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In the biggest scandal since Phar Lap, Australia’s chance of a third rugby World Cup may have sunk this week, thanks to some Dirty Pierre infecting the great Bernie Larkham. Australia was always only an outside chance, assuming our champion 10 would be on the paddock, on song. Without Larkham, a Wallaby World Cup is not impossible, only unimaginable.
For Australia to be good enough to take the tournament, sans Bernie, the Wallabies will have to become something that we have literally not seen before. New forces will have to emerge. The players who still have latent potential will have to stand right up, fully realising themselves, immediately.
We do have guys still developing. Think of Matt Dunning, who has made so much progress. No question, there is more to come from Berrick Barnes. Adam Ashley-Cooper could fully arrive, or turn up like he did against the All Blacks earlier this year. Wycliffe Palu is growing through the tournament. Giteau is having the time of his life. There will come a day when Rocky Elsom will defeat one of the rugby superpowers single-handedly, as could Morts. Can Nathan Sharpe pull another finger out? George Smith is, perhaps, the only Wallaby who we definitely know can’t get any better, since he’s already the best.
The Wallabies can’t be written off. But the news of Bernie’s nobbling will have put a big smile on the face of every sheep in New Zealand, which has never defeated Australia in a World Cup match. In the meantime, Knuckles’ boys have a meaningless game against Canada this weekend, a hiatus, an effective gap in the schedule, into which we have sent the reserves, to break their cabin fever and get their names on the list of participants. There’s no point in even running any moves, as few of these players will be executing them, come the big time.
More interesting is England vs Tonga. Will the Poms become the first Cup holder to die in the following pool? A delicious humiliation may loom. The other hot game is Argentina vs Ireland. If the Argies get up, the Dirty Pierres will face the Blacks in a quarter-final in Cardiff, in their own World Cup! Think of Bernie, and call it Karma.
Go Tonga! Go the Argies!
Update: Rugby is a demanding template, and fans must endure many desulatory exhibitions, as we did last night in Australia’s horrible 37-6 win over Canada, about which the less said the better. With my spirit low, I met a friend for a drink afterwards, where I saw most of the Fiji-Wales game. From the mind-numbing to the utterly sublime. If you missed it, read Stephen Jones’ match report, which begins: “Well, how many greats do you want? Perhaps the greatest World Cup game ever played, perhaps the greatest feast of rugby and the greatest range of attacking palletes. Perhaps the greatest upset, and perhaps the final condemnation of all those who would rather that great rugby nations such as Fiji were given their own minor-countries tournament to mess about in. This was one of those games that you will need to sit with the video in a darkened room to believe that it ever happened.” And that’s just for starters. It was an epic. If it’s replayed, don’t miss it for quids.
Update: The quarter-finals are, in order of playing times: (1) Australia vs England; (2) New Zealand vs France (at Cardiff); (3) South Africa vs Fiji; (4) Argentina vs Scotland. As anticipated, this means that the sequence facing the Wallabies is: (1) England; (2) the All Blacks (or France); and (3) the Springboks, assuming that the Boks can get past supercharged outsiders, Fiji and Argentina. The end of the pools also means that the first consolation prizes have been distributed, with Tonga, Wales, Italy and Ireland securing automatic qualification for the 2011 World Cup. Go the Wallabies!
Bernie Watch: In comments, Fred Argy advises that, writing in todays (i.e. Monday’s) Canberra Times, Bernie says he is now jogging!
I note today the SMH has another TV guide liftout, coupled with music, games and cultural trivia. Like The Guide, the Metro and the lamest parts of Radar all mashed into one inconveniently small booklet.
Is this replacing the Guide? It did not say but why print two TV guides in a week, in consecutive editions?
It was stapled though.
Not much footy on this weekend, with the Wallabies playing but Canada. Still, of itself, be great to see the boys lock in another experience.
