Following last week’s international Rugby review, I’ve pieced together another for the past week of international action. There weren’t as many games but there were certainly some very interesting results.
The big nations have been covered elsewhere across the site with New Zealand’s revenge 21-9 win over Ireland and Italy’s historic 20-18 scoreline to notch their first ever victory over South Africa.
England rolled over Fiji with a highly impressive 58-15 victory, while Scotland knocked over a penalty goal on the last play of the game to beat Argentina, 19-16.
Wales also scored late to break the deadlock against Japan and get away with a tight three-point win, 33-30, and of course, France missing a last chance drop goal to lose 23-25 to Australia.
There was still plenty of other rugby action around the globe though.
In Hong Kong, the second round of the Nations Cup was played during the week. Hong Kong beat Zimbabwe, 34-11, and Russia defeated Papua New Guinea, 49-19. The third and final round was played on Saturday with the losing teams playing each other.
Zimbabwe avoided the wooden spoon with a clear 38-11 win over Papua New Guinea. The results of this tournament have shown that the standard is falling in Zimbabwe.
The two undefeated teams met in the main game with Russia easily beating Hong Kong 27-0, scoring four tries in the process. Hong Kong is the second best Asian team behind Japan and Russia the third best in Europe behind Georgia and Romania so it appears the game is getting stronger in Europe than in Asia.
Georgia returned to a winning way in Tbilisi with a 20-16 win over Samoa. Another 30,000 plus crowd watched as Georgia scored two tries to one, all in the first half. Georgia scored both through pushovers and Samoa’s came from open play.
Manu had a wealth of possession but no imagination in attack and simply bashed the ball up, making it easy for the Georgian defence to tackle them into the ground. The Lelos preferred to kick for territory and hold the advantage. Overall, it was an entertaining game.
The Tonga and USA match was played in the neutral territory of San Sebastian, Spain. This was a very even game which Tonga came out victorious, 20-16. The Americans played hard to close the gap after a Tongan was sin binned near the end but could not nail the winning points.
Romania hosted Canada in Bucharest and ran out winners, 21-16, despite some unusual and sometimes controversial decisions by the Japanese referee. The Canucks were unlucky not to score two tries in the last 10 minutes but the decisions went against them.
Following last week’s loss to Germany, Uruguay travelled to Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol to play the inspired Spanish side. Another huge crowd, over 20,000, saw Spain score four tries to one to overwhelm Uruguay, 33-16. Uruguay’s sole try coming as a consolation at the end of the match. Rugby in Spain is definitely on an upward trend.
Fresh from last week’s win, Germany played Brazil in Heidelberg. This game was extremely physical but Germany was able to score two tries to nil and claim a 16-6 victory. This means that over the weekend, all European nations beat teams from other regions, bar France.
The way it’s going shows how the standard of European Rugby is on the up and up.
Two matches in the B division of the European championship, now known as the European Trophy, were also played.
Newly demoted Portugal had no trouble with an away game in Switzerland, scoring three tries to one to notch a 28-10 victory.
Moldova have great potential but never seem to be able to travel. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands scored seven tries to two to eclipse them, 44-17.
Korea continued their tour of Chile, this week reversing their fortunes from th previous week’s game and win a closely contested 38-36 match against Los Condores.
Despite being down 31-7 at one stage, the Koreans just got home with the winning try on the last play of the match. It was an inspiring victory.
Elsewhere in South America, a second division Sudamericano Cup game was played in Asuncion, where the hosts Paraguay beat Colombia, 39-27. The game also doubled as a World Cup qualifier.
The week was completed with a C division South American Cup warm-up game in San Salvador when another Central American nation, Guatemala, travelled there and beat El Salvador, 37-26. The C division games begin in December.
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