Lineout Calls of the Week

While we’re asking where on earth has the summer gone, you could rightly ask where we’ve disappeared to? A thousand apologies but July was an absolutely insane month for all of us and we didn’t get together once to have our usual banter, and sadly only got to catch much of the rugby well after the action had been played. Family, life, work and apparently summer hijacked our attention completely when it came to matters relating to the oval ball this past month. However as the decks start to clear and the greatest show on earth, at least in our opinion, looms on the horizon a mere 29 days away, we promise to be back with a vengeance!

Although the Rugby Championship has been played out and the World Cup Warmups are in full swing, we have to start this piece with a heartfelt tribute to Canada’s fantastic Women who finished an exceptionally strong second in the recently concluded Pacific Four Series in Ottawa last month and, in doing so, qualified for the top tier of the inaugural WXV tournament to be held in New Zealand in November. We’ll have a look at New Zealand who look to be peaking at just the right time to mount a genuine challenge for the Webb Ellis trophy on October 28th. We look at the Wallabies and life under Eddie Jones which so far leaves Australian supporters with little to shout about. Much the same could also be said of England under Jones’ successor Steve Borthwick as we look at both sides’ World Cup squad announcements. Finally we also have a look at a rather shiny Scottish outfit that could genuinely rain on Ireland and South Africa’s parade come September, should they finally figure out the Oxford dictionary definition of consistency and how it applies to rugby.

Canada’s Women are EPIC – plain and simple!!!

We just had to start this piece with a celebration of Canada’s Women and their outstanding efforts in the recently concluded Pacific Four Series, where they finished a strong second and set themselves up to be included in the top Tier of World Rugby’s exciting new annual global competition the WXV this November. They comfortably beat the USA and Australia and although they received a bit of a schooling at the hands of World Champions New Zealand last month in Ottawa, there were a ton of positives that came out of that game despite the loss.

Firstly, it has to be said that their two wins in the competition were impressive, as they demolished the USA and then ended the tournament by completely outclassing Australia. Although they took a bit of a thumping at the hands of New Zealand in their first of two games played in Ottawa let’s put that loss in perspective. They were first and foremost in that game till the 59th minute and New Zealand were definitely not having things all their own way. Every time New Zealand looked like they were going to pull away on the scoreboard Canada came straight back at them and managed to get themselves back in the game, most notably with an exceptionally strong start to the second half. What tripped Canada up in the end was their execution. As we watched the game we thought they were trying to be far too clever against a Black Ferns side that by comparison was running like a well oiled machine. New Zealand simply didn’t make mistakes and appeared to effortlessly implement a well rehearsed game plan. Canada by comparison, despite never once shirking from the task at hand in terms of 110% commitment for the full eighty minutes, seemed unsure of themselves at times and their kicking game often left us looking away from our TV screens head in hands. However, you simply couldn’t fault them for their bravery which was exceptional in a game that looked on paper to be heavily stacked against them.

What really impressed us however, was that on our to do list the following weekend in the final match against Australia, Canada ticked ALL the boxes of the things they needed to fix from the match against New Zealand. Against Australia it was Canada who looked a mirror image of New Zealand in terms of clinical execution and precision. It was an absolute joy to watch as Canada dismantled Australia with ease for the full eighty minutes. It’s that ability to learn from their mistakes and apply the lessons learnt that impresses us the most, and leads us to believe that this team is only going to get better and is destined for a very bright future. There were so many standout individual performances in the Pacific Four Series, as there were in the World Cup last year, and the team looks exceptionally well coached. A stark contrast to the floundering Men’s side as evidenced by their 28-3 thrashing at the hands of Tonga yesterday.

In short, this Women’s team led by the truly inspirational Sophie de Goede and Coached by the exceptional Kevin Rouet, is a force to be reckoned with in International Rugby and as Canadians we should all be immensely proud of them. While Rugby may still struggle for resources in this country, this team is an outright success story. The Men’s team may be irrelevant on the World stage at the moment, but Canada’s Women have rightfully claimed their place at its top table and Rugby Canada’s ultimate priority should be to keep them there – even if for the foreseeable future, given the current funding climate, it means prioritising resources for the Women’s programme at the expense of the Men’s.

The Men in Black are starting to look EXCEPTIONALLY dangerous at just the right time as they fire their initial warning shots across the bow of the World Cup ship!

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water at the forthcoming World Cup, it’s now teeming with hungry looking Great Black Sharks. Yes folks New Zealand after their annus horribilis in 2022, are back with a vengeance in 2023. Agreed they have yet to test their mettle against Northern Hemisphere giants like France and Ireland, which will give us a true test of where they’re at, but you simply cannot deny that they are already looking like they are on the front row of the grid along with France to have a shot at lifting the Webb Ellis trophy on October 28th. They cruised past all three of their opponents in the Rugby Championship with ease and only started to look mildly vulnerable against Australia when they played a second string side in the second of the two Bledisloe Cup matches.

