@@johnmcdonald-6196 I’m not sure what you mean. There was one semi-competitive game, namely Australia-Georgia, the rest of it was absolute slaughter. The Springboks put up a jelly green team, that had zero experience playing together, they played 60 minutes at 14, and 20 minutes at 13 against 15, yet scored twelve tries. The score flatters the Portuguese, thanks to Libbok having an awful day on the boot. If he kicked at his URC percentage, the score would be over 70, pushing 80. And Uruguay was even worse than that. Argentina didn’t even have to try and play actual tactical rugby. They didn’t have to bother with box kicking or tactical kicking, as they were running the ball from their own 22 for 7 point tries whenever they decided to do so. Utter touch rugby. I don’t know what your idea of ‘competitive’ is, but to me this was the polar opposite of competitive. Georgia have clearly earned the right to play Tier 1 teams more often. But not Portugal, Uruguay, or Chile. Uruguay or Chile have no business playing Tier 1 teams in their current shape. Portugal maybe, but then it should be the very bottom of Tier 1, certainly nothing north of Australia or Wales. I agree, that Portugal are wasting their time with your Germans, Swiss, Belgians, or Dutch. I think they should focus more on say Tonga, Samoa, Japan, Georgia and the like, with the occasional Wales once or twice per year.
@@JTM1809so what's the answer then? We all want to see the game expand and more teams becoming competitive. That's only going to happen if the game grows in popularity within those tier 2 nations. True Portugal didn't really have a chance against a springbok b team but I still thought they had enough brilliance to inspire their home fans and hopefully talent will start coming through. It's a tough thing for Portugal, given how popular soccer is there and in Europe generally.
@@jangulherme2243 Well, I already foreshadowed the answer. I think Georgia and Portugal should play more teams at their level and slightly above. For Georgia it means the top of Tier2 and bottom of Tier1 with the occasional top team. For Portugal it means mainly Tier2 with the occasional bottom Tier 1 team. Look, I agree with you, that playing Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, etc. is a waste of time for Georgia and Portugal. It’s practically charity and it doesn’t help them in any way. But at the same time, playing matches you cannot win is pointless, and you’re not going to attract little kids by getting drummed. Kids want to watch their team win. And you need to start beating Samoa, Tonga, Japan, etc. before you can think of beating Italy, Wales, Argentina, or Australia. Starting with the Springboks, who could field ten C teams still considerably stronger than Portugal is pointless. It makes sense as a statement: now we’re going to play Tier1 teams time to time, but there’s no point in doing it every year: teams like Boks, ABs, ENG, IRE, FRA will dress a B/C team and still run you over, which is humiliating and de-motivating. Now imagine instead, that in a few years time, you beat Italy or Japan at home in Lisbon or Porto in front of a full stadium of home fans. Now that would be a recruitment boost. But I agree, it’s a circular problem. You need bigger talent pool to get better forwards (you have decent backs already, it’s the forwards that’s holding Portugal back), but for that you need more success and a better domestic competition. Because right now you’re losing all your best players to Pro D2 and other French competitions. But imagine you somehow get the money part sorted. Then it should be a priority to establish an elite domestic competition with a small amount of teams (so that the talent is concentrated, and the best play against the best all the time), or even better a joint competition with Spain, where Portugal would have two three teams, and Spain one, or two. But you need to get the grassroots sorted first, that’s for sure.
Last year, Billy Proctor got his Cane's team mates to sign a jersey he wore in a match and gave it to us to raise funds for our kapa haka at his old school, St Pat's College (Town). We were so happy for him getting in the ABs, but weren't surprised. I won the jersey in a raffle.
Proctor had a very good game… but for me Lukhanyo AM deserves the spot. Am had a Stella performance running the midfield alone after Andre saw red early in the game
The Boks have so many hyphenated names now! Ben-Jason, André-Hugo, Jan-Hendrik, Kurt-Lee! Then you have Sacha Feinberg-Mgomezulu in there too... Going to have to make some fonts smaller to fit names on teamsheets. 😂
Willemse is just too good to be left out of the picture, you can’t not have him in your starting side he’s just too good , libbok or Sasha , libbok and willemse would be one of the best 10/15 combo in the world if libbok was a better goal kicker , so McKenzie and Barrett still are the best combo
Law 9.21 A player must not retaliate. As she said "This is the second time I've had to speak to you in open play..." so she had already let it go with a warning so RG only has himself to blame. Too often we see refs let that sort of thing go and it carries on for the rest of the match until someone gets sent off. It's the 34th minute, everyone knows what's up now, good game management as far as I'm concerned..
