INTERNATIONAL RUGBY IS a hell of a lot of fun right now.
Those looking for a continuation of the free-scoring, attacking rugby of the Six Nations weren’t left disappointed by the opening window of the new Nations Championship.
There were 161 tries across the 18 games over the last three weekends, just under nine tries per game.
254 linebreaks, 903 defenders beaten, and 272 offloads meant there was excitement aplenty.
And the reality is that rugby has needed to be entertaining more than ever this month. The FIFA World Cup has dominated the sporting consciousness, while other sporting events like Wimbledon and the All-Irelands have made it a congested calendar.
Rugby’s summer Tests were always more the preserve of the diehard fans anyway, all the more so because they have usually been available only on subscription-based television.
But even with the Nations Championship being screened on free-to-air TV in most places, including Ireland, this was a tough time to get eyeballs onto your sport.
The sense remains that the rugby season is simply far too long. Expecting people to maintain interest and continue spending their money on a sport for 11 months of the year makes no sense. Unless you’re football, scarcity is a strength.
Yet those tuning into the Nations Championship got plenty of good rugby.
Virgin Media hasn’t publicly revealed viewing figures for Ireland’s games here, but given the football World Cup and other events being on, there probably weren’t huge expectations. Even without direct clashes in terms of kick-offs, there’s only so much time and interest people can give to sport.
In France, figures from broadcaster TF1 show that just under 2 million people tuned in for les Bleus’ final game of the window against Japan, which was a jump from the 1.4 million who watched their opener against New Zealand.
Unsurprisingly, those numbers pale in comparison with, for example, the remarkable figure of 8 million watching France’s Six Nations-clinching win over England in March.
It’s unlikely that the Nations Championship will ever get to that level, yet there is cautious optimism within the game that this new biennial competition will grow steadily with each edition.
The Nations Championship is owned directly by the Six Nations unions – Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Italy and France – and their SANZAAR counterparts in New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Australia. World Rugby does not own or run this new competition.
Those 10 unions invited Japan and Fiji to take part this year, and they accepted along with some conditions. That included Fiji coming to the UK to play their ‘home’ games this month, as well as Japan having to leave home shores for one of their Tests, which was against Ireland in Australia.
An Ireland supporter in Newcastle, Australia. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Japan and Fiji want to be at the top table. For now, that means going along with what those who have been sitting at this table for a long time wanted. Fiji Rugby has said that the revenues generated by their games in the UK in this window will be pumped into improving rugby facilities back at home.
The travel element of things was always going to be troublesome in this new era, and it’s clear that even with these adjustments on Japan’s and Fiji’s part, it’s far from ideal for player welfare that such huge distances need to be covered in the July window.
It’s more straightforward in the autumn given that the host European countries are relatively close to each other.
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In terms of in-person attendances, this July window generally went well. The Wallabies sold out all three of their home games against Ireland, France and Italy, meaning roughly 113,00 fans in the stadiums in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
The same was true for New Zealand, with around 111,000 people there in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
South Africa didn’t sell out any of their matches, but 138,000 supporters at three games is still good going.
A figure of 52,632 at Japan’s game against France in Tokyo was good to see, and it’s likely they would have drawn a major crowd if Ireland had come to Japan.
That game was played in Newcastle in Australia in front of only 11,000 people. Ireland had hoped it would be in Melbourne, where there would have been a large Irish crowd, but Japan play their World Cup opener in Newcastle next year, so were entitled to insist upon it after coming all the way from Tokyo.
Overall, the average attendance for a Nations Championship game was around 36,000.
This year’s championship will conclude in November with three more regular rounds and then the finals weekend at Twickenham in London, where the inaugural Nations Championship winners will be crowned.
For now, New Zealand, South Africa, and France have underlined their status as the frontrunners.
The All Blacks and Springboks notched three bonus-point wins from three games, with the South Africans leading the Southern Hemisphere table on points difference.
New Zealand will take on Scotland, Wales and England in November up in this neck of the woods, while South Africa face Italy, France and Ireland. Rassie Erasmus’ men have the more difficult schedule, but it will likely go down to the wire to top that table and earn a place in the final on Sunday 29 November.
Les Bleus lead the Northern Hemisphere ladder after bonus-point wins over Australia and Japan, as well as two losing bonus points when they were pipped by the All Blacks in Christchurch.