For the biggies, can’t be tempted cs to see the Barnestormer light up the backline with verve and fresh tenacity and mess up the last ten years of opposition study of it? Split the opposition mind. Bernie looks on, studies, insinuated into play to claim the spoils?
Or, targeted, leaving a weakened opposition midfield, Barnes spins to Mortlock, who might, just might, enjoy a bit of a trot for his last World Cup?
And what would it do to Rocky, to know he has a young five-eighth he has to protect? Take a bit of pressure off by making the focus himself?
Bernie or the Barnestormer, we can do this.
Chris, I love reading your Rugby commentaries but why the “dirty Pierre” stuff?
I love reading your Rugby commentaries but why the dirty Pierre stuff?
Because the DP’s nobbled Bernie. DUH!
Fred, Bernie has been taken out, not by his injury, but a post-op infection. I’m presently not in a kind frame of mind toward the French medical team who worked on him, the French medical system in general and the entire French nation at large. Aren’t they up with proper sterilisation over there? I thought the Poms were the ones who never took a bath. It’s a tragedy that a wonderful footballer, great number 10 and the key to our attack has been taken out off-field, at what was set to be the climactic conclusion to one of rugby’s great careers. A gloomy cloud has set over the Wallaby camp.
John O’Neil should get straight onto scoping the possibility of the Wallabies taking their own surgeon on future World Cups. It could just be feasible, in the era of the “hospital in the home”. With New Zealand hosting the next one, we could do a low-cost trial. This should never be allowed to happen again.
Meanwhile, England has defeated Tonga, supplying much motivation for the Wallabies to revenge the last World Cup. Bring it on!
Note, I have also mixed up the sequence in the other two pools. If the Argies get up, it will mean that the Dirty Pierres will have to play the All Blacks in Cardiff, a deserved double penalty, in the name of Bernie (and Wales will have to face the Springboks in Marseille, I think, screwing up their own home game plans, but perhaps Patrick will correct me). Go the Argies!
Robert, hope springs …
No, cs, I think you are spot-on. And I am absolutely relishing the Welsh copping the hiding of their lives in hostile Marseille, and France payin richly for their own dirty vote-rigging. That said as the proud husband of a frog I am also looking keenly forward to France rallying tremendously to wind back the clock 8 years and knock a destabilised All Black’s into their habitual post-world cup depression.
I am also secretly happy that England won, because I want our scrum to hit-out against the best in a ‘safe’ match before we confront the ABs or even France. Perfect preparation, really.
Lots to look forwards to, indeed.
I’d love Bernie to play, but I don’t think we really need him – not a much as we need Mortlock, who has apparently been cleared. As long as he is right, I think we’ll put out our best shot.
After all the breaks, pins and plates, rips, tears, shreds, snaps and knocks, pulls, belts, swells and eye gouges it’s a real pity that an infection could end that dream.
He’s recuperated before at quick time..
I wasn’t aware that he’s only had an hour’s play in three months; that’s the downside if he can hold himself together for another run. The upside – and if the gods are shining on Australia, this is bloody terrific – is that his uncertainty shoots a hole in the opposition psyche (excepting, that, “hello Berrick”).
It doesn’t feel like Larkham will miss it.
Couldn’t get any info on Canada, not that it matters much, as the lad’s in France. However, it is interesting to hear about the conditions under which some of the Canadian teams play and train – some as I understand it are hundreds of miles apart (that’s a team, not a zone or province) and cannot always meet up due to snow cover. How they’d pick a truly national team is bewildering. And of course, from what I was told, the rugby hospitality in Canada is second to none.
Les Darcy, Phar Lap and now Bernie Larkham. Does the iniquity of these furriners know no bounds?
Lisa Martin and her water bottle, too.
I guess it is a warning to cs – don’t trust socialised medicine! ;)
THE FIJIANS ARE GODS!!!!
Chris, your posting has stirred in others the dormant prejudices against France that lie beneath the surface in most Anglo Australians. My rugby-loving family is also cranky as hell against the French.
