By Lucky Vince Pienaar
➤ Even Andy Farrell, the great coach that he is, can slip on a banana peel.
To be fair, it wasn’t Farrell that made any claims about Ireland being the best team in the world. That claim has come from the fans who, after the performance of Ireland in the Six Nations, started the noise about their team being the greatest.
Of course, New Zealand and South African fans have jumped into the battle of words, with the people correctly pointing out they can’t claim to be the best if they only play Northern Hemisphere teams.
Mark Keohane pointed out in TimesLIVE that Ireland not only lost to New Zealand in the quarter-final, but it was also Ireland’s eighth quarter-final defeat in 10 World Cup tournaments.
“During the 2023 World Cup, Andy Farrell’s charges couldn’t deliver crucial plays when needed,” he said.
And this weekend they did it again.
Ireland fell into the trap of trying to defend a two-point lead instead of attacking. Smith was no more than 20 metres from the sticks and in open space when he kicked the easiest of drop goals. He could not have done it had he been in his own half of the field.
England (3 tries) 23-22 (2 tries) Ireland.
➤ Perhaps the biggest upset of the weekend was Italy taking the game to Scotland – and outplaying them.
Gregor Townsend will be enraged that Scottish superstars like Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell and Pierre Schoeman didn’t wipe the floor with the Italians as they were expected to do.
The Scots somehow never got their backs into the game as if they couldn’t quite believe what was happening. The Italians, on the other hand, believed it, and did it, holding on to the lead from the 73rd minute. Scotland’s try two minutes from the end wasn’t enough to prevent the Italians from winning by two points.
Could Italy’s draw against France in the previous round and their win against Scotland indicate a turning point in their status as an international side? We hope so.
Italy (3 tries) 31-29 (4 tries) Scotland.
➤ Once again France has put in a frustrating performance. On the one hand, the rampaging French showed why they are one of the best teams in the world, on the other showing no interest at all in the match.
Wales seemed to be in it until the last quarter when the French woke up long enough to score three breathtaking tries.
Wales (3 tries) 24-45 (5 tries) France.
Pictured above: England beating Ireland.
Image source: X
