Defending champion Australians want to enjoy the opening match of the Rugby World Cup. Argentina is aiming to spoil the party in front of a sellout crowd at Sydney's Olympic Stadium.
"We are expecting a very physical, tough encounter," Wallabies captain George Gregan said Thursday. "That's an area they pride themselves, specially ... up front."
PHOTO: EPA
Australia's season heading into rugby's quadrennial showpiece has been a let down -- losing four of its seven games this year, including a humiliating 50-21 thrashing by New Zealand at the same venue. But Gregan says the team has shrugged off the disappointment of this year's losses and is ready for its bid to become the first nation to win the tournament three times and also back-to-back.
PHOTO: AP
"This year's always been about the World Cup and it starts tomorrow night and ... the whole team's looking forward to it," Gregan said.
The Wallabies have "very strong belief and a really good work ethic and I think if you put those two together you'll get good results. Maybe not short term but long term you will and that's certainly been a very pleasing part of the team the whole year."
Argentina has left its goalkicker Gonzalo Quesada, top scorer at the last World Cup four years ago, on the bench, replacing him at fly half with Felipe Contepomi.
"We think that for this game and the kind of play Australia can propose Felipe will be better in this spot," coach Marcelo Loffreda said this week. "We consider Quesada's kicking is strong, but we believe that Felipe is as close to Quesada as far as kicking is concerned."
Argentina reached the quarterfinals at the 1999 World Cup and goes into this 20-nation tournament as Pan-American champion.
"We have improved a lot since the last World Cup and I think we're ready to play a good game against Australia," Quesada said. "I don't think we'll have many chances against them but Australia may feel the pressure of being hosts and defending champions and maybe, just maybe, with a little luck that will count against them."
The Wallabies, who are in Group A along with Argentina, Ireland, Namibia and Romania, will be hoping Contepomi has a similar game to the last time the two sides met -- in November last year when he missed seven of nine kicks as Australia won 17-6 in Buenos Aires.
For the Wallabies, Elton Flatley will take on the kicking duties.
Gregan, who will be playing his 90th international, said his team also would like to put on a good performance out of respect for the 88 Australians who were among 212 people killed Oct. 12 last year in a terrorist bombing in Bali, Indonesia.
Veteran lock and vice captain David Giffin, another veteran of the 1999 winning team, said the younger members of the front eight were ready for the tough Puma style.
"You can't run away from that contest," he said. "The contest is going to be there whether you want it to be or not. You've just got to front up and take part and try to get the better of your opposition."
Australia goes into the match as favorite, but is an underdog for the tournament behind favorites New Zealand and England, which kick off their campaigns Saturday and Sunday. If the tournament pans out as expected, the Wallabies will meet the All Blacks in the semifinals.
If their forwards can win the battle with the Puma pack, the Wallabies have a strong running backline with Stephen Larkham at fly half, Flatley and Matt Burke in the centers and Joe Roff, playing in his third World Cup, on the left wing.
Rugby league converts Wendell Sailor and Mat Rogers play right wing and full back respectively, Rogers finally getting a place in the position many pundits feel best fits his style of play.
Missing from the Wallabies are Stirling Mortlock and Chris Latham, Ben Tune and Toutai Kefu.
Ryo Yamamura tried sumo but decided to go for a much less popular sport in Japan -- rugby. The 1.85m, 105kg prop was a sumo wrestler until he gave up a promising career in the sport to play for Japan's World cup team.
Yamamura, 22, dreamed of becoming a sumo professional as a child and began fielding lucrative offers as he grew up. But when he tried rugby at the suggestion of a high school teacher, his sumo career was over.
"It was very fun, so I play rugby," Yamamura said. "If someone becomes a professional sumo wrestler they are quite famous, but in terms of amateur sports, rugby is quite famous in Japan."
Yamamura said his next goal is to play in the southern hemisphere's Super 12 competition.
Japan plays Scotland in the teams' opening match Sunday in Townsville in north Queensland state. Japan has hired former Australian captain Mark Ella and New South Wales state prop Mark Bell as assistant coaches.
FrENCHMAN WINGS IT
Winger Christophe Dominici, named in the French team to play Fiji on Saturday in Brisbane, has been featured in a near-nude calendar since 2000 that raises money for junior rugby in France.
"It's part of the new marketing for the club," Dominici said of the calendar that raises money for eight to 12-year-old rugby players.
He was joined in the calendar by teammates flanker Patrick Tabacco and lock David Auradou as well as Canada's scrumhalf Morgan Williams. In some cases, a rugby ball prevents the player from going the full monty.
He said a 2004 calendar will be available by next month and could be ordered through the Stade Francais Web site.
Speak my language
New Zealand referee Paul Honiss doesn't speak Spanish. But he's not worried about a language problem when he takes charge of the opening game of the World Cup on Friday between host Australia and Argentina.
"Several of the Pumas play in England so they are used to English speaking referees," he said. "Probably some, if not all of the team speak some English."
Honiss will referee in his 26th international game over a 17-year career and it is his second at Sydney's Olympic Stadium.
"There is no doubt that this is the highlight of my career and I am really looking forward to it," he said. "All my preparation has been done and I am not nervous, although thee could be a few butterflies when I run out on to that great stadium."
He also takes charge of the France-US match at Wollongong in Group B Oct. 31.
little fish
World Cup minnow Namibia doesn't expect to make much of an impact, drawn in the same group as defending champion Australia, Argentina and Ireland.
But prop forward Kees Lensing hopes to use the championship as a springboard to the Super 12s.
Lensing has been playing professionally in South Africa for the last five years and has signed for the Blue Bulls for the next two years.
"My main goal is to play Super 12, maybe not next year," he said. "I will first have to see what the opposition is like, but definitely before the end of the two years I hope to play Super 12.
"If I can get a couple of Super 12 caps I am looking to go overseas, maybe play for one of the bigger clubs around the world," he said.
"I am not fussy as to where I would like to go, I will go anywhere, whichever club would give me the best opportunity."
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