With a fiercely contested first leg of the 2025 Rugby Championship now behind us, we separate the wheat from the chaff in highlighting the highs and lows of the four nations in the competition so far.
Hot: Ultra-competitiveness across the board
Gone are the days of the All Blacks running away with the title and Argentina picking up the rear. In the current era, anyone can beat anyone with each of the four teams having won one and lost one during the opening two rounds of Rugby Championship action.
With Felipe Contepomi’s Los Pumas already proving last year that they are done being the competition whipping boys after beating each side for the first time in a single campaign, they’ve maintained that ruthless edge in the 2025 edition after putting New Zealand to the sword in a 29-23 win in Buenos Aires last week.
Meanwhile, after all and sundry predicted a Springbok thumping of the touring Wallabies at Emirates Airline Park in the opening round, Joe Schmidt’s men stunned the rugby world in coming back from the dead to inflict a well-deserved 38-22 win on the hosts.
Cold: Springboks’ attacking overzealousness on the highveld
Even attack coach Tony Brown himself was left frustrated at the Boks’ over-eagerness with ball in hand in their first round clash with Australia, and despite racing into a 22-0 lead inside the first quarter, they ultimately ran themselves off their feet and allowed the Wallabies a way back into the contest, which they duly and emphatically grabbed with both mitts.
While the eventual loss for the back-to-back world champions was a bitter pill to swallow, the reality is that they’d rather have something like this happen now than down the line this World Cup cycle, and the pushing of their attack-mindedness to the extreme may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Siya Kolisi’s men will now have a much better understanding of how and when to flick the Tonyball switch, which could provide them with the necessary insight they need as they seek to continually set the pace at the forefront of the global game.
Hot: Australian rugby union resurgence
As mentioned above and brought up by so many pundits in the game of late, it looks as though rugby union in Australia is very much on the up after several years of utter turmoil and abject disappointment. Although it was met with much criticism at the time, the decision by Rugby Australia to boot the Melbourne Rebels out of Super Rugby and reduce their number of franchises has seemingly been a masterstroke, with the depth of playing quality at the Waratahs, Brumbies, Reds and Western Force enjoying a huge upsurge.
Naturally, the upshot of that has been that the national team is reaping the benefits of an increasingly confident and competitive pool of players, something that will certainly not have gone unnoticed in Wales…
Cold: All Blacks’ backline trouble
Despite leading the world rankings after the first leg of the competition, New Zealand are not where they’d like to be game plan-wise, and Scott Robertson clearly has any number of issues that need solving at present. Perhaps most pressing of all though will be his backline conundrum, with a number of positions from numbers nine through fifteen remaining increasingly problematic.
Current scrumhalf injury crisis aside, there are question marks surrounding the long-term option at flyhalf (medium-pacer Beauden Barrett is currently being backed, with ageing Richie Mo’unga returning next year), while No 13 is a big issue, to say nothing of the trouble they’ve had in the back three.
At the moment, the questions outweigh the answers for Robertson and his coaching team ahead of make-or-break home Tests against the Springboks and what should be one of the most interesting Bledisloe Cup series in years.
Hot: Boks’ position heading into Eden Park humdinger
Many have been quick to point out the fact that the Springboks have been far from the polished product they were for much of 2024, and perhaps rightly so. However the fact remains that they are still in a better overall position than the All Blacks as the four-time World Cup-winners look to win at Eden Park for the first time since the legendary Philip Nel team of 1937.
One would have to go back as far as 1994, 50-Test matches ago, for the last time the Kiwis were beaten at their Auckland fortress, but the upcoming round three matchup on 6 September is looking increasingly likely to be in the Boks’ favour.
They may have a few kinks to iron out, particularly with regards to selection, but their quality in depth, game plan understanding and self-belief will give them the edge in a game surely set to be decided by the finest of fine margins.
