2009 Tri Nations wrap-up

Well, last weekend's 33-6 trouncing of the Wallabies by the All Blacks wrapped up this year's Tri Nations tournament. It was a great one for the Springboks, who won it for only the third time, underlining their deserved spot as World Champions and at the top of the IRB rankings. For the All Blacks and Wallabies it was obviously less satisfying, particularly for the Wallabies - at the beginning of the tournament, some thought they may be the team to watch. But unfortunately, in spite of playing brilliantly in patches, they just couldn't put it together consistently enough to threaten for the title. Still, they remain a dangerous team, and I expect them to continue to improve, as long as they don't do anything stupid (like axing Robbie Deans).

So in the end the points table looks like this:

Team	P	W	L	D	Bon	Pts
South Africa	6	5	1	0	1	21
New Zealand	6	3	3	0	1	13
Australia	6	1	5	0	3	7

And here's a reminder of the results of each game:

All Blacks 22 - 16 Wallabies
Springboks 28 - 19 All Blacks
Springboks 31 - 19 All Blacks
Springboks 29 - 17 Wallabies
Wallabies 18 - 19 All Blacks
Wallabies 25 - 32 Springboks
Wallabies 21 - 6 Springboks
All Blacks 29 - 32 Springboks
All Blacks 33 - 6 Wallabies

Autumn Internationals

The tri nations teams now have a few weeks break from internationals before the annual north versus south series known as the rugby autumn internationals kicks off. No doubt the players will be released back to their clubs to participate in their domestic competitions, while the coaching staff frantically plan ahead for the upcoming matches.