I have no desire to go to bat for an alien country that means nothing to me but let’s be fair. First, Larkham himself has a regular column in the Canberra Times and, although frustrated and worried, he has generally had good words to say about the treatment received in French hospitals. His verdict: Apart from the language problem at times, “French hospitals are not much different to what I am used to”. He has special praise for the care and attentiln he has received from the hospital’s head of surgery
An unnamed French doctor may have been careless to allow the infection to occur but why generalise? The French health system is recognised as one of the most egalitarian and accessible in the world. Most people who have lived there (as I have for three years) will also vouch for its efficiency, although subject to the stresses and strains of all health systems. France also rates well on most indicators of health outcomes and outcomes per dollar spent.
By the way, Chris, France needs to beat Georgia – a team that has surprised everyone and nearly beat Ireland. If there is an upset, it could be Ireland not France that gets the second spot.
Don’t bet on that one, Fred!
And maybe we can discuss French health sometime as well – it really does in ,any ways conform to stereotpyes of what one might have expected of an over-regulated market!
Speaking of Wallaby injuries generally, we’d better hope there aren’t any more to the first string team, given that the second stringers struggled to beat Canada (even allowing for the wet weather it was a crap performance).
They did play like shite didn’t they? As if they had John Ryan’s brains, in fact.
Frankly, that was the third-worst thus far this world cup in terms of a fundamentally competent and well-drilled side playing stupid rugby. The stand-out incredible was France, against Argentinia – whilst Laporte takes the brunt of the blame for having the inanity to field an untried combination in the first match of the World Cup against a team that they had only beaten once in the last five encounters and even then only by a point. Second-best was England against South Africa, unable to realise that they had to play 10 man rugby up to the tryline, and kick every point (incidentally, that’s their only chance against us, too).
Then there was us. Jeepers. Cordingely was very average, completely outshone by Morgan Williams, Tuquiri nearly got it right but tooke 65 minutes to warm-up to his position, Mitchell did about as much as anyone could ask of him, Latham was his ordinary inflappable and brilliant self, but really only Huxley seemed to conspicously grasp the common sense exigencies of nasty weather and Chris White’s refereeing. I reckon if Huxley had kicked straight he would be starting next week, as it is I reckon he’s definitely earned his bench spot.
The scrum could certainly have been better – not necessarily stronger, but our front-rows are still very naive, and I think it showed that McMeniman and Chisholm aren’t that experienced in second row. Even Smith seemed to get a bit swamped – it shows how far Waugh has fallen in Connolly’s estimation that he didn’t get on earlier.
On the bright side, the very weakest teams in this World Cup have managed to out muscle the All Blacks for a forwards try – they have conceded at least one in every game. If they don’t have Carter, my money (well, my $20 at any rate) will be on France. With their regular 15 (not the bizarre experiment they fielded against Argentinia!) France are really quite good, and have some real skill right where NZ don’t – the centres. What’s more they won’t be intimidated in the scrums and should have parity in the lineouts. The only clear NZ advantage is the backrow – France don’t have anyone as omnipresent as McCaw or as unyielding as Collins.
Obviously the above is predicated on Argentinia beating Ireland – I can’t see it being otherwise. And then I am pretty confident of Argentinia’s chances against Scotland as well.
The Sprinboks will beat them, though. And then Australia will beat the Springboks :) and claim their third World Cup :) I hope at least !
NB: Fred, that kind of an upset would be like me writing an economics paper and proving Krugman wrong on a pure economics question.
NB, II: thus far, I’d pick:
Latham, Mitchell, Mortlock, Giteau, Habana, Wilkinson, Du Preez, Palu, Smith, Collins, Vickerman, Matfield, Hayman, Ibanez, Sheridan.
Shadow team:
Poitrenaud, Howlett, ?? , Steyn, Clerc, Carter, Gregan, Leguizamon, McCaw, Burger, Williams, Alun Wyn-Jones/Simon Shaw (can’t pick) Castrogiovannia, Ibanez/Smit, Roncero.
