Seven Things We Learned From The Weekend's Internationals

Gather round everyone. Hayden Donnell is about to reveal the insights the gleaned from a torrid night of rugby watching. 

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1. People really want the Springboks to fire Allister Coetzee

The Springboks lost to Wales this morning, in what will go down as one of the more unremarkable steps on their road to rugby oblivion. Fans aren’t taking the loss well. Some blame their suffering on South African rugby’s dysfunctional internal politics. Others on the annual exodus of the country’s best players to Northern Hemisphere. But many, many more of them blame one man, and one man only: the demon coach Allister Coetzee.

These are pulled from a selection of roughly 18,327 similar tweets. All of them show South African fans renting their robes and screaming in the general direction of Coetzee, and anyone who has ever collaborated with Coetzee.

South African rugby has announced it will undergo a governance overhaul in the wake of its “profoundly disappointing” season. The picture that accompanies the announcement is of Coetzee, for whatever that’s worth (quite possibly nothing). The problem is that Coetzee is under contract until 2019, and the cash-strapped South African Rugby Union probably don’t to pay him to do nothing for the next three years. It’s going to be an interesting few weeks for South African rugby.

2. Dan Carter did not enjoy his time with the French fans

He may have been enduring a horrifying flashback to the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-final.

3. This is what a real red card looks like

Forget Malakai Fekitoa’s head-high tackle against Ireland; this is how you get sent off in a test match.

Elliot Daly sent off for England after just 4 minutes 34 – a deserved red card? #ENGvARG https://t.co/2et7t1bnpJ

— Sporting Index (@sportingindex) November 26, 2016

Congrats Elliot Daly on a truly terrible decision.

4. Waisake Naholo will hurt you with his mid-air butt attack

Watch out.

5. Beauden Barrett’s cross-field kicks are incredible

For the second week in a row, Barrett was the only reason the All Blacks won. Most of the credit will go to his intercept try, which was probably worth 14 points given how close the French were to scoring. But spare a thought for the beautiful, lovely, perfect cross-field kick that set up the All Blacks’ first try. It was the second week in a row that the All Blacks had opened the scoring off a cross-field Barrett bomb. Last week, Fekitoa took the reception. This week, Savea reeled it in on the sidelines and delivered an assist to Dagg.

6. Apparently possession means nothing

The All Blacks had about 4% of the total possession against France. Most the time, they treated the ball like a live grenade, lobbing it as far behind the French line as possible. They still won.

New Zealand also lost the possession battle against Ireland last week. It didn’t matter. The All Blacks win by seizing their opportunities better than any other side in rugby.

7. Will Genia is the saddest man in rugby right now

The Wallabies lost to Ireland in a highly entertaining, back-and-forth test match. It put an end to the team’s hopes of recording a Grand Slam on their end-of-year tour, and that fact appears to have cut Will Genia to his core. These are just two of the incredibly grim portraits photographers took of the Wallabies halfback in the minutes after the game.

Someone needs to ask Will if he’s okay. And while you’re at it, check on Michael Cheika. He’s probably still smashing things in the coaching box right now.