Who’s hot and who’s not!

David Skippers

It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past week.

THEY’RE ON FIRE!

AJ MacGinty: Helped the USA to a 13-10 victory over Samoa in their second Pacific Nations Cup clash, which sealed back-to-back wins for the Eagles. MacGinty provided all of his side’s points via a try, conversion and two penalties, one of which came at the death to secure the triumph. Alongside Japan, Gary Gold’s men are the only nation to win both their games thus far and they face each other in a mouth-watering clash in Suva this weekend.

Golden Lions: Speaking of late penalties, an effort from fly-half Shaun Reynolds helped the Golden Lions to end Free State Cheetahs’ unbeaten start to the Currie Cup season on Friday. Sealing their first victory in Bloemfontein since 2015, the visitors remarkably came from 19-0 down to win 24-22 in a thrilling recovery. Madosh Tambwe, Tyrone Green, Wandisile Simelane crossed the whitewash for the Golden Lions while Reynolds added nine points.

Japan: Another outstanding performance from the Brave Blossoms in the Pacific Nations Cup , who followed up their impressive victory over Fiji with a 41-7 demolition of Tonga. It is a result which will concern World Cup group rivals Ireland, Scotland and Samoa, with the hosts playing some outstanding rugby leading into the tournament. They controlled the match from the start, going 21-0 ahead at the break, before adding to that with two late tries through Kotaro Matsushima and Kenki Fukuoka. It wouldn’t be a major shock to see them progress from the pool.

Peni Ravai: While he only played half a match for Fiji in their 38-13 win over Canada, the tighthead prop showed enough to suggest he will be a standout in their upcoming Rugby World Cup campaign. The 29-year-old was such a handful with ball in hand as his power and quick feet gave Canada all kinds of problems. While it was a comfortable win, it was far from a perfect performance from the islanders and there’s much improvement needed if they are to usurp either Australia or Wales for a knockout spot. However, credit where it is due, Ravai impressed in the first 40.

COLD AS ICE!

Knock-on confusion: This was abysmal from the officials, who denied Samoa a legitimate score in the Pacific Nations Cup after some poor communication. The USA shifted the ball wide and appeared to have an overlap, only for Johnny Vaili to intercept by kicking the ball ahead and collecting, leaving him a free run to the line. However, Nigel Owens misheard the assistant referee, who said: “blue kicked it forward,” thinking that he had instead said: “blue knocked it forward.” Once Owens realised the error, he apologised and awarded the Pacific Islanders the scrum, but it cost Samoa a potential victory, with the North Americans taking a last-minute 13-10 triumph. Let’s hope these kind of blunders don’t happen at the upcoming World Cup otherwise the outrage would be palpable.

Ball moving outrage: Much has been said – especially on social media – after Beauden Barrett was caught moving the ball behind referee Nic Berry’s back while lining up a penalty during the All Blacks’ 16-16 draw with South Africa in their Rugby Championship Test in Wellington recently. A sharp-eyed Bok supporter spotted Barrett’s cheeky action which led to outrage, notably in South Africa, with several fans accusing him of cheating. However, that sort of thing has been going on for ages with goal-kickers and even Sharks and Springboks utility back Curwin Bosch has defended Barrett by admitting that it’s common practise in the game. Referees must keep their focus on the kicker until the ball is on the tee before they avert their eyes. This would remove any such acts from those pesky backs.

Taulupe Faletau injury: A huge shame that one of the world’s best will not be featuring at the upcoming global tournament in Japan following an injury to his collarbone. Faletau was beset by issues during the 2018/19 season, breaking the same arm twice while playing for Premiership side Bath, and the number eight has sustained another problem. It appeared as though the 28-year-old was regaining match fitness and looked set to play a large part in Wales’ Rugby World Cup campaign but he has unfortunately suffered a setback and will miss the competition.

The mess at the Kings: Mess is the right word. Media leaks and coaching qualification issues were unfortunately put in the public eye during the selection process and it made for a fiasco at the Southern Kings. Former Springboks head coach Peter de Villiers was one candidate for the job but a reported lack of World Rugby Level 3 certification was rebuked by him, which seemed to be the final straw for the selection panel, who on Friday aborted the process. The club has now opted to put Robbi Kempson in interim charge of the team, with this a sorry episode for the side.

Axed All Blacks: It was a shock, particularly since he was named in our Team of the Week, that Shannon Frizell was cut by the New Zealand selectors for their two Bledisloe Cup fixtures. Following Vaea Fifita’s underwhelming effort against Argentina, we felt Frizell showed up well versus South Africa, but those in charge of the All Blacks roster evidently disagreed. Apart from Frizell, Dalton Papalii, Asafo Aumua and Josh Ioane were also omitted, while the other interesting absentee in the group was Karl Tu’inukuafe. The Blues prop was the story of 2018 after coming from relative obscurity to become the starting All Blacks loosehead, but Atu Moli is the preferred option this week.