In a series that never really looked in doubt for New Zealand, the All Blacks completed a clean sweep of Australia to keep the Bledisloe Cup for a record 16th straight time. The first match played in Sydney’s ANZ stadium was a thrashing for the Wallabies with the All Blacks scoring six tries in a 38-13 win. The Second game resulted in a 40-12 victory to New Zealand and was played at Eden Park in Auckland, a place that the All Blacks haven’t lost to Australia since 1986 (the Wallabies have lost 16 times in a row at Eden Park in that time). The final test was played at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama Japan, the same ground that will also host the 2019 World Cup Final. New Zealand chose to move their second home game to Japan to help promote rugby in the country ahead of the 2019 World Cup that will take place there. This last game, which was arguably the closest of the series ended in a 37-20 win for New Zealand. This game was ruined for many Australian fans and supporters after Wallabies hooker Tolu Latu lashed out at his opposite number and struck him in the face after being dominated in a scrum and conceding a penalty and a yellow card. Even though the card was controversial for some, New Zealand coach Steve Hanson didn’t see it that way saying at a press conference,
“You’re not allowed to strike someone in the face, so it was pretty dumb too, wasn’t it?
“You do dumb things, you get dumb reactions”.
Despite this, the 46,143 Japanese rugby supporters loved the high stakes competition presented to them last week. For a country that is going to host the 2019 World Cup, it is very encouraging to see a stadium packed out to watch two neutral teams. This shows that rugby union is growing in popularity every year and that the Japanese Sunwolves inclusion into the Super Rugby competition was a success.
On the 3rd of November the national team of Japan, the Brave Blossoms competed in a test match against the All Blacks. It was a high scoring affair with the final result being 69-31. However, even though New Zealand did field a relatively weaker B-team with eight debutants and the score was one-sided the game is being seen as a success for Japanese rugby. In front of a record Tokyo crowd of 43,751, the Brave Blossoms excited and challenged the All Blacks at times posting their highest ever score against New Zealand. The game proved that Japan could have some success in their home tournament against the weaker teams in their pool as well as proving that the local crowd wasn’t out-of-place supporting a rugby union match.
My Picks for Japan 2019
In my eyes leading into to Japan 2019, I can only think of four teams that are realistically capable of winning it all in Yokohama on the 2nd of November 2019.
1. New Zealand
There’s not much to say here except that they have been the best team in the world for the better part of a decade and they have just found the perfect balance of experience and youth in the side. New Zealand has won three times including the last two world cups and they are looking for the first Rugby World Cup three-peat. With world rugby player of the year nominees Beauden Barrett and Reiko Ioane, the All Blacks will never struggle to score points. They haven’t been IRB ranked number one since 2009 because of luck.
2. Ireland
Hot on the tails of New Zealand on the IRB world rankings is Ireland, with 90.12 points they are only 2 points behind the All Blacks. Ireland has been the form team of the northern hemisphere this year only dropping one game to Australia back in June. Ireland completed the Grand Slam going undefeated in the Six Nations Competition earlier this year. They will provide a challenge to the All Blacks, both playing a very similar style. Ireland has the opportunity to become number one in the world if England wins against New Zealand on November 10th and they follow it up the week after on the 17th of November.
3. England
Australian coach Eddie Jones will be hoping his side can compete on the world stage to redeem themselves from a relatively disappointing 2018 by their standards. This year they have lost to Scotland, France, Ireland and South Africa twice in June. However, after a win against the Springboks on the 4th of November they will be looking to carry momentum into their match with New Zealand and then into next years World Cup. They play a very slow, forwards-oriented game that counters a lot of the southern hemisphere team’s attacking style of play. they will also look to redeem themselves after an embarrassing 2015 home World Cup where they failed to make it past the pool stage.
4. South Africa
South Africa is the only team to defeat the All Blacks so far this year beating them during the Rugby Championship. They are a very strong and exciting side to watch as an All Blacks fan. Last World Cup they narrowly lost to New Zealand in the semi-final in a game that some people think should have been the grand final. They just had a close one-point loss to England on the 4th of November that ended controversially with an uncalled penalty. The Springboks will be looking to further improve to finish one spot higher to win the 2019 Rugby Championship and then hopefully compete well in Japan in 2019.
Bodie Edwards
Bodie's Sport Blog 
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