With the Rugby World Cup now underway, what are five notable trends from the first week? Two Cents Rugby investigates via his takeaways from the round.
Poor handling
The weather in France has been unseasonably hot and the players are feeling it. Water breaks 20 minutes through each half have been needed to keep players hydrated.
Another side effect of the poor weather, has been poor handling. It has not only been from losing teams, but winning teams as well. Both Scotland and South Africa had more turnovers conceded than their usual average. So did Ireland, Argentina, Australia and so on.
As the weather cools down over the coming weeks, hopefully so too will the errors.
Discipline
We often talk about defence winning matches at World Cups, but discipline could definitely be a deciding factor in 2023.
Of the eight games so far, seven of the matches were won by the team who conceded fewer penalties.
Penalties might not have been the difference for games like Ireland v Romania or Italy v Namibia, however in the closer matched ties it can’t be ignored.
The All Blacks conceded 12 penalties to France’s four and it was a big part in their defeat. Scotland had 10 to South Africa’s seven and even Georgia 13 to Australia’s seven.
Only Wales managed to buck the trend conceding a whopping 17 and still pushing through for a result.
Experience at 10
Every World Cup sees the emergence of some young talent, but in week one some of the standout fly-halves were the experienced guys.
George Ford took England by the scruff of the neck and helped push them to victory. 27 individual points including those three important drop goals was a huge performance and put England on the front foot.
Johnny Sexton having not played for six months bagged two tries on his return and Dan Biggar’s absence was notable as Fiji pushed the scoreline close at the death.
The young guns were certainly impressive too, Matthieu Jalibert helping France go past New Zealand and Hinckley Vaovasa was one of Romania’s few bright spots, but nothing can replace experience.
Cards
A lot gets talked about red cards and this week’s card situation, especially regarding head-on-head contact will be a hot topic.
South Africa v Scotland appeared to have one incident. Japan v Chile also had a yellow card from a head clash. England’s situation was the toughest though with Tom Curry’s yellow being upgraded to red for his collision with Argentina full-back Juan Cruz Mallia.
However, England showed in their game, that even playing 77 minutes with a red card you can still win. In their case, comfortably win the match.
This might be an exception, but it’s still encouraging going forward given that we’re sure to see more early reds before the tournament is done.
French crowds
The French crowds have been incredible in the opening eight games. Packed stadiums and incredibly vocal.
Not only is this home advantage worth at least a few points for France when they themselves play, but they’re also getting behind the underdogs. The crowds were fully behind teams like Fiji in their losing effort to Wales and Georgia in their game against Australia. You can bet they’ll get behind Italy in New Zealand’s do-or-die match at the end of the month. Likewise, they’ll be supporting Japan against England in their week two game.
It might just be enough to push the odd underdog through if there’s a tight game.
READ MORE: Wales v Fiji: Five takeaways from the game of the opening Rugby World Cup weekend
The article Two Cents Rugby’s five takeaways from the opening Rugby World Cup round appeared first on Planetrugby.com.
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