This originally was going to criticise the Northern Hemisphere tours to the SANZAR nations (now with more Argentina!) for overloading the calender with frankly unnecessary matches, particularly now that the World Cup is nearing. Simply, the players are having to do too much travel and play too many gruelling games; the Tri Nations countries still have that tournament to look forward too, and in particular the teams from the British Isles have had a Lions tour preceeding their domestic and European club seasons. These tests just scream 'Cash Cow'.
That was pretty much all I could think of to say about that issue back when I thought of this piece, and I can't really expand on it much a couple of weeks on. So I think I'll just run through each nations prospects in the upcoming month. I'll cover the Southern Hemisphere sides in the another piece, and will go over the northern hemisphere here.
England: The English, buoyed by the strong showing of their first choice XV against France in the final Six Nations game, now have a real need to evaluate the players who will or will not be part of the World Cup squad next year. England play two tests against Australia, and will look to see if their squad can keep up with the pacy Aussies on their own turf.
There is a lot of dross in the squad. Men like Wigglesworth, Dowson, Flatman, Doran-Jones, Attwood and Ward-Smith will not be near the first team again in any sane world (quite a long list that). Dan Cole and Rob Webber need to stand up against an improved Aussie front row (not hard, they were awful for large swathes of the last 4 years). Haskell needs to show some more potential at 8 and Croft needs to rekindle his Lions form. With the backs, Flood needs to start one of the two tests and show genuine attacking skill, and all the centres need to combine well with whoever is in the 10 shirt.
Cole and Flood
There should be some interest in the performances of Andy Saull, Alex Goode and maybe Tom Varndell with the Saxons.
Ireland: Solitary tests against New Zealand and the Maoris await in the Land of the Long Cloud. Both will be tough, and I don't think they will win either to be honest. The Irish really need to work out some options for when David Wallace, John Hayes, O'Driscoll and the two O's second row pairing retire or get injured. So far, I think they have failed quite badly at identifying and improving the replacements to their current legends.
The touring party will not, though, be that effective at doing so. The squad just doesn't have enough realistic options for the future in it.
What do the Irish want to see? Well, can the forwards hold up to the All Blacks without giving away bags of penalties. With the new rule interpretations at the breakdown, Ireland struggled during the Six Nations to recyle the ball and compete at the coal face. The scrum also needs significant work; loosehead options Healy and Court are terrible scrimmagers, and the Irish pack was obliterated against France.
Sexton should try out running with the ball as he does with Leinster, and in turn Ireland would like to see an improvement in their open field game running game, working to get the ball to Bowe and Kearney more reliably (the Italy game at Croke Park showed this up as an issue). Sexton's kicking also needs to stay consistent.
Wales: The Welsh really failed to take advantage of South Africa fielding a team of oversees players with no cohesion. They should have won, but they allowed the Saffers to dictate the second half and it cost them. At this stage, having had Gatland as coach for some time now, it is dubious that there is much to improve on here, and more likely the Welsh are starting to stagnate. This bodes ill for New Zealand 2011.
New Zealand 2010 shouldn't be troubled by this Welsh outfit. Much like Ireland, the Welsh simply failed to evaluate their future talent. They really need to start now.
A Jonathan Thomas, Ryan Jones and Sam Warburton back row would have had valuable time to form a bond for the future here, but sadly Warburton has withdrawn through injury. Wales really needed to give him test experience such as this, so this will hurt.
________________________________________Captain Jones leads from the back (row)
With the backs, Wales have to find a way to use Jamie Roberts (other than running into the first man he sees). That he hasn't an international try to his name is at travesty of Gatland's management. Tom Prydie needs to avoid embarassement by the streetwise All Blacks, and Mike Phillips simply needs to get back on his horse. Fine, his pass isn't the best, but in my book he is world class simply due to the mismatch he presents in the open field and defensive game.
Scotland: I genuinely trust Andy Robinson to build Scotland up to "reasonably challenging opponent" status, which is as good as we're going to get. What the Scots need to do here is avoid the performances that threw away the Italy Six Nations game and the Argentina test last November.
Two tests against the Argies will be tough, but I genuinely believe that the Scots can win one of the two encounters. They will find greater benefit in the long run by playing their first choice XV as opposed to blooding new players. I want to see the tight 5 moving about the pitch more, lending their weight to more breakdowns. This will come down to a more intelligent gameplan.
I also want to see more creative running in attack, and sharper and faster support to the first ballcarrier. Too often a good break is ruined by the lack of forward support, or the lack of someone to offload to. Continuity in attack is key.
Barclay and Beattie need to continue their good form. Brown needs to carry the ball a bit more, as he did in the Ireland win in March. I want Morrison running with a head of steam instead of just getting immediately hit, and perhaps see Max Evans on the wing to accomodate Alex Grove (below)
France: Keeping this brief, the French merely need to confirm their strength as a team when some of their elements are replaced. How will the threequarterline function without Jauzion? Can the front row depth hold up as well as the first choices have? And is there a reliable replacement for Parra or Trinh-Duc?
They're only playing two games though, so they probably won't answer any of these questions for sure. They will, I think, play a weaker team against Argentina, and thus may well lose. Their first choice team, though, has a good shot at beating the South Africans.
Southern Hemisphere sides coming up next.
GM
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