Great text Matt…! Light and fun to read, but focused on the strengths of FRA and the weaknesses of IRE. In my particular reading, I’ve focused on IRE’s strengths centered around creating permanent play options. That is the ‘next level’ outlined by Schmidt and optimized by Farrell from the seizing of opportunities. Greetings.

Excelent outlook…! Thanks

I agree with your reading about ENG. They had the same number of attacks (52) as SCO but the time of possession was higher for ENG. So to generate a break ENG executed 26 attacks versus 9 from SCO. I think that ENG should achieve more fluidity in attack.

Hi Harry, great analysis of the SixNations panel…! SCO does not surprise me, since they have generated interesting attacking performances since 2019. Although the analysis is not relevant, I would say that their trend is bullish and their last victory against ENG supports it. But SCO decrements in the definition instance. IRE is the most ‘Latin’ squad of the Saxon HN, but today it is writing other stories of greater efficiency and better mental performance. Side comment: I loved your subscription to the pattern that parity is the result of frequent confrontation rather than the growth of teams. “The point of view creates the object”, would say some literary critic fond of test rugby. In terms of discipline, the most visible enemy of the sides, ITA and SCO have taken a step forward. Keeping the penalty count in 1 digit is essential to survive in high competition.

Hello Mick…! Thanks for the analysis. Ireland remains the enemy to beat for NH teams and I suspect for the rest of the world as well. It is a great team with an interesting degree of maturity, basing its complex mechanism on the speed of recycling the ball and the optimization of the Pass/Break ratio. Likewise, there is no perfect team under a tenacious and organized defense. After watching WALvIRE this weekend, I’ve given myself a research assignment: to quantify the extent of Sexton’s attacking influence on other Irish pack leaders. To the extent that the result shows Ireland producing better attacking metrics under the productivity and ‘influence’ of Sexton, we know that Ireland’s fate at RWC2023 could be much more random. It should be noted that the attack indicators of IRE, FRA and SCO in 6Nations editions have been sustained and on the rise since 2020. Regards…!

Good material Christy, especially since it will have immediate effects on the discussions in The Roar. I have not followed Eddie Jones on his statements since he left England. But the mention of him regarding cohesion is correct. So correct that if we stick to that process, we have little time to reformulate the fabric and surface tension around the team before RWC2023. What happened as a process has simply already happened. Now it is about rebuilding and fine-tuning the machinery in the best possible way. And it’s everyone’s job.

Honoré de Balzac thought that the world could fit into a novel. I think it applies perfectly to the world of rugby. Greetings Harry…!

Hello, Harry…! good panorama. I think that all teams show weaknesses and strengths, sometimes too exposed. But France looks different this time, under Galthie’s job. They would seem to arrive at RWC2023 at the right time, even with the mental strength that is so elusive to the Latin mentality that Italy and Los Pumas. With a Sexton-dependent Ireland, my main candidate is France, followed by the All Blacks. We will see how this novel of grays, suspicions and furtive loves starring coaches and employers continues.

Your name is Ricardo Caruso Lombardi. He is a soccer coach.

I redouble the comment I made to the Harry Jones article today. What happened with Eddie Jones is an outburst, an excess. We are facing a profound transformation of rugby originated from the pressure of the media and the associated audience. The same pressure that has generated soccer as a business activity for years. If you don’t win, you leave. For that reason, I can’t find an explanation for a contract in the medium or long term. I take advantage and tell you about a curiosity about Argentine soccer. Here we have a coach who springs into action every time an important or experienced team is at risk of losing the category and playing in a lower division. He is very popular in Argentina and has almost no experience as an elite coach. But every time his services are needed, he bills for the show to go on.

Hi Harry, there’s always something stinging around Jones…! I still remember attributing the delay in making changes to England’s game at Murrayfield to poor connectivity in their GPS systems. Something incredible, right…? I think both Jones and Rassie are modeling a sort of ‘soccerization’ of rugby. Including the issue of hiring. I am Argentine and when I talk about ‘soccerization’ I know what I mean: coaches who sign 2 or 3 years contracts are fired after 6 rounds without victories. but with its corresponding compensation. The business demands victories and the fans too, because they are part of it. These are the risks of taking rugby to a business area burned by the logic of efficiency. And Eddie or Rassie know it and practice it and use it to their advantage. A medium-term contract tied to results is what suits any rugby union in the world today. Guy Debord’s “Society of the Spectacle” is still a text that is too current and 100% applicable to rugby.

Hello Chivas…! Theoretically, there is an opportunity and a need to adjust the collective operation of the team. Wallabies are lucky to have the most players in Australia and they could do it. Think, for example, of Los Pumas, whose squad contained, during AutumnNations, only 2 players based in Argentina out of a total of 35. I think the hard thing is to change a culture installed in the game.

