Northern Hemisphere rugby is on its knees
Roar Pro
By Brian, 3 Dec 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
285-123. That’s the combined score of the matches that the three Southern Hemisphere nations – New Zealand, Australia and South Africa – competed in against their Northern Hemisphere rivals these past weeks.
Of the eleven Tests played in this northern Autumn, only Wales managed to win a match. And that was by three points against Australia.
Wales, coached by New Zealander Warren Gatland, looked to be the best of a bad bunch of Northern Hemisphere teams. They lost a close contest to South Africa, 15-20, competed with the All Blacks up until half time, before losing 9-29, and then defeated the wobbly Wallabies 21-18.
Wales played with direction and skill for periods in all their Tests, something England failed to do in any of their matches.
South Africa handed England their worst home defeat in memory, completely outplaying the English 42-6. Prior to this thumping, Australia ran over the top of an ill-disciplined England 28-14, before the All Blacks completed a Grand Slam against this ordinary outfit with a deserving 32-6 win.
England are a team that lack impact, attacking vision and skill.
In their three tests against Southern Hemisphere opposition, they scored just 26 points, and conceded 102. Danny Cipriani failed to ignite the English backline, and was dropped for Toby Flood in their last Test against New Zealand.
Flood showed the same ineptitude as Cipriani, leaving England fans calling once again for the injury-plagued Johnny Wilkinson.
In the forwards, England do have some very good front rowers, but their back five just aren’t up to it.
Ever since Neil Back retired, they have lacked a ball-stealing openside, and Nick Easter, their No. 8, is a premiership footballer, not an international.
Easter lacks the ball running ability and agility of his Southern Hemisphere rivals, Rodney So’oialo, Wycliff Palu and Pierre Spies.
Given the cattle Martin Johnson has to work with and the pressure on international coaches to produce results these days, his time as England manager could be a very short one.
Ireland showed a great deal of courage in their 3-22 loss to the All Blacks. However, playing depth is their biggest single concern. Ireland have some great potential in their backline, and with Australian Alan Gaffney now running the Ireland backs, there will be improvement in the Irish attacking structure and rhythm.
It is in the forwards that the Irish need some competition so that players can put pressure on the likes of Marcus Horan, John Hayes and Doncha O’Callaghan. At the moment the Irish forwards are just not up to it, and they need to produce some forward depth and talent in order to compete at the top level.
Scotland were hammered by the All Blacks 6-32, and then showed a little grit to scare South Africa before going down 10-14.
Scotland are a very weak international team who need to look at their approach to rugby. They rely on their goal kicking winger-fullback, Chris Paterson, to be their sole point scorer each week, and if they don’t look to re-model their play, they will become an international minnow.
The once brilliant French backline now looks unsettled and restricted with the loss of playmaker Frederic Michalak and coach Bernard Laporte. David Skrela showed against Australia that he is suspect under pressure, and their game plan lacked direction and typical French flair.
The French forwards will always be a force, and they showed that with a strong pushover try against the Wallabies. However, coach Marc Lievremont has a job on his hands to get the French back to playing their best rugby, and that is when their creative backline play what is in front of them and attack.
With the 6 Nations tournament kicking off in February, Wales have been clipped into 2/1 from 9/4 by Paddy Power to retain their Six Nations crown after Saturday’s thrilling victory over Australia. France are out to 3/1 which is the same price as England. Ireland are at 4/1 with Scotland at 20/1 and Italy at 66/1.
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Brendan said | December 3rd 2008 @ 6:18am | Report comment
Good article Brian
Notice how all the English experts have stopped conrtributing their expert analysis in response to articles posted on this site. I’m talking about Benjamin in particular his comments always seemed, to me, to excude the don’t argue with me you southern hemisphere neanderthal’s – the typical born to rule mentality that the english seem to have great difficulty getting out of their system despite losing their empire so long ago.
Cheers,
Brendan
Colin N said | December 3rd 2008 @ 7:17am | Report comment
I’m English and still commenting on this site. You seem very smug when saying that Brendan.
“the typical born to rule mentality that the english seem to have great difficulty getting out of their system despite losing their empire so long ago.”
I also see some people still have no knowledge of the English, and what is the point of refering to the past.
Sir Barrington said | December 3rd 2008 @ 7:23am | Report comment
I remember something Rudyard Kipling once said to me about empire
Oh wait, no, I forgot
Arky said | December 3rd 2008 @ 7:46am | Report comment
Brendan – the absence of Benjamin in particular is noticeable. The tally sheet stands in stark contrast to his brave predictions in response to Spiro’s article on the Southern invasion. Not sure about your comments on the empire – while it may or may not be true it is not important. What is interesting and valuable is the perspectives and insights that contributors share and how if received objectively can be used to improve one’s own insights and understanding. Benjamin had a lot to share he was just lacking in objectivity when it came to taking on board the insight and judgment of others – and he is not standing to admit defeat – in trading terms he was just ‘carried out by the market!’
Harry said | December 3rd 2008 @ 8:16am | Report comment
I enjoyed Benjamin’s views and from my perspective he’s sorely missed. He has a real passion for the game and provided an excellent insight into Eruopean club rugby.
Colin, your hemisphere – particuarly once formidbable at home England – was walloped in the AI’s. So, just like we antipodeans had to at the 07 RWC QF’s, you now have to wear a lot of disparagement and abuse, much of it banal, outdated, unoriginal and offensive; reflecting particularly poorly on the orginators character.
So cop it sweet you soap-dodging, country-decaying, whinging pommy loser.
