COLIN BOAG

Now that the summer tours have ground to an end, what’s the verdict on how the northern countries fared? At best you’d have to say their fortunes were mixed.
It’s hard to draw any firm conclusions from how the French performed against the All Blacks.
The history books will show a three-nil drubbing, but that tells only half the story. In the first two Tests the French were very competitive, but refereeing blunders ruined them as contests. In the final Test it looked as though Les Bleus had ‘gone’, worn down by a long hard season, 24 hours on a plan...