SUPER 18 KICKS OFF IN ONE WEEK

Back in the 80's it started as Super 6, and then in the 90's once SA was re-admitted to World Rugby following apartheid, it became Super 10, and when game went pro in 1995 and SANZAR was formed, it increased to Super 12. In 2011 it became Super 15, once the Rebels were born, and now in 2016, it has become Super 18. This year they have added the Kings from SA, Jaguares from Argentina and Sunwolves from Japan.

2 Groups, 4 Leagues, 18 Teams

The first rugby franchise in Argentina will certainly mean less Argentinians playing in France or England, and it will be interesting to see how strong the Japanese franchise is, as Japan already has a well structured Premiership like in England. Like with Glasgow, where the team sometimes resembles the national Scotland side, the Argentinian and Japanese franchises could be very competitive if they can attract a large number of current or former internationals, keen to play high standard rugby together week in week out.

You definitely need an MBA to understand the format, and plenty of Pro Plus to survive its full length through to August 2016, with a month off in June for Northern hemisphere tours. Anyway, the rugby is a lot less structured and more open than Premiership and Pro 12, and conditions are normally dry, which makes for more tries and more entertaining  games. So, why not adopt a Super 18 team and get watching on Sky - my team, the Highlanders, have been dross for years, but won it comfortably last year, so they are the team to beat!

Fixtures can be found here

Confused.com part 1

Confused.com part 2

THE TMO IS THERE FOR A REASON

As great a try scoring finish as it was, Wales' first try on Saturday should not have been given. When a scrum half passes to a fly half, he is obviously in front of him, and if he does not attempt to retire (and is not put on side by the guy who kicks the ball) and subsequently plays the ball, even after it strikes a team mate or one of the opposition, he is offside. The referee had doubts as to whether the try should stand, but asked the TMO the wrong question about whether Jamie Roberts was offside, and whether there was a knock on. The TMO answered the question, but did not volunteer any further information about the guy who actually scored the try. If the ref had asked him "is there any reason why I cannot award the try?" he would have checked Davies' position and denied the score.

Even Wales Online has an article backing me up here:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/gareth-davies-wonder-try-wales-10889858

Spot the offside player

Regardless of the fact that rough justice happened to Scotland again, it should not be that ambiguous. Maybe we need to wait until it happens to England or one of the other bigger nations? 

I know, I know, cheap shot, paranoia, get a life, etc, BUT can you imagine England being denied a Grand Slam by such a poor refereeing decision? No, I thought not...

THE MATCH WINNING BENCH

A gulf has emerged once again between the Top Tier Northern rugby nations and the rest, but it is not so much down to the understandable reasons of player skill, fitness, conditioning and coaching, but more to do with player numbers, resources and strength in depth, ie: not so easy to replicate quickly. This is demonstrated by the first two rounds of the Six Nations, where the strength of the bench is the main differential between the winners and the losers (not the only one). A quick analysis of where the games over the weekend were won by England, France and Wales illustrates the issue.

Wales v Scotland match

Scotland once again were the better team in the first half, despite conceding a soft try early on and had Barclay looked left he would have put Hogg under the posts for an even greater lead at half time. The game turned entering the final quarter, following a period of pressure on Scotland's line, with a Roberts try on 65 minutes. This was partly caused by Hardie spilling the ball in the Welsh 22, but also by the impact of such Welsh bench players as Jenkins, Davies and Lydiate. Unusually, it was not the replacement front row that did the damage as Scotland had the edge all game, but old experienced heads with fresh legs in the loose that tipped the game in Wales' favour.

Welsh Replacements: Owens (for Baldwin, 47), Jenkins (for Evans, 47), Francis (for Lee, 68), B Davies (for Charteris, 47), Lydiate (for Tipuric (61), Priestland (for Biggar, 75), Anscombe (for James, 65).

Scottish Replacements: McInally (for Ford, 65), Reid (for Dickinson, 65), Swinson (for J Gray, 68), Cowan (for Barclay, 65), Hidalgo-Clyne (for Laidlaw, 77), Weir (for Russell, 68), Jackson (for Hogg, 28),

England v Italy match

England were poor in the first half against a team that has never beaten them, and had Canna not missed a late penalty, would have been behind on the scoreboard at halfway. Again the game turned, earlier than expected, when Italy gifted England an easy intercept try, when Leonardo Sarto's looping, obvious pass on his own 22 was picked off by Joseph. This was quickly followed by a well worked third try for England by Joseph when (sub) Danny Care grubber kicked through for him to touch down. England's cause was undoubtedly helped by being able to call on such quality from the bench as Launchbury, Marler, Itoje as well as Care. It is not surprising that Italian heads went down, when they saw the arrival of further reinforcements such as Alex Goode, Jamie George, Paul Hill and Jack Clifford, arguably as good if not better than the players they replaced. Inevitably the floodgates opened in the final quarter, with England reaching the 40 point mark, a scoreline which flattered them.

