North vs South – Battle of the Hemisphere’s
So at the end of three summer tours its advantage the Southern Hemisphere in the battle for supremacy before the 2015 World Cup. New Zealand whitewashed England 3-0 after a close first test , they went onto win the first test 20-15 and tests two and three 28-27 and 36-13. As always the first test was tipped to be the test that England had the best chance of winning for the first time since 2003. This did not happen and in the post-mortem of this English tour they will focus on their inability to finish the chances they create.
In that first test England held the lead at half time but has so often been the case they could not close out the game and Conrad Smith scored a try in the 77th minute to seal a first test win and again show the mental strength that has been seen many times since their World Cup win of 2011.
Both England and Wales faced a three test series and also a two test series in New Zealand and South Africa. From a Welsh point of view they were well beaten in the first test but stormed back in the 2nd test to almost seal a first win over a southern hemisphere side under Warren Gatland. Maybe Northern Hemisphere sides play too much rugby against Southern hemisphere teams and they totally lose focus of what they want to achieve.
When southern hemisphere teams come up here to face their respective tours in November they don’t seem to get caught up in the hype that Ireland , England , Wales and Scotland seem to suffer from when the big three come calling.
If any of these four teams can get a win over “ The Big Three “ before the 2015 World Cup , they will put down a major marker down to say to the big three that they are still here. England were beaten 3-0, Wales were beaten 2-0 and Australia beat France 3-0 to make it 8-0 to the southern hemisphere over the summer tours.
The big question is can the 6 – Nations sides pick up at least one win against the big three. If they can we can then dream of a northern hemisphere winner of the 2015 World Cup. Here’s hoping the internal pressure of beating the big three can ease and they can just focus on winning a test match and not have the weight of history on their back each time they play New Zealand , Australia and South Africa.
By
Cian Mc Gibney
23/06/2014.
