Team of the Week - July Rugby Tests 2024 - Week 1

Picking Fifteen of the Best Players from Week 1 of the July Rugby Internationals
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Springboks vs Ireland
All Blacks vs England
Wallabies vs Wales
Los Pumas vs France
Samoa vs Italy
*Not including USA vs Romania, Scotland vs Canada or Georgia vs Fiji
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[@johndiamond6931]

You need to start picking 23, 15 players aren't enough and it takes the whole 23 to compete and win a match.

[@alpozongo1485]

I second that🔥💯

[@nepiahemopo1702]

Isn't the point to focus on the players that participated?

[@alpozongo1485]

@@nepiahemopo1702 Subs do participate 🤌🏿

[@phillipmiga3961]

U can't play rugby without the subs,

[@johndiamond6931]

@@phillipmiga3961 Every coach goes into the match to think how to best utilize all 23 players, Boks have this on lockdown. ABs use to do this too when they started off calling them impact players. Other teams have also adopted this, how often will you see a frontrower play the whole match?? Most front rowers play just over half a match and sometimes the bench front rowers play better than the starters like Malcolm Marx for example whose done it on so many occasions. I mean it's not just the 15 who play a part in the game now, all 23 players named do.

[@Kooka101]

Love Tom Wright, but gee that England fullback played well.

[@Alex-mj5dv]

Furbank can bang - and can take one too! Take a bow

[@happyscrappyheropup]

Yeah man - Furbank was pretty bloody good!

[@Natedawg38]

Caelan Doris man, was a warrior on Saturday. Definitely earned his captain chops in such an acid test of a game.

[@garysmith6746]

Couldn't agree more... the man was everywhere

[@garyburger6319]

Agreed! Hell of a player. (SA Fan).

[@stephendixon4716]

That Serin try was awesome- dribbling the rugby ball is a lost art and I just love seeing it done well. So many times guys knock on trying to gather the ball off the floor, but if they only knew how to control the ball with the boot the would've got there.

[@jonwalter1533]

Was it Argentina in the U20 WC also had a dbl touch dribble for try, some football country I thought, maybe it was the Spanish team.

[@marcschulze6290]

Great stuff, Mark. I live for these analyses each week; god, rugby is an awesome game!

[@Kooka101]

Good to see the player photos Mark.

[@johnmcdonald-6196]

Great to have so many quality players in tests against each other. I love this time of year.

[@ianhamilton6036]

All played well, but imho the singing of the South African national anthem stole the show. 53000 voices. Just brilliant

[@conallgeneral8136]

Official attendance announced on TV was 43500

[@kylebarron2722]

@@conallgeneral8136attendance announced at the stadium was 50066

[@rabbitss11]

Serin was THE no.9 for France, he was their future for the national team and then up popped you-know-who and eclipsed him completely, still a great player

[@marksimpson289]

Some great picks! I like the credit you always give to Franco Mostert. Caelen Doris was immense from a turnover perspective and kept Ireland in the game.

[@tonymatthews6928]

This is an excellent review of the weekend. You are ten times the rugby journo compared to all the professional ones in Australia. Mate seriously great stuff!👍👍👍

[@randomlyfactual1943]

Not a bad XV. I would have gone with Tadgh Furlong on tighthead for the sole reason of holding the mighty Bok scrum as well as he did for as long as he did. For the first All Black, Telea I would pick over Reece simply due to superior sliding ability. Legend has it that he is still sliding to this day. Furbank I think was immense on Saturday for England. Id also say Willie Le Roux had a good outing. Serin became my favourite scrumhalf ever with his try. Zidane himself would be proud. Also, I'm going to go with Marcus Smith for flyhalf and goal kicker.... For whoever Im playing against. Can I do that? Thanks. Well done Australia, good job New Zealand, hard luck Argentina and GOOOO BOKKEEEEEE 🐐 🍀 🏆

[@chrismouton1985]

Great to have some Samoan players there!

