The applause that rose up around this writer at the final knock was bigger than any applause that had come before it.

There were high hopes for the match, and the least that everybody seemed to think was that it could never be worse than the matches that had been played on Saturday. And the match started well, but then deteriorated into an absolute shambles.

Sure it was raining, making handling tricky, but Ireland played without any depth for the entire first half and for most of the second half. Wales did, but made so many errors at crucial moments, they did not get anything out of it. But it was like watching a boxing match between a fat guy who hits hard, but never really hard enough, and doesn’t really move about, and a very mobile guy who jabs with his pinky finger.

Wales showed imagination, but no clout. Ireland showed plenty of clout but barely any imagination, or even ambition.

At first, everyone was watching in quiet anticipation – this writer included. But very quickly there were sighs, groans and curses. And rightly so. The match was atrocious. A draw was not a deserved result for either side. They both lost here.

And the worst thing of all is that it really does epitomise the demise of northern hemisphere rugby. All six big teams played absolutely horrendously. England and Scotland managed to make a proper game out of it, but it was not great. France, Ireland, Italy and Wales were nothing more than a shambles.

And the fact that the title favourites can be this useless is just all too typical. During the last round of the World Cup the northern nations were a shambles, and only Scotland stood out. This whole weekend of rugby showed it has only gotten worse.

This writer thought the comedy rugby of the France-Italy game was the epitome of it, but he was wrong. It was the monster of a match between Ireland and Wales. It lacked ambition, skill and depth. Both sides made ridiculous basic errors and were just all over the place.

Both used their wingers to take balls into touch from a standstill, inside the tram lines, probably the dumbest thing you can do. Watching it, this writer was not alone. There were shakes of heads at those moments and shouts of “take the hit!”, “why did you do that?” and some swear words in multiple accents.

Speaking as a youth coach, there is one single thing this writer hates seeing more than anything else: players bunched up in a tiny part of the field. If a team does that when they try to drive over the line from five meters out, that’s fine, but in general play it is unforgivable. It means you have no options. You can only take the crash ball, and the only thing you can do is try to muscle through. Kids have a tendency to do it, being drawn to where the play is, but in these guys it is unforgivable.

This writer hopes next weekend is better, or all of us rugby lovers in the northern hemisphere will be faced with some very dark and depressing days.

Maybe we should all watch the Americas Rugby Championship instead. It seems they at least know how to play…

Paul Peerdeman, Pundit Arena

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