Joshua Brennan enjoyed an eventful debut for France in Wellington on Saturday as Les Bleus were beaten 43-17 by the All Blacks.
The 23-year-old Toulouse lock and son of former Ireland international, Trevor, was sinbinned in the first half of the second Test at Sky Stadium for a tip-tackle on Jordie Barrett, but would score the final try of the game in the 77th-minute for a French side that travelled to New Zealand without most of their first-choice players.
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson had called for better execution after the tight 31-27 win in the first Test in Dunedin last weekend and his players delivered to sew up the series with next week’s Hamilton clash to spare.
Cam Roigard, Ardie Savea, Codie Taylor and Tupou Vaa’i all crossed to give the hosts a 29-3 half-time lead before Will Jordan and Rieko Ioane added two more tries after the break.
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France never got going until the second half and had to settle for tries from Leo Barre and Brennan after the break.
Replacement scrumhalf Jack van Poortvliet scored a try in the final minute as England claimed a 22-17 victory over hosts Argentina at the Estadio Bicentenario in San Juan on Saturday to take the series 2-0.
Argentina led 17-14 at half-time and despite heavy England pressure in their 22, George Ford’s penalty was the only points scored in the first 39 minutes of the second period until Van Poortvliet scampered over from a fine break by Guy Pepper.
Centre Seb Atkinson and fullback Freddie Steward scored tries as England, without a host of regular players on duty with the Lions, completed a memorable series win.
“We found a way in the end. We had a lot of opportunities in the 22 but couldn’t get over the line, I’m proud of the boys,” Ford said.
“I like our fight, our togetherness, showing how much we care. There was some great stuff, we should have scored more tries but the attitude of the group is great.”
Centre Lucio Cinti and wing Ignacio Mendy crossed for scores for Argentina, who had to weather heavy England pressure in the second half and could not see the game out for at least a draw.
Matt Sherratt hopes Wales’ 31-22 victory over Japan can “be the start of something” after they snapped an 18-match losing Test run.
A hard-fought performance saw Kieran Hardy score two tries along with efforts from Josh Adams and Dan Edwards as Wales held off a second-half Japan comeback to clinch the win in Kobe. It earned Wales their first Test win since beating Georgia at the 2023 World Cup.
Sherratt took over as interim head coach following the departure of Warren Gatland during the Six Nations in February and he hopes Saturday’s win can help his successor start with a clean slate.
“A very passionate group of players and staff. There’s some real talent as well,” Sherratt told a post-match press conference. “Today is the end of a long season, but for Welsh rugby it’s got to be the start of something.
“The next guy coming in – the big motivation for the group was to let whoever that is start on a level playing field without the burden of the 18 in a row around his neck.“
Head coach Gregor Townsend warned Scotland to clean up their act after a bruising 29-14 defeat to Fiji dented their hopes of a favourable World Cup draw.
The Scots went into the game with high hopes of easing themselves into world rugby’s top six, an achievement which would give them a kinder group in Australia in 2027.
However, they emerged from it having learned a harsh lesson as winger Darcy Graham was given a red card after picking up two of three yellows – the other went to hooker Ewan Ashman – to make positive starts to both halves largely irrelevant.
Asked what lessons could be learned, Townsend said: “Discipline, clearly. There were 14 penalties and three yellow cards and I would imagine most of them are in our control, so that’s unusual for us to give away so many penalties and yellow cards.
“That fatigues us when we’re a man down, but also gives the opposition opportunities in our 22 and eventually those opportunities told for Fiji and they got the tries.”
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