Nations Championship Team of the Month: Five Springboks, Japanese bolter and record-breaking All Black included
Springboks centre Jesse Kriel, All Blacks wing Will Jordan and England fly-half Fin Smith make our team.
Following the third and final round of the Nations Championship’s southern leg, here is the Planet Rugby Team of the Tournament.
Three rounds in July produced two unbeaten sides, one broken record and a fistful of reputations made. New Zealand and South Africa swept their series without dropping a game, France took two from three with a two-point near-miss in Christchurch, England recovered from an Ellis Park hiding to win in Liverpool and Santiago del Estero, and the tournament’s newcomers delivered their own landmarks, Japan claiming their first win in a tier-one competition and Fiji saving their best for a beaten last stand at Murrayfield.
A team of the tournament rewards the accumulated month rather than the explosive afternoon, so three-game bodies of work carry the day throughout, a principle that cost some famous names dearly. Without further ado, here is who made our XV!
Nations Championship Team of the Tournament
15 Damian Willemse (South Africa): The one selection where a transcendent peak overrides the volume principle applied everywhere else in this XV, and Willemse earns the exception. His Ellis Park evening on his 50th cap was the greatest individual performance of the entire tournament, the 70-metre 50-22, total aerial dominance and the step that released Jesse Kriel, and he backed it with an impressive start split between 12 and 15 against Scotland before the Durban cameo. Two starts, one of them immortal. Matthieu Jalibert was the tournament’s most consistently dangerous playmaker across three full games at 10 and 15 and is desperately unlucky that his excellence never quite touched Willemse’s summit, whilst Damian McKenzie‘s Eden Park masterclass arrived one round too late.
14 Will Jordan (New Zealand): Six tries in three games, two in the two-point escape against France, the Wellington hat-trick that carried him past Doug Howlett as New Zealand‘s all-time leading Test try scorer, and the poacher’s finish against Ireland, supplemented by a jackal penalty deep in his own 22 with the game still alive. The first name on the teamsheet, and the only wing in the All Blacks squad to score in the tournament. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso finished the series as the form wing in the northern hemisphere.
13 Jesse Kriel (South Africa): Scored in every round, the arc against England, the strike off the shoulder against Scotland, the loose-ball finish against Wales, whilst organising a defence that conceded progressively less as the month wore on. Three different Springbok midfield combinations, one constant. Quinn Tupaea was electric late on for New Zealand, and Tommaso Menoncello‘s Wellington try was the best of a bleak Italian month.
12 Sione Tuipulotu (Scotland): He captained the seven-try shootout win over Argentina with a score of his own, then produced the performance to cherish: a display of ferocious carrying and refusal in the Pretoria defeat that stood taller for the losing cause around it, the sort of afternoon that reminds you what Test centres are for. When Scotland needed rescuing against Fiji, he came off the bench and helped turn that too. Jordie Barrett pushes him desperately hard and on pure completeness may never have a better claim, three full games of control, directness and defensive authority for an unbeaten side, capped by his finest display against Ireland, whilst Damian de Allende was officially Player of the Match in the Ellis Park win.
11 Théo Attissogbé (France): The quiet accumulator of the tournament’s best three-round wing portfolio outside Jordan: a superbly taken try and the magnificent offload in the Christchurch near-miss, another score in Brisbane, and three starts from three whilst his rivals rotated. Kurt-Lee Arendse crossed in rounds one and three for the Springboks, and Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang‘s two tries on debut in Brisbane made for the most electric first Test of the month.
10 Fin Smith (England): The fly-half of the tournament by volume and by trajectory. He ran England‘s recovery to 17-14 before the Ellis Park evening unravelled, conducted the 73-8 dismantling of Fiji, then produced the fourth-minute crossfield assist and first-half control that built the win in Santiago. Finn Russell‘s return against South Africa was arguably the finest single fly-half display of the series, but one start in a defeat cannot beat three games of steady authority, and Tomás Albornoz barely missed a kick all month for Argentina.
9 Cam Roigard (New Zealand): Player of the Match in Christchurch with a try, another score against Italy, and a workload that beggared belief, his 92 passes in round one the most of any player in the tournament’s opening weekend before he threw 63 in a single half the following week. The tempo of everything good New Zealand did ran through him. Maxime Lucu captained France through two wins and a two-point loss with a claim that never stopped growing, and is the unluckiest man in this entire selection.
