November Internationals - What We Learned

The Quilter Nations Series may have one match to go – Wales versus South Africa in Cardiff on Saturday – but the rest of the stars of the November Internationals are now back at their clubs, or somewhere with their feet up and a colourful drink in hand.

So far there have been 20 matches, and 1,117 points scored, meaning an average of 55.85 points per match.

Scotland’s 85-0 win over USA was the biggest margain of victory, while Wales’s last-minute defeat of Japan that sealed a 24-23 triumph, was the closest. Nicolas Depoortère is the leading try scorer with four, while George Ford is the leading points scorer with 30, two ahead of France’s Tomos Ramos on 28.

The next international rugby is the Guinness Men’s Six Nations and Rugby Europe Championship, both of which start in early February.

For now, here’s how ATR saw the last few weeks of action…

Card Chaos

From start to finish there has been way too much confusion over what constitutes a yellow or red card, and that is before judgement is returned on the offending player.

It began on the opening weekend when Tadhg Beirne was shown a 20-minute red card for his shoulder hit on Beauden Barrett during Ireland’s clash with New Zealand in Chicago. The last thing the latest attempt to crack the States needed was a long delay, early in the match as middle aged men poured over a monitor, yet that is what we got as the technology did little to help the situation.

Beirne’s card was eventually rescinded, though as a flanker guarding a ruck, what was he doing folding his arms, and why wouldn’t he have expected someone to run at him? A 20-minute red seemed about right in the circumstances.

South Africa’s Franco Mostert and Japan’s Harry Hockings also had cards rescinded over the following weeks, before halftime in the Ireland versus South Africa match when the home side went in with 12 men, after a 20-minute red, and two yellows over the preceding 40 minutes.

Of course, it isn’t all the officials’ fault. They are reacting to pumped up, emotionally high players throwing themselves into tackles, rucks, and mauls at breakneck speed, all while having to juggle the laws of the game with the notion of the match as a viewing spectacle.

Do people want matches to flow, or do they want the laws to be applied? Because looking in they are contradictory ideas and the officials are caught in the middle and useful scapegoats.

Kings of the Castle

Right now, South Africa are in a league of their own, that much is obvious. The Rugby Championship is their trophy cabinet and Rassie Erasmus can sit on a beach smiling after adding a victory over Ireland in Ireland to his achievements.

They battered Ireland in the scrum, having come back to win comfortably against France despite being a man down after Lode de Jager’s red card. Earlier in the year the Boks beat New Zealand away by a record score. You’d suggest Erasmus buys a lottery ticket after the year he’s had, but he’d probably reply that he’s already had his with this team.

New faces have blended with established stars, and new heroes have emerged. Can the over-30s roll on for two more years, if they can’t then there’s probably a contingency plan somewhere for such an eventuality.

The loss to Australia at Ellis Park will niggle, but not too much to spoil an Indian Ocean sundowner.

New Zealand Still To Convince

When ex-All Blacks galore sit around on various programmes and podcasts telling each other how much they hated losing to England at Allianz Stadium, then doing so really knocks any shine off the rest of their tour.

The win in Chicago over Ireland was a very good start, and they had Damian McKenzie to thank as they raised their intensity late on when Scotland threatened to cap a stirring comeback.

Then came England, who really didn’t give them a sniff, and it was a mark of the All Blacks quality that they were still in contention with Will Jordan’s late try, despite producing very little before then. What will sting is that it was England who kicked on to wrap up the win, rather than the All Blacks as they have done so many times before.

Scott Robertson has discovered how quickly he will come under fire. Not facing South African teams regularly seems to have affected their physicality, hence the long tour there next year. In the meantime, Robertson will need to make some big decisions to ensure his team are at their best when they arrive.

Can England Innovate Again?

England’s gameplan has been founded on ruling their air. Fire high kicks up to Tommy Freeman, Tom Roebuck and Freddie Steward and away you go. It is simple, it has been worked on, and it works.

Now, though other teams know about it and will be going about working out ways of stopping it. When they do, what do Steve Borthwick’s team then do?

Whatever it is (and here’s hoping it gets the wingers running, rather than jumping), it will help that Borthwick now has to well-balanced centre partnerships to choose from, be it Fraser Dingwall alongside Ollie Lawrence, or Max Ojomoh with Henry Slade. The spine is solid, now its time to get those on the edges involved more.

