- Jan 21, 2013
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South Africa have been pretty poor for a while now.
I thought they had turned a corner when they comfortably beat France 3 times in the summer but obviously not.
South Africa have been pretty poor for a while now.
I thought they had turned a corner when they comfortably beat France 3 times in the summer but obviously not.
I think everyone thought they were moving in the right direction but their two results against New Zealand in these championships show they are miles away from that standard.
Doesn't mean they are terrible as the All Blacks can pump anyone on their day, but I don't think South Africa would beat England or Ireland right now, and I think Wales and Scotland would fancy their chances (as long as you tricked them into thinking they were playing a Northern Hemisphere team).
We put 14 points on them last year and like we've been saying it's not like they've kicked on so I think we'll be more than confident.
Having said that I'm not expecting another 14 point win. I'd imagine the game in a couple of months will be a close run match.
I think everyone thought they were moving in the right direction but their two results against New Zealand in these championships show they are miles away from that standard.
Doesn't mean they are terrible as the All Blacks can pump anyone on their day, but I don't think South Africa would beat England or Ireland right now, and I think Wales and Scotland would fancy their chances (as long as you tricked them into thinking they were playing a Northern Hemisphere team).
Even Italy beat them last year...
This is true.
I think the 'green shoots' argument comes from the success of their super rugby teams (well...one super rugby team) but that clearly isn't translating into the national team.
I haven't looked into it in much detail, but aren't they quite a young team these days?
Apparently the starting XV had 300 caps between them, average age of 26.
Marcus Smith has got a call up to the england camp. You can't help but be excited watching him play.
It's what Eddie does. He doesn't waste time, takes the talent coming out of the U20's and gets them in and sees what they're made of. Tbf the ones who have got on the pitch like Isiekwe and T.Curry haven't let him down.
Smith looks a prospect but it's very early days. Ford looked better at 18 and plenty still question his ability at test level.
Curry looks the one of the crop brought in over the last 6 months or so. Still, it's good to see. Englands youth sides in recent years have been dominant and there's more to come too.
I think you'll find our under 20s won the Grand Slam in 2016 giving your boys a 30 point whopping or more in the final game so not quite as dominant for as long as you think.
England were in disarray in that tournament and only won one game. Got a new coach in, picked different players and promptly won the under 20 World Cup a few months later. Their 3rd world title triumph at that level in 4 years ( been in the last 5 finals too ) added to 5 six nations titles in the last 7 years, most at a canter. That's extremely dominant. In recent years England have almost used the under 20 six nations as a warm up for the under 20 World Cup too.
They are actually more dominant than I thought!