The forwards
8 Ardie Savea (New Zealand): Three Tests as the newly appointed captain, three wins, and the intervention that mattered in each: 13 carries, 16 tackles and the turnover that created Jordan’s try against France, a mountain of two-way work against Italy, then a try from the base and a game-high three turnovers against Ireland. Not always his most spectacular rugby, always the decisive contribution. Ben Earl finished the series as its form number eight with two tries in Santiago, and Jasper Wiese made his single start count brutally in Durban.
7 Paul de Villiers (South Africa): The breakout of the tournament. Handed a debut an hour before kick-off in round one, the Stormers fetcher started all three Tests, operated as a first receiver off the lineout, and closed the month as the top-rated Springbok in the Durban shutout with a maul try and a breakdown steal a metre from his own line. Where others accumulated numbers in adversity, De Villiers shaped matches his side controlled. Jac Morgan‘s colossal tackle counts came in Welsh damage limitation, and Fraser McReight was Australia’s most consistent forward.
6 Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa): Three rounds, three different jobs, none performed below the elite international standard: emergency lock and the captaincy against England, a mammoth all-court display in Pretoria, then the tone-setting defensive shift in the 43-0. The most complete forward month of anyone in the tournament. Tupou Vaa’i answered New Zealand’s blindside question emphatically in round three, and Marcos Kremer carried Argentina’s fight throughout. Jordan may have the highlights reel, but nobody covered more blades of grass than the Bok titan and he’s our Player of the Series.
Five reasons the Nations Championship won rugby’s heart and the flaws it must fix
5 Warner Dearns (Japan): The bolter, and the numbers say he is nothing of the sort. Japan’s captain scored in his country’s first-ever win in a tier-one tournament, stayed his side’s best forward through the Ireland and France defeats, and leads every Nations Championship lock with substantial minutes since the last World Cup for linebreaks, tries, metres, post-contact metres and gainline success. A 6ft 8in second-row producing back-row output, and the selection here that vindicates the whole exercise. Ruan Nortjé packed two immense Springbok performances into his window, and Josh Canham‘s four tries from the Wallaby engine room demand their line.
4 Scott Cummings (Scotland): A contribution in every round: a try in the seven-try shootout win over Argentina, an immense shift in the Pretoria defeat, then the match-turning score from the bench as Scotland overturned Fiji at Murrayfield. Scotland’s most consistent tight forward in a campaign of extremes. Guido Petti was the steady accumulator of the Pumas pack across three full games, and Emmanuel Meafou was colossal in both his French starts.
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3 Joe Heyes (England): The quiet riser of the month, growing from solid at Ellis Park to dominant thereafter, his Santiago evening, anchoring the five-metre scrum that produced a try, pinching a lineout and carrying through the chaos with complete composure, the best tighthead display of the round against its toughest assignment. Thomas du Toit scored and scrummaged powerfully in round one, and Carlu Sadie‘s debut demolition of Wales suggests South Africa’s tighthead rotation has found another monster.
2 Malcolm Marx (South Africa): Two starts of frightening completeness bookended his month, the maul try and the assist for Kriel at Ellis Park, then an immovable evening over the ball in the Durban wet, with his lineout humming throughout. No hooker in the tournament matched his influence per minute. Maxime Lamothe ran the set-piece that strangled Japan, and Jamie George captained England’s recovery with typical durability.
1 Ethan de Groot (New Zealand): Three starts, three wins, and the most complete loosehead ledger of the month: 13 tackles and a scrum penalty won against France, a try and a physical presence all over the park against Italy, then New Zealand’s top tackler against Ireland with eight before half-time and not one missed. His scrummaging was par rather than dominant, but nobody bent him in three Tests, and nobody else in the position sustained his standard across the full window. Ellis Genge is the unluckiest forward in this entire selection, three full starts, a stunning solo try against the world champions at Ellis Park and a month spent leading England’s carry and setting their emotional temperature, and on another day he wears this shirt. Gerhard Steenekamp‘s round-three demolition of Wales was the single most destructive scrummaging display of the series, whilst Angus Bell was the tournament’s most consistent carrying prop for Australia.
