November Autumn Internationals 2014 - Is the Southern Hemisphere dominance coming to an end?
South Africa were beaten twice on their November tour
©Press Association
The November Autumn Internationals have finished with two of the best Northern Hemisphere teams beating two of the best Southern Hemisphere teams, is this the end of Southern Hemisphere dominance?
Wales held on to beat a sub-par South Africa 12-6, while England beat Australia 26-17.
It is the end of a tiring year for the Southern Hemisphere teams, but it must be concerning that the Springboks who thought they had turned the corner by beating the All Blacks this season, suddenly found themselves losing twice on their Northern Hemisphere tour, while the Wallabies who drew with the All Blacks in 2014, lost to England, Ireland and France on tour.
This puts into perspective the dominance of the All Blacks. They simply went about their business of effectively winning all of their November Autumn International test matches as if it was routine.
Some of the other teams in the world like South Africa, England and Australia have the ability to beat them every now and then, but consistently winning matches you should win simply shows how much more the other teams have to work on if they are to become the top dogs in the IRB/World Rugby rankings.
The Northern Hemisphere teams are probably closer in ability to their Southern Hemisphere opponents than they have been in a while, but they were playing at home in the middle of their season, while the tired Southern Hemisphere teams came to the end of another year of test rugby.
England finally showed what they are capable of by beating Australia, but there were some rather elementary mistakes made by the Wallabies which didn't help their cause. The Springboks turned in a rather sheepish performance against Wales too, although you don't want to take too much away from the boys from the valleys.
All will be revealed at Rugby World Cup 2015, but hosting the tournament in the Northern Hemisphere and the slight improvement of teams like Ireland, England and France leaves me a little bit nervous heading into Rugby World Cup 2015.
The All Blacks have the ability to win 12 games in a year, but there is always that possibility that the one game in a season that they might lose could be the Rugby World Cup final and that is probably going to be at the expense of a Northern Hemisphere team playing at home in their own conditions and crowds with refereeing decisions to boot.
Is this the end of Southern Hemisphere rugby dominance? I don't think it is time to hit the panic button, but we know Australia isn't quite where they should be heading into the Rugby World Cup, while the Springboks stalled a little in the November Internationals.
At least the All Blacks showed that while they weren't the well-oiled machine that we know they can be, at least they did enough to escape unscathed. It is actually good for the game to have England, Ireland, France and even the likes of Scotland and Wales challenging with the Rugby World Cup just around the corner in their own backyard. It makes for a far more exciting tournament.
Did you pick England and Wales to win?
Only eight per cent of tipsters predicted that Wales would beat the Springboks, while 72 percent picked an England win according to SuperBru statistics.
