Scotland v France
It had rained hard before the match, which had a bit of an impact on the early handling and let players surf a bit on the turf but was otherwise not really a factor.
The main point to remember is that this was a France B team against the full strength Scotland side.
First Half
In the opening quarter Scotland looked dominant in the scrums, but by half time that had evened up. However, France dominated the lineouts and the turnovers, which led to a rather lop-sided 21-3 scoreboard.
The first French try was very French, a decent kick after Scotland had been pushed back for several phases. The kick was tight to a touch line and there was a good chase, but a couple of wide passes, a fast run, and suddenly France are rounding the edge of the Scottish defence, able to pass safely back inside and have players lined up for the pass as each player picked up the next defender. A final pass to 9 scoring next to the posts as we’ve seen Dupont do many times.
The next was more magic. France won their lineout but Scotland, rarely, stopped the maul immediately. Normally you’d expect nothing would come from this, but a nice fake, then pass to make a bit of space and a blazing attacking line led to the second.
The third try was more routine, 5m scrum and dive over from close range.
France were also playing a novel defensive strategy. It looks less comfortable than the Edwards’ defence we’re used to seeing and I suspect it’s faster to learn for this group. But it’s working so far.
Second Half
Well, this was very much a game of two halves. Having been held to 3 points in the first half, Scotland scored 22 points to nil in the second half, and that’s despite losing a prop to a totally deserved red card half way through.
Some of this was the inevitable Scottish fight back, some was the French youth and B side lack of resilience, and by the time the French fought back fatigue was robbing them of precision – it was 70+ minutes into a match that both sides had played at a helter-skelter pace so some fatigue was reasonable.
Scotland created more classical team tries than the French, a kick and touch out wide by Graham and a couple of forward tries.
Closing Thoughts
Galthié will probably be happy, he’s seen a lot of fringe and young players under stress and has a good idea about them. All the youngsters looked great, so did most of the returning players. They got beaten by experience and cohesion.
Townsend will worry about that first half, and what the wheel of justice will do to Fagerson. He’s seen Red for a very similar offence before so he could easily miss a chunk of World Cup games.
Wales v England
After the fun and high tempo of the first match, we were served up this. In fairness (although the commentators would have you believe only one side was “experimental”), both sides were playing with a lot of young and/or returning players rather than more familiar names. The real difference is that, for Wales, this is possibly close to their real team. For England, we know there are a load of others waiting to come back in.
First Half
Both sides threatened the try line once or twice but failed to convert. Both sides had flashes of offensive success and line breaks but, overall, this half was dominated by kicking and defences. They were both playing the Bokke model – try for about three phases, then kick it – but largely without the really aggressive chase. England kicked a little bit more, a little bit further. Apparently this is part of the plan, although I’ll note they failed to regain a single kick and rarely pressured the receiver. England won the kicks at goal battle and went for oranges 9-6 up.
Berry took against the Welsh scrum and when and English former forward now commentator is saying “I think he got that wrong” it’s not just my bias speaking.
Second Half
It’s easy to get carried away by the fact that Wales scored two lovely tries and but for Berry being a pedantic SOB almost scored a third wonder try. The TMO had awarded it and he overruled her. Boo, go back to Australia! (It wasn’t a try, but damn, it was close and it really was spectacular.) England scored no points, and Wales ran out comfortable winners, 20-9.
But, even though Wales only scored on those two occasions, their game just burst into life. They started winning scrum penalties, having not been able to win a scrum, let alone a scrum penalty in the first half. England ended up losing five of their own lineouts, Wales lost none. England made 16 handling errors (I don’t have the count for Wales, but it was under 10 by eye).
Although Gatland is saying it means nothing, he’s seen these youngsters go out and respond, raise their game and win. And although the second try came after Biggar had replaced Costelow, the youngster made the prettier of the two tries that took Wales into the lead and inspired the team, made the backs fire.
Closing Thoughts
Gatland has some ideas about how his players will go, and that has to be good. There’s an attacking structure and a defensive structure that isn’t perfect, but it’s there. It will get better. Borthwick might already know most or all of his squad, but whatever questions he wanted to answer with this selection are probably left unresolved or marked with an X instead of a √
Thoughts for Wallabies v Wales
Both sides have, so far, shown a half of good rugby in all the games they’ve played, except for the Wallabies against South Africa. But for Wales, this is the equivalent of that match. First match of the season, but a really new side – two caps winning their first caps as starters for example. It’s hard to tell at the moment, but expecting this to be a push-over in a few weeks time? On this showing, there will be fight in the Dragon.
Ireland v Italy to come
First Half
Italy looked pretty in attack at times, and strove manfully in defence. But Ireland were just better. Pretty attacking lines still have to penetrate and trouble the scramble defence as well. Striving in defence doesn’t really help if you can’t win penalties or turnovers to stop the attack. While it’s not fair to say Italy never did that, they certainly didn’t do it often enough. Ireland led 21-3 at the break.
This half was Ireland being just too good, but Italy would challenge the England side we saw today.
Second Half
For a change, this was not “a game of two halves” so I can avoid that cliché, although the scoreboard might suggest otherwise. Indeed, Italy won it 14-12, but this was not due to a massive improvement in their play, although they did improve, nor a massive decline in Ireland’s, although they did ease up a little. Rather, Italy three times applied pressure close to the Irish line and twice converted that into tries. That helped them keep Ireland away from their own try line, limiting their chances to score. When Ireland did get close, as they had in the first half, Italy strove to resist and made it hard, and slow, to score against them.
Overall this was a tough game, particularly for Italy, who ended up playing with 14 when Menoncello had to leave. Although it’s hard to be sure, the way he went for his shoulder and the level of distress he showed suggests he might not make it to France with a serious injury.
Closing Thoughts
Ireland B are still really good, and Italy are missing some key players still. Possibly more now. With their injuries this World Cup is even more too soon than I was predicting. Ireland have England and Samoa to come. Will they be undercooked come the main event? I think that’s the big question now remaining until we actually get to France for these two teams.
Final Thoughts on the Summer Internationals
Probably the biggest surprise was the margin of victory for Wales over England. I imagine the press will be savage tomorrow. I don’t think Farrell and Borthwick have learnt much. Galthié and Gatland will have learnt much more, ironic that one will have learnt a lot from a defeat and the other from a victory. Crowley’s biggest concern will be the injury list but he’s got some flashes of hope and should sew up third place this year. Realistically, with New Zealand and France in his pool, that was the best Italy could hope for.
The gossip in France is that we’ll see something like this team again next week, and then the stars come out for their matches against Fiji and Australia. That will be fun.
