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Sam Bruce, Deputy Editor, espn.com.au
The countdown to Rugby World Cup 2023 has officially entered its final two weeks, with the weekend’s final warmup matches the last opportunity for teams to iron out combinations, or trial some new ones, and to hone their game plans in the process.
For some, like the Springboks, it was the perfect preparation. For others like the All Blacks and England, it was less than ideal.
Read on as we wrap up a dramatic weekend of World Cup warmups.
BARRETT’S BOO-BOO IS SCARCELY BELIEVABLE
You have to wonder what Scott Barrett was thinking, if indeed he was thinking at all, when he decided to leave his feet at the ruck, lead with the shoulder, and attempt to clear Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx out just before halftime at Twickenham on Friday night.
The home of English rugby has seen its fair share of bone-headed plays and drama in recent years, but Barrett’s clean-out, for which he received a second yellow card, may just top the lot. And it has left his team nervously awaiting the outcome of a judiciary hearing, which will reportedly take place on Monday, which could yet leave New Zealand with just two fit locks to face France in the World Cup opener in a fortnight’s time.
Barrett may yet be able to make the case that the initial contact was not with Marx’s head, with the camera angles from Friday night’s broadcast perhaps providing just enough doubt to turn any decision in the Kiwi’s favour.
But, should Barrett be found guilty, he likely faces at least a couple of weeks on the sidelines given his past indiscretions, which include a four-week ban in Super Rugby Pacific from 2022 as well as, and here’s the real kicker, a three-week suspension at almost the exact point four years ago.
In the lead-up to Rugby World Cup 2019, Barrett was sent from the field in Bledisloe I in Perth when he dropped a shoulder into the head of Wallabies captain Michael Hooper. It was a similarly inexplicable act to that which he produced in London, the timing as if Barrett had forgotten the harsh lesson he learned four years ago.
When you consider all that has happened in the past two weeks with England captain Owen Farrell, and the fact that World Rugby wants to stage as safe a World Cup as possible, the mind truly does boggle at Barrett’s on-field intelligence.
Furthermore, the Crusaders captain was having the season of his life, having led his team to yet another Super Rugby Pacific title, his form so good that he had largely forced All Blacks coach Ian Foster to break up the nation’s alltime greatest locking partnership of Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick.
With Retallick sidelined by a knee injury suffered in Bledisloe II, Foster will have little choice but to field a lock pairing of Whitelock and Tupou Vaa’i if Barrett is sanctioned for his hit on Marx. The middle of the three Barrett brothers may well have done the All Blacks a major disservice.
Meanwhile, Foster is also contemplating at least the World Cup opener without first-choice tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax, after the front-rower suffered a freakish cut just above his right knee at Twickenham.
Foster later revealed Lomax had required 30 stitches and he would have his leg immobilized for the next few days, giving the wound the opportunity to heal.
“Tyrel is very sore,” Foster told reporters. “He’s our worst injury.
“He’s got 30 stitches, he got stitched by a surgeon last night at different depths. It’s actually gone into the muscle.
“His leg will be in a brace for four or five days as we give that a chance to heal.
“Long term, he looks good. But that’s put him into the ‘unlikely’ category in a fortnight.”
7-1 SPLIT THE WAY OF THE FUTURE? BOLD BOKS UNLIKELY TO RISK IT
Anyone questioning whether the Springboks have the ability to go back-to-back at the Rugby World Cup before Friday night’s Test at Twickenham will have surely changed their tune after Siya Kolisi’s side obliterated the All Blacks.
Just five weeks after they were swept off the paddock in the opening half in Auckland, the Springboks returned the favour to build a 14-0 lead to halftime and then apply the squeeze after the break once New Zealand had lost Barrett to a second yellow card.
But coach Jacques Nienaber was forced to navigate a little bit of late drama when Willie le Roux was forced to withdraw through an injury he suffered in the warmups. The decision was made then to go into the match with Kwagga Smith as le Roux’s replacement, and a 7-1 split between forwards and backs as a result.
A 6-2 split is risky, but a 7-1 difference is downright crazy. That is unless you’re the Springboks, apparently, who already boast the famed “bomb squad” and have often preferred to carry just the two back replacements on their bench.
Fortunately for South Africa they suffered no backline injuries, and were then in a position to make seven simultaneous changes seven minutes into the second half as Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche, Trevor Nyakane, Jean Kleyn, RG Snyman, Marco van Staden and Smith were all introduced.
The only forward not replaced was Pieter-Steph du Toit, who coincidentally was later yellow-carded for a high tackle on All Blacks skipper Sam Cane; so no Springboks forward played out 80 minutes of the match.
While the Springboks were incredibly fortunate not to suffer at least one injury up front, the seven fresh forward bodies they had on the bench gave them a monumental advantage against an All Blacks team that was already down a body of their own up front.
