The Rugby Championship: Midweek Report

New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina began their preparations for the Rugby World Cup in serious fashion this weekend as a condensed Rugby Championship got underway.

On Friday, New Zealand ran out clear winners against Argentina in Christchurch, while on Saturday, Australia produced a remarkable comeback in the last two minutes of the game to beat South Africa in Brisbane.

Both home sides were victorious and in honesty, this round of fixtures didn’t really throw up any surprises which could change the outlook for the Rugby World Cup.

There were, though, some things we learnt from this weekend as the World Cup countdown continues.

New Zealand 39-18 Argentina

In terms of New Zealand’s win over Argentina, the visitors could not handle the All Blacks superior skills at times highlighting that an Argentine franchise in Super Rugby could do them the world of good when competing against the Southern Hemisphere heavyweights.

It was a very fitting farewell to Christchurch for Dan Carter and Richie McCaw, but even more important to Carter will be the fact that Coach Steve Hansen, and his team, continue to select him ahead of this World Cup despite claims he is past his best.

Arguably Carter is currently in his best form all season and proved that with some superb place-kicking on Friday. Kieran Read also produced a very solid display in the forwards.

Their incredible strength in depth is even more blatantly obvious now Waisake Naholo has been sidelined along with Cory Jane.

The sheer quality they have is phenomenal. The likes of Israel Dagg can provide excellent back cover with Nehe Milner-Skudder waiting in the wings. He is certainly not a bad replacement for Ben Smith and Julian Savea.

But it isn’t all rosy.

Hansen came out after their victory over Argentina and said that he doesn’t like lineout drives describing them as “an illegal obstruction” and “bloody boring.”

He may have said this because Argentina capitalised on New Zealand’s weakness at defending mauls as they scored two tries during their best spell of the match in the second half. The All Blacks did not contest the throw on both occasions and failed to combat the Pumas technique.

Australia 24-20 South Africa

As for Australia and South Africa, any doubt that the Rugby Championship didn’t mean anything to these teams was thrown out of the window when seeing the reaction of both sets of players at the end of the contest in Brisbane.

The Wallabies were awarded a late try by TMO to complete a stunning comeback and win 24-20 in one of the better test matches in recent times.

This was a real statement made by Michael Cheika’s men who went into these Championships searching for their first opening game win in the tournament since 2011.

They are starting to make a habit of coming from behind to win test matches and they really had no right to beat South Africa on Saturday.

In terms of players, Israel Folau bounced back from Super Rugby disappointment to put in a sterling individual performance under the high ball which is an essential part of his armour ahead of the World Cup.

On the flip side of that, is Matt Giteu the answer to settle the back line for Australia?

He wasn’t at his best against the Springboks and was rarely helped by Quade Cooper and Will Genia who didn’t do their chance of moving to the Northern Hemisphere any favours.

On top of this, Giteu and Genia have now been ruled out of their game against Argentina this Saturday due to injuries.

The Wallabies also struggled up front against South Africa and have now appointed Mario Ledesma in a bid to help the their much-maligned scrum before the World Cup begins in September.

Ledesma, who played 84 Tests for Argentina as a hooker, has begun working with the Wallabies on set pieces after spending time with the Waratahs through the Super Rugby season in the same capacity. It will be interesting to see how well Australia will combat the physicality which Argentina possesses this weekend.

In terms of South Africa, injuries haven’t helped heading into this Championship, but their collapse in the last 20 minutes in Brisbane will be a concern for Coach Heyneke Meyer. They couldn’t get possession or territory in the final quarter – but maybe their intensity dropped due to them subbing off some of their stars.

Despite this result for South Africa, there were certainly some positives to take away from the Suncorp Stadium.

Francois Louw and Bismark du Plessis were excellent at the breakdown and their balanced pack which also included Schalk Burger, was a huge success in the first half.

Willie Le Roux was on form and positionally; he was excellent. Centre Jesse Kriel has a bright future ahead of him and that try on debut will be a massive confidence boost ahead of the World Cup.

Injuries haven’t been kind to Meyer who has now selected his third captain in as many weeks with Burger skippering the side against New Zealand this weekend due to the absence of the injured Jean de Villiers and Victor Matfield.

Matfield has been replaced by Lood de Jager whilst Hinrich Brüssow is back in the Springboks set-up. This will be his first start since 2011.

The All Blacks will be wary of a Springbok backlash and will not want a repeat of the 27-25 defeat last October. This was just one of the two test defeats which New Zealand have suffered since their World Cup triumph in 2011.

TRU’s Scott Donaldson’s Rugby Championship Verdict

The Rugby Championship only goes for three weeks, but it is hard to know how much to read into Round One results.  The next round will shed further light into where these teams are at.  

The All Blacks comfortably outplayed Argentina, but one look at the Argentina team suggests that they really missed their handful of missing stars.  

While South Africa was great for sixty minutes and the Wallabies only really started firing until the final quarter, so time will tell on the form of these teams come Rugby World Cup time.  

It will be interesting to see how much rotation takes place for Round 2 of the Rugby Championship.  

The bigger picture is the Rugby World Cup, but it will the likes of Argentina and Australia who have less depth in most positions to the All Blacks, may also do player rotation, although with so few tests left until the Rugby World Cup, it could also be detrimental to make too many changes. The team cohesion vs player freshness.  The All Blacks for example, have left Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams from their squad to play South Africa next weekend.

What are your thoughts on The Rugby Championship Round One?