@D4N1CU5 yknow how many times we see handbags but rarely do refs decide to reverse penalties. Also the Portuguese were looking for fights the whole game i didnt see the ref doing anything about it they kept pushing our players and ripping the ball aggressively out of play or i guess you like the ref chose to have a blind eye
In that specific incident, RG Snyman did not retaliate against the player that push him, he pushed a player that blocked him off. That is why the decision was not correct. It did not detract from the game though, as it showed how much it meant to both teams. So does the retaliation law specify that it has to be the same player, or should the Portugese player have been penalised for obstruction? The first time Snyman was involved in handbags, it was him and 4 Portugese players, so why he got singled out by the referee, is a mystery. There was a lot of pushing and playing players off the ball. On one of Mapimpi's tries, one of the support runners was pushed to the ground (to name but another obviuous one). All we can ask for is consistency.
@@Faust_ZA I don't know what game you watched but the portuguese were absolutely not looking for a fight the whole game? Red 17 got a talking to by the ref for off the ball pushing while they were lining up the conversion for Mapimpi's 1st try so you're wrong there. Never once saw the portuguese "aggressivley ripping the ball out of play" whatever that means but it sounds like maybe the boks weren't giving the ball up when it wasn't theirs? The boks absolutely pumped portugal 10 tries to 3 and you still want to talk about the ref, not sure it's me who has the bias here.
Watched all of those matches except for Wallabies-Georgia, which I obviously won't comment on. ABs-Fiji: I second all your points. Proctor looked like a seasoned international with 20 test matches under his belt. Timed his runs well, showed some nice stepping, passed well. He might not have the top speed of Rieko, but I'm so glad he finally became an AB and got an opportunity to show what he's made of. I think he brings a more rounded package, than Rieko does, but that's just my ignorant opinion. Ratima looked very good, although I disagree that he's got quite the same bullet pass from the ruck Aaron Smith had. I've only seen one player with a comparable howitzer (in terms of accuracy and speed), and that's Sanele Nohamba. But between Ratima and Roigard, the ABs are insanely stacked for the next decade. Dupont might be the best scrum half in the world, but I think Roigard and Ratima will be the best 1st-2nd option pairing. Ardie Savea has shown us again why he's been the world's best rugby player for the last 3-4 years (together with Dupont and Etzebeth). He doesn't look so big, but pack incredible power. His ability to drive through any tackle and gain three four metres more even though there are multiple people hanging on him, trying to drag him down is absolutely unparalleled. The Pacific Islanders are the superhumans in the physical sense, but Savea just walked through the tackles of those giants (well, he's of Tongan heritage himself, so that explains it). Absolutely singular player. Boks-Portugal: Everyone seemed to be on the hype train for the Portuguese at the RWC, well I wasn't. I saw a team with very talented speedy backs and average forwards, that's great to watch, but is never going to get anywhere and doesn't have a lot of room to grow. Something like your 2016-ish Melbourne Rebels with Genia, Cooper, Haylet-Petty, Koroibete, etc. and a crop of forwards no one remembers today (except for Matt Philips). You can't succeed vs. Tier 1 rugby on that formula. You'll be a fan favorite and everyone will love to watch you, but you'll get butchered by any team with competent and powerful forwards and a solid set-piece. And that's exactly what happened to Portugal when they played a debutant-laden Springbok side that hasn't played a single test match together. The Boks played the entire game with 14 players, and 20 minutes with 13, and yet Portugal didn't really amount to much, didn't have much ball, either. The Boks kept attacking with 13 men against 15, and even scored two tries while being two men down. That simply can't be happening. Hard to find any positives there for Portugal, other than the experience and learning opportunity itself. Two Portuguese backs have a legit set of wheels, clearly some track&field pedigree (the 23 with two tries and I guess the 14), they were outrunning even the likes of Mapimpi, Fassi, and Arendse, which is a rare sight. And all the Portuguese backs have the basic skills honed in: passing, handling, etc. So there is some legit skill and potential in the Portuguese backline, but they will always be held down with their average forwards. That's why they keep losing to Georgia over and over and over again, even though their backs are at least as talented as the Georgian ones. And unless they broaden their talent pool and attract some proper heavy athletes to rugby, they will be stuck in Tier 2 under the glass ceiling without any chance to get past it. Harsh, but it's the reality. As for the Boks, all