Geoff Parkes

That’s the beauty of having low expectations. A last-minute 20-19 Wallabies win over Argentina may once have been met with shrugged shoulders and a ‘let’s hope we win by more, next week’ kind of vibe.

How did it all come to this? In beautiful conditions in Santa Fe, the Wallabies played their best 30 minutes under Joe Schmidt; inventive, urgent, cohesive, and fully deserving of a 20-3 lead.

Calls last week from UK-based pundits to apply a mercy rule to next year’s Lions tour and have the whole thing called off were as predictable as they were nonsensical.

Shortly after appropriate recognition was shown to James Slipper, succeeding George Gregan as the most-capped Wallaby in history, the All Blacks gathered behind a banner on the Accor Stadium pitch and were presented with the Bledisloe Cup.

Nobody could accuse the All Blacks and Wallabies of throwing up any surprises in Wellington on Saturday night. As it happens the 33-13 result was roughly within the margin of error for the average scoreline since the All Blacks embarked on their astonishing Bledisloe Cup-winning run back in 2003.

Publicity around the impending release of Johnny Sexton’s autobiography ‘Obsessed’ certainly raised a storm last week, on a number of fronts. Intended to enhance…

From the beginning of pre-season in November 2023 year, Geoff Parkes embedded himself into the Melbourne Rebels, intending to provide rugby followers with insight into what makes a professional franchise work.

Ask Melbourne Rebels fans mournfully reflecting on the brief history of their franchise to name their favourite platers, and you wouldn’t be surprised to…

Two contributions from match officials in recent days may have gone a long way to help settle what has at times become an acrimonious…

As a rule, there's usually something a bit off about writers quoting themselves, but in the excitement of the Wallabies' brilliant 42-37 win over England, hopefully I can be allowed a little leeway.