Matthieu Jalibert and France were thrilling this month. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Fabien Galthié was without a few key players, but the French underlined their depth once again as relatively new stars shone and more established figures like Romain Ntamack and Matthieu Jalibert, playing in tandem at 10 and 15, showed their absolute class.
France played fast, thrilling, effective rugby in their three games, much like the Kiwis. The South African approach is more muscular and set-pieced based but they won handsomely against England, Scotland and Wales even as Erasmus used a wide variety of players.
The Springboks called on a whopping 43 players across their three Nations Championship games, with five – Paul de Villiers, Carlu Sadie, Ruben van Heerden, Vusi Moyo and Jaco Williams – getting their Test debuts.
The talent that continues to pour through in South Africa, who have also won the last two U20 World Cups, is a little frightening.
France and Scotland used 35 players each in this Test window, while Ireland were next on the list with 34, including debutants Sean Jansen, Billy Bohan, Bryn Ward and Sam Illo.
The other nations ranged down to the 28 players used by Steve Borthwick’s England.
Ireland have work to do in the Northern Hemisphere table in November, when they host Argentina, Fiji and South Africa in Dublin. Andy Farrell’s men enjoyed bonus-point wins over Australia and Japan this month, but left Eden Park frustratingly empty-handed.
They’re only two match points behind France, but Galthié will back his side to seal top spot with home games against Fiji, South Africa, and Argentina to come in November.
Scotland are in second spot after a good month that featured some classy attacking rugby. They blitzed Argentina in the opening round, went down firing against South Africa, then did a job on Fiji last weekend.
Gregor Townsend’s men remain true to their creative instincts and their whole mission now is, once again, based around beating Ireland in next year’s World Cup pool stages.
England are also ahead of Ireland, albeit on points difference only, and they’ll be buoyed by closing the window with their best performance as they won away to Argentina in what was an ill-tempered game.
The 31-24 win over England came down to the controversial final play, but England’s overall performance in an acidic atmosphere was encouraging. It looked like attack coach Lee Blackett had a strong influence on their freer performance against the Pumas.
Wales had a bad month but did beat Fiji, while Italy had a horrible time as they got zero points, saw head coach Gonzalo Quesada banned for a game, and generally looked uninspired.
In the Southern table, Australia had tough experiences in losing home games to Ireland and the turbocharged France, but they ended Joe Schmidt’s tenure with a highly accurate bonus-point win against the Italians last weekend.
Joe Schmidt and his daughter after his final Wallabies game. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
It was a very Schmidt-like performance as the Wallabies clinically took Italy apart and it’s still clear that they have some fantastic athletes and talent. Les Kiss is now into the job with a big year ahead leading into the home World Cup.
Ireland are on a possible collision course with Argentina for next year’s quarter-finals, but this was a concerning month for Pumas head coach Felipe Contepomi.
His side were in abject condition as they lost at home to Scotland, and while they beat the Welsh in round two, their acrimonious loss against England in Santiago del Estero last weekend was unimpressive. Contepomi needs to get them trending upwards again.
The invitational sides, Japan and Fiji, were always going to find the going challenging, but Eddie Jones’ Brave Blossoms registered a stirring win over Italy in Tokyo, then made life difficult for Ireland, before France blew them away.
Fiji played deeply thrilling rugby in their opening loss against Wales – genuinely, it was rugby from the heavens at certain stages – and recovered from a hammering at the hands of England to give Scotland a brief scare in the closing round.
A word too for the new Nations Cup, which features the 12 other nations who have qualified for next year’s World Cup.
The US lead the Americas-Pacific pool after three wins from three, while Georgia sit atop the European-African-Asian pool thanks to their three victories.
Portugal and Chile are the two other nations who have started strongly, but perhaps the most surprising result of the lot was Hong Kong China shocking Uruguay 42-20 in Montevideo last weekend.
This was undoubtedly one of the biggest wins in Hong Kong China’s rugby history, given that Uruguay are World Cup regulars. It went right down to the wire, with fullback Paul Altier’s last-gasp penalty sealing that stunning victory.
The dramatic nature of that game was fitting after a Nations Cup window that involved lots of tit-for-tat thrillers and another bonanza of attacking rugby. 158 tries in the 18 games meant it nearly matched the Nations Championship in that sense.
The biggest drawback of top-level rugby remains the TMO process. Like everything else in life, it’s never going to be completely error-free, but it’s often too drawn out and confusing. There’s still work to be done in this area.
