Give Blood – Play Rugby

Nightmare continues: ABs fried by French

By GREG FORD in Cardiff - RugbyHeaven | Saturday, 6 October 2007 

Four more years. Those bitter words, plus the screaming celebrations of 20,000 Frenchmen, were ringing in the ears of the All Blacks after they were sensationally bundled out of the World Cup by France 20-18 in Cardiff on Sunday with Graham Henry’s side suffering New Zealand’s earliest exit from the tournament.

New Zealand’s old nemesis France, as they did in 1999, out-passioned the New Zealanders with a powerful second half display.

Everything was going along reasonably smoothly for the All Blacks when they were leading 13-3 at halftime with Luke McAlister having scored a stunning try that promised so much.

But then the wheels fell off.

McAlister was sin-binned for 10 minutes. Dan Carter succumbed to injury and then his replacement Nick Evans suffered a similar fate.

Without their two talismen the All Blacks looked leaderless in the face of the onslaught.

They also had hard man Jerry Collins forced off with a sore thigh and he joined Anton Oliver and Byron Kelleher on the sidelines with those two having to live through another personal World Cup nightmare.

No New Zealand side has failed to make the semifinals in five previous tournaments.

Now the question will have to be asked: did the 2007 team choke?

Thierry Dusautoir and Yannick Jauzion were the destroyers for the French scoring second half tries which proved match winners.

A lone Rodney So’oialo try was all the All Black could conjur when the French upped the ante in the second spell.

And not even the Wellington No 8 could hold his head up high when the whistle blew for full time.

The French signalled their intentions from the start when they marched up to confront the All Blacks’ haka in a sensational opening to proceedings.

Having been comprehensively out-played by new Zealand during Graham Henry’s time in charge of the All Blacks, the French were determined to have their way in Cardiff on a day when they forced the Kiwis to wear silver jerseys.

But the French certainly appeared to have help on their side in the form of English referee Wayne Barnes who gave a questionable performance with the whistle.

His yellow carding of McAlister appeared a particularly harsh call and ultimately cost New Zealand a try.

He also missed a blatant forward pass in the leadup work to the Jauzion try. When that try was converted the French had their two-point lead and they clung on to it for another famous victory.

But there was further drama in the dying stages with New Zealand hot on attack and pressing for a decisive late strike to give them victory.

France managed to turn the ball over on their line with what appeared to be hands in the ruck. But there was no complaint from Barnes or his touch judge and the French survived to live another day.

They head off to Paris to play England in an unlikely semifinal after the defending champions had earlier in the day bundled Australia out of the tournament with a 12-10 upset in Marseille.

Naturally the All Blacks were hugely disappointed. But the reality was few played anywhere near their potential.

Lock Ali Williams had a storming game that deserved better and So?oialo was tireless alongside skipper Richie McCaw who got some very close attention from the man with the whistle.

McAlister looked good with the ball in hand and Joe Rokocoko roamed around industriously but even his valiant attempts to ignite attack were frequently snuffed out by some passionate French defence.

And when the French were in the lead the All Blacks uncharacteristically went into their shell.

All the money time and investment in their preparation came to nothing.

And now the All Blacks face four more years of pain and misery before they can try and redeem themselves ending Graham Henry’s reign in charge of the team in the most bitter of circumstances.

France 20: Thierry Dusautoir, Yannick Jauzion tries; Lionel Beauxis con, 2 pen; Jean-Baptiste Elissalde con.

New Zealand 18: Luke McAlister, Rodney So’oialo tries; Daniel Carter con, 2 pen.

HT: 3-13.

England send the Wallabies packing

By MARC HINTON in Marseille - RugbyHeaven | Saturday, 6 October 2007 

England, behind their raging bull forward pack, have turned the form book on its head and dumped the Wallabies out of the World Cup with a stunning 12-10 victory in the opening quarter-final at Stade Velodrome today.

And so the defending champions, against the odds and most people’s predictions, live to fight another day at this World Cup, through to next week’s first semifinal in Paris where they will await the winner of the All Blacks-France match.

It was a match that England managed to turn into the dogfight they knew they had to if they were to prevail, their big pack giving the out-of-sorts Wallabies a hiding at almost every phase of the game.

The Wallabies were pushed all over the paddock at scrum time, outplayed at the breakdown and only really showed any nous up front at the lineout where their work was as efficient as ever. It was a brave, bullying performance from the English eight, exactly what they knew they had to do to dump these confident Australians out of the tournament.

But for a pack who had talked all week about their aim of becoming “the best in the world” the Australian eight was so far off that mark it was laughable. The Wallabies could barely keep the scrum upright, so much pressure were they under, and in the end it was a telling aspect of the game. Their work at the breakdown was also lacklustre, time and again England able to turn over possession with their superior technique and commitment.

For all that, there was still not much in it, the 2003 champions relying on four penalties from Jonny Wilkinson to get them home. Australian skipper Stirling Mortlock had a late chance to snatch victory with a 50m penalty from wide out, but he was unable to make the miracle play.

The Australians had done extremely well to take a 10-6 lead into the sheds at halftime, Lote Tuqiri’s try after 33 minutes the difference in a frantic opening 40.

Even then it had been hard to shake the feeling that the Australians were just hanging in, and that Tuqiri’s score late in the half had been pretty much against the run of play.

Still it was a well-taken try, Chris Latham and Stirling Mortlock putting in the power runs, and good patience and ball-retention eventually seeing Berrick Barnes able to slip a pass to Tuqiri that sent him scrambling over, and through, the ineffective tackle of Josh Lewsey.

Remarkably, that was to be the end of the scoring for the Wallabies, their error-rate and lack of punch up front preventing them from mounting the sustained pressure they ahd to to find the holes in the English defensive line.

So two Wilkinson penalties in the second half, after 51 and 59 minutes respectively,w ere all that the 2003 champions needed to progress through to the semifinals.

It was a thoroughly deserved victory, too, for this limited but lethal England side. With Andy Sheridan leading a splendid front-row effort, and the likes of big Simon Shaw and Martin Corry full of endeavour up front the arm-wrestle was won conclusively by the English. Wilkinson ran the game well, and there were odd moments of inspiration out wide, but really this was a famous victory foundered on the iron will of the front eight.

England 12: Jonny Wilkinson 4 pens.

Australia 10: Lote Tuqiri try; Stirling Mortlock pen con. Ht: 6-10