Completely satisfied Monday GAGRs! Hope you lot are feeling as sleep-deprived as I’m. Aside from Australia vs. Fiji, Spherical 2 has actually been a case of David vs. Goliath. Tier 1 vs the minnows. As typically occurs in RWCs, the heavyweights of the swimming pools interact with the second tier. Nevertheless, we’re positively seeing an enchancment in all the tier 2 nations, and thus far, no actual cricket scores are being racked up. So anyway allow us to dive into spherical two and see what has come out of those video games.
* Be aware: this match report was written late Sunday night time, and doesn’t cowl Australia vs. Fiji, England vs. Japan, and South Africa vs. Romania.
France 27 defeats Uruguay 12
See Eloise’s match report right here.
This sport early Friday morning Australia time was fairly the shocking one. The Uruguay crew was actually no simple beat in opposition to a French crew that was resting numerous key gamers. The dearth of cohesion and familiarity between combos was on present for all to see. Fabien Galthié will likely be completely happy that he received some good sport time into his gamers, particularly for Hastoy. The La Rochelle fly half while rusty seems to be like he’ll be capable to step up if something occurs to Jalibert. Having already misplaced Ntamack.
New Zealand 71 defeated Namibia 3
See KARL’s match report right here.
In what proved to be little greater than a coaching run, the Kiwis actually made a brief shift of this Namibian crew. Fozzie Bear took the chance to get some sport time into broader squad members, which we are going to see is a little bit of a theme in these David vs. Goliath encounters. Damien MacKenzie took the ten spot for Rutchie Mo’unga, and Caleb Clarke took a run on the wing. While not the full-on cricket rating one may have been anticipating (i.e. 100 plus factors), this match went just about to plan.
Wales 28 defeated Portugal 8
See GAGR’s personal Welsh reporter, Eloise’s unbiased overview right here.
Wales have made it two from two to start out 2023’s RWC, with a 28-8 win over Portugal down the south of France in Good. With two first-half tries from Louis Rees-Zammit and Dewi Lake and one other two tries within the second-half from Jac Morgan and Taulupe Faletau, this was sufficient to earn a stable victory. However there may be little doubt that they made arduous work of it, doing it the best way solely Wales may. Portugal managed to attain a stable attempt of their very own within the second half by Nicolas Morta as they set about making life powerful for the Northern Hemisphere Sheep Shaggers.
The ultimate end result now places Wales on 10 factors in pool C after incomes a well-needed bonus level in opposition to the Portuguese within the closing minutes of the sport. This will show crucial as Pool C shapes up on the pointy finish of the event.
Eire 59 defeats Tonga 16
See KARL’s match report right here.
Eire actually despatched out a warning shot to the remainder of the World Cup challengers as they ran in eight tries in opposition to the South Pacific’s Tonga on Saturday night time. In what can solely be described as a stop-start first half, Johnny Sexton opened the scoring with a penalty however the Irish self-discipline was an issue from the beginning, and noticed themselves stage quickly after, conceding a scoreable penalty. But when Eire’s self-discipline was poor, Tonga’s was worse and a foolish penalty gave Eire one other scoreable probability and this time it was Caelan Doris.
The spotlight of the sport was positively when Irish captain Johnny ‘Sexpot’ Sexton broke the Irish scoring document, surpassing Ronan O’Gara, as he bolted away for a attempt beneath the posts. However Eire didn’t have all of it their very own approach with Peter O’Mahony copping some cheddar cheese and Eire conceding a attempt proper earlier than the half to go in 31-13. Then to start out the second half, a Tonga penalty noticed the rating at 31-16. However after that, Eire pulled their finger out of their arse and piled on the factors to place Tonga to the sword.
Samoa 43 defeated Chile 10
See Crimson’s and Wallabies Fan (RAWF) sport report right here.
The Samoan crew overcame a really early scare to safe a much-needed bonus level victory. In what changed into a little bit of a cheddar competition, with three yellow playing cards being handed, Samoa by the good thing about the revised eligibility guidelines, made essentially the most of their former All-Black and Wallabies gamers. In a extremely tight first half, Samoa was in a position to cross the road simply earlier than halftime to go to oranges up 19-10.
Chile went to the bench early altering 4 gamers at halftime, however actually let themselves down within the second half with loads of dealing with errors and giving freely useless penalties while in assault. Ultimately, the Samoans had an excessive amount of energy and composure, and put the spicy Chileans out of their distress.
So What?
So right here we’re in Spherical 2, the David Vs. Goliaths are just about carried out and dusted and what have we realized? As talked about beforehand the tier One groups have rotated their inventory to get sport time into the broader squad gamers and relaxation up their starters. This event runs deep, and to go all the best way to the finals it is advisable guarantee your entire gamers are match and wholesome, and the combos are nonetheless gelling.
What impressed me although was how numerous the minnow groups have actually improved because the final World Cup. While there may be clearly nonetheless a spot, that hole between the highest groups and the decrease groups is getting nearer and nearer. It can nonetheless be numerous years earlier than we see whole parity, nevertheless it isn’t off the playing cards. The times of the highest 5 groups being the one powerhouses in rugby I feel are over. The Prime 5 will change into the highest 7 or 8. Particularly with the eligibility restrictions altering, we’re seeing the Pacific Island Nations groups raise. And I for one assume that that is nice for Rugby.
Damage is proving to be one of many decisive elements on this World Cup. The Wallabies are down Tupou, Skelton, and McDermott. We’re not the one aspect that has had some severe accidents through the event. South Africa is down Malcolm Marx and Eben Etzebeth. Squad depth and redundancy are huge points for all the squads that need to go deep into the finals. Squad administration will likely be an artwork kind.
Anyway GAGR’s, I have to get organised to go into the workplace and am feeling a bit on the drained aspect. Have at it!
