Back at No 10

Restored to the near mythical Wales 10 jersey, Hook's break and offload provided Wales with a red hot start against the hapless Scots, who never looked likely to catch up. This was despite Wales being down to 13 men at one stage, with Bradley Davies and Lee Byrne in the cooler. With only three points to show for this critical period in the match the Welsh were able to shut things down in the second half and get the win they so desperately needed. My man of the match - Dan Lydiate. A Lion in the making.

London Irish 13 - Toulon 19

An away win for Jonny and les garcon from Toulon. And pretty comfy it was, too. Jonny ruled the roost, making Ryan look more Lamb than Sheep, and the home team failing to match up to the French fire at the breakdown. As it was, they can consider a losing bonus point as the best they could hope for, Toulon having crossed their line on 3 occasions, but allowing a try to go begging.

On the eve of World Cup year...

Do the Autumn internationals offer us any useful glimpses of form ahead of World Cup year ?
As usual, the All Blacks look sublime. As usual, folk will say that they always LOOK it, but blow it in the tournament proper.
Apart from the 10 minutes or so before Lee Byrne picked out their counter attackers with a woefully misdirected kick to touch, the Welsh had the best chance of beating them. Edwards will have been more than happy with the Welsh defensive line speed, and Gatland happier with their performance in the line out. The All Blacks were down to 14. But, but, but...Captain McCaw became the focus in this moment of crisis, taking restart and line out ball like an old fashioned lock. Once they got their hands on a counter attack ball, it was all going to end one way.
This All Black team is strong under pressure, and does the basics as well as more celebrated sides of yore. They are surgical in attack. And they'll be playing at home.
Let's start practicing for 2015...

Half Full ?

Thoughts on Meeting Dai Duckham

One of the Greats - known as "Dai" when he played at the Arms Park because he, alone amongst his red rose colleagues, would have been difficult to leave out of that dominant Welsh side of the early 1970's. Who could forget the high stepping, jagging side stepper from Coventry ? Take a longer look at THAT game between the Barbarians and the All Blacks in 1973 - beyond that luminous start ("What a score!") - Duckham was one of a handful of players NOT to figure in the move that started with Bennett's waltz and ended in the signature Gareth Edwards plunge, but a look at the whole game shows that he did as much as anyone to run the All Blacks ragged that day. Talking to him, he bemoaned the modern accent on defence, and the gym culture that has left our game in the grip of the big boys.

                      Backsides to Basics

The stereotypical image of the French playing with flair and the rest of us trying to squeeze them to death whenever we can was sent to the recycling bin with sundry other misleading rugby cliches over the weekend. The Biarritz and Toulouse forwards did a mighty job on the Irish challengers, splintering their front rows with a combination of canny technique and pure, undiluted brute force. Decent props - international players - such as CJ Van De Linde, Cian Healy and Jon Hayes were popping out of scrums, casting desperate looks at the refs in the hope that they would take a sympathetic view of things. All in vain, my brave boys. They'll return home to Dublin and Limerick and plot their revenge. Outfits as clever and determined as Munster and Leinster will learn their lessons.