All-conquering All Blacks

New Zealand’s Rugby Championship campaign has been a reiteration of their recent dominance in world rugby; the World Champions have not lost a Test Match since Australia beat them in Sydney in August 2015.

In fact, only three sides have taken a half-time lead in against the All Blacks in 13 Tests in the last 12 months: Argentina, South Africa and Wales.

In their first two Tests this summer, Wales got within 18 and 14 points. Since then the All Blacks, led by newly installed captain Kieran Read and Beauden Barrett at fly-half, have notched three Rugby Championship wins by an aggregate of 89 points, beating the Wallabies home and away and then seeing off Argentina in Hamilton, 57-22, this weekend.

Can any side in world rugby stop the All Blacks? Probably not on current form, but Wales have come closer than anyone in 2016.

 

Wallabies’ new axis finding their feet

Michael Cheika’s Australian side went into the weekend on the back of a six-game losing streak, including two Rugby Championship losses to the All Blacks.

Despite being run close by a typically physical, abrasive Springboks team, there are signs that the Wallabies are rediscovering the brand of rugby that took them to the World Cup final last year.

At that tournament, Bernard Foley was the team’s top points scorer with 82, and joint third overall, behind Nicolas Sanchez of Argentina and South Africa’s Handre Pollard.

Foley’s ability to orchestrate space from first receiver was crucial but he also weighed in defensively and consistently kicked his points. Cheika has shifted his Waratahs protégée to 12 for this Rugby Championship, bringing in the mercurial Quade Cooper at fly-half.

Cooper and Foley were superb against South Africa, the former full of trickery and soft hands, the latter scoring 18 points and crucially always offering a second creative outlet for scrum-half Will Genia.

While Australia have stuttered of late, this morale-boosting win, and the increasingly attractive creativity of their back-line, make the Wallabies an intriguing prospect for the Under Armour Series.

Pumas sharpening their claws

On the face of it, a 57-22 loss to New Zealand does not look good for any side, but with half an hour to go Argentina were still very much in the game at 24-22.

Argentina’s starting back-row made 79m between them with the ball in hand, and Agustin Creevy, perhaps the outstanding hooker in world rugby at the moment, carried for 35m.

The Pumas have created a pulsating brand of rugby based on quick phases and offloads through the middle of the park, dragging defenders in and creating space outside for their strike runners from deep.

Always strong in the scrum and abrasive at the break-down, Argentina have now added deftness to their game, and have a three-quarter line able to exploit the space created by the graft of the forwards.

Their second-round win against South Africa showed the best of Argentine rugby and they ran the Boks close in the away fixture too. They may still be the minnows of the Rugby Championship, but no one should view this exciting Pumas side as anything less than a real threat.

Springboks’ new boys bring bite and brilliance

Warren Whiteley and Johan Goosen might be new names to most rugby fans, but both have come to the fore in a new-look South African side that has taken one win from three matches so far in the Rugby Championship.

Whiteley, captain of the Lions in Super Rugby and a Commonwealth Games gold medallist at Sevens, made his Test debut at 26 in 2014 and was considered something of a nearly man until this series.

He has now scored two tries in three Tests in 2016 from Number 8 and become an invaluable member of the vaunted Bokke back-row with his strong running and excellent angles of attack.

Goosen, who plays at 10 or 15 for Racing Metro, also has nine caps, but won his first at the age of 20 and has been considered one of the outstanding young talents in South Africa rugby since bursting onto the scene in the 2011 IRB U20s World Cup.

While his progress has been hampered by injury, the versatile back, who ran for 80m and beat four defenders against Argentina in the second round of the Rugby Championship, is now the Springboks main threat from full-back.

These two new stars may have taken different routes into the Boks’ Test side, but both will be crucial figures in the Under Armour Series.

Under Armour Series tickets are available from www.wru.wales/tickets starting from £20.