Man, we’ve waited a long time for this! I promise we do more than just home nations rugby at the Sport Addict Corner, but with the World Cup kicking off last week in France it seems like a no-brainer to do so. The dust has settled on the opening weekend of fixtures, with markers laid and tries a plenty scored. Some teams impressed, some surprised, some disappointed, and one in particular made my blood pressure and heart rate reach a record high (probably). So, without any further ado, let’s get into it!

Ireland: Yeah, They’re Pretty Good

As the Boys in Green marched on to Bordeaux to start their quest to bring the Webb Ellis Cup to Ireland, they made easy work of Romania. You can’t really take too much away from a game like this, but they played some great rugby and beat the Stejarii with ease like most of us expected. To give credit to Romania they started pretty well. They opened the scoring after only 3 minutes after catching Ireland sleeping, but they more than responded with Jameson Gibson-Park’s first try of Ireland’s 12 just two minutes later. Ireland kept playing with full intensity for the 80 minutes when it would’ve been easy to take their foot off the gas slightly. Everyone managed to get a run out, Johnny Sexton looked great, and nobody got injured. Romania were never going to beat or even threaten Ireland, but it could’ve been one that the Irish could’ve not won by as much as they did if they had overlooked their opponents a bit and played a different style, but they got through them with ease. We’ll get more of an idea of how incredible this Ireland team really is with the Tonga game on Saturday before moving on to the biguns against South Africa and Scotland. But you can only beat the team in front of you, so far? So good.

England: George’s Marvellous Kicking

I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN! I TOLD YOU THIS WAS INEVITABLE! BORING AND BAD WAS HOW THE STEVE BORTHWICK ERA AT LEICESTER STARTED AND LOOK WHERE IT TOOK THEM! THIS WAS A BORTHWICK LEICESTER PERFORMANCE! IT WASN’T PRETTY BUT BY GUM IT GOT THEM THE RESULT!!!!!!!!! *ahem* What a statement that is from England. It may not have been the prettiest of performances, it may not have been that exciting for a neutral, but it was exactly the kind of game England needed to play. When Tom Curry was shown a red card, I thought that would be the game over before it even really started, but England managed to keep calm and George Ford had a performance for the ages. They managed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and didn’t let go with a python-like grip. While George Ford will rightfully get the plaudits, a lot of England’s more senior players played brilliantly. Maro Itoje didn’t put a foot wrong, Courtney Lawes was once again an absolute menace, and Manu Tuilagi more than stepped up when he needed to. England will have loads of momentum from this going into Sunday’s game against Japan and are now arguably favourites to win the group. If (and it’s a big if) they don’t slip up against Japan or Samoa, then I think England could go quite far in this tournament.

Scotland: Damp Squib Opener

I thought Scotland were going to win this, I don’t particularly know why but I just had a feeling. After their Six Nations campaign and impressive showing in the Autumn, I expected Scotland to hit the ground running at this World Cup, but there was a massive South Africa shaped obstruction in their way. The match itself was a bit dull, not too much happened as South Africa played a very disciplined game. It could’ve been a different outcome if Jesse Kriel was sent off (which he 100% should’ve been), but as England proved the day before if you manage a game properly then you can cope when you’re a man down. The Boks never really let Scotland get any rhythm and played an absolutely ruthless game. Chances were few and far between for both sides, but the difference is South Africa made the most of them with their tries coming from Pieter-Steph Du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse in the second half. They started the game quite nervously and it took a while for them to properly get into it, but whenever they tried to get some play together the South African defence stayed strong and frustrated Scotland. I thought Scotland scrummaged well at times, but much like everything else in the game towards the end South Africa managed to gain control and see the game out. It’s going to take an absolutely monumental effort from Scotland to reach the knockout stages, I can’t really see it happening after quite a lot of early excitement surrounding the team, but stranger things have happened.

Wales: Heart Rate at an All-Time High

I think I’m over this game now, just. This was probably one of the best and most exciting games I’ve watched in recent memory. Wales made this game quite hard for themselves. If they played a standard Warren Gatland game where they kick and slow it down then maybe it wouldn’t have been as close as it was, but they didn’t, and Fiji made it tough. It was a typical Wales-Fiji game with cold sweat flashbacks to 2007 at multiple times. I thought Wales played very well in patches, but also a bit silly in others. After Josh Adams’s opener was met with two quick tries from Waisea Nayacalevu and Lekima Tagitagivalu the flood gates could’ve opened, but the defence stayed strong while Wales scored some tries of their own through George North, Louis Rees-Zammitt, and Elliot Dee. But this is Fiji we’re talking about, and if you give them even the slightest sniff of an opportunity then they’ll take it with both hands. Two tries in the last 10 minutes from Josua Tuisova and Mesake Doge gave Fiji the chance to win it late, but a dropped ball from Semi Radrada meant that Wales won, just. Wales played a strong defensive game because in all honesty, they had to. If your defence isn’t on top form against Fiji, then you won’t win. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Wales broke the record for the most tackles in an opening round with 252. But it’s a big and important win for Wales, with the quarter finals in touching distance.

Now I know there were some very questionable refereeing calls, you don’t have to remind me like the rest of Twitter have relentlessly since Sunday. My silly little post about Gareth Davies was loved by most (including a certain Welsh Rugby legend) but certainly upset a few. One reply said they wanted to see me “cained by a Fijian” which is just a bit rude but more than that totally illogical. I don’t go to school anymore and the cane has been banned since 1986, make it make sense mate. All I’ll say is, Tom Shanklin finds me funny and I have the tweet to prove it, so there.

That’s all for this week! Be sure to tune in next time for the next round of reviews.