No10s end a 35-international match gap since Wales last scored with a drop goal and help win a game in which they were outscored by three tries to twoWales used to be the masters of the drop goal. A method of scoring that has become an endangered species accounted for more than one-quarter of Barry John’s points tally for his country. In one club match for Cardiff, when two of Llanelli’s back-row forwards were his brothers who had threatened all sorts if they got hold of him, the game’s greatest fly-half barely made a break or passed all match, but his four drop kicks delivered a 12-9 victory.Before Sunday’s effective group decider against Australia, it had been 35 internationals since...
New Zealand dare, England wear down – Eddie Jones is playing patience as counterpoint to the All Blacks’ artistrySteve Hansen reflected this week on how much European teams had improved since the 2015 World Cup when, for the first time, they failed to provide a semi-finalist. In Japan this time around there should be at least one semi-finalist from the north, more likely two. The group match between Wales and Australia on Sunday will reveal more but, at a World Cup in which the team with the best defence has tended to prevail, the deliberation with which they have started the tournament – no nonsense and fewer frills – has not been lost on Hansen. Related: Cokanasiga helps England crush...
Physicality has become imperative in international rugby and few young sensations possess enough of it in those early daysWith only 11 Super Rugby appearances under his belt, 19-year-old Jordan Petaia is in the Australia squad. In a group that has more caps than any previous World Cup squad, an average of 45 per man, he’s a bolter. Yet to get on the field and gain a cap – that will probably occur in the games against Georgia and Uruguay – he has been on everyone’s radar since his Brisbane State high school days. It is great to see and fills us with excitement that we may be witnessing the birth of a new rugby star. It also got me thinking....
Vea Taumoefolau was scouted by the Japanese when he was a schoolboy in Auckland and now, at the legendary Yamanote High, is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Japan’s captainStumbling blind through suburbs of Sapporo, following a sketchy set of directions from a stranger who took pity on me, I find a 6ft x 10ft picture of Japan’s captain, Michael Leitch, scoring a try in that famous game against the Springboks in 2015. It is posted above a set of double doors set in what looks like another office block. This must be the place. And around the side of the building, in a muddy yard surrounded by a chain fence, 15 kids are running passing drills and, in...
Pressure is on the favourites and our knowledge of players from Premiership encounters can be used to help inflict an upsetPeople will fully expect England to beat the United States on Thursday. That is entirely understandable: they have to be regarded as one of the World Cup favourites. At least we know our opponents well. It helps that our coach, Gary Gold, has spent many years coaching in England and AJ MacGinty, Joe Taufete’e and Paul Lasike are involved on a weekly basis in the Premiership. There is strength in understanding your enemy, something we can look to use come kick off in Kobe.At World Cups it is funny how such small things can make a big difference and lead...