My mate scored a cracker for the Seapoint seconds. Should that be included too?
Blah, tier 2 tries are mostly made less impressive by seeing so many players positioning themselves poorly and falling off tackles.
That Argentina try against NZ should be try of the year though...
I knew this would bring out the Tier 2 snobs. Should we just limit this to tries against the All Blacks? These tries still deserve credit for what they are, Ostroushko's try was still immense, and don't tell me that Keith Earls and Stuart Hogg are exactly the bees knees of defending either. Credit needs to be given to Ostroushko. Also don't tell me there weren't players falling off tackles or positioning themselves poorly in Malzieu's vs Italy.
To compare these sides made up of majority players from fully professional leagues, to a local pub seconds team is disrespectful. Tier 2 isn't as weak as many people who just shut their heads off to it believe, USA for example nearly beat Tonga and should had they kicked better and been more clinical and not had a try disallowed to a forward pass, and then Tonga beat Scotland the next week. And USA aren't even near the top ranked Tier 2 team. Canada were the better, more creative team for much of their match against Italy in June, Italy only won thanks to absolutely obliterating the scrum, they only beat Tonga for the same reason, and Italy nearly drew to Australia. Tier 2 isn't like the low it was back in 2003.
Some Tier 2 teams get a bad rep thanks to teams like Namibia and a couple of others, and some times where teams sacrificing matches by playing reserve teams in World Cups to rest players in midweek (eg Aus vs USA, Eng vs Rom, Japan vs NZ etc), and not always getting their best players available for all matches (eg Fiji vs Ire/Eng). If you look at Tier 1 vs Tier 2 matches with proper teams fielding proper sides, you will competitive good matches such as Samoa vs anybody, Tonga vs Scotland and Italy, Canada and USA vs Italy, Japan vs Italy and in the World Cup Romania vs Scotland, Japan vs France etc
The Argentinean team try vs Romania was great, and there is a lot less weak defending in that try compared to Malzieu's try or Keith Earls in Gear's try. It was just great handling and teamwork, certainly should be a nominated try. And before anybody who missed my original post comments that it was Argentina Jaguars, they have had tries nominated for IRB try of the year in 2010, so it has happened before.
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Those are great tries you present, but it's rather easier to do it against Spain than against top 10 sides.
Spain are actually arguably the most improved side in the top 20, as they've started to find a whole load of French Top 14/Pro D2 professionals with Spanish ancestry and put them in their side. Of course they are not as good as the best in the world, but they are not a joke either.
I didn't remember Malzieu's try, it's top class as well.