the debutants were on the money, even though it's hard to judge against opposition, that's significantly weaker. I'm now 100% convinced, that Sacha F-M is the real deal, and the true heir to Pollard. Libbok is a stopgap. He'll be around the squad, he's too good on the attack to be left out, as he's got the ability to absolutely dismantle weaker teams, but he doesn't have the big game mentality Pollard and SF-M both have, neither he has the boot, or the game controlling skills. He absolutely shrivelled in the QFs against France: horrible decisions, poor kicking from hand. SF-M is the exact opposite. He's a hungry predator, who seems to love the pressure. You can see the confidence in his face. What a prime example of big game mentality. This guy is the future Bok 10/15 (whatever will be needed of him), and I think Rassie now realizes, that they need to put as many games into him in this cycle as possible. Ideally, he'll be the starting 10 come RWC 2027 with some 20-25 caps under his belt, with Pollard on the bench to manage the last 20-30 minutes of matches and suffocate the opposition. Something like Wales had done with Anscombe-Biggar in 2019 when they won the Grand Slam and were briefly the #1 side in the world. Or like Argentina did to Wales with the S.Carreras-Sanchez combo. It just works. Ben Jason Dixon deserves a mention amongst the generally very successful crop of debutants, he was by far the Boks' best loosie in the game. Absolute work machine. Mapimpi is aging and slowing down, but slowing down is relative, because it's important to mention what speed you're slowing down from. Mapimpi is perhaps the finest specimen of a natural athlete in the game of rugby I've ever seen. There's been plenty of speedsters, but no one else runs quite like Mapimpi does. Sure, he's got the top speed and acceleration, but what impresses me most is his stability at top speed. Uruguay-Argentina: If Portugal didn't exactly live up to the billing, boy were the Uruguayans orders of magnitude worse. They've managed to completely destroy the reputation of an ascending team they've built over the last two RWCs. They miraculously beat Fiji in 2019, and they gave France a scare in 2023, but this team looked like a bunch of amateurs. Nothing worked. It wasn't even a game of rugby union, there was no defensive line, no set piece. The Pumas didn't even bother to box kick or kick from hand (other than a handful of grubbers through a gap), they quickly realized, that they can just burn those guys on pace all night long, and that's what they did. Not only they run straight through the Uruguayan defensive line at the edges, they run through them everywhere, even in the middle. The Albornoz-Mendy duo especially were ripping them to shreds any time they decided, and even aging legends Cordero and de La Fuente (whom I am a huge fan of) looked like a pair of gazellas in comparison with the Uruguayan backs. Heck, even the debutant loosie Morro was burning Uruguayan backs for pace. That just can't be happening. Matteo Carreras clearly pulled a muscle towards the end of the first half, yet he still burned the Uruguayan backs for a try in the second, a literal limping horse. Cover-your-eyes horror stuff for the Uruguayan fans. In its essence, the game of rugby is very simple. You can't supplement power in your forward pack, and speed in your backs. If you lack those two things, you're not only going to lose games, but you're going to get your pants pulled down. And that's exactly what happened to Uruguay. They got absolutely destroyed by an Argentinean team, that didn't even have to try so hard. The Pumas forwards looked pretty fresh after the game. To let that happen to them at home, is a proper confidence crusher. Whoever is responsible for the defense and selection have really let their team down. To add insult to the injury, the Uruguayans have some absolutely massive blokes in their forward crop, but it wasn't really seen or felt, as they were largely ineffective. They got destroyed at the line-out, and eaten alive at scrum. The only thing that worked for them was maul defense, as they stopped at least three Argentinean attempts for a driving maul try. The Pumas shrugged that off, and opted to put the foot on the gas pedal instead. And I'd wager, Argentinean clean breaks were north of 20. I fully expect Argentina to win, but I didn't expect Uruguay would embarrass themselves so comprehensively. It's back to the drawing board for them, and not just in terms of defensive organization, but also selection in the backline. They just need more speed. Unlike Portugal, they have some proper big units up front, they just need to remind themselves how to use it outside of maul defense. Not so long time ago, they knew it. Come to think of that, if you could combine the Portuguese backs and Uruguayan forwards (the 2023 version), you'd have a team with a pretty good potential. Albornoz and Mendy looked like world beaters, and so did the debutant at #6, but it's hard to judge that on face value, as the game was a grotesque mismatch. Imagine Romania at 2023 RWC, and you get the picture. THAT bad.
