KeyboardWorrier
Bench Player
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2015
- Messages
- 594
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- Club or Nation
1. All Blacks
2. South Africa
3. Scotland
4. Wallabies
5. Wales
6. England
2. South Africa
3. Scotland
4. Wallabies
5. Wales
6. England
Mine would be very similar.
1 New Zealand
2 Australia, South Africa
3 England, Ireland, Wales
4 France, Argentina
5 Scotland
6 Italy, Samoa, Fiji, Japan
7 Tonga, Georgia, Romania, Canada, USA
8 Namibia, Uruguay
This looks pretty spot on, I don't quite feel Argentina are quite the level of the top NH teams yet.
I think its pretty fine margins. I do believe a full strength Wales, Ireland or England would more than likely beat Argentina on a given day, though its not a 100% given. Which makes the Ireland vs Argentina match all the worse... We seriously need to start building squad depth for the next WC. Its nice and all to have some quality players but it is a bit sad to see how different and less competent the team is without 4 of their main guys. Though to be fair I dont know any teams outside of NZ that would perform as superbly as before losing their 4 star players. Maybe SA.
For the record, heres how I see international rugby at the moment
1 New Zealand
2 South Africa, Australia
3 England, Ireland, Wales, Argentina
4 Scotland
5 France
6 Italy, Fiji, Samoa, Japan
7 Georgia, Romania, Canada, Tonga
The game is built around being dominant at the breakdown more so than Sexton, when we still had that against France Madigan showed his worth. It's more important that guys like Murphy, Henry and Toner can do as much work at the breakdown as the guys they replace. If you watch POM, POC and SOB in defence at least one of them is in every ruck slowing the ball down, the other three didn't bring that.Ireland struggled because Schmidt has built a very effective gameplan around Sexton. It worked incredibly well but unfortunately once Sexton goes out Madigan doesn't quite have the same kicking out of hand ability in order to complement Murray. Combine that with a few of your best forwards being out and you are going to struggle.
I think in order for Ireland to progress they need to be a little bit more flexible in their style in order to allow someone like Madigan to transition in more easily without it ruining the gameplan.
1) Can be counter argued using your no. 4 argument, we don't send a fully fit side over in the June tours, most players have just finished the most intense part of a nine month club season and have nothing left in the tank.I feel Argentina can now realistically be rated alongside the top NH teams. I get why some wouldn't and I suppose its also a question of timing and I might be weighing what I see as Argentina's future too favorably at this stage but my arguments then;
1) Argentina has beaten SA and Aussie in their backyards recently. I can't remember the last time a NH side got one over on us on our turf and Argentina did so convincingly.
2) They have gone very far this RWC and despite losing to NZ, SA and Aus during the course of the tournament only Japan in a once-in-a-lifetime one off managed to not get beaten by those 3 sides who took each other out of the tournament (NZ beating both SA and Aus, Aus and then SA beating Arg during the finals).
3) Is it really fair to say 'oh, well Ireland were depleted'? I'd say if that 'doesn't count' then neither do last year's November wins from Wales and Ireland over an injury hit SA. Injuries and depth requirements are just part and parcel of modern day rugby. I'd go as far as saying SA would've beaten both Aus and NZ this year if it weren't for the differences the benches made in both those fixtures. Your bench and injury cover is just as relevant as your best possible run on XV.
4) Argentina has up till now fielded decidedly B teams in June internationals and November tests are in the NH so the combination of these factors skew recent results in their opposition's favor. This is more than likely to change from now on that their players are playing in a SH (semi) domestic tournament thoug of course we'll only see the results of this later on.
5) In Sanchez, Tuculet, Imhoff and Cordero they now have the world class threats in the backline to work off of their traditional forward strength that they have been lacking in patches in the past other than with their previous 'golden generation' containing Contepomi, Pichot and JMH.
(1) Argentina has beaten SA and Aussie in their backyards recently. I can't remember the last time a NH side got one over on us on our turf and Argentina did so convincingly.