This weekend’s set of games is all the evidence World Rugby should need to invest more money into tier two or tier three nations and set up more games between the historic giants of the game and the so-called ‘minnows’ of the pool stages.
The group stages have made for fantastic viewing; despite your allegiances a rugby fan should have been happy with every game for a vast number of reasons.
The games we were witness to over this past weekend threw up a relative smaugers board of delights for every rugby fan.
The defensive clash
The biggest games of the weekend were undeniably the fight for the top spots of the group, namely Ireland versus France and Wales versus Australia. What a treat they were.
Australia showed us the turnaround they have made over the course of the past 12 months under coach Cheika, despite a potent set of Welsh backs and being two men down for a 10 minute period the Wallabies showed a vast amount of defensive grit to pull through a stint on their own line without suffering a Welsh score.
Furthermore, the Australian pack held their own against a Welsh scrum with two returning first team props in Samson Lee and Paul James.
Personally the Aussies have impressed me the most out of any team in the group stages and I would be torn to pick a winner between them and the All Blacks in the final.
The Ireland versus France game was a different kettle of fish. The TMO has come under heavy fire from Philippe Saint-Andre post game after Sean O’Brien’s punch to Pape’s stomach in the opening few minutes – which, had been spotted, would have had a huge impact on the game as O’Brien had one of his best games in years on the international stage which ended up with his Man of the Match award.
Ireland’s performance was beautifully orchestrated by Schmidt, despite the setback of the loss of two leaders within the team. His game plan was masterful, yet the most impressive element was the fact that despite the setbacks of Jonny Sexton and Paul O’Connell’s injuries every single replacement for Ireland made an impact and understood what was needed of them down to a ‘T’.
France looked stunted in the second half with their backline looking impotent against the organised Irish defence.
France will now face New Zealand in the quarter-finals with Ireland facing Argentina.
The beauty of running rugby
The first half of Scotland versus Samoa may have been the best half of rugby I have watched this World Cup. End to end stuff with great tackles, exquisite passing and heads-up rugby.
Samoa looked to have the momentum and better half heading into the break despite being denied what may have been a penalty try before the whistle blew.
However, Scotland’s persistence is built into their DNA, never giving up and never backing down from a challenge.
In the second half the Scottish set piece grew into their own against the Samoans and the pack acted in a dynamic fashion around the park to allow them to eventually to take the win despite a late flourish from the Samoans.
The Pacific Islanders showed their potential in flourishes in this game and as a side comment it would be rude to take credit from them, they certainly put in their best performance against Scotland.
The English performance in this World Cup has been underwhelming (to put it kindly) and is painful from a personal perspective.
However, despite a shaky start and the attempt to play faster than they perhaps should have been England ended up giving a good performance.
Yet, this game begged the question why has Henry Slade not been starting? And on top of that why has he not been starting alongside Jonathan Joseph? I will save this analysis for a future piece.
This performance, despite the score line and with no disrespect to Uruguay who have been a pleasure to watch at times during this tournament, throws up more questions than answers.
England will go away and take a long hard look at what is to be expected of them, especially with the talent pool we have yet seemed to not have made use of.
It would be remiss of me not to mention Argentina’s fantastic style and performance to put a lid on their pool stage performances before heading into their quarter-final against Ireland, which should make for a tight game.
The Argentinean forwards are historically strong however the Puma’s have developed their backline into a potent attacking force to use the ball their scrum wins, they will be a tough beast for the Irish to fell in a weeks time.
Furthermore, the Brave Blossoms put in another outstanding performance, the newfound crowd favourite really showed their quality and are sensationally unlucky not to be heading into the latter stages having won three games and yet not qualifying.
They have been flawless at times and have played to their strengths. One hope is that they do not feel bad about going home as they have put in some of the best rugby performances of the cup so far, there is a real hope that they join the international test scene more than they have previously, that they develop their new Super Rugby team (The Sunwolves) and that they carry this momentum home with them and drum up support for the game in preparation for the 2019 World Cup.
All in all the weekend has shown the best that rugby, as a sport, has to offer. The defensive battles that have you on the edge of your seat and applauding the strength of character on show.
The fluid and intuitive running game with attacks that scythe through lacking defences. This weekend has nicely tied up what have been by far the most entertaining pool stages of any world cup. Now we prepare ourselves as viewers for the knock-out rounds.
