{"id":1110641,"date":"2026-07-25T14:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1110641\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T14:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:34:15","slug":"nations-championship-awards-springboks-and-scotland-dominate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1110641\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations Championship awards: Springboks and Scotland dominate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Southern Series of the inaugural Nations Championship is done. 18 Tests inside a fortnight, and we hand out our awards \u2013 good, bad, and thoroughly deserved \u2013 to a competition that has already given us a man sent off whilst wearing a tracksuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are our winners, and in one or two cases our losers.<\/p>\n

Team of the series: South Africa<\/p>\n

Two sides came through the Southern Series unbeaten and only one of them did it whilst treating the fixture list as a selection laboratory. South Africa<\/a> scored 130 points and conceded 49 across their three matches, dispatching England 45-21 at Ellis Park, holding off Scotland 42-28 at Loftus Versfeld and then putting 43 unanswered points past Wales in Durban. New Zealand have the counter-argument and it is a decent one, given they beat the Six Nations champions France 34-32 in Christchurch before seeing off Italy in Wellington and Ireland at Eden Park, and the rankings gap between the two has narrowed as a result. On points difference and on the calibre of what was left out of each matchday 23, the Springboks take it.<\/p>\n

Coach of the series: Rassie Erasmus<\/p>\n

Erasmus<\/a> made 10 changes to his side after beating England and still won at Loftus, which tells you rather more about Springbok depth than any squad announcement does. Three from three whilst rotating that heavily is the sort of thing that makes November look ominous for whoever comes out of the northern pool.<\/p>\n

Gregor Townsend runs him close, because Scotland won in Argentina and then made South Africa work for 80 minutes on the highveld, and he has done it with a squad that has now beaten England, France, and Argentina inside a single calendar year.<\/p>\n

Player of the series: Pieter-Steph du Toit<\/p>\n

Three rounds, three different jobs, and not one of them done below the standard the shirt demands. Du Toit<\/a> packed down as an emergency lock and captained the side at Ellis Park, produced an all-court shift at Loftus Versfeld in the hardest 80 minutes South Africa faced all month, then set the defensive temperature in the Durban shutout. In a Springbok squad that changed 10 players between rounds, he was the one whose job description moved rather than his place in the side, and nobody in the tournament covered more ground.<\/p>\n

Warner Dearns is the only man who came close. Japan\u2019s captain produced back-row output from a six-foot-eight second-row and has led every lock in this competition with meaningful minutes since the last World Cup for linebreaks, tries, metres, post-contact metres and gainline success. He was also his side\u2019s best forward in the defeats to Ireland and France that followed the Italy win, which is what turned that result from an afternoon into a level. Second, and not by much.<\/p>\n

Breakthrough of the series: Paul de Villiers<\/p>\n

De Villiers learned he was starting an hour before kick-off in round one and then started all three Tests, which is not the usual trajectory for a debutant in a side with this much depth behind him. The Stormers fetcher took ball as a first receiver off the lineout, scored from a maul, and produced a breakdown steal a metre from his own line in Durban, finishing as the best-rated Springbok on the day.<\/p>\n

Where most breakout months are built on tackle counts accumulated whilst a team is under the cosh, De Villiers made his in matches South Africa were controlling, which is the harder way to be noticed. That Erasmus now must work out how to fit him and Siya Kolisi into the same back-row is the highest compliment available.<\/p>\n

Nick Mallett wades into Siya Kolisi versus Paul de Villiers\u2019 debate: \u2018It\u2019s squeaky bum time for older Springboks\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Game of the series: South Africa 42-28 Scotland<\/p>\n

Loftus Versfeld on July 11 gave us the only Nations Championship<\/a> match of the fortnight, other than Argentina v England, where the result stayed genuinely live into the final 10 minutes. South Africa led 14-0 inside 20 minutes through Embrose Papier and Evan Roos, and it looked like the usual pattern. Scotland<\/a> then levelled it at 14-14 by half-time through Matt Fagerson and Kyle Rowe, having twice got into the Springbok 22 in the opening exchanges and butchered both chances with a double movement and a crooked throw.<\/p>\n

