Mid-season rating Rugbo-Champs Edition

[cashead]

Argentina
What went well
Defensively, Argentina did a lot well until around round 3. Their setpplay was generally pretty good, and Tomás Lavanini, for the most part, was able to behave himself. The top 4 tacklers in the competition were all Argentinian - Marcos Kremer, Julian Montoya, Tomas Lavanini and Matera, in that order. They had, statistically, the best lineout in the competition at an 87.6% success rate with Matias Alemanno being Mr Reliable in the setpiece with 24 takes.

They were able to give the Wallabies a thrashing of a lifetime in San Juan, and of course, they pulled off a historic first by beating the All Blacks in New Zealand.

Next steps
In the first round and post-Hamilton beatdown, where they lost 53-3 to a fired up All Blacks team, their defence was below par, where they were dominated in the turnover stats, and missed far too many tackles to be competitive.

Overall, their stats make for some grim reading:
Fewest tries at 15 overall, with just the 1 try-scoring bonus point, and the only team to be held tryless during the tournament.
Second fewest clean breaks at 24
Second fewest carries at 535 across the 6 tests played
Least metres carried at 3063
Fewest defenders beaten at 87
Second-equal highest number of binnings at 8, and surprisingly, the second-least successful scrum win rate at 78%.

The main areas of concern is their poor attacking record. Individually, some players stood out on attack, but their inability to beat defenders and make something of the carries by individuals like Matera really ended up hurting them.


Mid-season rating
4/10 - most of these points come from the fact that they showed quite a bit of promise in their record defeat of the Wallabies in Round 2, and their victory over the All Blacks in Christchurch in Round 3




Australia
What went well
Some depth built in key positions, with Pete Samu and Fraser McReight having good performances at 7. Some standout performers like Rob Valetini, and despite the criticism levelled at him, Bernard Foley put in a solid shift at 10. Some gutsy performances too, like in Melbourne where they were arguably, for significant patches of the game, were the better team out there. While they came last in the %age of rucks won, it was still at a respectable 92%, in a very competitive area - South Africa came first with 95%, with the ABs and Argies second equal on 94%, so there wasn't much between the teams.

Next steps
If you thought the Argie stats made for grim reading, the Wallabies had a far more torrid time. The first and most obvious area to work on is discipline, where Round 2 onwards, they couldn't stop getting guys sent to the bin. They ended up without the services of Darcy Swain after a horrific and inexcusable act of foul play, while James Slipper, their vastly experienced loosehead prop and part-time captain, had one of the worst individual penalty counts in the competition. This was further exacerbated by their struggles in the setpiece, where they came dead last in their success rate in both scrums and lineouts.

Mid-season rating
3/10 - Despite a win over the Springboks, and the Pumas, this tournament is one of a bunch of "what-ifs" for the Wallabies. They also struggled with consistency, beating the Boks one week, and then getting shut down by them in the very next round. Either way, the international level is a game decided by slim margins, and at the moment, whether they have the cattle to be consistently competitive is looking more and more like a frightening question for the Wallabies coaches.




New Zealand
What went well
Once they clicked in the latter half of the tournament, they were nigh-unbeatable for most teams. For a team that had been low on form, confidence and discipline going into the competition, leaving with the silverware cabinet intact was a significant result. One of the major issues in the last few seasons has been discipline, and after a low-point in Christchurch, where they got whistled out of the game against Argentina, the All Blacks ended with one of the better disciplinary stats, with fewest yellow cards. It also appears that they've settled on a midfield, with Jordie Barrett proving himself a more than cromulent international-standard 12, something that the team has struggled to recreate since Foster took over. Ofa Tu'ungafasi may have also salvaged his international career by shifting back to loosehead, where he had originally started, while Tyrel Lomax finally repaid the selectors' faith in him. The team leads in most team attacking stats, with "clean breaks" being the only one where they're beaten in - 32 to 31 in favour of the Boks.

Next steps
Consistency consistency consistency. Some players were horrendously out of form - Codie Taylor for example, and they just seemed to be unable to string two good performances together. They were well-beaten by the Boks in Mbombela before they came storming back at Ellis Park. They got tipped over by the Pumas in Christchurch, before they put the hurt on them in the Tron. They almost lost to the Wallabies in Melbourne, before they stomped all over them in Auckland. Jason Ryan and Joe Schmidt are already having an effect on the team, with the forwards looking better each week, but it's a case of being able to apply their horses-for-courses approach to their opposition more consistently.


Mid-season rating
7/10 - Points lost for their limp defeat in the opening round, and them crashing and burning against the Pumas at home in Christchurch. This is a very generous 7, but this is a team that also showed that they could dig deep when it counted the most, beating the Boks at Ellis Park, and stealing victory from the jaws of defeat in Melbourne. Maybe they're flattering to deceive, but they also did win the Rugby Champs and kept all their silverware, and you can't take that away from them.




South Africa
What went well
They weren't far off of the ABs, and were generally pretty close in most attacking stats, and their setpiece was typically strong. They uncovered some great talent like Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse, while Damian Willemse showed he could be a viable international 10, while Malcolm Marx proved once and for all that he's probably the best 2 in test rugby right now. They finished the tournament strongly, and would have been worthy winners.

Next steps
Discipline and try-scoring are the two areas. The Springboks weren't that far behind the Wallabies in ill-discipline, with 8 yellow cards. Their off-field bullshit (lookin' at you, Elton Jantjies) meant that there's an ominous lack of depth at 10, with the team resorting to Frans Steyn in the final rounds. Despite all the South African teams playing in the URC and the Currie Cup and South Africans all over Europe, the fact that Neinaber and Rassie didn't have the confidence in any of them to do a job against the Pumas, and opted to turn to a guy who's spent the better part of his career at the test level playing 12 and 15 does not reflect well on the other Springbok-eligible 10s. The team, at times, made some crucial errors, like the Ellis Park loss where they inexplicably selected Joseph Dweba, who is clearly not up to the task at this stage of his career. Their final match also exposed a surprising lack of killer instinct when it mattered, falling short of gaining the necessary bonus point and margin. This is perhaps reflected in their severe individual underrepresentation in key attacking stats, and their inability to convert their opportunities into tries when it mattered.

Mid-season rating
6/10 - A year out from the next World Cup tournament, and the Boks are looking very beatable and looking short of ideas. Maybe they'll get it together and become the first 4-time winners, maybe not, but at the moment, there are a lot of minor fixes needed and not a lot of time.