What we learned from first week of Nations Championship

Look, Berch, just quick, uh, before we get over to Neil, um, slightly strange to be talking about rugby in July.

How, how are you feeling? It feels like it has been a, a mammoth season.

And whatever about me kind of feeling like, "God, are we still talking rugby?" For the players, for the coaches and stuff, is it, is it a bit too long? I, I dunno.

It definitely, uh, uh, there wasn't a huge amount of hype about this tour or, or this tournament.

But I think the way it started last Saturday morning, and there's a lot of other sport on, obviously, but I, I just thought the, the first day of the Nations Championship world rugby couldn't have got a, a better start.

I mean, from the very first game, New Zealand, France, um, all the way through.

I, I thought Ireland, Australia was a cracking match.

There was obviously some, some of the quality wasn't amazing, but it was a cracking game.

And then even, you know, uh, the last game I watched that day was, was Scotland ripping apart Argentina over there.

So, there was some real good contests.

And, uh, yeah, look, the players certainly look like they're, there's still a little bit of, um, uh, life left in those legs.

But definitely, just for the Northern Hemisphere players, this, um, this summer off will, will be badly needed.

Yeah.

A- a- and what's the sense over there, Neil? I mean, are, are ...

Th- obviously, the result the players showed means that they're actually, you know, they're still well up for [laughs] going and playing, going and getting results, and eking out wins as they showed against Australia on Saturday.

But what's the vibe around the squad at the moment?

Uh, the vibe around the squad, particularly off the back of Saturday, is, honestly, it's really, really good.

We were out doing media yesterday at their team hotel, the beautiful hotel down in Sydney Harbor, and, um, the, the mood the players were in really, really was encouraging.

There was a, a good degree of, uh, kind of messing and joking going on.

They were probably showing a little bit more of themselves than they normally would back at home.

I dunno, was it just the fact that they were on the road.

It's a smaller group of media that they're speaking to.

It's more of an intimate environment, so maybe they feel like they can kind of give off a little bit more of themselves.

But they were all very, very engaging.

I dunno, did you see Jon Fogarty, for example? He was in a, he was in rare form, like he always is.