While they may have wobbled at times against Australia in Bledisloe 2, it’s those kind of down to the wire games that are such crucial preparation for the knockout rugby of the World Cup. With everything on the line, it’s the ability of your bench to come on and steady the ship and the collective nerves to get the job done which is so important, and that is precisely what fly half Richie Mo’unga and his benchmates did. As a result there is little if any doubt that New Zealand’s halfback partnership come the big games will consist of Aaron Smith and Richie Mo’Unga. Their tight five looks capable and reliable with just the right amount of depth, whilst their back row is buzzing with a combination of new and experienced heads. The exceptional Ardie Savea is able to anchor the whole forward unit at 8, a player we’d argue is probably the best in the world at his trade. Their backs and centre pairings look lethal and New Zealand’s World Cup squad looks the business – plain and simple.

Like we say the proof of the pudding will be how well the All Black machine can adapt to the vagaries of Northern Hemisphere rugby and, despite how sharp they look at the moment, we won’t get to find that out until they face France in the critical opener of the World Cup on September 8th. Either way the sharks in black jerseys are circling around the World Cup ship and France, Ireland, South Africa, Scotland and everyone else will need to take a deep breath before they dive in to the deep waters of the Quarter Finals and beyond.

Eddie’s BIG gamble!

Eddie Jones time as Head Coach of the Wallabies already looks as tenuous as his time with England. Having lost all of their three Rugby Championship matches as well as the Bledisloe Cup, it’s not looking great for the Wallabies and one of Australia’s most controversial sporting personalities. The usual Eddie Jones media baiting is already in full throttle, with perhaps the seemingly preposterous claim being made by the Wallaby Coach that his charges are genuine World Cup contenders. Oh Eddie – how we’ve missed you (maybe).

However, putting aside our general distaste for Jones, and his obvious desire to have a cameo role in Netflix’s Formula 1 ‘soapumentary’ “Drive to Survive”, write the man off at your peril as evidenced by Australia’s narrow loss in Bledisloe 2. That was an impressive performance from the Wallabies whichever way you cut it and clearly shaped Jones decision making in his World Cup squad selection. His gamble on the young halfback partnership of scrum half Tate McDermott and the rapidly rising star of Carter Gordon at fly half is clearly an experiment that is rapidly starting to bear fruit. New Captain Will Skelton has clearly learnt a thing or two about discipline and leadership in his time under the tutelage of Ronan O’Gara at back to back European Champions La Rochelle. Mark Nawaqnitawase is proving to be an absolute revelation in the backs and is likely to be one of the standout players of the tournament – don’t be surprised to seem him take up residence in France after the 28th of October. There are some promising stocks in the back row, and Angus Bell looks set to be one of the props we’ll all be watching closely. In short, despite some obvious omissions we can’t help but feel excited about this Wallaby World Cup squad, and given their relatively easy route through their pool, we are definitely going have some fun watching them until at least the quarter final stage.

The buck is likely to stop there however, though there is an element of the dark horse with this Wallaby side. Realistically a semi-final is the very best they can hope for, but there is very much an outside chance they could surprise us and go further, and let’s face it Eddie Jones loves those kinds of odds. We have to admit we weren’t surprised to see the omission of Quade Cooper who to be honest is well past his sell by date, though the decision to take only one specialist ten to France is a massive gamble in our opinion that may well backfire on Eddie. As much as it pains us to see no Michael Hooper, there is no denying that the legendary Wallaby back rower and former Skipper is no longer at his best and there are more potent options rising rapidly through the ranks. Nevertheless despite the fact that there is a definite green tinge to Jones’ selections, we have to admit to harboring a genuine interest in seeing how this Wallaby side fares. It could be an absolute disaster or one of the most exciting units to take the pitch – time will tell but we have to confess to be willing to give Jones a grudging benefit of the doubt on this one!

Scotland look more than capable of being Pool B’s giant banana skin – Ireland and South Africa you have been warned!

We have to confess to thoroughly enjoying Scotland’s arm wrestle with France at Murrayfield last weekend. That wasn’t a warm-up game, it was a full blown Six Nations Test match with no prisoners taken. Scotland will sweat the injury on scrum half Ben White but apparently it’s only precautionary, and Zander Fagerson’s brain implosion and resulting red card (which he sadly has a penchant for) looks set to not get in the way of Scotland’s critical opening game against South Africa, when they will need all the physicality they can muster. Just when you thought that Scotland were going to get blown away by France’s Red Bull powered second string side, a 14 man Scotland pulled off the unthinkable and took charge of the second half and emerged worthy winners.