The second half turned on what Scotland did not do. Ben-Jason Dixon was sin-binned for foul play and the visitors failed to score a point in his absence, and once South Africa were back to 15, they ran in three tries in 10 minutes either side of the hour through Elrigh Louw, Damian Willemse and Zach Porthen to lead 35-14. Scotland went again, Josh Bayliss and Ben White scoring inside two minutes to get within seven with ten to play, before Jesse Kriel settled it two minutes from time. South Africa missed 46 tackles and still won by 14, which is the sort of statistic that should worry both sides for different reasons.<\/p>\n

Performance of the series: Japan 27-10 Italy<\/p>\n

Japan were invited into this tournament as a guest and spent the opening Saturday of it beating a Six Nations side by 17 points, which gave them the first win in history in this particular tier-one competition.<\/p>\n

Captain Dearns crossed in it, and the margin was the substance of the thing, because holding Italy to 10 took a defensive shift nobody had asked the Brave Blossoms to produce. Italy, for their part, would spend the rest of the month discovering that this was the closest they came to a contest.<\/p>\n

Try of the series: Theo Attissogbe, France v New Zealand<\/p>\n

France lost in Christchurch by two points and still produced the best rugby of the fortnight in doing it, and Attissogbe\u2019s finish was the pick of it, taken at pace and at the end of a sequence France had no obvious business completing. The offload he threw in the same match was arguably better again.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang\u2019s two tries on debut in Brisbane made for the most electric first cap of the month and Will Jordan\u2019s Wellington hat-trick carried him past Doug Howlett as New Zealand\u2019s all-time leading Test try scorer, but neither had quite the audacity of the French wing on a night when Les Bleus were two points from the biggest result of the series.<\/p>\n

Moment of the series: Boan Venter and Cobus Wiese<\/p>\n

Restart receipt is not usually where you look for the highlight of a tournament. At Loftus, prop Boan Venter lifted 128-kilogram lock Cobus Wiese above his head to claim the restart, put him down still moving forward, and watched him run over three Scots and take down two more.<\/p>\n

Had Marvel assembled that sequence on a greenscreen we would have dismissed it as far-fetched and gone back to our popcorn, which tells you roughly what the Springboks now regard as a routine method of retrieving the ball.<\/p>\n

Surprise of the series: Scotland\u2019s 47 in Argentina<\/p>\n

Scotland had already beaten Argentina once in 2026, so the result was not the shock. The scoreline was. 47 points away from home in an opening round is not something that happens by accident, and Argentina scoring 38 of their own and still losing by nine gives you a fair idea of how the afternoon went. It set the tone for a fortnight in which Scotland were the only northern side to take two wins out of the south.<\/p>\n

Test power rankings: Springboks top the charts \u2018in every department\u2019 after \u2018sublime\u2019 Nations Championship while France \u2018set alarm bells ringing\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Biggest disappointment: Italy<\/p>\n

Three matches, three defeats, 37 points scored and 131 conceded, finishing with a 57-10 evisceration in Perth. That would be a difficult tour on its own but Italy also had three separate players or coaches suspended across the fortnight, which turns a bad run of results into something closer to a governance problem, and they arrive in November needing to host South Africa in Round Four.<\/p>\n

Shift worker of the series: Fiji Rugby Union<\/p>\n

Fiji played three home fixtures in Cardiff, Liverpool, and Edinburgh, lost all three and conceded 73 to England on the way, and it would be easy to file that under farce. It is nothing of the sort. Suva\u2019s HFC Bank Stadium holds a little over 15,000 against a tournament minimum of 25,000, so the union took the fixtures 16,000 kilometres north and turned each of them into a Fijian festival at somebody else\u2019s ground. Chairman John Sanday has put total revenue at just over $10 million against an outlay of around $3 million, which leaves a projected surplus in the region of $7 million, earmarked at least in part for a 25,000-seat stadium in Suva that Fiji would like ready for 2030. Director Lailanie Burnes and a small team of volunteers spent six months living in a campervan to deliver it.<\/p>\n

This is the oil rig worker delivering income remotely for their family. A Fijian goes away, works somewhere cold and unglamorous, sends the money home, and builds something with it, and the fact that the man on the rig also got beaten by Scotland at Murrayfield does not change the money that is in the envelope. Fiji beat Scotland 29-14 in Suva a year ago and would dearly love the fixture back on the island. On this arithmetic, they have a decent chance of paying for it themselves.<\/p>\n

