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ST ETIENNE – The opening week of World Cup fixtures is behind us and there have already been some memorable moments. Beer has flowed, bums have been bared and Eddie has fired up
The best two matches were arguably the first – between France and New Zealand – and the eighth and final match of the first week. That rollicking storm of a clash between Wales and Fiji in Bordeaux could have filled its own “good, the bad and the Eddie” column. The Wallabies coach was there, lurking in the shadows like a member of World Rugby as he sized up the pool C rivals.
Allez Les Blues
The tournament got off to a belting start with the hosts welcoming the All Blacks to the Stade de France and sending them packing with an impressive win.
Damian Penaud, arguably the most exciting winger in the game, scored the decisive try and it resulted in an explosion of joy from near 80,000 fans, many of whom had been at the ground hours before drinking Asahi to vainly stay cool in high 30 degree temperatures.
Tournaments don’t usually start with such a high profile contest – this one was like being thrown into a World Cup a month down the line rather than being merely day one.
While beaten, expect the Kiwis to come back strong. They had their moments – scoring the first try of the Cup inside a couple of minutes, while Richie Mo’unga’s spectacular try saver on Penaud might have been iconic had the All Blacks been able to hang on for a win.
Taniela’s magic, freakish Donno
Australia’s star prop Taniela Tupou has endured a miserable couple of years with calf and then Achilles injuries. He went to some “dark places” mentally as he worked on getting his big frame ready for pack warfare all over again – while finding his way as a first time father.
He seems a genuinely humble and honest guy so you can only take him on face value when he says he was also worried if Eddie Jones might not fancy him after replacing Dave Rennie as Wallabies coach.
That concerned, voiced after the Wallabies win over Georgia, seemed a fanciful considering the joyous impact Tongan Thor had on the game.
Jones said he had never seen a Georgian scrum dominated the way Tupou and his fellow forwards successfully did.
And then to remind us of his wonderful skill set, Tupou grabbed an intercept and with a one handed off load sent Ben Donaldson over for the first of two tries.
“I thought I had it,” Tupou said afterwards, with a 50th Test cap perched on his head.
“I was hoping I was 10 metres ahead and I think if I dummied and kept going I would have had it.
“I am just as happy that I set up someone else. I was hoping he scored because I was tired.”
No wonder he was tired: he hopped into halfback a couple of times, and even gave ref Luke Pearce a helping held by ruling on his own knock on.
It was a breakthough Test for Donno as well, with his 25 points leading Australia to a 20-point winning margin.
“He’s a freak and we all know that,” said teammate Angus Bell. You just need Donaldson to adjudicate at the back and unleash our world-class wingers, he did his bit today and got two tries, he was unreal.”
It was a big week as well for Mark Nawaqanitawase who impressed on his World Cup debut, then celebrated his 23rd birthday on Monday being serenaded by a school children from St Etienne primary local primary school Ecole Elementaire Molina.
Manie Libbok’s no-look kick and Siya Kolis is still a champion bloke
Springboks playmaker Manie Libbok missed three of his five goal attempts in the 18-3 win over Scotland but one of his kicks deserves to be on the highlights package every time this World Cup is revisited.
His audacious no-look cross field kick to set up a try for Kurt-Lee Arendse must go down as one of the best flashes of skill seen at a Rugby World Cup.
Libbok’s struggles from the tee dominated discussions afterwards, but he was defended by coach Jacques Nienaber and captain Siya Kolisi.
The Bok skipper already has legend status after lifting the 2019 World Cup, but he won praise again for his actions after the match, jumping into the crowd after most of the players had left the arena, to sign autographs and thank the team’s fans.
Ford on fire
Michael Cheika’s Argentina had a shocker – even a man up – as England claimed a morale-boosting win through the boot of George Ford.
Deftly driving domination through accumulation, Ford scored all 27 of his team’s points including three drop goals – a surprisingly oft-neglected part of the game.
Ford took the reins with Owen Farrell still sidelined, and may have done enough to keep the veteran on the bench when he eventually returns.
