All Blacks’ style of skill and pace, a trend enthusiastically embraced by Scotland in autumn internationals, points way forward for England, Ireland and Wales
those who assume this has been just another routine autumn of Test rugby have not been paying sufficient attention. France failing to beat Japan at home, Scotland sticking 53 points on Australia, Ireland hammering South Africa 38-3, Romania defeating Samoa … not only have there been some eye-catching results but it has proved a difficult November for defence coaches.
Scotland’s three home fixtures against Samoa, New Zealand and Australia produced 28 tries, 16 of them for the home side. The All Blacks, in scoring five tries to two in a frantic game in Cardiff, burst through the 500-point barrier for the calendar year, making them the first team ever to do so in consecutive years. The stylistic trend is universally faster, snappier, more dynamic: up-the-jumper dinosaurs are now formally extinct.
Related: Autumn internationals: a team-by-team verdict of the tier-one nations | Nick Evans
Related: Elliot Daly at the top of the class in England’s half-term report
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