The northern hemisphere teams can breathe a sigh of relief with the All Blacks returning home after a stunning series of displays in their autumn Tests. The bad news is that they will be back with a vengeance in a year’s time for the biggest prize in the sport — the World Cup.
While Australia and South Africa had their reverses, the All Blacks were unstoppable and France coach Bernard Laporte must be thanking his lucky stars that his employers are not the RFU as England handler Andy Robinson looks certain to be in need of new employment after three defeats in the four Tests.
However, Laporte will not be eyeing the World Cup with any great relish given his side are in the same group as Argentina — who the French edged by a point — and the impressive Irish, whose only regret must be that the World Cup is not this month.
The All Blacks may be on a different planet than the rest but their ever-pragmatic coach Graham Henry is mindful of the fact that they have swept into virtually every World Cup since they won the inaugural tournament in 1987 as favourites and come up short.
”We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” said Henry, who saw his magnificent side trounce England, France twice and Wales.
”That’s when you get bitten on the bum,” added the frank Kiwi.
Both the Wallabies and the Springboks ended their tours on a high note — though the South Africans take on a World XV next weekend with coach Jake White’s future seemingly in the balance — after suffering at the hands of the Irish.
However, Australia coach John Connolly’s assessment that the tour had been a resounding success — or at least there had been no negatives — had the pundits raising their eyebrows. The tour yielded two victories over Italy and Scotland, a draw against the Welsh and a resounding defeat by the Irish.
”No negatives? Raised eyebrows all round. Several scribes choked on their Scotch Fingers,” the Sydney Morning Herald said.
”Then again, after what Connolly had been through the past few weeks, you could almost excuse him for sugar-coating everything — just as long as he does not take what he said seriously.”
Many English pundits would have said the same thing about Robinson after his latest reverse at the hands of South Africa on Saturday when he refused to walk the plank.
However, all the indications are that his resignation will be announced on Tuesday and, with 13 defeats in his 22 Tests, he can have few complaints.
Will Carling became the second former England captain after World Cup-winning skipper Martin Johnson to call for Robinson to go.
”I’m an England fan and after the four games in November, I haven’t witnessed a lot of improvement,” Carling told the BBC.
”I think it is time for a change in the coach — not for the last four games, or even the last two games, but for the last two years.
”If you look at England over the last two years, we don’t seem to have any combinations that are working and Andy Robinson has to take responsibility for that.”
A year ago the Irish were calling for Eddie O’Sullivan to do the honest thing and go, but what a difference a year makes as the Irish played exhilarating rugby to see off the Australians, the South Africans and the Pacific Islanders.
But ”steady” Eddie is not one for raising expectations too high and he kept his feet firmly on the ground while others were trying to tempt him into making rash statements.
”We’ve got as much out of the games as we could so it’s been a pretty good month — three very good performances and three very good wins … that will stand us in good stead for the Six Nations,” the Irish coach said.
For Laporte there was just mere relief to have ended the Test series with a narrow win over an Argentine side that had beaten them four times in a row. However, judging by the press there is no great sentiment that France can finally end their World Cup-title drought next year.
”We should have won more easily but that is a reflection of our autumn series. A curate’s egg is how I would sum up the tests,” said Laporte.
A curate’s egg for him, but he will be hoping that he will be replace those words with ”World Champions” next year. — Sapa-AFP