What caught our eye the most however, over and above Scotland’s nerve and determination in the face of adversity, was the impact made by fullback Blair Kinghorn. Many, ourselves included, seem to have a love hate relationship with the Scottish utility back. Nevertheless what we saw last Saturday definitely put us in the love camp, and cemented our view that with the number 15 on his back Kinghorn is a worthy successor, perhaps even better, than Stuart Hogg who has sadly decided to hang up his boots for good. Townsend needs to stop experimenting with him on the wing or at fly half, and keep him at fullback where as evidenced by his performance last Saturday he clearly excels, while at the same time being an excellent complement to fellow master playmaker fly half Finn Russell. Scotland’s biggest problem has been inconsistency in selection, but in our opinion they could start by keeping the Russell/Kinghorn axis in place as a first step in addressing it ahead of the World Cup. As a result imagine our enthusiasm when we saw the starting lineup for this week’s repeat fixture in St. Etienne where Coach Gregor Townsend has chosen to do exactly that.

If Scotland can master the art of consistency in both selection and execution they could be one of the biggest surprises of this World Cup, despite being firmly camped in the Pool of Death. It’s a good and exciting side make no mistake especially out wide with the contrasting firecracker talents of wingers Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe. When it comes to grunt up front Scotland can hold their heads high with the best of them, and if they can keep a handle on their discipline, Townsend and his charges could genuinely trouble South Africa and Ireland. This is a driven and very motivated side that in their current format looks the most settled they’ve been in a long time, and one that revels in being labeled as feisty underdogs. If you’re going to have a wild card flutter on any team come the World Cup, we’d argue Scotland might just be your best bet!

England – no changes here!!!!

After watching England implode against Wales last Saturday, we couldn’t help feeling that we were watching England from 2022 all over again. With new Coach Steve Borthwick’s World Cup squad announcement this week, it felt even more like a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Quite frankly the rot that has pervaded English rugby for the last two years is still very much in evidence, as witnessed in England’s ineptitude against a Welsh side that is supposedly in an even deeper crisis of confidence than England find themselves in.

To be honest Wales certainly didn’t appear to lack either confidence or fitness last Saturday in Cardiff. England by comparison appeared to have neither. England as they have done for much of the last eighteen months looked slow, disorganised and a tad out of shape. Wales Coach Warren Gatland’s pseudo SAS physical fitness training regime, may be brutal to say the least but a touch of it might alleviate some of the obvious huffing and puffing witnessed in the England camp last weekend. Add to that the fact that England seem to have forgotten that actually hanging on to a rugby ball is one of the core basics of the game as they made a phenomenal 16 handling errors compared to Wales’ 2. Given the fact that they only had 2% more possession than Wales in the entire game, that’s simply unacceptable going into a World Cup. Their scrum creaked and groaned and failed to get any traction against the Welsh, and England simply never looked like scoring when in the Welsh 22, especially as the likelihood of them dropping the ball seemed to increase exponentially the closer they got to the Welsh red zone.

While it is unlikely that England will be as bad as they were last weekend in their repeat fixture this weekend against Wales at Twickenham HQ, Borthwick’s World Cup squad selection certainly raised eyebrows. It looks like a disturbingly familiar trip down memory lane, and apart from some genuine new talent sprinkled into the mix, it simply doesn’t fire our imagination. England will not be an exciting team plain and simple, instead they should have enough to grind out some uninspiring wins to possibly get them out of the pool stages, only to get decimated by teams embracing a much more dynamic brand of rugby in the quarter final stages and beyond.

Despite him being chosen as England’s only genuine specialist number eight, the selection of Billy Vunipola who is increasingly injury prone, out of shape and unable to keep up with the more dynamic eights of the modern game came as a surprise. He’s simply too one dimensional and easily read by opposition defences who figured him out a long time ago. Danny Care has done nothing to impress us at Test level in the nine jersey all year as brilliant as he is at club level and don’t get us started on Ben Youngs who is beyond pedestrian. Meanwhile in the centres Borthwick stays true to the belief that Manu Tuilagi can somehow single-handedly right England’s ship, despite the fact he is likely to be injured and out of the tournament by England’s second game and in general looks woefully out of form when compared to many of the other current centres in the modern game at Test level.

In short, England may pull some rabbits out of the hat that may surprise us all as the tournament in France unfolds, but we think Borthwick’s much maligned predecessor may have more luck at playing magician with his new look Wallabies. We wish England well, as a World Cup without them as real contenders is always a loss, but we have a hunch our interests will likely lie elsewhere this World Cup.

Well that’s it for this week folks, and the good news is that life and work have calmed down enough now for us to resume regular service. So take care, stay safe and enjoy the dwindling days of summer and look forward to the excitement just around the corner!