Could a 7-1 split be the way forward then, taking rugby even further into a physical, collisions-based game? Nienaber says it’s unlikely, but you get the feeling that if the situation presented itself again, perhaps when a brutal forwards-based contest lay in wait, the Springboks coach may well run the risk and roll the dice on a 7-1
“Tonight Willie picked up a little niggle and we didn’t want to risk him for this game, and so there’s always a couple of guys on standby,” Nienaber explained. “The rest of the guys had a bit of a flogging during the week, because obviously we wanted to end on a Friday so all the guys had as much exposure from a conditioning point-of-view, so that we all go into the next two weeks and almost on par, and hence that’s why we thought that we don’t want to risk that [a different player].
“Going forward, I think the least risk in terms of a bench covering multiple options is probably 5-3, I think that’s fair to say that the majority will know that that’s the least risk and you cover the most positions in that. Six-two is more risk like we’ve seen before, and then 7-1 is a big risk and we were fortunate tonight that we didn;t get any backline injuries. But it is something, not the 7-1, if we go with a 6-2 there [are] certain forwards that have fufilled certain roles in backline play.
“I think France is the same, when we played against them down in Marseille, [Seku] Macalou went to wing, he’s a forward. So I think we’ve trained that scenario with all the cards and the yellow cards that go around, so it is something we’ve dabbed into. But not the 7-1, making players able to fulfill multiple positions.”
HISTORY FOR FIJI, A HORROR SHOW FOR ENGLAND
It’s not often you get two pieces of rugby history at the same venue on the same weekend, but that’s exactly what happened at Twickenham as Fiji followed up the Springboks’ record-breaking win over the All Blacks with an astonishing victory all their own.
The Pacific Islanders defeated England 30-22 on Saturday afternoon for the first time ever, the eight-point victory a true reflection of their endeavour and execution, something that continues to befuddle Steve Borthwick’s side.
Fiji have been building nicely through the Pacific Nations Cup, before they then gave France a run in Bordeaux last weekend. And they have benefited hugely from Fijian Drua’s introduction into Super Rugby Pacific, with the quarterfinalists supplying six of the starting XV that ran out at Twickenham and, crucially, the halves combination of Frank Lomani and Caleb Muntz.
Cohesion has long been a problem for Fiji, who have traditionally only got their absolute best group of players back for World Cup campaigns and then also had the opportunity to train together for an extended period.
The Drua has changed that, at least for 18 of the 33-man squad, and when you add in the quality of player that plies their trade in Europe, the likes of skipper Waisea Nayacalevu, Semi Radradra, Levani Botia and Albert Tuisue, their win over England comes as far less of a surprise.
And, given the Wallabies’ 41-17 loss to France on Sunday afternoon, Fiji will go into the World Cup as the highest ranked team in Pool C at No. 7.
“We’re always working to get better, as a developing nation you’re always trying to catch up, get onto the same stature as the developed nations,” coach Simon Raiwalui said of his side’s improvement. “We’ve obviously had success with the sevens; we’ve had success with the 15s, but with the 15s it’s more about building consistency.
“Our boys playing overseas, getting that experience playing at the highest level, and the Drua has been huge for us. The two years that they’ve been involved we’ve been able to expose between 40 and 50 players to playing at the highest level of Super Rugby, and that’s showed in the amount of players that were selected in this World Cup squad.
“We’ve got a good balance, a real good connection between the players and that’s been huge benefit for us, and I think you’ll only see that benefits grow within the next cycle.”
Fiji face a huge six days to open their World Cup campaign, first facing Wales in Bordeaux on Sep. 10, before they have to back up seven days later to play the Wallabies in Saint Etienne on Sep. 18.
England, meanwhile have dropped five of their eight Tests under Steve Borthwick and appear to be in worse shape then they were before Eddie Jones was sacked. While there were signs of improvement in attack, the 30 points they conceded on Saturday further heightened the very real concerns around their defence under Kevin Sinfield.
The ease at which Fiji were able to bite into England’s defensive line and then find an offload to replacement Simione Kuruvoli for the decisive try perfectly illustrated England’s issue.
SAMOANS ADD ANOTHER DIMENSION TO POOL D
If Pool C is wide open, then Pool D can’t be that far behind, or perhaps even tighter still, after Samoa ran an understrength Ireland to the wire in Bayonne over the weekend.
Boosted by former All Blacks Steven Luatua and Lima Sopoaga, as well as a handful of European based stars, the Samoans led 13-12 until the 64th minute before coming up four points short at fulltime.
The Pacific Islanders then had a chance to snatch the upset in the run to fulltime, only to be picked off by Ireland at a five-metre lineout; Andy Farrell’s side able to then clear their line and avoid a speedbump in their World Cup build-up.
But the Samoans certainly showed enough to suggest that they will be resolute opposition for each of England, Argentina and Japan, and that the battle to get out of Pool D will be hotly contested.
Meanwhile, there was heartache for veteran Irish prop Cian Healy, who saw his World Cup inclusion cruelled by a calf injury in Bayonne. The front-rower was the big omission from Farrell’s 33-man squad on Sunday, the Irish one of the last nations to settle on a group they hope will reach at least the semifinals for the very first time.
“That’s sport, that’s life, that’s certainly rugby but Cian’s big enough and old enough and experienced enough to have been through these type of things before,” Farrell said.