@@JTM1809 not only that i think the skill levels were top from georgia so much better than all the blowouts or even the ire test match which was like soccer penalties
@@subbie5498 I think those things are related. Not a huge skill gap between those teams, plus neither of the defensive systems being air-tight, but both of those teams being relatively attack-oriented. Plus the Georgian forwards are legit (unlike the Portuguese ones), and the Georgian backs have some wheels (unlike the Uruguayan ones). It was bound to be a good game.
I’m so stoked world rugby is so competitive. Unlike in years past, tier 2 nations are showing up to win, not just participate. Great to see.
I agree.. Progress is there which makes the games more entertaining to watch
@@johnmcdonald-6196 I’m not sure what you mean. There was one semi-competitive game, namely Australia-Georgia, the rest of it was absolute slaughter.
The Springboks put up a jelly green team, that had zero experience playing together, they played 60 minutes at 14, and 20 minutes at 13 against 15, yet scored twelve tries. The score flatters the Portuguese, thanks to Libbok having an awful day on the boot. If he kicked at his URC percentage, the score would be over 70, pushing 80.
And Uruguay was even worse than that. Argentina didn’t even have to try and play actual tactical rugby. They didn’t have to bother with box kicking or tactical kicking, as they were running the ball from their own 22 for 7 point tries whenever they decided to do so. Utter touch rugby.
I don’t know what your idea of ‘competitive’ is, but to me this was the polar opposite of competitive.
Georgia have clearly earned the right to play Tier 1 teams more often. But not Portugal, Uruguay, or Chile.
Uruguay or Chile have no business playing Tier 1 teams in their current shape. Portugal maybe, but then it should be the very bottom of Tier 1, certainly nothing north of Australia or Wales. I agree, that Portugal are wasting their time with your Germans, Swiss, Belgians, or Dutch. I think they should focus more on say Tonga, Samoa, Japan, Georgia and the like, with the occasional Wales once or twice per year.
@@JTM1809so what's the answer then? We all want to see the game expand and more teams becoming competitive. That's only going to happen if the game grows in popularity within those tier 2 nations. True Portugal didn't really have a chance against a springbok b team but I still thought they had enough brilliance to inspire their home fans and hopefully talent will start coming through. It's a tough thing for Portugal, given how popular soccer is there and in Europe generally.
Competitive yes, despite what the scoreboard says except in the Americas.
@@jangulherme2243 Well, I already foreshadowed the answer.
I think Georgia and Portugal should play more teams at their level and slightly above.
For Georgia it means the top of Tier2 and bottom of Tier1 with the occasional top team. For Portugal it means mainly Tier2 with the occasional bottom Tier 1 team.
Look, I agree with you, that playing Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, etc. is a waste of time for Georgia and Portugal. It’s practically charity and it doesn’t help them in any way.
But at the same time, playing matches you cannot win is pointless, and you’re not going to attract little kids by getting drummed. Kids want to watch their team win.
And you need to start beating Samoa, Tonga, Japan, etc. before you can think of beating Italy, Wales, Argentina, or Australia.
Starting with the Springboks, who could field ten C teams still considerably stronger than Portugal is pointless. It makes sense as a statement: now we’re going to play Tier1 teams time to time, but there’s no point in doing it every year: teams like Boks, ABs, ENG, IRE, FRA will dress a B/C team and still run you over, which is humiliating and de-motivating.
Now imagine instead, that in a few years time, you beat Italy or Japan at home in Lisbon or Porto in front of a full stadium of home fans. Now that would be a recruitment boost.
But I agree, it’s a circular problem. You need bigger talent pool to get better forwards (you have decent backs already, it’s the forwards that’s holding Portugal back), but for that you need more success and a better domestic competition. Because right now you’re losing all your best players to Pro D2 and other French competitions.
But imagine you somehow get the money part sorted. Then it should be a priority to establish an elite domestic competition with a small amount of teams (so that the talent is concentrated, and the best play against the best all the time), or even better a joint competition with Spain, where Portugal would have two three teams, and Spain one, or two.
But you need to get the grassroots sorted first, that’s for sure.
