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The June international window has opened with the All Blacks eventually over-running Wales in Auckland and England out-muscling the Wallabies for their first ever win in Brisbane last night.
Here are ten things I learned from those two games.
More of the wash-up from Wallabies vs England
» SPIRO: Can the Wallabies win at Melbourne?
» Moore can take a leaf out of Smith’s book
» Five talking points
» Who should replace David Pocock?
» Match report: Eddie’s England too good
» DIY player ratings
» Roar Forum – what changes should the Wallabies make?
» Watch the full highlights
The Northerners are here to play
Wales put up a huge fight and led at the break before eventually succumbing to the All Blacks’ superior bench in the final quarter.
England recovered superbly from their initial shock at the pace of the Wallaby game and a 10-0 deficit in the first 20 minutes to pretty much dictate terms for the next three quarters of the match for an historic victory.
These are two superbly drilled and fit teams. Both have tenacious, highly organised defences, immaculate set pieces and a relish for the rough stuff.
And both have a willingness to biff the ball about. You would expect both home sides will be better for the outing but there’ll be improvement in the visitors too.
Eddie Jones especially will now be savouring the prospect of a series win against his old Randwick teammate Michael Cheika if he can exert similar forward dominance in Melbourne next Saturday. And it will be interesting to see if Wales can take confidence from their performance to go even harder in Wellington and whether that will be enough to catch the ABs off their stride two weeks in a row. I suspect not.
Julian Savea should be dropped
Actually, the number 11 shouldn’t have been picked in the first place. The big bus has struggled to get out of second gear in Super Rugby in 2016 and he has simply carried that lethargy into the international arena.
He’s way below the form that makes him the globe’s most effective and feared strike weapon as demonstrated at last year’s World Cup.
Sharply taken kick pass try notwithstanding, Savea offered little on attack with just one defender beaten for 23 ball-carrying metres.. But it was on defence that he was utterly shown up, making one tackle and missing three.
All of them on his brilliantly brutal opposite George North who had a whale of a game with 121m carried, four clean breaks and six defenders beaten.
This is two poor starts to the international year in a row for Savea who was so out of shape for the Rugby Championship last year he was dropped by Steve Hansen and not allowed back until he got himself fit.
Similar treatment looks necessary but probably unlikely as the coaches will back themselves and the environment to get him firing on all cylinders. Kudos to Hansen for hooking him in the second minute of the second half.
Ben Smith makes mistakes
The All Black fullback showed his human side with two errors inside the first eight minutes of the Welsh Test. First he knocked the ball on in a tackle, then he spilled a high ball in a play that, a few phases later, led to Toby Feletau’s.
Normal programming had resumed ten minutes later when he safely diffused a bomb, landed, burst through two tackles and hared up the field to set up the play that resulted in Waisake Naholo to crashing over for the first of his two tries.
Aaron Smith’s got balls
The All Blacks were trailing 18-21 with 18 minutes to go when they were awarded a penalty right in front of the Welsh sticks. Virtually everyone assumed the All Blacks would take the gift three to even the scores. Everyone except the little halfback in black who tapped and fed to Naholo who did his best impression of a torpedo to blast his way over the line to turn the three into seven.
The Smiths were shaded by their opposites
The All Black Smiths – Aaron at halfback and Ben at fullback are both widely considered the best in their positions in the world but both were bettered by their opposites with scrumhalf Rhys Webb and fullback Liam Williams both having blinders for Wales. Webb ignited his impressive backline, organised his forward runners through holes, was a constant menace at the base of the ruck and tackled superbly – including a try-saving tackle on Malakai Fekitoa, for a great all-round performance.
Williams made 101m from his 11 runs, three of which were clean breaks – one of which led to a try by Webb.
Cruden deserves his spot
Aaron Cruden more than justified the faith as the heir to Dan Carter’s throne with a masterful display at ten for the All Blacks. The little playmaker was at his mercurial best, running 113m with ball in hand, exactly 108m more than his opposite Dan Biggar, while his kicks out of hand were generally excellent, especially the one that led to Savea’s try and his defence was typically brave.
Maro Itoje deserves the hype
The giant young England second rower has arrived in this part of the world with huge raps from Europe and lived up to all of them with an utterly dominant display. Big and athletic, the youngster can do it all and did it all with an in-your-face attitude that will completely get up the noses of the Wallabies.
Wallaby scrum nightmares return
Having weathered the Aussie assault in the opening 20 the Pom forwards slowly but surely asserted their dominance over their opposites and this was no better typified than in the scrum where ghosts of Twickenham of yore were revisited, largely on Scott Sio who got a torrid working over by Dan Cole, leading directly to the Aussie’s sin binning in the second half.
A week’s a long time in politics but six months is an eternity in rugby, highlighted by how the English have completely turned the tables on Australia following their World Cup humiliation.
Michael Cheika was right, Bernard Foley is better than he was last year
A great attacking display from the pivot in a losing team, goal kicking notwithstanding.
Phil Kearns is the most biased commentator in the world
Kearns in the post match wrap, “Cole angling in all game, referee needs to take a good hard look at himself. And another hoary old chestnut “Australia has got a lot more improvement in it that England.”
Dane Haylett Petty belongs at this level
Nuff said.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.