[@PaulSmith-yc9zp]

It would be great to see you do the 23! A bit longer and a bit more work for you lol. Great analysis as always man!

[@pauldoran3353]

Casey was excellent for Ireland at 9 and Osborne a great debut, Porter was really good also, looking forward to the 2nd test

[@mthunziphakathi4215]

Kriel's tackle was on Ringrose.

[@Benjani1011]

Love your channel mate, you're a lekker ou. Love from RSA, pumped for the incoming All Blacks tour!

[@michaelrapson]

Tupou has had injury issues but when fit he's a next level strongman.

[@the_katman2181]

I also think Doris played very well against the Boks, but for me Wainright did even better in a very tough (and losing) outing against the Wallabies. He was the best Welshman on the park, by some distance, and I'd pick him at no.8.

[@TheC4RB1N3]

Franco Mostert = Work Rate. That dude is everywhere

[@anaseiniwakani]

Peniasi Dakuwaqa over any other winger this guy is solid in defense and is the fastest winger on the planet at the moment.Him and Ravutaumada will form a flash combinations.

[@jonwalter1533]

They played Georgia?

[@Samizouza]

That TOTW is fire and speaks for itself

[@happyscrappyheropup]

"then recovers from the flailing" ... had me in stitches.

[@TwoCentsRugby]

Haha yeah the reaction time to stop flailing and just score the bloody try was impressive 😅

[@jonwalter1533]

Video worth watch for the names picked and their enunciation of them alone.

[@Mo-yd8xc]

Is that All Blacks game in San Diego going to be on any TV? I don't see it on florugby and it starts at 7pm EST.

[@mdj7268]

I miss Ireland's '98 team that toured SA. Perhaps not a great rugby team but they sure put up a good fight! 😜

[@jaykaye594]

I remember Gatlands solution to all the fighting was to bring on Trevor Brennan and Peter Cholessy for the second half. Lol.

[@conorcahill5422]

Fair selection, from an Irish point of view. Doris looked like our best player, but the rest just weren't good enough.

[@johndiamond6931]

Doris was in fine form, and a few of the players seemed unfit especially the midfield. Props did extremely well though.

[@kmclel1814]

Thought Casey was elite

[@randomlyfactual1943]

Doris was absolutely epic. But I'm going to say your guy Tadgh Furlong was brilliant at tighthead as always. Boks really struggled against him first half and that is saying something. I don't think your guys were bad - I think the Boks came at you with a style of play that you didn't at all suspect and your whole defensive line had to be reorganized on the fly, because suddenly you had monsters like Pieter Steph Du Toit and Siya Kolisi running at your backs with Kolbe and Arendse on their outside. I think you'll be a lot better organised next time round in Durban which will allow your boys to play their natural game a bit more. Roll on Saturday! 🐐🇿🇦🇨🇮🍀

[@johnmc3862]

Perhaps a bit unlucky in places but good win by SA.

[@johnmc3862]

@@randomlyfactual1943Is McCarty a bit of a penalty machine.

[@DankMangus]

Where do you get your match and player stats from? I'm struggling to find any these days.

[@Geezweez788]

Jesse still looking like he struggles to smoothly let the ball flow to his outside

[@Johkey3]

Where do you find detailed player statistics online?

[@Leafy653]

So many players to choose from rugby is thriving

[@JTM1809]