Sustained hostilities award: Argentina<\/p>\n

Consider the week Argentina had. On the Wednesday in Atlanta, they knocked England out of the football World Cup 2-1, Lionel Messi setting up both Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez in the final five minutes. On the Saturday in Santiago del Estero they lost to England 31-24 in a match that produced seven yellow cards, a disallowed last-minute try, an object thrown from the stands at referee Angus Gardner and a head coach who walked out of his own press conference because he could hear England\u2019s music.<\/p>\n

On the Sunday in New Jersey, they lost the World Cup final 1-0 to Spain in extra time, with Enzo Fernandez sent off. Five days, two codes, three fixtures against European opposition and a great deal of shouting.<\/p>\n

Nigel Owens calls for action after \u2018totally unacceptable\u2019 referee \u2018abuse\u2019 following Argentina\u2019s disallowed try decision against England<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Red card of the series, tracksuit division: Marco Riccioni<\/p>\n

39 caps into a Test career without a red card, Marco Riccioni finally collected one in the 66th minute against Australia at HBF Park, 12 minutes after he had been substituted and whilst wearing his tracksuit. Riccioni came off the bench area and into a brawl that had spilled over the touchline, threw a punch in the direction of Wallabies debutant Miles Amatosero, and knocked several members of the Italian support staff off their chairs in the process with friendly fire. Christophe Ridley sent him to the changing rooms, though as he was no longer on the field Italy played on with 15.<\/p>\n

Riccioni is a keen and rather good cook, and the two-match ban that followed, reduced from four on his admission of guilt, means he will miss Perpignan\u2019s fixtures against Biarritz and Bath. Not even Nonna\u2019s recipes would have deterred Ridley.<\/p>\n

Diplomatic relations award: Henry Pollock<\/p>\n

England\u2019s squad arrived in Buenos Aires and, sensibly, stopped wearing anything with a rose on it in public. Around a million Argentines were about to fill the streets around their hotel to celebrate the football semi-final win in Atlanta, fireworks were still going off at four in the morning, earplugs were handed out, steel fencing went up in front of the building and the management eventually moved the squad to a different hotel altogether. Into this, Henry Pollock leaned out of the team bus and shushed the locals, with a thumbs-down for anyone at the back who had missed it.<\/p>\n

Steve Borthwick\u2019s assessment was that it had been good natured. Argentina\u2019s supporters took a different view and gave him the reception to match when he came off the bench in Santiago del Estero, at which point Pollock carried into contact, Argentina lost two men to the line and Marcus Smith scored England\u2019s fourth try minutes later. He had also scored a hat-trick off the bench against Fiji the previous weekend. Diplomacy takes many forms.<\/p>\n

Badge of shame: Tomas Albornoz<\/p>\n

Messi spent his World Cup quarter-final against Switzerland instructing Joao Pinheiro on the correct tone of voice to use when addressing him, which was widely reported as the definitive Argentine confrontation of the month. Albornoz then went to Santiago del Estero and, on the final whistle, ran at Angus Gardner and made physical contact with him, which is a level of commitment Messi never reached. The Toulon fly-half has been charged with misconduct under World Rugby\u2019s Match Official Abuse Sanction Process, which carries sanctions ranging from an automatic two matches to 18 weeks, and an apparent strike on Tommy Freeman during the match itself went uncited.<\/p>\n

Outshining Messi as both a playmaker and an official-botherer inside the same week is a rare double.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Rating every Ireland player from the Nations Championship: Two standouts but too many \u2018missed opportunities\u2019 for Andy Farrell\u2019s side<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Southern Series of the inaugural Nations Championship is done. 18 Tests inside a fortnight, and we hand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1110642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4102],"tags":[10105,186,393,126,33405,36,7614,225,90462,678,2199,2122,228523,704,12,19849,7405,4151,712,2196,79,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1110641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-argentina","tag-australia","tag-england","tag-features","tag-fiji","tag-france","tag-henry-pollock","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-italy","tag-japan","tag-nations-championship","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-pieter-steph-du-toit","tag-rassie-erasmus","tag-rugby","tag-scotland","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116981115629440546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1110641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1110642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1110641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1110641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1110641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}