Lar wrote:dropkick wrote:The average ranking of the big NH 5 (Ireland, England, France, Scotland, Wales) is now ahead of the average ranking of the SH big 4(NZ, Aus, SA, Arg). 10 years ago they were averaging about 10 ranking points ahead.
This is a point that was not lost on me also, although I had not looked at the averages. There were however no NH sides in the last four at the last RWC. Have they (we) improved that much since? Or are the SH sides building towards the next RWC without much regard for their rankings between tournaments?
Whilst the Bledisloe Cup is pretty important to Australia and NZ, I don't see the same intensity in the games between NZ and RSA that there used to be. Whereas the Six Nations is still massively important to the NH sides.
Transformation has been a big road bump for SA [which they are over now]. Remember that we absolutely humiliated them 38-3 in November? I couldn't see anything like that happening again on the back of their performances against England under Erasmus.
Argentina are typically poor between RWCs and very competitive when the heat comes on in the world cup. Cheika was saying before our tour that Australia had done their rebuilding work in the immediate aftermath of RWC15 and lost a bit of ground then, but that the vast majority of their work is done and they are now focusing on the performances and results, rather than on experimenting with selection and tactics. Interestingly I think the Kiwis are still putting some blocks in place - they're still obviously a superb outfit, but I think they have a few more moving pieces than they had in the build-up to either of the last RWCs.