Can anyone of the Northern Hemisphere teams beat the All Blacks or Springboks this time around? The Springboks are still experimenting with new players so there is a small chance this could happen.
This is a great time of the year for rugby fans as the international teams from the Southern Hemisphere travel north into Europe to finish off their rugby seasons. The calendar year for a rugby player these days is not the 6 or 7 months it used to be and is now more like 11 months.
The International Rugby Board normally tweaks and adjusts the rules and this year is no different. Thankfully the subtle rule changes this year are not too crazy as Southern Hemisphere teams always have one eye open mainly down to the fact that they believe they are changed not for player safety, but to benefit the Northern Hemisphere teams. I don't think one can argue this fact with the changes we saw last year directly after the World Cup which was dominated by the Southern Hemisphere.
If England had a strong team and a strong bench of replacements then this would not have been raised.
The law changes this year ae subtle ones around the kicking game basically not allowing the scrum half protection around the scrum. We have seen players standing in front of the kicker acting as blockers and I agree with this as it does not allow players to attack the kicker. The other is again about obstruction when the ball is kicked in the air and players have to move away from the players involved not obstructing their running lines. This does not benefit anyone and is more common sense.
Every fan is looking for signs of improvement in their prospective teams and this is always a hard one to gauge who is doing well. The Southern Hemisphere is finishing their season and are possibly blooding new players.
England have started off badly having lost both matches at home with yesterdays result the shock thus far with Australia winning. No one expected this and not even the Australians if we are honest lol. Ireland lost to the All Blacks which was also kind of expected as this was the first game Ireland played for some time. Australia having improved is good signs for world rugby , but we also need the Northern Hemisphere to be stronger than what we have seen thus far.
Today sees the Springboks take on the Scotland team at Murrayfield which is expected to be another Southern hemisphere win with the SA's big game of this Autumn series next weekend against an English team ready for the taking. The scrum is where SA team will be looking to take their opponents apart and do not see any worries with what we have witnessed thus far.
I am starting to wonder if any Northern Hemisphere team can log a win over the coming weeks as an upset would be good for local morale. I think it is a pity SA are not playing Ireland and France on this visit ,but at least we have a New Zealand vs France test match next weekend which should be the highlight of this Autumn international series.
Argentina is one side I am keeping an eye on as they seem to have improved with their new coaching set up and are not a easy team to beat.