That Portuguese fullback is world class.
Yeah, came to say that!
So glad to see a Portugal player on the board! They were super entertaining and brave!
I would have picked Lukhanyo Am. He was playing inside and outside center for most of the game :)))
Last year, Billy Proctor got his Cane's team mates to sign a jersey he wore in a match and gave it to us to raise funds for our kapa haka at his old school, St Pat's College (Town). We were so happy for him getting in the ABs, but weren't surprised.
I won the jersey in a raffle.
That's so cool. I'm a huge Canes fan (probably more than the ABs LOL) so I'm rooting for his success.
6:10 RG was just inviting the guests to a braai after the game 😆
New Nando's advert: 1 full chicken and 4 portuguese rolls...only R64-21 (picture of RG holding off 4 portuguese players)😂
Proctor had a very good game… but for me Lukhanyo AM deserves the spot. Am had a Stella performance running the midfield alone after Andre saw red early in the game
Very interesting selection. Provides all of us with a nice overview what's happening in the game of Rugby.
Ben-Jason Dixon’s neck has got more muscle than most guys legs 😅
The Boks have so many hyphenated names now! Ben-Jason, André-Hugo, Jan-Hendrik, Kurt-Lee! Then you have Sacha Feinberg-Mgomezulu in there too...
Going to have to make some fonts smaller to fit names on teamsheets. 😂
I call 'em double barrel names😁
It's good to use both sides of ancestry names for better protection and balance through out life
When there are few surnames we need to be creative.
Don't forget Pieter-Stef!
I hate double-barrel names. Pick a f&%king name.
Nice and unusual TOTW. Lots of new talent to watch out for. Thanks again Mark
Would like to see Sasha at 15 taking the kicks. Labbok at 10
Willemse is just too good to be left out of the picture, you can’t not have him in your starting side he’s just too good , libbok or Sasha , libbok and willemse would be one of the best 10/15 combo in the world if libbok was a better goal kicker , so McKenzie and Barrett still are the best combo
@@puakeriwinterburnwillemse won't be back so they can now
There is no reason for SA with all our talent to play half a 10. Sacha at 10, delete Manie's phone number and move on with life
Nr 14 Pinto from Portugal has gas, caught Arendse with ease. Not many will be able to do that.
I like your pickings , that jose did impress me ... happy to see him in
Quite a nice spread!
Am was great, especially since he was playing both inside and outside centre after the second minute 😂
Definitely alot of standouts, especially the newbies in this team.
Good team!!!Tough to select no doubt
i will say the ref was trying to prove too much by being so strict like she reversed a penalty because snyman retaliated from handbags?
Yeah it felt like she was trying to get a part of the game to be about her but that could just be my boks bias talking
Law 9.21 A player must not retaliate. As she said "This is the second time I've had to speak to you in open play..." so she had already let it go with a warning so RG only has himself to blame. Too often we see refs let that sort of thing go and it carries on for the rest of the match until someone gets sent off. It's the 34th minute, everyone knows what's up now, good game management as far as I'm concerned..
@D4N1CU5 yknow how many times we see handbags but rarely do refs decide to reverse penalties. Also the Portuguese were looking for fights the whole game i didnt see the ref doing anything about it they kept pushing our players and ripping the ball aggressively out of play or i guess you like the ref chose to have a blind eye
In that specific incident, RG Snyman did not retaliate against the player that push him, he pushed a player that blocked him off. That is why the decision was not correct. It did not detract from the game though, as it showed how much it meant to both teams.
So does the retaliation law specify that it has to be the same player, or should the Portugese player have been penalised for obstruction?
The first time Snyman was involved in handbags, it was him and 4 Portugese players, so why he got singled out by the referee, is a mystery. There was a lot of pushing and playing players off the ball. On one of Mapimpi's tries, one of the support runners was pushed to the ground (to name but another obviuous one).
All we can ask for is consistency.
@@Faust_ZA I don't know what game you watched but the portuguese were absolutely not looking for a fight the whole game? Red 17 got a talking to by the ref for off the ball pushing while they were lining up the conversion for Mapimpi's 1st try so you're wrong there. Never once saw the portuguese "aggressivley ripping the ball out of play" whatever that means but it sounds like maybe the boks weren't giving the ball up when it wasn't theirs? The boks absolutely pumped portugal 10 tries to 3 and you still want to talk about the ref, not sure it's me who has the bias here.
