Yesterday's rugby matches in the southern hemisphere showed a significant improvement from the previous week but still the final results were the same.
Ireland gave the All Blacks an almighty fright, but fell to a last minute dropped goal, having failed to repel the home side's final thrust. The force and determination of the New Zealanders simply couldn't be matched
Wales were even closer to defeating the Wallabies but eventually succumbed to a penalty which became the last kick of the match. In the end, the Welsh had no one to blame but themselves for copying the Irish failure to fight to the very last kick.
England suffered a traumatic start to their match in Johannesburg with South Africa gaining a 12 point lead within 8 minutes. For the rest of the first half, England struggled to keep the Springboks at bay although they also managed to make some inroads themselves so that the half time score was only 10-25. The second half was a different 'kettle of fish' as the visitors showed terrific spirit and even looked the better side at times. The arrears were reduced to only 27-31 and it looked as though a huge shock might be possible before the South Africans ran in a last minute try to seal victory.
All 3 northern hemisphere sides could have won and all 3 might well do so in the next round of matches; sadly, those matches will be largely meaningless as the series are already won. This week's matches did, though, show that the gap between north and south may be narrowing and a northern hemisphere triumph at the next world cup may not be out of the question.
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