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| French Trade Card c1930 *** |
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Wallabies 39 - Springboks 20
The Wallabies got their Tri-Nations campaign off to a winning start with a fine performance against the Springboks.
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| Adam Ashley-Cooper of the Wallabies is tackled during the Tri-Nations match between the Australian Wallabies and the South African Springboks at ANZ Stadium on July 23, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. ( July 22, 2011 - Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images AsiaPac) ** Australia opened their 2011 Tri-Nations account with a comprehensive 39-20 victory over South Africa in Sydney on Saturday. The clinical Wallabies completely destroyed the bumbling Boks with a five-tries-to-two victory that will leave the world champions plenty to ponder ahead of next week's clash with New Zealand. Wet weather was the forecast but the weatherman got it wrong, which meant an expected tight forward tussle was cancelled out by open rugby that quite literally played into the Wallabies hands as the hosts ran the Springboks ragged. South Africa struggled to match their opponents on attack - they looked flat and devoid of ideas when in possession, and just lacked the same skill-set as the Wallabies with their ball-in-hand approach. Read the whole thing here: *** Australia hammer South Africa in TriNations Australia put their nightmare against Samoa well and truly behind them when they hammered the Springboks 39-20 in Sydney in the opening TriNations match for 2011. Whilst taking nothing away from the Wallabies the Springboks were their own worst enemy as their handling was worrying and their tackling was woeful. South Africa missed almost 30 tackles but Australia's victory could have been much greater had they not allowed the Springboks back into the match to score two tries in the final quarter. The two tries added some respectability to the Springbok's scoreline but the reality was that they were completely outplayed. Australia's handling error rate was almost twice that of South Africa's but when they had the ball they used it well and scored the points. Much has been made of this Springbok team being a second string team with the players insisting that they are not second stringers but their performance at times was far worse than that of a second stringer. The worrying aspect for South Africa is that coach Peter de Villiers said before the TriNations that he hoped his current squad would be good enough to regain the top ranking in the world rankings but on this performance their world cup opponents Wales, Samoa and Fiji will be sleeping a lot easier tonight as there is clearly a problem with South African depth. The Springboks TriNations task gets no easier next weekend as they face current TriNations champions the All Blacks in Wellington. Read the whole thing here: *** Next Test: July 30 NZ v SA Wellington **** |
Friday, July 22, 2011
All Blacks 60 - Fiji 14
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| A scrum packs down during the International Test match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Fiji Bati at Carisbrook on July 22, 2011 in Dunedin, New Zealand. ( July 21, 2011 - Photo by Hannah Johnston/Getty Images AsiaPac) ** Rusty All Blacks thump Fiji The All Blacks thrashed Fiji 60-14 in the final-ever test match at the beloved Carisbrook in Dunedin. Played in a half-full stadium, the All Blacks were clinical without being flash as they ran in eight tries to two, in a match also designed to help victims of the Christchurch earthquakes. In his run-on debut, Colin Slade scored 19 points with a try, four conversions and two penalties in a polished display that would've pushed his case in securing the position as Dan Carter's back-up. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=10740290 *** |
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Samoa knock stuffing out of Wallabies
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| AdMaurie Fa?asavalu of Samoa is tackled by Pat McCabe of the Wallabies during the International Test match between the Australian Wallabies and Samoa at ANZ Stadium on July 17, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. ( July 16, 2011 - Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images AsiaPac) *** Look out world, it's the Aussie-beating Samoans It is one of international rugby's greatest upsets - 100-1 World Cup outsiders Manu Samoa crushing one of the favourites, Australia's Wallabies. The small Pacific Island nation - population 180,000 - was celebrating hard last night after their team's 32-23 win in Sydney. ** |
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