Holly had a good game
Let's go!
Watched all of those matches except for Wallabies-Georgia, which I obviously won't comment on.
ABs-Fiji: I second all your points. Proctor looked like a seasoned international with 20 test matches under his belt. Timed his runs well, showed some nice stepping, passed well. He might not have the top speed of Rieko, but I'm so glad he finally became an AB and got an opportunity to show what he's made of. I think he brings a more rounded package, than Rieko does, but that's just my ignorant opinion. Ratima looked very good, although I disagree that he's got quite the same bullet pass from the ruck Aaron Smith had. I've only seen one player with a comparable howitzer (in terms of accuracy and speed), and that's Sanele Nohamba. But between Ratima and Roigard, the ABs are insanely stacked for the next decade. Dupont might be the best scrum half in the world, but I think Roigard and Ratima will be the best 1st-2nd option pairing. Ardie Savea has shown us again why he's been the world's best rugby player for the last 3-4 years (together with Dupont and Etzebeth). He doesn't look so big, but pack incredible power. His ability to drive through any tackle and gain three four metres more even though there are multiple people hanging on him, trying to drag him down is absolutely unparalleled. The Pacific Islanders are the superhumans in the physical sense, but Savea just walked through the tackles of those giants (well, he's of Tongan heritage himself, so that explains it). Absolutely singular player.
Boks-Portugal: Everyone seemed to be on the hype train for the Portuguese at the RWC, well I wasn't. I saw a team with very talented speedy backs and average forwards, that's great to watch, but is never going to get anywhere and doesn't have a lot of room to grow. Something like your 2016-ish Melbourne Rebels with Genia, Cooper, Haylet-Petty, Koroibete, etc. and a crop of forwards no one remembers today (except for Matt Philips). You can't succeed vs. Tier 1 rugby on that formula. You'll be a fan favorite and everyone will love to watch you, but you'll get butchered by any team with competent and powerful forwards and a solid set-piece. And that's exactly what happened to Portugal when they played a debutant-laden Springbok side that hasn't played a single test match together. The Boks played the entire game with 14 players, and 20 minutes with 13, and yet Portugal didn't really amount to much, didn't have much ball, either. The Boks kept attacking with 13 men against 15, and even scored two tries while being two men down. That simply can't be happening. Hard to find any positives there for Portugal, other than the experience and learning opportunity itself. Two Portuguese backs have a legit set of wheels, clearly some track&field pedigree (the 23 with two tries and I guess the 14), they were outrunning even the likes of Mapimpi, Fassi, and Arendse, which is a rare sight. And all the Portuguese backs have the basic skills honed in: passing, handling, etc. So there is some legit skill and potential in the Portuguese backline, but they will always be held down with their average forwards. That's why they keep losing to Georgia over and over and over again, even though their backs are at least as talented as the Georgian ones. And unless they broaden their talent pool and attract some proper heavy athletes to rugby, they will be stuck in Tier 2 under the glass ceiling without any chance to get past it. Harsh, but it's the reality.
As for the Boks, all the debutants were on the money, even though it's hard to judge against opposition, that's significantly weaker. I'm now 100% convinced, that Sacha F-M is the real deal, and the true heir to Pollard. Libbok is a stopgap. He'll be around the squad, he's too good on the attack to be left out, as he's got the ability to absolutely dismantle weaker teams, but he doesn't have the big game mentality Pollard and SF-M both have, neither he has the boot, or the game controlling skills. He absolutely shrivelled in the QFs against France: horrible decisions, poor kicking from hand. SF-M is the exact opposite. He's a hungry predator, who seems to love the pressure. You can see the confidence in his face. What a prime example of big game mentality. This guy is the future Bok 10/15 (whatever will be needed of him), and I think Rassie now realizes, that they need to put as many games into him in this cycle as possible. Ideally, he'll be the starting 10 come RWC 2027 with some 20-25 caps under his belt, with Pollard on the bench to manage the last 20-30 minutes of matches and suffocate the opposition. Something like Wales had done with Anscombe-Biggar in 2019 when they won the Grand Slam and were briefly the #1 side in the world. Or like Argentina did to Wales with the S.Carreras-Sanchez combo. It just works.
Ben Jason Dixon deserves a mention amongst the generally very successful crop of debutants, he was by far the Boks' best loosie in the game. Absolute work machine.