Fred, I have to be dispassionate in so many areas of my life, I refuse when it comes to rugby. In any event, it raises interesting questions. In the era of so-called ‘globalisation’, stuff like health services and food remain subject to local immunities and so on to a much larger extent than is generally assumed. For future Cups, the Wallabies should pack a chef and surgeon, along with their boots.
Patrick, for mine, the only thing that the Wallabies can take out of Canada is their defence. Not having the line crossed is always a great Cup standard.
N.B. Not bad, but I don’t share your confidence in Drew Mitchell. He is having a try-fest, but has no convincing record of success against the very top-tier, where it would be proven performer under pressure, the Coopster, on the wing for mine. I’ll also take out a saver on your Jerry Collins over our Rocky Elsom – a contest that is still to be sorted!
P.S. Word on the street is that Kurtley Beale is going to be put on the plane in place of David Lyons. Great move. He might not have any playing time, but it can only be good for the kid to get the smell of World Cup finals.
Good news. Writing in today’s Canberra Times, Larkham,says he is now jogging and his knee is improving, so he is still hopeful he will be able to play in the semi-final.
I do like Elsom, a lot. I think he is extremely important to our team – blindside flanks are always much more important than they get given credit for, which we forgot for a while when we put Phil Waugh there. After all consider the role Finegan played.
But I think Collins is the best. He is the one player I would like NZ to lose. Look what happened in Melbourne when some idiot made him come off for Hayman and not the largely useless So’alio (or however you write that).
I also saw that it might be Norton-Knight on the plane. Whilst in fairness he played extremely well a week ago, and apparently this weekend as well, I don’t know on what groundes you would swap a potential choker like Huxley with a proven one. Halangahu, who I had been impressed by in Super 14, was abysmal some weeks earlier when I last saw him play.
Also, odds are that whoever it is won’t actually get on the ground – on which basis, as you say, Beale would surely benefit more from the experience.
I’ll grant you all that Patrick, and hold my saver all the same. I’ve been watching the Rock develop over the past seasons. He had a presence right from the get go, mainly because he is so unusual in being such a mobile giant. This year, he clearly went up a big step in his attack in his season for the Tahs. Then, strangely to my mind, he went back to being mainly a work horse in the Test season. Since he got to France, however, he has looked like dynamite again, converting his earlier Super 14 form to the big time. Collins is King of the Blindside, as you say, but it’s just possible that we might have a guy who is about to knock his block off. We’ll see.
er, assuming Argentina beat Scotland I suppose.
Glad all that preliminary rubbish is over. The Cup begins now.
Yes, rf, I’d say we all assume that pretty confidently. If you think differently then you should bet on Scotland – if you shop around you should be able to get at least a 400% return on your investment.
France is the only NH side with a hope in hell of progressing to the semis – and they have had the damn shame of landing NZ followed by Aust – to win, they would have to beat the whole Tri-Nations. For that reason alone they are ridiculously short-priced, although they have stretched back a bit to more reasonable territory now that they are certain to face NZ.
I understand that attitude Robert but it is lamentable. I think it denigrates the efforts of the likes of Fiji, Tonga, Georgia, Portugal and even Canada. I’ll bet Argentina don’t think their games against France and Ireland were rubbish of any sort, nor preliminary except in a strictly chronological sense, nor would Fiji think differently about their game against Wales.
Make no mistake, cs, if Rocky can shade Jerry Collins in the semi (if it is to be NZ in the semi) then I’ll be a happy camper – I’ll even like NSW a little bit (for at least a week).
Merely a quick comment there from a Wallaby supporter’s point of view, Patrick, resisting the obvious lack of standard recently. Let’s raise to the occasion, perhaps, would have been better, with a view to secure the dream.
