The Independent's Peter Bills believes the latest international clashes did little to suggest that a northern hemisphere side will challenge for the 2011 Rugby World Cup crown.
"But come the World Cup next year, who in their right mind believes any of the northern hemisphere nations has a serious chance of winning the trophy? It has been that way in five of the six World Cups to date.
"It won't change, in my view, until the game changes significantly in the northern hemisphere. That means coaches taking a far less dictatorial approach, and allowing players the freedom to make decisions for themselves based on what is in front of them, not what has been agreed six days or six weeks earlier on the training ground. Too many present day coaches have created a squad of pre-programmed robots, not rugby players with a brain to think and find solutions to difficulties they encounter on the field.
"But unless the northern hemisphere countries embrace this faster, more open, attacking style of play on a regular basis, especially now that the new law interpretations have come in, they will continue to come up woefully short whenever they play the top southern hemisphere sides. And there is little evidence of that happening at the present time."
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