England!
Terrible warm up games and 6 nations, but very impressive down to 14 man against Argentina today. Just the win they needed.
Argentina were terrible. No idea what happened. Perhaps they relaxed and thought they would win with comfort a man up.
Tier 2's need more Tests, and better fitness. Playing in lower level professional and semiprofessional leagues is one thing but it doesn't match up to the top tier competitions.
Georgia wasted many chances against Australia and they should be in the 6N. Their u20s are very impressive.
Lack of refereeing consistency is showing. If Curry is sent off then so should Sijgren, Kriel and Biggar for head to head contacts. Carley the referee in the Fiji game was appallingly bad.
Mawi's try disallowed but ignored the no arms tackle beforehand apparently an effort was made to wrap. Really ? Ignored a shoulder to head to a Fijian player. Stopped a Fijian rumble to the line and yellow card for attempts to bring it down. And barely penalized multiple often cynical attempts to slow the ball at the ruck from Wales.
Is he related to Paddy O'Brien the idiot who cheated Fiji in 1999 against France ? Wales were also incredibly unsportsmanlike. Trying to timewaste and simulating injury as well.
Great effort from Chile in their debut. The Escobar brothers, Torrealba and a couple others can easily join the likes of Ayarza in ProD2. Super Liga of the Americas is improving the likes of the Condors, Uruguay and Paraguay.
It's a shame countries from the Six Nations (excluding France) and South Africa do precious little to help European and African rugby compared to Argentina who have provided a wealth of coaches and expertise in the continent and created tournaments to promote development.
Contrast this to the time it took Italy to be accepted into the 6N and now Georgia being frozen out. Western Samoa being kicked out of Super Rugby, Namibia out of the Currie Cup.
World Rugby but specifically the older unions barring France need to do a lot more. The more competitive teams the better for union as a whole. The way the sport is run and refereeed as yesterday makes me think they just want to preserve the status quo. It was a shamefully poor officiating effort.
Tier 2's will only improve with more Tests v Tier 1 but this has not happened. It's the same old fixtures each year and the anachronism of the Lions. And now this idiotic World League no doubt intended to keep the status quo as it is. It's an awfully administered sport with the vested interests of the older unions stifling the sport. Not to mention all the poaching they do.