Fiji left with the ref, and themselves, to blame
The Wales vs Fiji match was an epic contest that the Fijians might well have snatched at the end, only for former NRL star Semi Radradra to fumble a grassed pass. In front of a heaving audience, with Wales’ best player Dan Biggar letting loose furious F-bombs at his teammates, Fiji were left heartbroken at the end.
While the game was undoubtedly packed full of nourishing goodness, there was plenty of controversy over the performance of English referee Matt Carley.
UK TV presenter Nick Knowles summed up the feelings of many when he called the decision-making “disgraceful” and “grotesque”, and urged Fiji to lodge a formal complaint.
Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui was gracious in defeat, and he’ll know that as much as the post-game storm centred on Carley, his team had ample opoprtunity to take it out of the referee’s hands.
Twice his players got across the line only to spill the ball. There were repeated scrum resets in the dying moments thaat chewed up time when a quick tap and go made more sense. And the ball Radradra dropped was a long cut out pass – a risk that was probably not warranted considering the Fijians’ strength in numbers.
TMO uncertainty (of course)
Three big head clashes – three different results. We probably just need to accept that such inconsistency will continue through the tournament. And we need to accept that your view of such incidents might be linked to your nationality.
After Tom Curry was red carded for a head clash against Argentina, Springbok Jesse Kriel had no sanction at all from Aussie ref Angus Gardner after running into Jack Dempsey.
“Jesse Kriel, up and in, that’s a red card all day long for me. And it wasn’t even highlighted,” said former Ireland international Rob Kearney on Virgin Media. His former teammate Andrew Trimble added: “You’d wonder what was going on. Was he at the toilet at the time, the TMO?”
Rassie Erasmus had a predictably different take after it was put to him that Kriel might be cited.
“We are comfortable that they haven’t cited him and we are very sure that there won’t be a citing,” Erasmus said.
“There definitely wasn’t head-on-head contact, it was a tackle on the ball. He moved up after making the tackle on the ball.
“I’ve seen a few stills where that were taken just after Jesse made direct contact on the ball. You can make any tackle like that look really bad. If you look a millisecond or a second or two back, you will see that he clearly tackled on the ball.
“So, yeah, we are very happy with how it was refereed. We are happy with the decision that was made. I will be very surprised that, with first contact on the ball, there will be anything from that.”
Anthems under fire
Stadiums have been full, the vibe around venues has been excellent, but there are a few false notes. England and Argentina fans missed the start of their match when there were issues with the ticket gates in Marseilles. The upside to that was they didn’t have to suffer through their national anthems.
Organisers opted to have the anthems sung by a choir of school kids and piped into stadia. The result in ground can be confusing and it has meant a less than rousing final few minutes before kickoff.
Whatever you think of Eddie Jones the coach, the man is box office. He delivers zingers, attracts attacks and is never, ever dull.
It was a fun week in his orbit, starting when he gave my Roar colleague Christy Doran a little bit of an ego boost – when he told an English journo that he should go sit next to the Roar’s Rugby Editor after Doran asked Jones a “very good question.” Can’t wait for that tide to turn!
But the best line of the week came right at the end of his post-match press conference when a French journalist asked Jones about being whistled and jeered by the crowd when his name was read out prior to kick off.
“Obviously, I’m not popular. So at least it’s consistent. Like you either want to be popular or unpopular. And I’m consistently unpopular. So that’s all right. I can deal with that,” he said.
Jones won’t need to read between the lines as to know if he’s popular or unpopular with David Campese, who – in a paid interview with Planet Rugby – unleashed on the Aussie coach and accused him of “killing the sport”.
“It has always been his way or the highway; it’s about him proving a small man is big enough to mix it with the behemoths of the Test game, and at times, that leads to self-promotion that characterises his press conferences and soundbites,” Campo stormed.
“He’s won nothing as a Test head coach, yet he still acts like he’s Sir Alex Ferguson.”