But on the whole, this was a month of exciting, attacking rugby.
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Exciting rugby means Nations Championship got off to a promising start
INTERNATIONAL RUGBY IS a hell of a lot of fun right now.
Those looking for a continuation of the free-scoring, attacking rugby of the Six Nations weren’t left disappointed by the opening window of the new Nations Championship.
There were 161 tries across the 18 games over the last three weekends, just under nine tries per game.
254 linebreaks, 903 defenders beaten, and 272 offloads meant there was excitement aplenty.
And the reality is that rugby has needed to be entertaining more than ever this month. The FIFA World Cup has dominated the sporting consciousness, while other sporting events like Wimbledon and the All-Irelands have made it a congested calendar.
Rugby’s summer Tests were always more the preserve of the diehard fans anyway, all the more so because they have usually been available only on subscription-based television.
But even with the Nations Championship being screened on free-to-air TV in most places, including Ireland, this was a tough time to get eyeballs onto your sport.
The sense remains that the rugby season is simply far too long. Expecting people to maintain interest and continue spending their money on a sport for 11 months of the year makes no sense. Unless you’re football, scarcity is a strength.
Yet those tuning into the Nations Championship got plenty of good rugby.
Virgin Media hasn’t publicly revealed viewing figures for Ireland’s games here, but given the football World Cup and other events being on, there probably weren’t huge expectations. Even without direct clashes in terms of kick-offs, there’s only so much time and interest people can give to sport.
In France, figures from broadcaster TF1 show that just under 2 million people tuned in for les Bleus’ final game of the window against Japan, which was a jump from the 1.4 million who watched their opener against New Zealand.
Unsurprisingly, those numbers pale in comparison with, for example, the remarkable figure of 8 million watching France’s Six Nations-clinching win over England in March.
It’s unlikely that the Nations Championship will ever get to that level, yet there is cautious optimism within the game that this new biennial competition will grow steadily with each edition.
The Nations Championship is owned directly by the Six Nations unions – Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Italy and France – and their SANZAAR counterparts in New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Australia. World Rugby does not own or run this new competition.
Those 10 unions invited Japan and Fiji to take part this year, and they accepted along with some conditions. That included Fiji coming to the UK to play their ‘home’ games this month, as well as Japan having to leave home shores for one of their Tests, which was against Ireland in Australia.
Japan and Fiji want to be at the top table. For now, that means going along with what those who have been sitting at this table for a long time wanted. Fiji Rugby has said that the revenues generated by their games in the UK in this window will be pumped into improving rugby facilities back at home.
The travel element of things was always going to be troublesome in this new era, and it’s clear that even with these adjustments on Japan’s and Fiji’s part, it’s far from ideal for player welfare that such huge distances need to be covered in the July window.
It’s more straightforward in the autumn given that the host European countries are relatively close to each other.
In terms of in-person attendances, this July window generally went well. The Wallabies sold out all three of their home games against Ireland, France and Italy, meaning roughly 113,00 fans in the stadiums in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
The same was true for New Zealand, with around 111,000 people there in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
South Africa didn’t sell out any of their matches, but 138,000 supporters at three games is still good going.
A figure of 52,632 at Japan’s game against France in Tokyo was good to see, and it’s likely they would have drawn a major crowd if Ireland had come to Japan.
That game was played in Newcastle in Australia in front of only 11,000 people. Ireland had hoped it would be in Melbourne, where there would have been a large Irish crowd, but Japan play their World Cup opener in Newcastle next year, so were entitled to insist upon it after coming all the way from Tokyo.
Overall, the average attendance for a Nations Championship game was around 36,000.
This year’s championship will conclude in November with three more regular rounds and then the finals weekend at Twickenham in London, where the inaugural Nations Championship winners will be crowned.
For now, New Zealand, South Africa, and France have underlined their status as the frontrunners.
The All Blacks and Springboks notched three bonus-point wins from three games, with the South Africans leading the Southern Hemisphere table on points difference.
New Zealand will take on Scotland, Wales and England in November up in this neck of the woods, while South Africa face Italy, France and Ireland. Rassie Erasmus’ men have the more difficult schedule, but it will likely go down to the wire to top that table and earn a place in the final on Sunday 29 November.
Les Bleus lead the Northern Hemisphere ladder after bonus-point wins over Australia and Japan, as well as two losing bonus points when they were pipped by the All Blacks in Christchurch.
