Joey Carbery
Leinster's preseason continued in fine form with a close win over Gloucester. With the amount of subs for both teams, the result is not that important, but it sounds like the style that Leinster are playing is what we want to see, with Joey Carbery and Nick McCarthy combining and playing well. Zane Kirchner is being tried at center, which makes sense with the probable absence of Ringrose and Henshaw on Ireland duty.
Munster opened up well against Zebre, while Ulster fell away to Exeter, with two late tries from academy player Robert Lyttle making the score look decent.
In Scotland, Vern Cotter is off home at the end of the season to come, Townsend will replace him in the Scotland job, and Dave Rennie of the Super Rugby chiefs will take over at Glasgow. I'd have given my right arm to have him coach Leinster.
In the Rugby Championship, it was one way traffic for the All Blacks in a very sided match against Australia. I can't see New Zealand losing one match this year, while Australia are all over the shop - just no answers at all to the speed, power and skill of the All Blacks. I'd say Michael Chieka is going to come under huge pressure...
It was a much closer match in Nelspruit, and Argentina will be kicking themselves for not winning that. They were 10 points up with ten minutes, then Goosen and Whiteley scored late tries to snatch a dramatic win. The Boks look good going forward, but their defense is all over the place, and too too many mistakes from an international side. Jantjies veers from the sublime to the ridciculous, but maybe he just needs more time. Argentina need to work on their discipline, but their counter attacking is good, and you'd fancy them against South Africa at home next weekend.
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