Celtic Doldrums

Ireland and Scotland both hit the buffers this November, while for Wales there was little respite from a year everyone involved in Welsh rugby will want to forget.

Ireland and Scotland lost both high profile matches, the former to New Zealand and South Africa, and the latter to New Zealand and Argentina. Ireland’s win over Australia, and Scotland thrashings of USA and Tonga will do little to ease the disappointment of failing to land a big result this month.

Where do they go now? Both have intelligent and innovative coaches, and both teams are stacked with capable and experienced players. Is it time for Andy Farrell and Gregor Townsend to try something or someone new? The answer is probably yes, because they have fallen into a rut that other teams will have no problem extending.

As for Wales, thank god for Japan. They ended their losing run there in the summer and have now ended a two-year wait for a home victory thanks to Jarrod Evans’ late heroics in Cardiff. There are still far too many problems with their gameplan and basics, but those wins are small steps forwards. Coach Steve Tandy has a long way to go to make them competitive again, but at least they are moving forward.

France – Wrap Ramos In Wool

It was a funny autumn for France. They defeated Fiji and Australia but will know that they let slip their match against South Africa in Paris. Doing it against 15 is one thing but doing it against 14 for over half the match, and after you’ve held the lead isn’t good enough.

That said, they are the current Six Nations champions so will be as competitive as ever in the spring and the side is stacked with excellent players, hardened by playing in the Top 14.

Antoine Dupont will be back in February, and that will give everyone a lift, but they could also do with wrapping Tomas Ramos up in wool because his influence on the team, as kicker, strategist, and playmaker are vital, and they will need him and Dupont in tandem regularly to challenge for the major trophies.

Australia – Time To Define Who You Are

Australia are not a bad side. They are just one that is lacking confidence and there are certainly some excellent individuals in their team.

With Joe Schmidt now handing over the reigns to Les Kiss, the new man will need to use the Aussie summer to work out how he wants his team to play, who his leaders are, and most crucially who he want his halfback pairing to be.

The Wallabies picked up some awful injuries this season, but did they need to swing back and forth to the extremes with selection? One week it was about the youth with Tom Lynagh given his debut in the Lions first test. Then it was about the old heads with over-30s Nic White and James O’Connor brought in from the cold.

Kiss needs to decide on his spine and then add the impact players around it. There’s some class in that team as they showed in the Lions third test and opening Rugby Championship clash at Ellis Park, Kiss needs to make sure his team have every chance to show that class when they return to action.

Argentina – Relish The Pressure

There have been times this year when Los Pumas have played some lovely rugby and enjoyed some memorable results, but they didn’t win their highest profile match this autumn, and also finished bottom of The Rugby Championship despite wins over Australia and New Zealand.

At times they are happy to fall back on the idea of the plucky Argentines, fighting against the sport’s establishment who want to keep them down and in their place. That idea should go, because they are now part of the sport’s establishment whether they like it or not, with ex-captain Agustin Pichot now a vice-chairman of World Rugby.

They need to grow up, make peace with what is expected of them because they certainly have the talent to beat the top teams regularly, rather than giving them bloody noses from time to time.

Fiji And Japan – Welcome To The Party

This time next year we will all be looking back on the inaugural World Rugby Nations Cup, a tournament that pitches the Six Nations teams against The Rugby Championship teams, with Fiji and Japan added to the mix.

Both teams have improved over the last 10 years, Japan with the investment that went in ahead of the 2019 World Cup, and Fiji in particular, by the introduction of Fijian Drua into Super Rugby. They have reputations for running rugby but have developed their playing structure to ensure their performances aren’t just boom or bust.

Rugby desperately needs both teams to use The Nations Cup as a means to grow further. The sports needs them to. It has been nearly 20 years since Argentina kicked in the door with their third place finish at the 2007 World Cup, and the sport needs new faces and new teams to compete at the top.

Fiji played well in defeats to England and France, before their intensity dropped, while Japan will be fuming at how Wales wiggled off the hook. They did, though, finish on wins, Fiji against Spain, and Japan over Georgia, to end their tours happy and confidence boosted.