Argentina are tough with a capital F at home!

 

 Man on the rise( Picture http://bit.ly/1qi8dON )

Ireland wrapped up their first series win in Argentina, with a hard fought win in Tucumán. It wasn’t that pretty to watch, it was actually fairly ugly to watch, apart from a few flashes of class from each team.  Zebo took a well planned try, and Madigan closed it out with a typical slippery run – he is lethal from 5 meters out. MOTM for me was Rhys Ruddock, who put in a mighty shift, very hard to put down, and tackling like a Trojan. Ireland’s defense has not  been that flash this tour, and Argentina always bring a stifling physicality to things. So they probably had more good breaks than we did, but we kicked our penalties and played smarter rugby. Ireland haven’t had a series win down there for a good reason – they are tough with a capital F at home. Elsewhere, emerging Ireland emerged 66-0 over Russia, and the U”0’s lost their semi 42-15 to England.

England started red hot against New Zealand, winning the first half, but the All Blacks finally kicked into life, and ran in the tries to take the match away. England got a few tries back but the match wasn’t as close as the final score suggests. But England have showed they can perform, they just need to finish their opportunities better, and keep their focus for 80 minutes. Did the All Blacks score all their tries while England were down to 14? They are certainly nowhere near their best, and won’t want to be conceding three tries that easily again.

France turned up for the Australia match, it a was tight, fairly boring match really, but at least the French could hold their heads up again.  The series is gone, but they are in with a chance of a consolation victory next weekend.

Warren Gatland obviously gave the Springboks all the motivation they needed with his talk of a series win, absolutely thumping Wales in Durban. That was just raw power, turned up to 10. And in between the raw power was a lot of skilful back play that unlocked the Welsh defense all too easily. Wales are going to have to really man up next weekend, and match the Boks for brutality, otherwise, it’s only going one way.

Finally, Scotland squeezed past Canada, nothing too flashy, but at least the wins are coming.
International Match

Saturday , June 14
Australia 6 - 0 France
Argentina 17 - 23 Ireland
Canada 17 - 19 Scotland
South Africa 38 - 16 Wales
New Zealand 28 - 27 England