There was a time not long ago, when the phrase “boring, boring England” was particularly apt and there was a chasm between south and north in quality and stylistically, that it was a real struggle for people this side of the equator to watch the Six Nations. Not any more.
Not only has it become more relevant to South Africans who want to see where the challenge to the Springbok hegemony will come at the next Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027, the rugby has become a lot more watchable. There were no particularly close games but the opening round of the 2025 edition provided some compelling viewing.
A big part of that is because for once World Rugby might have come up with law changes or variations that actually do work to improve the pace and the spectacle. The big game of the weekend in Dublin between Ireland and England was played at a hectic pace, to the extent that the England collapse in the second half became almost inevitable.
It looked just before halftime, when they were still ostensibly in a dominant position, that they were struggling to keep pace and so it proved. England did score the last two tries but the damage had been done by then.
It wasn’t perfect but Ireland did send a message to those who subscribed to the view I held at the end of 2024 that the big four comprising SA, New Zealand, France and Ireland might soon become a big three. With Ireland dropping out.
On the evidence of their second half performance and in particular with the return of their attacking shape and attacking potency, that may not be the case. The negative prognosis about Ireland’s chances of still being contenders at the next World Cup revolved around the age of their squad, and there was a feeling when they lost to the All Blacks in November that they may have gone past their peak post the retirement of Jonny Sexton.
Well in 21-year-old Sam Prendergast they do have a player who can be the next Sexton. He’s long been touted as such, but at the start of the Dublin game he had only three international caps. Which might have explained some of the mistakes he made early doors, but he recovered well from that to deliver a performance that showed much promise.
What was impressive about him was his calmness for such a young player. Like the SA equivalent regarding rising flyhalf stars, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, there were times when he looked almost too cool, too calm and too confident. But rather too composed than the opposite. Think Gaffie du Toit, who had all the talent but not the temperament.
Not that Prendergast was the essential cog in the Irish machine against England, that was the scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park. The New Zealand-born halfback was a big loss to Ireland when he was out injured when they played a two match series against the Boks last July.
Yet while Ireland showed signs they still have it, it is France, whom they will meet in a likely Six Nations decider on March 8, who are the team the Boks should be most concerned about. That isn’t based on their whitewashing of Wales, a result that was expected and came in the most boring game of the weekend, with the winners seldom needing to engage second gear.
Rather it is the brilliance evident in the French club teams and the depth coming through in their game that should set off the warning lights for the Boks. They have depth in the key areas. For instance, Romain Ntamack, back in the saddle after the injury that kept him out of the 2023 World Cup, ruined his good performance by being red carded late in the game against Wales.
That means he is unlikely to be available to face England at Twickenham next week, but it hardly matters as Matthieu Jalibert, who was a wizard playing for Bordeaux against the Sharks, is back and is considered by many to be better than Ntamack anyway. Damian Penaud, who scored six tries against the Sharks, wasn’t even in the team against Wales but is expected back from injury, and even the world’s supposed greatest player, Antoine Dupont, has good backup if you think of Nolan le Garrec, the star Racing 92 performer against the Stormers a few weeks ago.
The French are profiting from a decision made by the chairs of the Top 14 a few years back to limit the number of foreigners in a match day squad, currently seven in 23 but apparently likely to be reduced even further, and there’s no denying the quality of the homegrown talent coming through as a result.
Eddie Jones told an audience in Cape Town when England were here in 2018 that he thought France would win the World Cup in 2023. They didn’t but take away the Boks, who’d only just started the Rassie era when Jones was speaking, and they’d be a good bet for the next one.
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