The autumn tour of the Southern hemisphere sides finished officially last weekend, with wins for Australia, Argentina and New Zealand but another defeat for World Champs South Africa against Ireland, losing 10-15.
Wales’ confidence of a back-to-back win against a faltering Australia – who lost 8-9 the previous weekend to Scotland – wewre dashed as a regrouped and revitalised Wallabies scythed through Welsh defences to score five times in the convincing 33-12 win. Dogged kicking by Stephen Jones kept the home side barely in touch to reach 12-23 at half-time, but two more tries from the visitors sealed the game tight and banished memories of the Australian’s loss to Wales this time last year.
On a high from beating Australia last week, Scotland should have been on the front foot against Argentina, but despite controlling the first half of the game to lead 6-0 at the break, the Scots could not control their discipline, giving away two penalties to even the score at 6-6, and at 78′ Martin Rodriguez dropped into goal to take the game 9-6, leaving Scotland with a 19-year-long record of losses to the Pumas at home.
Elsewhere South Africa extended its run of disappointing results with a loss to Ireland at Croke Park. The Springboks led 10-6 thanks to two tries at the break, in a match notable more for post-Lions tour niggling and some predictable gamesmanship from Schalk Burger. Again the Springboks’ discipline was the death of them as Sexton slotted three more penalties for Ireland to take the match despite late pressure from South Africa.
The Autumn Internationals draw to a close but the rugby continues with the All Blacks vs. Barbarians on December 5th – tickets to this match are available to compare and buy at tixdaq.com. And Ireland has just announced its Six Nations tickets as revealed earlier – and as favourites to take the 6N Title in 2010, fans will need to move fast to secure a ticket.
