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Wow. What a weekend of rugby that was. There was 18 action-packed internationals played across four continents.
The results of the ‘Big 8’ are well-known, Australia snuck past Scotland 23-22, England beat South Africa 37-21, France beat Samoa 52-8, Ireland ran over Canada 52-21, New Zealand belted Italy 58-10 and Wales got over Argentina 24-20.
However, there were several other tour games between the lesser rugby nations from different regions.
In Madrid, Tonga scored four converted tries to overpower the newly emerging Spain to win 28-13.
Georgia hosted Japan in Tbilisi in front of 28,000 spectators. It was a match where both teams kicked away vital possession. Georgia outmuscled the Brave Blossoms in the set plays but bad handling stopped them capitalising on this advantage.
The Lelos led 12-8 at the break but an intercept try early in the second term lifted Japan and their overall play improved to record a well-deserved 28-22 victory.
The loss by Georgia snapped an eight-match winning streak.
The USA travelled to Bucharest for the match against the second top European side.
The Eagles appeared leaden from their travel as the Oaks ran in three tries in the first 20 minutes. A consolation try to the USA didn’t do much as Romania recorded a 23-10 victory.
The biggest upset in Europe came in Frankfurt where Germany defeated Uruguay, 24-21.
Uruguay have appeared in three World Cup finals but Germany seemed to be no match for them. A penalty goal on full-time by the Germans broke a 21-all deadlock to take a historic win.
In a friendly, Portugal played Belgium in Lisbon.
For this year’s European Championship, Belgium have been promoted to the top division while Portugal has been relegated from the top to the second division.
Portugal started well and maintained this advantage, and although Belgium fought back, could not catch the Lobos. Portugal won 26-21 even though they are ranked five places below Belgium.
There were three other games in Europe over the weekend, each part of the lower divisions of the 2016 European Rugby Championships.
New Zealand’s Israel Dagg runs in for a try against Italy
The B division game saw Moldova easily accounted for Ukraine with a 54-17 thumping. In the two C division matches, the Czech Republic beat Lithuania and Israel continued its winning ways with a 38-28 victory over Cyprus.
Meanwhile, further south in Africa, the final of Africa Cup B division was played in Tunisia.
A hard fought, and I mean hard fought, game was played with Senegal slotting a controversial last minute penalty goal to win 15-14 over the home Tunisian side.
Both sides are promoted to the first division and will contest for a newly formed six-nation Africa Cup alongside the current four nations, Kenya, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
In Hong Kong, four sides took part in the Nations Cup.
The opener saw Zimbabwe crash to its eighth successive loss, this time to Russia in a 19-15 score line with Russia scoring the only try of the match.
In the main game, Hong Kong demolished Papua New Guinea to the tune of 51-5. Hong Kong led 34-0 at half time then eased the foot off the pedal.
In a clash between two continents, the third-ranked South American side, Chile, faced the second-ranked Asian side, Korea, for the first time ever.
Chile raced out to a handy 20-0 lead and Korea was unable to bridge the gap, even with two Condores in the sin bin at the same time. Chile was victorious 30-12 and deserved the win, mainly because of their first half effort despite their players losing concentration in the second half.
The coming weekend should be just as interesting and full of action.
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.