It was a busy June for the rest of the IRB top 20-ranked teams as well, with the Churchill Cup, Pacific Nations Cup and IRB Nations Cup all running.
Perhaps the month's biggest winners were Namibia, who thundered to victory in the Nations Cup. Having fallen to an ignominious 30-0 defeat to Georgia at the last World Cup, Jacques Burger and his fellows would have gained particular satisfaction at beating the Lelos 21-16 in the final game to clinch the title, particularly after trailing 13-0 at the break.
The Namibians also eked out narrow wins over hosts Romania and Scotland A, with the latter's winless finish going to demonstrate the narrowing of the gap between the bigger and smaller rugby nations.
Georgia also beat Scotland A to further demonstrate this, as did Argentina's Jaguars, boding well for the development stocks in both countries. Romania were slightly disappointing though.
In the Churchill Cup, Canada provided further evidence of their development with a victory over France A in Colorado. While it is 'only' France A, that's 'only' a France A side featuring including Maxime Medard, Lionel Beauxis, Julien Dupuy and a number of players who have made their name in the Top 14 . Surely that's a result that is significant of progress.
Elsewhere, the USA achieved a minimum goal by beating Russia, with the two set to meet in next year's World Cup, while Uruguay still look a little bit off World Cup pace. But their regular appearance in this tournament ought to raise levels a bit.
Certainly in the USA, the game and playing participation levels are on the rise and significantly there are players coming to rugby from NFL now. It will be interesting to see if they can lift it some more ahead of the next World Cup.
In the Pacific, Samoa's first victory in the Pacific Nations Cup comes on the back of their triumph in the IRB Sevens Series and is the culmination of a magnificent year for the Samoans.
But the evenness of the tournament - Samoa won on points difference over Fiji, with Japan only a bonus point behind and beating Samoa, and Tonga notching four bonus points even from three defeats - again goes to show that the levels in the smaller nations are both rising and evening out between the countries involved.
Rugby World Cup 2011 will, on the evidence of this June, be the closest-fought yet - that group with South Africa, Wales, Fiji and Samoa is looking particularly tasty.
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