Mapimpi is aging and slowing down, but slowing down is relative, because it's important to mention what speed you're slowing down from. Mapimpi is perhaps the finest specimen of a natural athlete in the game of rugby I've ever seen. There's been plenty of speedsters, but no one else runs quite like Mapimpi does. Sure, he's got the top speed and acceleration, but what impresses me most is his stability at top speed.
Uruguay-Argentina: If Portugal didn't exactly live up to the billing, boy were the Uruguayans orders of magnitude worse. They've managed to completely destroy the reputation of an ascending team they've built over the last two RWCs. They miraculously beat Fiji in 2019, and they gave France a scare in 2023, but this team looked like a bunch of amateurs. Nothing worked. It wasn't even a game of rugby union, there was no defensive line, no set piece. The Pumas didn't even bother to box kick or kick from hand (other than a handful of grubbers through a gap), they quickly realized, that they can just burn those guys on pace all night long, and that's what they did. Not only they run straight through the Uruguayan defensive line at the edges, they run through them everywhere, even in the middle. The Albornoz-Mendy duo especially were ripping them to shreds any time they decided, and even aging legends Cordero and de La Fuente (whom I am a huge fan of) looked like a pair of gazellas in comparison with the Uruguayan backs. Heck, even the debutant loosie Morro was burning Uruguayan backs for pace. That just can't be happening. Matteo Carreras clearly pulled a muscle towards the end of the first half, yet he still burned the Uruguayan backs for a try in the second, a literal limping horse. Cover-your-eyes horror stuff for the Uruguayan fans.
In its essence, the game of rugby is very simple. You can't supplement power in your forward pack, and speed in your backs. If you lack those two things, you're not only going to lose games, but you're going to get your pants pulled down. And that's exactly what happened to Uruguay. They got absolutely destroyed by an Argentinean team, that didn't even have to try so hard. The Pumas forwards looked pretty fresh after the game. To let that happen to them at home, is a proper confidence crusher. Whoever is responsible for the defense and selection have really let their team down. To add insult to the injury, the Uruguayans have some absolutely massive blokes in their forward crop, but it wasn't really seen or felt, as they were largely ineffective. They got destroyed at the line-out, and eaten alive at scrum. The only thing that worked for them was maul defense, as they stopped at least three Argentinean attempts for a driving maul try. The Pumas shrugged that off, and opted to put the foot on the gas pedal instead. And I'd wager, Argentinean clean breaks were north of 20. I fully expect Argentina to win, but I didn't expect Uruguay would embarrass themselves so comprehensively. It's back to the drawing board for them, and not just in terms of defensive organization, but also selection in the backline. They just need more speed. Unlike Portugal, they have some proper big units up front, they just need to remind themselves how to use it outside of maul defense. Not so long time ago, they knew it. Come to think of that, if you could combine the Portuguese backs and Uruguayan forwards (the 2023 version), you'd have a team with a pretty good potential.
Albornoz and Mendy looked like world beaters, and so did the debutant at #6, but it's hard to judge that on face value, as the game was a grotesque mismatch. Imagine Romania at 2023 RWC, and you get the picture. THAT bad.
aus vs geo was the best game by far imo
@@subbie5498 Yeah, I imagine. That was actually a game to begin with. Not a “foregone conclusion but for the score”.
@@JTM1809 not only that i think the skill levels were top from georgia so much better than all the blowouts or even the ire test match which was like soccer penalties
@@subbie5498 I think those things are related. Not a huge skill gap between those teams, plus neither of the defensive systems being air-tight, but both of those teams being relatively attack-oriented. Plus the Georgian forwards are legit (unlike the Portuguese ones), and the Georgian backs have some wheels (unlike the Uruguayan ones). It was bound to be a good game.
@@JTM1809 georgia have some great backline players tbf
Dixon at 8 if PSDT fit.
That could work nicely.
Feinberg is our answer to the manie issues either play them together or pick him before
No space for Manie , SFM has got this and we still have pollard for a little while longer
@@nevillechapman116 agreed
One of Alan Alallalatoa's nicknames is 7 A's
😅😅😅
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is the right heir to Handré Pollard.
Japan-Italy barely mentioned as a game played last week...and it wasn't a common one. You're getting old, Mark! 🙂
RG got MOTM but I would have give it to BJ Dixon
The All Blacks need to put Rieko back on the wing.