Fabien Galthié was without a few key players, but the French underlined their depth once again as relatively new stars shone and more established figures like Romain Ntamack and Matthieu Jalibert, playing in tandem at 10 and 15, showed their absolute class.
France played fast, thrilling, effective rugby in their three games, much like the Kiwis. The South African approach is more muscular and set-pieced based but they won handsomely against England, Scotland and Wales even as Erasmus used a wide variety of players.
The Springboks called on a whopping 43 players across their three Nations Championship games, with five – Paul de Villiers, Carlu Sadie, Ruben van Heerden, Vusi Moyo and Jaco Williams – getting their Test debuts.
The talent that continues to pour through in South Africa, who have also won the last two U20 World Cups, is a little frightening.
France and Scotland used 35 players each in this Test window, while Ireland were next on the list with 34, including debutants Sean Jansen, Billy Bohan, Bryn Ward and Sam Illo.
The other nations ranged down to the 28 players used by Steve Borthwick’s England.
Ireland have work to do in the Northern Hemisphere table in November, when they host Argentina, Fiji and South Africa in Dublin. Andy Farrell’s men enjoyed bonus-point wins over Australia and Japan this month, but left Eden Park frustratingly empty-handed.
They’re only two match points behind France, but Galthié will back his side to seal top spot with home games against Fiji, South Africa, and Argentina to come in November.
Scotland are in second spot after a good month that featured some classy attacking rugby. They blitzed Argentina in the opening round, went down firing against South Africa, then did a job on Fiji last weekend.
Gregor Townsend’s men remain true to their creative instincts and their whole mission now is, once again, based around beating Ireland in next year’s World Cup pool stages.
England are also ahead of Ireland, albeit on points difference only, and they’ll be buoyed by closing the window with their best performance as they won away to Argentina in what was an ill-tempered game.
The 31-24 win over England came down to the controversial final play, but England’s overall performance in an acidic atmosphere was encouraging. It looked like attack coach Lee Blackett had a strong influence on their freer performance against the Pumas.
Wales had a bad month but did beat Fiji, while Italy had a horrible time as they got zero points, saw head coach Gonzalo Quesada banned for a game, and generally looked uninspired.
In the Southern table, Australia had tough experiences in losing home games to Ireland and the turbocharged France, but they ended Joe Schmidt’s tenure with a highly accurate bonus-point win against the Italians last weekend.
It was a very Schmidt-like performance as the Wallabies clinically took Italy apart and it’s still clear that they have some fantastic athletes and talent. Les Kiss is now into the job with a big year ahead leading into the home World Cup.
Ireland are on a possible collision course with Argentina for next year’s quarter-finals, but this was a concerning month for Pumas head coach Felipe Contepomi.
His side were in abject condition as they lost at home to Scotland, and while they beat the Welsh in round two, their acrimonious loss against England in Santiago del Estero last weekend was unimpressive. Contepomi needs to get them trending upwards again.
The invitational sides, Japan and Fiji, were always going to find the going challenging, but Eddie Jones’ Brave Blossoms registered a stirring win over Italy in Tokyo, then made life difficult for Ireland, before France blew them away.
Fiji played deeply thrilling rugby in their opening loss against Wales – genuinely, it was rugby from the heavens at certain stages – and recovered from a hammering at the hands of England to give Scotland a brief scare in the closing round.
A word too for the new Nations Cup, which features the 12 other nations who have qualified for next year’s World Cup.
The US lead the Americas-Pacific pool after three wins from three, while Georgia sit atop the European-African-Asian pool thanks to their three victories.
Portugal and Chile are the two other nations who have started strongly, but perhaps the most surprising result of the lot was Hong Kong China shocking Uruguay 42-20 in Montevideo last weekend.
This was undoubtedly one of the biggest wins in Hong Kong China’s rugby history, given that Uruguay are World Cup regulars. It went right down to the wire, with fullback Paul Altier’s last-gasp penalty sealing that stunning victory.
The dramatic nature of that game was fitting after a Nations Cup window that involved lots of tit-for-tat thrillers and another bonanza of attacking rugby. 158 tries in the 18 games meant it nearly matched the Nations Championship in that sense.
The biggest drawback of top-level rugby remains the TMO process. Like everything else in life, it’s never going to be completely error-free, but it’s often too drawn out and confusing. There’s still work to be done in this area.
But on the whole, this was a month of exciting, attacking rugby.
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Ireland Nations Championship Rugby State of Play