Having run in 360 points to 84, just how useful have these ‘warm up tests’ been for the big 3 southern hemisphere teams?
It’s worth pointing out that despite the overall points tally, there were different categories of teams. First, there were the northern hemisphere ‘tour from hell boys’. Best marks go to the Welsh, who should have won their first test against Australia. Worst marks go to the French, who brought a C team that decided (apart from the neolithic Chabal) they wouldn’t bother playing. Most interesting was the English ‘youth team’, who for the first 20 of the first test and the first 40 of the second test, proved how to tame the Boks.
There’s been a brouhaha in the press with coaches and commentators howling about the quality of these northern hemisphere touring teams. In truth, no-one can really be surprised with the long English and French domestic seasons not even finished in a world cup year. We all like to still get excited about a foreign tours, indeed Rugby Inc. now depends on their revenue. But a glut of international rugby means that the only true incentive is the world cup tournament.
To change this, you need to change the incentive. Imagine if between world cups there was a competition between the top-five ranked countries. Or perhaps a league ran over those 2 years. In these situations, hoping to peak every four years and ignoring foreign tours wouldn’t work. You need to keep your ranking points up if you’re going to benefit from being top tier. A nightmare to organise, but something has to change.
The second category of touring team was the ‘valiant minnows’. In this category Samoa did themselves proud, showing characteristic ticker and power against South Africa on Saturday. Just the rampaging tight head Census Johnson was worth the price of admission. Not so characteristic were the Fijians, who, when they finally got their hands on the ball, hoofed it aimlessly downfield. With no real prospect of winning, what was the point turning up? I’m not even going to contemplate the upcoming Canada vs New Zealand test. Pure genius.
So maybe the way we need to think about these games not as test matches, but just as televised full-contact warm-ups. At least the appetite is well and truly whetted for when there’s some real skin in the game.
You can read Matt’s review of the Australia vs Fiji test here.
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