The Nations Championship and Nations Cup served up an abundance of great contests in round one, with several matches going down to the wire. Here are some of the standout performers from the opening rounds.
Cam Roigard (New Zealand)
France leaving a sizable gap in their defence, through which Roigard gladly sniped for one of his tries in Christchurch, proved costly. The All Black scrum-half is ruthless in those areas and beat more defenders (six) than anyone else in the opening game.
Arguably the world’s in-form nine after his role guiding the Hurricanes to the Super Rugby Pacific title, seeing Roigard go up against France's Maxime Lucu was a treat for watching views. Just like many of his predecessors in the scrum-half shirt, Roigard often seems to find the perfect support line to get on the end of line breaks when New Zealand cut through.
His half-back partnership with Hurricanes’ team-mate Ruben Love also looked promising in all black.
Ryunosuke Ito (Japan)
Praise from the opposition coach after your Test debut should be considered a strong sign that a player has done something right, and Italy’s Gonzalo Quesada went out of his way to credit Japan’s 10 Ito for his performance after an impressive – and winning – first start for Japan.
Ito was the pick of four new caps on show for Japan, running the show confidently with some slick passing and demonstrating sharp feet to beat three defenders. Just 21 and still playing at university, he looks to have locked-up the fly-half shirt for the foreseeable future, after matches against the Māori All Blacks and now Italy.
Hugo Keenan (Ireland)
His first Test for Ireland in over a year went very well, with Keenan picking up the player of the match award at the end of an entertaining down-to-the-wire tussle with Australia – in which his try-saving tackles were the difference between victory and defeat. He also scored, running a sharp line off Garry Ringrose to put Ireland ahead early in the second half.
The Wallabies must be sick of the sight of the fullback, who started in all three Tests for the Lions last summer. Ireland, meanwhile, are just thrilled to have him as the last line of defence.
Jac Morgan (Wales)
The Wales rebuild continues brick by brick, and having their captain back for the first time since his injury against Argentina last autumn helps enormously.
Set-piece dominance is an essential part of Steve Tandy’s repertoire and Wales scored three tries through their pack against Fiji with Morgan finishing off one of their mauls. It was hardly a shock to see him finishing Saturday’s game in Cardiff as the top tackler (17) and poaching a couple of turnovers, including one inside the first couple of minutes.
In a game where Fiji’s offloading was exceptional even by their own high standards, making 32 offloads to Wales’ two, Morgan rose to the defensive challenge. With Morgan, that should surprise no one.
Damian Willemse (South Africa)
There were several South African contenders for a spot on this list after their big win over England, particularly newbies Paul de Villiers and Number Eight Cameron Hanekom, after a late pack reshuffle, but Damian Willemse at full-back, winning his 50th cap, was sublime.
He ruled the sky in aerial contests, let his balletic footwork outwit English defenders, used his power to drive through heavy traffic and his booming right-peg to send the ball into the stratosphere for a majestic 50-22.
It was, in short, a complete performance from the uber-talented Stormer who is one of the world’s best in multiple positions.
Kyle Rowe (Scotland)
It is a joy to see Rowe thriving in a Scotland shirt after suffering such a serious knee injury a few years back. A threat with his pace and quick feet whether used at wing or full-back, against Argentina in Cordoba he scored the seventh try of his Scotland career, turning on the jets to speed past Santiago Carreras – a finish that was also Scotland’s seventh try of the match.
No player made more line breaks (five) or beat more defenders (eight). Blair Kinghorn has been rested this summer at the end of a long French domestic season for Toulouse and the British and Irish Lions, but with Rowe around Scotland have real depth now at full-back.
Edward Sigauke (Zimbabwe)
Zimbabwe gave Tonga a serious scare in Colorado and the performance of Edward Sigauke was a big factor. The winger can seriously shift, and showed great pace and footwork to slip past multiple Tonga defenders to set up Tinotenda Mavesere’s try.
When you have a nickname like ‘The Transporter’, your acceleration better be good, and the 22-year-old’s speed from a standing start is something to behold. Much more to come, you would hope, for a player who has impressed in the Varsity Cup in South Africa but looks as though he is made for a bigger stage, including next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Manuel Cardoso Pinto (Portugal)
It’s not often that a player scores four tries and still ends up on the losing side. Pinto took his tally for Portugal to 24 in 40 appearances on a remarkable night in Colorado against USA, showing tremendous speed to latch onto a grubber for his first and benefiting from a good bounce for his second.
In fact, most of his tries were a case of being in the right place at the right time; he cut a clever line off Samuel Marques to go over for his hat-trick before his fellow winger Raffaele Storti threw a sublime pass his way for try number four. Chris Hilsenbeck’s late penalty meant USA snatched a tight one-point win on the Fourth of July, but this was an excellent 80 minutes for Pinto.
