The Other Side(s) - Rival Team News

Dire indeed - in fact the only British/Irish team who should get any credit is Wales. Ireland were blown away by their own inaccuracy. Eddie Jones' England are a total mystery to me. Stocked full of quality hard running forwards they have no clue at 9/10/12 to use the ball effectively in attacking situations. Now we all know that 9 & 10 can play a fast attacking game because they do it every week at Harlequins but something is holding them back - my opinion that something is Jones' insistence on selecting Farrell at 12.

His DNA at Saracens over the years has been to play a style of rugby which Eddie does not want to play with England. When you have back 3 players like Steward, May, Nowell, Cokaganisa & now Arundell you have got to get them in the game & that won't happen with Farrell at 12. Jones cannot keep hoping that Tuilagi will get himself fit. That 12 position should probably be filled by Slade or someone like Lozowski whose first thoughts are not to kick the bloody thing; that position along with a poor disciplinary record are their major problems holding them back. 

For my money Gatland is being lined up to take over from Eddie post World Cup but it wouldn't surprise me if results don't go well over the next two weeks that the move could be made a year earlier. it would also not surprise me if Shaun Edwards followed Gatland to the England coaching team but not until after France 2023. 

Expect a huge reaction from the All Blacks next week.

Great win for Ireland, although I believe next weeks test will go up a notch or two.  NZ are prone to the odd poor performance, but don’t usually have 2 poor performances in a row.

Well done to England - Apart from the early try from vunipola (via a catch and drive), they didn’t create much and Australia’s ill-discipline kept allowing them to build the scoreboard.  Added to that the fact that Australia lost 4 players to injury.

Good luck to Wales later this afternoon, the fact the match is at sea level should make it a more level playing field, plus SA making 14 changes should be plenty of motivation for Wales to try and level the series.