On a serious point, I do worry that the wealth of the clubs in Europe is ruining the international game. This is already the main reason why the SH has to endure sub-standard NH teams fronting up down here year after year and being humiliated – France this year were frankly a disgrace to a national jersey.
Who Needs Melon said | December 3rd 2008 @ 8:16am | Report comment
I don’t think Brian intended this article to be a Pommy-basher.
I may not always agree with them but I for one welcome the comments from our Northern brethren, Colin N and Benjamin especially. This site would be much, much duller without them. If they continue to show optimism and confidence in their national team then good on them. I don’t think it is entirely unfounded and we here in Australia have no reason to be cocky.
I’m hoping Benjamin is in Ibiza or somewhere and will be back shortly.
Nick (KIA) said | December 3rd 2008 @ 8:44am | Report comment
Bring Back Benjamin! These boards are boring without his input.
Colin N said | December 3rd 2008 @ 9:13am | Report comment
To be fair, I thought England would beat South Africa and Australia. How wrong I was.
But with the perceived talent in the team, I thought we would. There was no doubting the talent of the back-line, yet it is ironic that they couldn’t get quick ball from the usually powerful England pack. The international stage is where players are found.Yet it is also a place to flourish and impress, especially with the SH watching like Armitage and to some extent Kennedy, did.
Care and Cipriani were disappointing but as I said earlier, they didn’t get quick enough ball. Having said that, they should have done better. I felt for the New Zealand game that Care was told to be calmer, not take the quick taps, but Why? That’s his game. You could see him when we were awarded a penalty itching at the chance to take a quick tap.
This is a team that can improve providing we can find a new front row and another lock to complement Kennedy (Bothwick isn’t good enough). Richard Blaze has been mentioned but there is very little talent in that area in England atm. In the front-row, Sheridan has struggled this season for both club and country and Alex Cobisero (Not sure on the spelling) has been mentioned, but again not much talent around.I still feel that Matt Stevens is the future at tight-head, but is being kept out of the team by an ageing Phil Vickery, who should now be replaced. That’s why I would disagree with the original post, as I feel Haskell and Rees are excellent players, but agree to some extent about Easter. However, he’s currently the only 8 that really gives us that balance. The only other 8 you could argue that will challenge and give the balance is Jordan Crane, who had an excellent game against Sale last week.
We have plenty of injuries with Simpson-Daniel (out for a further 2 months) and Matthew Tait struggling with a hamstring problem. Of course Wilkinson is also out and Abendanonm, who would have played full-back, is out.
Regarding the other NH teams, I still wouldn’t regard the AI’s a success for Wales despite their great win against Australia, simply because they should have beaten South Africa.
Scotland played well against South Africa but will never compete consistantly at the top level, because of their, or lack of resources.
Ireland have talent but don’t have the pack to use it against the big teams, ie the SH three. I’m not a big fan of O’Gara and can’t believe he’s currently regarded as the favourite for the Lions jersey. Against New Zealand, he played so laterally they could barely get over the gain line. When he’s on his game, he can be brilliant, but when he’s poor, Ireland are almost certain to lose.
France-well, the mystery of France. Have talent everywhere apart from 10, the linchpin of the back-line, and in some ways the go to man. Skrela is an awful player, Michalak is inconsistant and others such as Beauxis need game time, just to see if they’re up to the challenge of international rugby. I think that France, though, are fairly weak in the front-row, with Georgians and Romanians swarming the French league leaving a real dearth of talent in that area.
Westy said | December 3rd 2008 @ 10:42am | Report comment
…………..I think I begin to understand the English rugby dilemma and condition. It would appear to me that the game there is overwhelmingly social in character……….this must be the case otherwise the gene pool amongst the English middle class needs urgent athletic input………..you have so many registered and adult senior players relative to Australia where our game comes in at number 4.team sport ………….This I think is what irks many English rugby supporters deep down……on depth of playing numbers alone , English rugby being the No 2 team sport in a nation of over 60 million with 2 divisions of professional club teams and it struggles to beat Australian rugby our No 4 team sport with the lowest number of juniors nationally and about only 28100 senior adult players…and only 4 professional teams ………..No more need be said……….on any objective analysis English rugby should flog us every time they play ….. and they never have………..
I watched England play three games……………basically to remain competitive England resorted to downright cheating ….it was there for all to see………remember it was the English media who consistently labelled us as cheats in scrummaging. I read your press . Good luck rebuilding ………….English rugby…numbers …money but always lacking something
True Tah said | December 3rd 2008 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Westy,
NZ has less senior rugby players than Australia, but I suspect that the NZ club comps in the various provinces would be far more competitive than in Australia..i.e. there is no real equivalent of subbies comps in NZ, I know in South Africa they do not have subbies-equivalent comps (well at least in Capetown they dont).
Plus in NZ, in particular the rural areas of the South Island, a lot of these guys are a bit tougher than the average Australian, to illustrate this most South Islanders I know through footy were big into their pig hunting, and over there they dont use rifles due to the nature of the country (i.e. thick undergrowth), not surprisingly these guys were incredibly strong and fit, and it wasnt like they lived in the gym either.
Martin Johnson made that observation when he compared the English with the NZers, as he played in King Country. From this I suspect that the vast majority of English rugby played is of a level equivalent to Subbies, and on the whole, far less competitive than say NZ, South Africa and probably Wales as well.
On a side note, I would like to see how the Sydney club comp would compare with the Auckland or Christchurch comps.