Summer Tours 2024

Although no lack of replays of that final maul 😂

NZ very lucky there.

For me always bound and then Barrett kills the ball at the try line.

Jordie Barrett is joining Leinster.

You are confused.

They could be up there with France as the 2nd best team in Europe behind Ireland!

It's worth noting with England that they have lost 4 of their last 5 matches against tier 1 nations (unless you count Japan as Tier 1) and of those 5 matches 2 were against a transitional NZL side and 1 was against a France team that is in disarray.

England have shown potential of course but what's key now is not to get too carried away, the reality is on paper they are still well behind Ireland & France and still need to prove more and their players need to gain more experience in order to bridge the gap between them and the top 2 in the 6N.

Exactly, England at their best can potentially scrape a win against an Ireland team playing their worst rugby in about 2 years. Ireland at their best v England at their best = an Ireland win 8/9 times out of 10 realistically.

Wales can't defend restarts.

Second time in a row they've conceded a penalty for holding on in front of their own posts.

Not a massive fan of music constantly being played during a match, but the DJ has played some great tunes during this Aussie match. Even a bit of Silverchair in there.

Oh dear.

Wales just did an lreland Vs South Africa. Liam Williams did his best to keep an Australia penalty from finding touch. He managed to do it, but his teammate wasn't switched on/an opposition winger was and Oz had a 20 metre run in for a try.

Absolute cracker of a try from Rio Dyer.

This has been a really enjoyable game of rugby. Big last 10 mins now.

Great touchline conversion for Costelow too.

Converted try will win it for Wales.

That's the best I've seen Wales play in about a year. Their forwards showed up and were very gritty in contact. Put some nice attacking phases on as well. That pack led toughness is something to build upon. Against Ireland in the six nations they were bullied. But they've grown and improved.

But defensively they're very poor. That's two weeks in a row where Australia have scored length of the field trys and it's mostly down to poor defensive positioning. They're also so ill disciplined. They scored two trys and immediately from the restart they conceded penalties in front of the posts, either for holding on or for sealing off. What should have been a 14-0 swing anded being 14-6 and kept them just that bit too far away from Australia.

Also, despite some nice handling I still think they're awful in attack. There's little in the way of linking passes or forwards and backs interchanging positions to dummy defences.

Wales have not won a match since October 2023 when they beat Georgia in the World Cup. By the time they play their next game it will have been 13 months since their last test victory. They're in an awful state.

Exactly, Ireland playing their worst rugby in 2 years and France in disarray they might stand a chance, against Ireland and France at their best they lose 8 times out of 10 at least.

it’s like something from the 1980s here with the feed from Argentina cutting out every few minutes and Sky desperately trying to fill the airtime

SA team vs Portugal this coming saturday:

Me too. Yet, only 4 players in this 23 man squad was in the 23 man squad from the past weekend.

Think its like you say, bit of match fitness for his short term plans. But also maybe keep some experience in the squad for the new guys to learn from.