Pretty surprised Perofeta got picked at 15 over Furbank, who pretty much made that England 15 jersey his own until he soils the bed. Steward is imperious in the air, but is a defensive liability and has the footwork of an oil tanker. Furbank was excellent, covered the high ball, and injected himself in the play nicely. My #8 pick would be Aaron Wainwright who was pretty much the best player on the field in an otherwise hapless Wales team. He was everywhere and did everything. Ollie Lawrence is the new Owen Farrell in the sense, that he plays 12 for England, and he does no-arms tackles. He got away with two blatant ones, and one All Black got away with one as well. I think the other match officials must have told Amashukeli at half time to be more on guard with those. The main motive of the weekend were offsides. World Rugby needs to address this, I’ve never seen this many unpunished offsides in one weekend of rugby in my life. England with their aggro-blitz were pretty much constantly offside with multiple players all game long. Both Ireland and South Africa got away with some blatant offsides, but in that game there was at least some balance. Scott Barrett needs to mature as a leader and instruct his team early to abuse Amashikeli’s inaptitude to spot offsides, otherwise it will cost his team games down the line. Adjusting to the ref is a part of rugby skillset. Wales can shuffle fly halves all year long, but until they find one, who’s capable of controlling and managing games like Biggar or Anscombe could (making the lifes of the forwards easier), they’re going to lose, lose, and lose again.

[@neilparker6467]

The reason why daugunu slid over the goal line was because it was pouring with rain in Sydney the last 3 days before the game and on the morning and afternoon of game day, it held off 2-3 hours before the game haha so it was wet conditions because they drained the ground before the match

[@jaykay9919]

Two Cents you are amazingly objective, they should hire you on one of the major TV channels in the world!!!

[@yasserwallaby5835]

9:20 is that really the pic of Leuila? He looks like a front-rower 😄

[@stephanswart5797]

What app do you use to get your stats?

[@charlottescott7150]

Love your TOTW!

[@Treefellow1]

I find it interesting that relatively few Boks stood out (think Kolisis and Kolbe couldve made it) but I think its because they play so much as a team and Rassie often picks the non flashy players.. btw who was your fullback?

[@petrusvandermerwe-ln7vs]

fun selection guided by opposition strong\weak

[@robertwhalley882]

Furbank stood out more than Perofeta.... and would have picked Telea over Reece, he just always gets past the first tackle and came on really strongly in the second half.

[@rhysjones9870]

Honourable mention for Ben Thomas slotting at 10 for Wales, much better at 12 and hope he plays there next week but he really didnt look too bad at 10

[@sly4x692]

Dakuwaqa did well and should be ahead of Daugunu

[@princeplanet4300]

Add try of the week to your team of the week? There were some beauties

[@muhammad3351]

I'm sure try of the week would need a video all on its own

[@user-co9wi2lj2j]

Never miss a team of the week by Mark. The French and Aussie scrum showed how silly World Rugby is by willing to change the scrum's laws, it's a real spectacle. Glad to see D. Mack at ten but i'm a bit biased towards him.

[@unleashedmystery]

How is nobody talking of Lowes hand off to the face of Pollard 🤣

[@jps3894]

Honourable mention for the bomb squad

[@krazynz]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@frankbromfield5213]

And France

[@michaelironside8707]

I'm almost certain D'Angelo Leuila is a front rower..

[@tk_tai0]

The Wallabies are lucky to have Tupou. Would be a machine in the NRL

[@TwoCentsRugby]

When he's fit, he's a massive asset aye

[@altaafkader9675]

Who had the best rendition of their national anthem tho

[@Karma-qt4ji]

SA without a doubt. I was insulted on New Zealand's behalf at what their singer did to their anthem. It's a national anthem, not a pop song! Leave the fills and Mariah Carey sh*t out of it!!

[@PaulSmith-yc9zp]

Wales!!

[@charliepepper3039]

Cheslin Kolbe was brilliant on Saturday.

[@randomlyfactual1943]

@@charliepepper3039 He is always the most heavily marked man on the field. But if you give that man ten seconds of ball, he will find a way to hurt you. Which ks what we saw. Glorious clearance kick and one of the best opportunistic tries I've ever seen

[@mfp4136]

Come on. Kolise had an excellent game. The work he does is never really appreciate. Same for our diesel tractor.

[@user-no4kz9zm4c]

Cannot argue with your picks But the wallaby players looked good Because Wales where just so bad in every department and area of the match Should have been a few more Frenchmen really

[@wouterroos2359]

Filipo should have passed there. Got a beautiful try but I’m sure with more experience his decision making will improve.

