Here's a thought Argentina in the coming international championship. How is the NZ 8 going to cope against them? France was beaten by theirre second stringers. Will be intresting.
Im picking Australia to come last with Argentina ahead of them.... NZ vs SA to decide it. I have not looked at the home and away draw whoever plays argentina at home will be in for a big game.
All teams play each other both at home and away (hence Argentina has a home match against all three of the other teams)...
Right a few random thoughts on the match.
I thought Ireland stepped up massively from last week. While it is probably true the AB's didn't play as well as last week, the main reason for this is that Ireland didn't let them play well. In general they weren't missing tackles, they weren't making silly errors, and they were forcing NZ errors by putting NZ under immense pressure at times. The standouts from Ireland for me were the front row (especially in the second half), O'Brien, Sexton, and O'Driscoll. I though Ryan looked pretty good again at lock (still not convinced on Touhy though), and Heaslip looked pretty solid at number 8 too.
For New Zealand there were a number of solid performances, but not too many standout performances. Franks and Woodcock were solid, while I though Hore was a little quiet. Rettalick got through a lot of work, though I'd like to see him have a few more runs with ball in hand. As I mentioned before I was actually very impressed with Thomson. I wouldn't have thought this tight game would have suited Thomson (who prefers a more open game), but he was solid in defense, and it was great to see him put his head down and make some hard yards with ball in hand (instead of running ridiculously upright as he can at times). McCaw didn't have a great game with his handling (in fact he had a shocking game with his handling...), but he did force a crucial turnover at one stage, and was quite effect running with the ball (when he managed to catch it). It was astonishing how much ball running he did in this match! Read looked good (as always) before he went off. Not sure the extent of Reads injury, but if he is not 100% he needs to be rested next week, as we can't afford to lose him for any substantial period of time. I questioned before the match whether Cane was the 2nd best 7 in the country, and he responded with a very impressive debut off the bench. His ball running was very dynamic, and it will be interesting to see whether he gets a start next week if Reads injury is serious.
I thought Aaron Smith had another very strong game, fully deserving his try, and would have been close to man of the match for me. Carter too had a pretty good game - his goal-kicking was accurate, and he defended particularly well. SBW's handling was better this week (though he did drop one pass early in the game), and though he looked threatening at times he was well contained by the Irish. I wonder whether they will give Nonu a start next week? The rest of the backs got little ball to work with, hence were pretty quiet (and I've already discussed Savea and Guildford). Dagg made a couple of booming clearing kicks again, but his rash challenge late in the game could have (and perhaps should have) cost the AB's the match. It will be interesting to see what they do with the back-three, as there is the option of including either Ben Smith or Hosea Gear (or both).
