This week’s fixtures were dominated by the major nations racking up cricket scores against the likes of Namibia, Romania and Russia. Whilst it should not be forgotten that for one-off games, the smaller nations have been able to compete but unfortunately the lack of depth for these teams means that three weeks in, their resources are being depleted and fatigue has set in. Second halves of many matches have resembled the easy setting on a video game as try after try has been run in.
The Australians attempted to bounce back from their humbling at the hands of the perennial underdogs (nope, still hate that word!) Ireland with a comprehensive dismantling of the USA 67-5. Sadly for Australia, that defeat means that all roads probably go through South Africa in the next round. They produced another shutout – this time against Namibia. The 87-0 hiding was the sort that you would expect a bigger brother to give his sibling playing in the back garden and so it played out.
England wing duo, Mark Cueto and Chris Ashton decided to make their clash with Romania a personal competition by having their own try scoring festival which ended three apiece. England running out 67-3 winners.
The two matchups of the week pitted New Zealand against their World Cup nemesis, France whilst Argentina and Scotland fought it out for what is likely to be second place behind England.
New Zealand made no mistake this time against the France and built a 19-0 lead within the first 20 minutes suggesting a rout was on the cards. However the French managed to grab two consolation tries through Mermot and Trinh-Duc but the All Blacks ran out winners 37-17. And proving that it is never too late to learn, Dan Carter produced the drop goal about four years overdue to give the clearest indication of all that this side have what it takes to win the competition.
Argentina and Scotland handed us the game of the week, not in terms of points and tries but a classic tussle as both sides wrestled for supremacy. As it looked like Scotland had built some daylight with Dan Parks’ drop goal to make it 12-6, Argentinean winger Amorosino produced a moment of magic to score what proved to be the winning try and give the Pumas the lead. Scotland had chances to win the game at the death but a second Parks drop goal attempt was hopelessly wide when he would have been better off setting up a chance on his stronger right foot instead. So with a 13-12 defeat, Scotland head to this weekend’s match against old foe England with victory imperative to maintain their interest in the knockout stages of the tournament.
By Conan Jal
Twitter.com/conanjal
