Wynona Louw's round-one review of the inaugural Nations Championship hands out the plaudits and the criticisms from an opening weekend that delivered genuine drama. The Boks get the highest praise — a dominant 17-0-before-England-fought-back performance that Louw argues flattered nobody except the Springboks, who absorbed last-minute injury disruptions to Kolisi and Etzebeth without missing a beat. The tactical details get attention too: Kolbe handling the kicking duties, Libbok freed up to run the game, and Esterhuizen deployed in the back-row late on — all working smoothly against a Six Nations-conditioned England side. The other major talking point is Japan's 27-10 upset of Italy, which Louw frames as a genuine statement given the Azzurri's Six Nations form. The big miss, she argues, is that Japan won't get to host Ireland in Tokyo — instead the fixture moves to a neutral venue in Newcastle, NSW, which she sees as a significant structural injustice to a team that earned the right to play at home.