Super Saturday - A Long Watch Of Varied Quality

SUPER SATURDAY – four Southern Hemisphere v Northern Hemisphere internationals almost back-to-back had me perched nearly all day in front of the television. The games were a mixed bag, but, when the final final whistle sounded, the four home teams had emerged victorious, demonstrating yet again, in Rugby Union, home advantage is often crucial.

Let's look at the four games, in order, starting with NEW ZEALAND v IRELAND. After their midweek loss to The Maori, I think most observers reckoned the Irish would find the going tough in Auckland, in a stadium where AB losses are as rare as hen's teeth. Certainly, Ireland took first blood, but, once the ABs got into their stride, a home win was always guaranteed.

It's an old rugby truism – forwards win matches, backs decide by how much. The home pack carried the day, being particularly effective in nullifying the perceived pre-match superiority of the Irish front and back rows. For me, the key difference, as so-often,was the superior speed of getting ruck ball away of the ABs. They simply never gave the Irish defence time to re-set properly.

Next up – AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND in Perth. As a life member of ABE, no question where my sympathies lay in this one. This was a splendid Aussie win. OK, they lifted their foot in the closing minutes to allow England to narrow the gap, but, this was still a good Aussie win.

England are a poor lot – they've been a poor lot for a while, but, still, their media cheer leaders refuse to admit this, or that they are over-hyping the Gallagher Premiership.

For as long as the needs of the big clubs has priority over the national team, England will struggle. As with English Association Football, a handful of big clubs, recruiting from across the globe and putting themselves above the national team is not the basis for a successful national side.

The English media, post-match, was praising Ellis Genge; oblivious to the fact, both the Aussie tight-heads he faced “ripped him a new one.” He may make attractive rampaging carries, but when an international player simply cannot do the basics of his job in the scrum, then he should not be there. Will Stuart on the other side of the front row also got a second prize.

Luckiest man in the world was surely Johnny “Jessie” Hill. He only got a yellow card for hair-pulling. He should, like his Australian sparring partner, have seen red. His behaviour was disgraceful. I was also delighted to see the referee pulling-up Maro Itoje for some of his antics. The entire English team almost, really needs to be sat down by someone like Bill Beaumont, or Fran Cotton and told honestly – some of your antics disgrace the jersey, sort it out.

The third game – SOUTH AFRICA v WALES in Pretoria was the worst spectacle of the day – a boring arm wrestle which the Saffers “won ugly”. Nothing new here, winning ugly is what the South Africans do. If this match was all the rugby we ever saw, it would get the game banned.

Wales, on limited rations, played all the rugby. The trouble was, the South African pack had such a strangle-hold on possession, the brilliant Welsh backs never saw enough of the ball. For instance, if George North touched the ball, I missed it. Yet, they were one missed kick away from winning.

I fear, having had a wake-up call, the South Africans will now really turn the screw in the next two games and crush Wales.

Finally, ARGENTINA v SCOTLAND and an eight-points win for the home side. I saw someone forecast this outcome on Facebook, and, I thought then that was a fairly good guess. Eighth in the World Rugby rankings v seventh, with the lower-ranked team having home advantage, this was always going to be a tight game.

This was typical recent Scotland:

• We took too long to get into top gear

• We made too-many daft unforced errors

• We keep making the same mistakes, time and again.

I feel our problem is – a lack of power in our forwards. If we can sort this out, we will be ok. I still cannot see Blair Kinghorn as an international-class ten. He is, at best, our third-choice. With Finn or Adam Hastings as playmaker, we are a more-dangerous team. I also feel, Sam Johnson has gone off a wee bit, which is hampering us. Damage limitation in the next two games might be our best hope. I am not confident about these games.

The big issue over the four games was in every one, the referees came in for some criticism. Some might be justified. Karl Dickson, who handled the game in Auckland – well, he's no Wayne Barnes, but, I've seen him have worse games.

I thought Kiwi James Doleman, who had the whistle in Perth, had an ok game – other than in not red-carding Jessie Hill. In criticising him, Eddie Jones was trying to do what Eddie Jones always does, deflect attention from his own coaching failings.

Georgian Nika Amashukeli, who had the whistle in Pretoria, is only 27 and very-much a coming man among referees. I feel, however, this one was a game too far for him at his stage in his career.

That game really needed Wayne Barnes in charge – no harm to the Georgian, but, I feel he was badly exposed here, but, if the players don't behave, it's not the referee's fault. Maybe a few more yellow cards for Dan Biggar would help.

Nic Berry, the man in the middle in Argentina seems to have replaced the young Wayne Barnes as the official who will do you at some point in the game – or that's the perception. He certainly loves himself, but, it wasn't his fault we lost – that was all down to us.

However, looking through all the post-gamer comments by the fans has reinforced my belief – the current Law Book isn't fit for purpose, and we require a thorough root and branch reworking of the Laws of the Game, if Rugby Union is to survive, far less flourish.

Referees are being asked to work with laws, some of which are unworkable, while the post-game criticism of the officials is often over the top.