Nick Wright previews this weekend's clash between York City Knights and Hull FC
Alex Reid looks at whether the once ever-present appearance of English clubs in the later stages of the Champions League is set to become a thing of the past
Craig Dobson looks at QPR's decision to sack Neil Warnock and replace him with Mark Hughes
James Tompkinson reviews an excellent pre-season victory for the York City Knights against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos
The match against South Africa was probably one of England’s most important contests in a very long time...to win it would surely have proved how far they’ve come as a team. However, the final score ended at 11-21 and England were truly outplayed by the superior South African side. Some occasionally brilliant (although more often, incredibly lucky) defending kept the scoreline at 6-6 by halftime but in the second half the Boks hardly missed an opportunity to capitalise on England’s sloppy play and high penalty count. (Of course, when looking at the big picture, it’s clear that England have improved loads since last year - but the win would’ve still been much appreciated!) At the end of the day, the game was really a clash between two teams with something to prove, and it looks like South Africa just wanted to prove it more.
Argentina are another team that have really got something to prove (they were beaten twice at home by Scotland over the summer), but last Sunday Ireland didn’t give them that chance. The Irish team are really starting to look a lot more together and they confidently brushed aside the Pumas (29-9) in a game that saw two tries for Ireland and Jonathan Sexton land five penalties. After starting the tournament poorly but regaining some team cohesion to achieve a good performance against the All Blacks and now a victory over Argentina, Ireland can be happy going forward with the impression that they’ve left.
Wales, on the other hand, remain worrying after finishing this autumn series without a win. Their showing against New Zealand (25-37) wasn’t actually all that disappointing compared to recent games (I’m thinking of their draw against Fiji) but whilst their forwards impressed, their backline still looks relatively clueless. Truthfully, though, this was a game in which Dan Carter became the world record highest points scorer in Test rugby (surpassing Jonny Wilkinson’s 1,178) and it was always going to be about this exceptional New Zealand side. Also, Scotland managed a much deserved win against Samoa in freezing conditions and their hard efforts paid off when Ruaridh Jackson sent over a last-minute penalty to win the last Test of the autumn for the Scots.
All in all, this has been a very decent Autumn series. The standard of rugby feels higher and the games have seemed more closely contested. Of course, New Zealand have come and made a statement of their dominance over everybody else, but we’ve also seen England play far better than anyone would’ve imagined this time last year, Ireland show their worth at their new stadium and Scotland build on their impressive performances over the summer. Things are only going to get more intriguing when February and the Six Nations come around (especially when you throw France into the mix!) Personally, I can’t wait.
If you’re going to miss the international rugby, watch South Africa play the Barbarians this Saturday at 2.30pm.
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