I keep thinking back to the World Cup before last. History may repeat itself. France may play above itself and perhaps beat the All Blacks! But being an erratic team, France will not be able to sustain the momentum and we will then beat them. Facing South Africa or Argentina in the finals should give us a good chance. Bets of nearly 7 to 1 are available at Centrebet for a Wallaby win. Wow!
I’ve got $100 on them, at $7.50 :) You can get $9 at UK bookies, and I am sorely tempted – but I think I will wait until thursday and settle for $20 on France.
I have had very similar thoughts myself. In particular, Carter was rested with a strain, and Lauki will be out for the match with a week’s suspension – meaning the usually frighteningly average So’alio should get a run, and France really looked a lot sharper with their real first XV on the track against Ireland.
France may not even have lost to Argentinia had Laporte’s brain not imploded when he sat down at the selection table. Poitrenaud, who might be the second-best fullback in the world cup on form, would have done much more to discourage Argentinia’s high-kicking pressure game, and Michalak showed much more tactical nous in his 25 minutes than Skrela had even hinted at.
Maybe this is a sneak preview :)
Speaking of world cup teams, Australian Matilda Lisa De Vanna has been named in a World Cup all-star team. From the one game live I saw of her, she’s intense and laserline focused, not unlike Giteau in play. Congratulations!
That’s so great Robert, and well deserved. Check it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=SkfbiQmPEQA
The clip catches her firebrand skills, Amanda. She’s certainly intense, and wears her play emotion on her sleeve. I hope it brings the team some recognition. It was such a disappointment that those Matildas World Cup games clashed with the Wallaby matches – just two hours difference was all that was needed, amazing! – because I think there are new supporters for the Matildas waiting to be had amongst rugby union people, who appreciate that quality style.
Sadly, now they’ll have to do a nude calendar to gain wider coverage.
And for something completely different, regarding the host rugby nation, here is a national tradition, apparently. More here and here.
mmmmambrosialfatmmmmmmmm
Was that for Ortolan, or Chabal, courtesy of Patrick?
Interesting decision by Knuckles tonight. Try the question for yourself:
Imagine a sequence of staggering miracles, by which the Wallabies get through to the final, and it’s half-time, and the scores are level. Bernie made it back for the semi, where he dazzled, and took us through, but not himself. Then you get the news you dreaded. Barnsey has pulled up and can’t go back on.
Would you want to throw Kurtley Beale on? A brilliant kid, but just out of school? Could you ask Kurts to step right up and wheel the Wallabies in such a situation? Or would you rather switch Gits to 10, and slot Morgan Turinui into 12?
I dunno, but Morgs got the nod. He’s a very good 12, probably our most complete 12 in his own way, coming off an unlucky season. I suppose experience told over the risk. He’s a cautious man, Knucks.
It’s a question I’ve been pondering. I think the answer lies not in opportunity, but risk. (This is different from the general ‘risk-averse’ comments made on previous threads). In this question here, in a major final, the opposition is just too well versed in taking players out. It would be risky to run a novice in even club rankings, as there’s always someone who can remove the kid, or at least put him off his game. Added to that is consideration of this particular position – being vulnerable, playmaking, requiring exceptional confidence – and add to that Kurtley Beale’s style, which is to ‘wing’ it. If he was a first five in the style of, say, the refrigerator Rod Kafer, there’d be a better argument to play him. But not Beale, not for this.
However, an argument does exist for Beale to play. Firstly, he is a five-eighth, and the advice to him would be, simply, spoon it on (ie, don’t try to win it yourself, let the others do the work, just keep them alive to do so. And back up, your chances will come!). This leaves all other positions in their natural spots. The loss of whatever play which could have been made at 5/8 by a confident settled-in player is offset by the gains made by retention of the playmakers in their own positions. But under pressure, in a final, this 5/8 would have more to do: kick, tackle, all at crucial high pressure times.