[@dallaswatene5470]

Southern hemisphere dominated this weekend

[@BC-cp5vr]

Not a bad selection, but, I think Cunningham from Wales was outstanding and should be in.

[@joewhelan5018]

Was Pearce your referee of the week

[@wiremuhewitt8678]

Agree not only are you a try scorer. it's all the other little things you can do. Like that chase and tackle from Sevu

[@jpfowlds5921]

I don't know why kiwis keep choosing a woman beater. Hes not that good and he beats woman. He shouldn't be playing for the number 2 team in the world

[@terencehill8145]

After that front row you lost me bud

[@taksanetoshi]

Filipo D is waay too slow for test winger + hamstring issues + butterfingers. Did sweet fa except slow motion try.😮

[@happyscrappyheropup]

Almost bombed it too... Kellaway unmarked outside him... if it wasn't slip'n'slide he falls short and try goes begging.

[@PhillipDawson10]

Thanks Mark, let the stats do the talking.

[@monunyabidness5949]

Cheslin Kolbe over Sevu. Cheslins try was a thing of beauty and his individual effort, where Reese' try was a gift cross kick.

[@johndiamond6931]

Reece did alot of work off the ball which probably makes him a good choice at 14, even though his try was a gift it was all the other stuff he did which was good.

[@marco-dn7kd]

Kolbe has something of a sorcerer, or gremlin and ludion. He is a fairytale all by himself

[@jpfowlds5921]

​@@johndiamond6931sevu also beats woman for fun. So I'd take Kolbe before I choose the woman beater

[@johndiamond6931]

@@jpfowlds5921 wow really, I've heard rumours but never actually researched it such ashame. But because I don't anything about and my picks are solely on rugby and their players performances on tge field I will stick with Reece, personally I don't think ABs or Razor would want a player who does violent acts so maybe it's just a rumour?

[@KickingTeeRugby]

Kolbes try was more luck still played it well but all he did was soccer kick and chase it down. Plus there was no real defence as nobody expected Lowe have that big of a brain fart.

[@peterwomersley]

you have to take into account the opposition and the 23

[@jonwalter1533]

this isn't a video done by ai it was 4 games watched over 24hrs

[@greatshark9625]

Mate… need to consider quality of opposition when looking at stats. Wales are ranked 11th.

[@Hard_Thinker]

Like the concept, but not sold on using stats as the only criteria as France and Wallabies would have better stats due to the weak competition e.g. SA bomb squad crunched Ireland, who are not bad, but none of them made it.

[@jonwalter1533]

Done by eye i'd suggest, stats just for content. It's also done by influence, not straight perofrmance metrics like speed or kick velocity

[@hamishallen3751]

No problem about no Scots. Very few of these players would be anywhere near a Scotland 23. Paterson at FB was excellent, as was Richardson (converted from back row to hooker) and a number of others, but the Canadians were incredibly poor. Sad to see how far they've fallen from a side that was for so many years in that group of tier 2 nations alongside the pacific islands and Japan. Rugby needs strength in North America. Some of the Scots on show would be 4th choice in their position at best, and even scoring 73 it was a little disjointed. Glad Scotland are doing this type of tour this year and giving so many players a summer off. With the world cup last year, a season finishing in June and a Lions tour next year, lots of UK players going to absolutely hanging out their arses come next season, while Gregor gets time to work with what's coming through and start to work towards the next world cup.

[@Mo-yd8xc]

Tanisha the tank.

[@TheWynM]

Mate, we need 23 as a Safa our bom squad wins us games 👏👏👏

[@nicgeld]

Kriel also cost the Boks 5 points when he shot up outta line and created a gap which directly resulted in Ireland's last try.

[@user-yi6md5fh5o]

Come to South Africa. Youre always welcome here.