Excellent panorama, Nick…! Decidedly, the departure of Scott Wisemantel is bad news for the Wallabies attack. They have all the elements to sound like a great orchestra, but they are still in the tuning phase. Personally, I think that AUS’s true deficit is in the breakdown and that it contaminates the subsequent attack phases, or drowns it out. I’m talking about discipline and skills to improve to avoid, for example, the 28 penalties caused in the breakdown during AutumnNations.

Thanks Harry, I appreciate your reading.

Hello Harry, good racconto…! It does not fail to be an interesting and ‘arbitrary’ tour of 2022. But I am sure of one thing. Arbitration is part of the game. It is an interested party, I would add. And that is where that quota of obscurantism, intentional blindness or simply corruption resides that, at some point, something or someone could put into play. It is better to play “with” the referee than “against” the referee, we say in Argentina. That is clear in all possible hemispheres of the oval world. Finally, thinking about your comment about Eddie Jones and Rassie Erasmus, I think the characters ate the real trainers and today it’s just characters looking for an author again. Fortunately, rugby is today at its most effervescent point. The one in which the ripe fruit explodes and drops a good amount of seeds for the start of a new cycle.

Thanks for sharing your work…! Discipline became a great topic to think about in depth, in all TIER1 teams. It can make the difference between winning and losing control of the game and possibly the match. AUS keeps its penalties at high levels for now. With 4 games played, the average is 13.5 penalties per game and contrasts with the 11 penalties per game for NZL, RSA and 9.6 for ARG. What I consider to be a real concern are the penalties on the lineout, which take 9% of the total penalties generated. Lack of coordination, distractions in the game, or just a vocation for committing penalties…? Personally, I choose an option not listed in the questions, as I think that a play style seeking to find its expansive matrix and base limitations will inevitably ‘creak’ from in-game indiscipline.

Good analysis, Matt…! It enriches the reading that we usually apply to the game. Personally, I think that the traditional idea of ‘leadership’ is stagnant and with vast spaces for rethinking. Mental strength is an important capital that teams must achieve and retain if they want to build a game that is sustainable over time and validated from the results. Our Pumas are part of a crossroads where strong leadership does not find support in the mental strength of the team.

I think the general blackout at the SCO power plant occurred at the start of the game and then with the predominance of NZL. Throughout the match, NZL did not show territorial losses, but rather situations where the start and end of the attack coincide (3). On the other hand, SCO initially showed 1 territorial loss and 4 neutral situations.

´Totally´, we would say in Argentina

Thank you for your work Highlander…! The start of NZL reminded me of other times, other names and other teams. But Scotland’s change of direction after Darcy Graham’s try seemed really incredible to me, from the hands of fired-up attackers. Good game, with critical reads and readjustments for both sides and at different levels. Greetings.

Hello, Harry…! Reading your ‘team of the week’ today was invigorating for me as I still have 2 more games to decode. I’ve just worked on SCOvNZL and I thought Scotland’s game was amazing – fast, penetrating and hard-hitting. The consistency of the AllBlacks and the collection of penalized breakdown of Scotland (9 out of a total of 13) finally signed the sentence.

Totally agree Nick…! Apparently the game is moving in conditions of ‘complex evolution’, where strong teams improve by strengthening the weakest. Argentina or Japan could be a good example. Cheers…! 🏉

Hello Nick, how are you…! Excellent level of detail in the analysis. I had the opportunity to see FRAvAUS again last night with greater ease. I was able to clarify two important aspects 1) The limitations of the French game model based on quickballs and strong defense and 2) The best possibilities for the development of the Australian game, which in my opinion are still intact and only dependent on deep adjustment sessions. The hemispheric rivalry continues alive and with increasingly closer shores.

Hello Tim, how are you…! Interesting collaboration. Sometimes, putting order in the passions is an insane but very necessary job. I think that in several of the points that you have worked on there is room for reflection. Hiring a foreign coach can be a great idea. But when what you need is to rebuild the bases, a hiring of these characteristics may not show the expected effects. At least immediately. But professionalism and hyper-professionalism is common in our sport and we have to deal with it. Where would be the plus of playing for the honor of wearing the jersey, where do we identify it…? The Pumas, for example, have faced a lot of adversity since 2020 but their reaction was basically seen in the strong defensive mentality and the optimization of the unstructured game. That, clearly, was not enough to take us to the next level. I am one of those who thinks that the teams finally play a style similar to their history as a country.

Hi Harry, I like these previous comments…! While Kinghorn played a decent role in the friendlies in Argentina, my preference goes to Finn Russell and all the players who use that particular sensitivity to attack the transition zones. They are men with a high dose of instinctual game, almost animal.