And it has been done before. Not exactly sure of the details, but I think Trevor Allan was still at school – or only just out – when he was called upon to captain Australia while on tour due to injury. He was 18 or 19. I was told the story by a schoolmate two years younger than he, who said the school was called to assembly, for that announcement to be made. Goosebumps were the order of that particular school day.
A risky decision can make champions as well. But I’m on Knucks with this.
I would back Knucks over this as well. In that sort of situation it’s going to be defence and cautious play that wins you the match.
Over the weekend I was thinking about a lot of the Rugby grand finals I’ve watched. They are almost always gritty affairs where the game is won by who keeps their heads and also who keeps their heads down and working till the whistle goes.
Oh no! We’re doomed! “Eddie has faith in Wallabies”. [Warning: Fairfax, not cs safe].
Some excerpts -
.. on Wilkinson:
Ah, technically, he will average.
We’ll be alright now.
You didn’t even provide a link – but don’t worry, it would have been wasted on us!
I admit to some trepidation – this is after all the knockouts, England’s 10 man game is after all brilliant. But I can only see a convincing Australian win, no matter how I spin it.
I’ve got concerns about England, too, Patrick. The buggers can lift for a one off out of nowhere and it’s against us they’ll want to do it. Also, that tournament intensity is growing and within that changed space teams change – just as we expect our own to do so. Other teams looking upon ours lately would have reason for confidence and dismiss our cup credibility as we often do theirs. We’re very beatable, as it is, or has been, at this point. Of course, I expect we’ll come into focus and lift accordingly.
True, I forgot the link. I read at a rate of 150 words per minute for the first five seconds, then trail off, on average, for anywhere between another three seconds to a couple of years or a decade, unless there are words like “All Blacks” and “pass” and “score” and “the”, whereupon my reading rate changes upwardly at a rate of, well, I’ve computerised it and spend the prematch week going through it. As a result, I didn’t, nay, couldn’t finish the article. Technically.
But here it is, if anyone can get further through it.
If it rains again like the Canada game, the Poms will win.
Happily then it’s Marseille, and it ain’t gonna rain, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be much.
If ever it does, can we have a little bet, Ken? The bookies certainly won’t give me anything as good as a straight $50 on the result.
More good news on Bernie. He is starting to sound like he will be set for the semi against the All Blacks. The only hesitation may be the amount of recent playing time he has had. Likewise, Stanniforth is off the bench again because of his shoulder. On paper, they will both come back to give us a full strenth look, come the Blacks.
Patrick, it also looks like the Coops is going to tip out Mitchell on the wing. How many World Cup pool tries equals one try against the All Blacks? Answer: more than seven!
I certainly hope Mitchell starts against England, and they decide on the basis of that.
After all, Mitchell also scored against the All Blacks – on debut!! And frankly, he is form, he is finding the line, you pick him.
Mitchell has been happily surprising; great to see he’s enjoying the tournament, and that there’s no surf to speak of in France. How’s his defence? Didn’t he miss one or two crucial tackles; can’t recall, but hear some bells. Definitely a finisher.
Imagine playing the All Blacks after three months absence. You’d have your team-mates hit you with slightly padded baseball bats for a week prior, perhaps drive over you a couple of times in the hotel four wheel drive, at least to remember the fun of it.
If Larkham plays, my guts is he’ll be scintillating: fresh, head in the stars, and making it his own.
And Muggleton continues to impress. Treating the halfway line as your tryline, defensively, against England – brilliant. If we win, that will have played a massive role.
I think Connelly has done well, considering the pieces he had to pick up. We were concerned for a ten man game at the outset; he’s not done that. He has showed he can glue the team together and lift their spirits, there is obviously humour in the camp – that alone is a terrific change – and he seems to have a balance between stats and spirit. He knows this is crunch time. Good luck to him. May it all come together.
The great Poido is adamant the Wallabies can beat the All Blacks, come semifinal time on the day.
So am I, even if my opinion is enormously less qualified than his :)
I will be damn keen to see the odds after this round.
