to work on.
Ireland 27 defeated England 22
Early Sunday morning Australian time saw a ding dong battle between two old foes. It ended with the Paddies in a come-from-behind victory as they put forward their bona fides for a third successive Six Nations title with a back and forth 27-22 win over the Soap Dodgers.
The reigning champs trailed 10-5 at oranges after a pretty enthusiastic start by England. The Poms were looking to attack expansively with Marcus Smith utilising several cross-field kicks and chip kicks in behind to split the Oirish defence. But Brendan O’Keeffe was pretty red hot on England’s disciplinary woes, with multiple penalties defending against Ireland’s attacking raids inside the 22.
In the end, it was this discipline and their faltering attack that cost them the game. The inexperience showed when the bottom end of the game became tight. The Oirish showed what a well-formed and well-gelled team can do when the pressure comes on. However, there’s still a degree of rustiness to their game, and they will have to get that sorted out before they face the French. As for the English, the pressure has to be on Steve Borthwick. His team seems to lack an identity and isn’t sure how they attack, and more importantly how to defend without succumbing to poor discipline and constant penalties.
But as most G&GRs will agree, a loss for England is good for rugby. So let’s hope there are many more. 🤣.
Super Rugby Trial Matches
Queensland Reds 82 defeated Bristol Bears 21
My beloved Reds have launched their 2025 campaign in style with an impressive 82-21 victory over what some might say was a development squad for Premiership side Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate in bollocks cold weather.
Jock Campbell pulled off a second-half hat-trick and recently returned to Queensland Filipo Daugunu scored a double in his first game since recovering from a broken leg suffered on Wallaby duty. Legendary 7, and the best moustache in Australian rugby, Fraser McReight also scored a double.
Lynagh Jnr had a solid game distributing well and kicking perfectly from the tee, icing seven from seven. But most importantly for the Reds, they got through this game with zero injury concerns which would have been a big relief for Les Kiss.
“It was good fun out there, a great first hit out for the year and a lot to build on for next week in Belfast and then Moana Pasifika at Suncorp,” Jock Campbell said post-game. “It’s beautiful playing in these conditions, run around a bit more and this stadium is arguably one of the best I have ever played in. Mum was in the stands and she was pretty loud, and it was great to hear our supporters when we scored, but also the Bristol fans who came out were really loud and great as well.”
Les Kiss stated “We had about eight or nine new combinations in our team, so for those things to click well for us was nice. We had good accurate passing, good clean outs, good breakdowns; all the little things that you want to do well.”
The Reds will travel to Cheltenham to continue pre-season preparations, before flying to Belfast on Monday ahead of Friday night’s final tour fixture against Ulster.
If you didn’t get to see the game follow the link here.
ACT Brumbies 36 drew with NSW Waratahs 36
As detailed here, new Waratahs coach Dan ‘Chuckles’ McKellar thinks duo Joseph-Aukuo Suaalii and Jake Gordon should be good to go for SRP 2025 despite the injury concerns. JAS didn’t play and was withdrawn due to a hamstring concern, and the Commissioner came off after only 5 minutes after a bit of a knock with back concerns.
Both teams showed some good and some concerning traits in the game. But the game certainly helped the teams shake out some of the rust in the lead-up to the SRP. The Tahs have a lot of new combinations with the squad getting the benefit (some would say RA-directed) flow of Rebels players. Ginger Ninja Kellaway brought a degree of maturity and control to the Tahs backs, something they’ve lacked for several years now. The Ponies continued to show that they have great depth, and rarely have to go through rebuild phases.
I think both coaches would’ve liked what they saw, and the next trial game for both teams will start to zero in their game plan, and solidify their combinations.
That’s it for this Monday news. This old man has forgotten what it’s like to sit in front of a computer and put these things together, the holidays are now well and truly over. Anyways, over to you G&GRs. Have at it!