Italian Replacements: Pratichetti for Garcia (32), Padovani for Canna (60), Palazzani for Gori (75), Zanusso for Lovotti (62), Giazzon for Gega (41), Castrogiovanni for Cittadini (58), Bernabo for Fuser (14), Steyn for Zanni (30).

English Replacements: Goode for Brown (69), Care for Youngs (49), Marler for M. Vunipola (47), George for Hartley (69), P Hill for Cole (69), Launchbury for Lawes (47), Clifford for Robshaw (62), Itoje for Haskell (54).

France v Ireland

The first game of the weekend was a real arm (and shoulder) tussle between two teams re-building after RWC 2015. Once again, an already injury depleted Irish team, having lost O'Brien and Kearney early on, could not sustain their first half dominance of possession and territory, and slipped behind in the contest to Medard's 70th-minute score. France have such strength in depth up front, that they could afford to leave their two best props on the bench until the 50th minute, and also bring on quality players out wide such as Machenaud and Bonneval to close out a tight contest.

French Replacements: Chat for Guirado 47, Slimani for Poirot 44, Ben Arous for Atonio 44, Jedresiak for Maestri 58, Goujon for Camara 67, Machenaud for Bezy 56, Doussain for Danty 76, Bonneval for Thomas 44.

Irish Replacements: Strauss for Best 71, J Cronin for McGrath 73, Furlong for White 62, Ryan for McCarthy 62, O'Donnell for O'Brien, Reddan, Madigan for Sexton 69, McFadden for D Kearney 29.

So what I hear you say, it is always been this way, but my point is, rugby as a sport will not develop globally, or even within Europe, if the money flowing through English and French league systems (and the RFU) continues to increase the (already large) gulf in strength in depth between the Top Tier and the rest. Shocks happen regularly in football, but never in rugby (okay, maybe Japan), and will never happen again with the current model. Soon, the English Premiership will have 14 teams, to match the Top 14 in France, whereas Ireland/Wales struggle to field 4, and Scotland only 2. 

Lewis Moody summed it up yesterday, by proclaiming that Scotland, whilst improving, are not able to close out tight games, as the Pro 12 does not provide them with experience of playing enough games at the highest level. So what is the answer then - should the Scottish, Welsh and Italian players all move away to play for English or French franchises leaving their disillusioned younger generations so bereft of local heroes, they drift off to other sports? I know there are some that would prefer to just watch England/France play New Zealand or South Africa every week, but I am not one of them. World Rugby needs to grow some balls, take its finger out of the crumbling dyke, and work with the clubs and international unions to start re-building a better, fairer, sustainable commercial model for rugby going forward in the Northern Hemisphere. 

WELSH POWER MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

Match report by Mark Jones

So Scotland’s long wait to beat Wales goes on although for an hour on Saturday it looked like the barren run would end. Wales started better and faster than the previous week and took the game to Scotland. With just over 5 minutes gone Biggar put up a kick which Jamie Roberts chased and won the ball bounced to Gareth Davies, who despite the suspicions of offside sped off to score in the corner and Wales were 7-0 up. However, the Scots did not lie down. After regular attacks they broke the Wales gain line and a well placed kick to the corner found James out of position and Seymour scored. At 7-7 all it was anyones game again. Both sides exchanged kicks and the half ended with Scotland having a well earned 13-10 lead.

North scores for Wales to seal the win

For 20 minutes of the second half Scotland held strong but they could not extend their lead and after an hour it was 16-13 to Scotland. Indeed, a promising attack broke down in the Welsh 22, James gathered the ball and headed off for the Scottish line, and the try looked inevitable but Taylor came from nowhere to make a try saving tackle in the corner. Suddenly Wales were on the up in no part due to the strength of the replacements coming on. Scotland were penalized under the posts and Warburton made a brave decision to go for a scrum. This seemed an error as the scrum ended in a mess but Wales retained possession and after a couple of phases (Man of the Match) Jamie Roberts powered over, 20-13 to Wales. Wales were now on ascendancy and 5 minutes later North produced a brilliant angled run to remind the Welsh of a Ieuan Evans try in the past, although he was helped by some weak Scottish tackling - 27-13 and the game was lost to Scotland. To be fair they did not give up and in last 2 minutes they scored through Taylor to make the final score 27-23. So Wales got a much needed win but still with work to do before the visit of France. Whereas Scotland need to try and find a way to turn the pressure into points before going to Rome. As a spectator whilst not a classic it was a gripping match