[@AE-ix2iz]

Love the list lol

[@martinvanrensburg4441]

SA got best wings in the world you must wake up

[@anaseiniwakani]

This guy never watch Fiji's game and he never put the lineup and result in his channel wait till Fiji smashed the Allblacks in San Diego next week.

[@SuperEdge67]

Comedy gold.

[@dumcasta9327]

Wallabies vWales- box kick to box kick ad nauseam

[@salemmurray711]

My 15: 1 De Groot NZ 2 Taylor NZ 3 Lomax NZ 4 Itoje ENG 5 Tuipolotu NZ 6 Finau NZ 7 Papali'i NZ 8 Savea NZ 9 Mitchell ENG 10 Mckenzie NZ 11 Telea NZ 12 Barrett NZ 13 Ioane NZ 14 Reece NZ 15 Perofeta NZ Good thing I'm not biased 🤣😉✌️

[@neillbarnard1072]

LOL, not even a little bias, let me guess just by looking at your selection, you support Wales? Hahaha

[@salemmurray711]

@@neillbarnard1072 howd you know? 🤣

[@neillbarnard1072]

@salemmurray711 lol, lucky guess 😅 I think my team would have had, much more Springboks in it, but that's only cause I support Samoa 🇼🇸 😉 😎

[@KickingTeeRugby]

You’re definitely a springbok supporter?

[@neillbarnard1072]

@@KickingTeeRugby lol, I was joking, but yes 🙈🙈🤣🤣

[@albertvanlingen7590]

doesn't the strength of the opposition matter ???

[@happyscrappyheropup]

To be fair you can only play what is in front of you

[@YOYOTh1s]

A total of one Springbok tight 5 player and two Aussies? What is this? Opposite world?

[@johnmcdonald-6196]

To be fair, the opposition was maybe not the same, I say that as an Aussie and it’s certainly not a dig at the welsh. Fact is we are both at similar stages of development. The big packs of the Nth and SA would monster us right now.

[@marnoster]

I think Mark is a stats man, and you’re not going to rack up big stats in 50mins. To be fair though, that Ausie scrum demolished the Welsh

[@YOYOTh1s]

@@johnmcdonald-6196 oh yeah. I agree. I think Tupuo really was able to dominate in that game. I also think Ireland and South Africa did kind of nullify each others scrums. Two top tight fives going hammer and tongs at each other do tend to make it difficult to stand out. Its also great to not see the usual suspects in a team of the week. Some new faces to look out for in the future.

[@YOYOTh1s]

@@marnoster fair enough!

[@AffectionateMountainRang-xv8gv]

I think it is as it is now. The Boks are old

[@basildavidson4597]

Mark needs to be brought to South Africa for the tests against the All Blacks and to experience South African rugby culture. How can sponsorships be found to do this?

[@magnuspeacock5857]

In the Scotland game, Dylan Richadson and Harry Paterson were a level above the rest of the players. With Turner in Japan, and Brown and Macinally both retired, Richardson is probably the favourite for the Scottish hooker shirt. Paterson was excellent as both a playmaker and an attacking threat. Similar player to LeRoux, though his kicking game hasn't really been tested yet. He'll be challenging Kinghorn for that 15 shirt.

[@AffectionateMountainRang-xv8gv]

The Boks are old now. I think the the only guy under 30 i think is Sacha

[@PhillipDawson10]

So Ireland list against and elderly team :-) That should not really make Ireland feel better

[@corbanbenthannon2081]

Lol

[@johannespayne9463]

Your two cents sound like one cents.

[@AffectionateMountainRang-xv8gv]

Thinking back on. The Boks and Irish game. The truth was it was dissapointing . Not a great game. Hope Durban is better

[@PhillipDawson10]

Do not know what game you were watching or what you classify as rugby. But 2 top teams goin gat it for 80 minutes with the result in the balance up to the end. Yes, there were some mistakes, but show me another game this weekend without mistakes.

[@jerry24675]

All you had to do is name 22 springboks and you have the number 1 team.

[@dallaswatene5470]

Good on ya Aussie