This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with tours, discontent in Ireland, new faces and goose eggs…

On tours and touring

It’s probably the right week to remind the rugby public that it is a handsome 50 years almost to the day since Australia’s national rugby team set off on a three-month, 25-match tour of the UK, Ireland and the USA. A comfortable two-match per week itinerary.

It didn’t fare all that well; the Wallabies were beaten by all the home nations bar Ireland, although most of the sub-international matches were won. But it held to all the touring traditions of the time: an opening match against a university team (Oxford), a Christmas match against the combined services and a closing match against the Barbarians.

The travelling party consisted of 32 players, a coach and a manager, Ross Turnbull, who, according to the Rothmans Rugby Yearbook of the time, was integral to making the side “one of the most popular ever to visit Britain.”

It’s the right week to remind because, 50 years on, we have another tour on the itinerary rather than the usual palette of vanilla end-of-season Tests or endless Rugby Championship fixtures, featuring New Zealand heading to South Africa.

It’s not set to be a tour of such epic proportions: eight matches in five weeks and one of those weeks will likely be spent in the ‘neutral venue’ proposed for the final match (USA, Dublin or London). Nor will it be so simple; it’s not impossible to conceive of the management party for New Zealand outnumbering the 1975 Wallabies’ playing squad, for example. Nor will it be, in any way, low-key and a slow builder.

Springboks v All Blacks: Shock venue tipped to host Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry finale

It’s announced itself as ‘Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’, an epithet which any of the home nations, or France for that matter, might look at scornfully as they plot the next conquest of England.

It’s supplanted the Rugby Championship, which Australia and Argentina now have to find ways of filling. The Bledisloe Cup now occupies its own spot in the calendar in October, while the book-ending of those two tournaments with Nations Cup fixtures now means the All Blacks and Springboks have an almost continuous five-month international season.

That’s not the case for either Australia or Argentina, a state of affairs which has feathers in those two countries well-ruffled.

Such things were not a consideration to the 1975 Wallabies, and nor, evidently, were aspects such as recovery and load management. But neither was the size of the opposition a factor. The omission of the Cheetahs in particular, but also the Griquas – that’s the current Currie Cup holders, lest we forget – is a bit glaring if we are to talk about a proper inbound tour. Imagine touring England and playing Harlequins, Leicester, Bath and Northampton but not Gloucester or Saracens, for example. Or, perhaps more pertinently, touring France and playing Clermont, Racing and Bordeaux, but neither of Pau or Bayonne.

And it’s that sort of thing that makes Loose Pass feel a little uneasy about the whole thing. South Africa played New Zealand three or four times a year anyway, so we’ve not got much of a change. The All Blacks are playing the big franchises who stand to cash in, but it does feel like that will only exacerbate the gap between the haves and have-nots in South Africa, not to mention spinning a big buck for the two national unions in question. The omissions of Durban and Pretoria from the Test itinerary and the doubling-up of Ellis Park is astonishing when you consider how bare the big stadium is for any or all of the Lions games.

It’s an inbound tour and it is something a little different. But something fresh on the menu it is not. A two-month tour with two games a week against a range of teams and finished off with three Tests: that would have been something new and special. This tour is just new, but unique or special is too much. It’ll make a lot of money though. Probably.

Rassie Erasmus’ verdict on Springboks featuring in midweek games against the All Blacks

November may define an era in Ireland

The discontent in Ireland grows. Leinster’s form is indifferent by most standards, poor by theirs. Yet Ireland’s national team features almost an entire matchday squad from the capital, despite their being on the end of a comprehensive drubbing from Munster last week.

Munster and Ulster still have 100 per cent records, while Leinster have won one from four. The number of Munster and Ulster players in the national team? Four each. Weighed up against the 21 players chosen from Leinster, that does not speak to a selection based on form.

Experience does count, while the credit in Andy Farrell’s bank is significant, but the dissent from outside the capital is just as significant, while the decision to play in Chicago against the All Blacks next week looks ever more ridiculous when you examine the travel schedules and current injury.

Should November not run to plan for Ireland – and there are dangers lurking all over the place – the number of legitimate questions to be asked will grow. Fast.

November in Dubai

Rugby has long sought fresh things on the menu; the revelations of Portugal and Chile at the last World Cup were in many ways the most welcome memories. The expansion of the World Cup to 24 teams for the 2027 edition means we retain those two, welcome back Zimbabwe after a long absence and welcome Hong Kong for the first time.

The repechage tournament in Dubai next month now sees two old faces in Samoa and Namibia, and two newbies in Belgium and Paraguay, for whom the appearance will likely be the first time many fans knew either country even had a national team. But Belgium have been snapping at the heels of Portugal, Romania and Georgia for a while now, while Paraguay have emerged as the South American best behind the traditional strongholds of Argentina and Uruguay – and now, Chile. The best of luck to all for what should be an intriguing tournament.

Goose eggs everywhere

Only a month into the European season is too small a sample size, but Loose Pass has been struck by the number of nillings over the past three or four weeks. There have been five in four weeks in the URC, while Harlequins also left Exeter pointless last week.

Better defences? Fewer penalties being kicked for goal? Have the current law interpretations made it easier for dominant teams to shut things down? Or are points becoming just less interesting weighed up against tries?

READ MORE: Springboks v All Blacks: A comprehensive analysis of the 12 previous Greatest Rivalry series