TEST RUGBY MATCHES: The Big Games 30 October

30.10.2010
Australia 26, New Zealand 24 in Hong Kong (Bledisloe Cup)
Samoa 13, Japan 10 in Tokyo
Argentina A 32, Russia 6 in Moscow

Briefly
Australia ended a nightmare run of losses against New Zealand when they won with a last minute try and conversion. It also ended New Zealand's run of fifteen test match wins in a row. Australia now head to Europe with some confidence while New Zealand will wonder how they managed to lose this test. Down 0-12 after an Aussie onslaught at the start of the game they came back 17-12 then went up 24-12 before the Wallabies clawed their way back.

Japan managed to lose to a well below strength Samoa side in Tokyo. I'm not sure whether it means that Samoa has an amazing pool of talented players or that Japan was just awful. Samoa was missing up to ten players from the team that won the Pacific Nations Cup, and who had lost to Japan at that tournament.

The Argentina Jaguars finished their two match tour of Russia with another convincing win. Russia still has a lot of work to do before they will be anywhere near competitive at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.