There was a hilarious article in Le Figaro (which unfortunately I was too slow to copy) lambasting the French Rugby Federation president Lapasset.
eg: Just picture yourself, with a World Cup to organise, millions of things to do, millions of Euros to cash, important people to meet, in short, the works. Easy then to forget the French XV, non? Regrettable, irritating, well, certainly. But somewhat traditional when one is the President who already forgot to change the coach four years ago.
that translation from memory doesn’t, unfortunately, do it justice. The whole article had me rolling around.
Well, they’ve dropped Mitchell. I just hope he gets enough of a run to stake his claim for inclusion against the All Blacks.
Not keen on the Coopster, Patrick? To my eyes, he’s that much stronger all round; though not to take anything away from Mitchell.
This match is drawing in as perfect for the Wallabies. We’ll have tough, tight forwards against us unlike previously, and our set patterns will find a place for the team to at least feel their natural Cup presence – where and how they should go – if the team doesn’t choose to let them loose just yet. We’ll be able to recognise the game we have within, under finals (and off-field) pressure. Priceless, and thank you to England for providing just the right mix of forwards, backs, loose, tight, tradition, kicking, field goal, conditions to set us up for the next week.
I was concerned but now I’m lovin’ it. If the Wallabies don’t win this, obviously we don’t deserve to win and so be that – but the way England is preparing and their national rugby state just now (in the four year cycle) solves many of our unmet preparatory needs in one bundle, and we’ll hit these bastards. What we get and what we give, regardless of how our win occurs, will I believe bring the true Wallabies back.
And I’m looking forward, once or twice, to the Wallaby scrum shoving eight red roses against their owner’s white noses, sniff that a moment fellas, then wiping them away again; eight left crumpled, stuck ratcheted into themselves, to smell our boys’ revenge. Go the Wallaby pack; fuck the field goals.
fuck the field goals
Heh. Have been in running arguments all week about that.
I’d pick the Coopster in my platoon any day over the Mitchell. Regardless, I’m unsettled over this encounter. Do I really have to take it seriously, just cos the Wallabies must? What has all the history stereotypical hype got to do with anything, really?
It’s hard to figure the degree of difficulty, but we’ve a couple more day to mull over it.
I think Robert understates the degree of difficulty and overstates the scrumming!! If that is possible to do at once. Their scrum is our greatest difficulty, and I don’t expect for a second to achieve any kind of dominance at all in that set piece.
Mere parity will be already a lot – this is, remember, the same team that tightheaded a full-strength South Africa three times! Some people think they are the ‘up there with NZ‘ – NZ wish they were up there with England and Argentina. Argentina will take Scotland to the scrum cleaners in just the fashion Robert wishes (understandably) we would do to England. England will wrestle us all day and not take a step back – the challenge is to for us to do the same.
We will be stronger everywhere else, normally, especially in Andy Farrell’s absence – I believe he is one of very few players in the world with the speed and strength to man Mortlock, so they may greatly rue his absence.
I also liked the half-way as your try-line stuff, Robert, and we will need to that for the next three weeks if we are to win against these teams. All of our potential opponents, including Argentinia but perhaps excluding France, can kick from anywhere in their half – and our two potential final opponents have two of the best drop-goalers in the competition (Hernandez of Argentinia and South Africa’s Berrick Barnes, Frans Steyn). The best, of course, is playing against us this week!
I have to emphasise, I do like Ashley-Cooper, and I would not have hesitated to select him until two weeks ago. But when you have a player who is scoring, and is very fast, well, you have to be very sure indeed of the other bloke if you are going to drop him. And I am very impressed with how much stronger on his feet Mitchell has become.
I hope Tuquiri gets to score one!
CS, just sit back and enjoy it, with a pom if at all possible ;)
My predictions – rationally:
AUS by 20
NZ by 35
RSA by 25
ARG by 20
My predictions – more hopefully:
AUS by 35
FRA by 5
RSA by 25
ARG by 25