George Gregan knows better than to judge Australia's 91-3 crushing of Japan against Wales' stuttering come-from-behind victory over Canada.
The only gauge of Wallabies and Welsh strength is the final result of their match in Cardiff today, said the Wallaby scrumhalf, the most capped international of all time.
At stake is top place in Group B, which will likely mean avoiding South Africa in the quarter-finals. The loser will probably have to face the Springboks, who're just behind New Zealand in Cup favoritism.
"A good tough game is a good measure of where you are as a group," Gregan said. "And there's no better challenge than playing Wales in Cardiff, second match in a World Cup."
Gregan and his longtime halves partner Stephen Larkham were key players in the undefeated squad of 1999, when Australia captured their second World Cup title.
In that campaign, Australia had to get past host Wales in the quarter-finals, beat South Africa in the semis and return to Cardiff to beat the French in the final.
Yet a group match against Ireland in Dublin eight years ago is the only one Gregan thinks is relevant to this situation.
"It was an important match for us in terms of finishing on top of the pool," he said. "It was a tough Test match, played in similar circumstances -- Ireland at Lansdowne Road -- so it's no different in that regard."
"We were probably saying the same things then -- the group will be a lot more confident and a lot more clear on where they stand after Saturday," he said.
Australia, losing finalists in 2003, opened with an emphatic win over Japan at Lyon last weekend. Wales trailed 17-9 in the second half before scoring five unanswered tries in a 42-17 win over Canada.
"This is a crucial game as far as our Pool is concerned and a lot of what we have done over the past 12 months has been preparing us for this game," Australia coach John Connolly said.
The Australians looked to be going through the motions at stages against Japan, before opening up late in the match.
"No disrespect to Japan, but ... it was a trial run for the Welsh match," Larkham said. "And basically the game plan that we prepared for Japan will be the one that we go in with against Wales."
Connolly made two changes to his starting lineup, with Drew Mitchell replacing injured Adam Ashley-Cooper on the wing and Guy Shepherdson returning from injury to replace Al Baxter at prop.
His Welsh counterpart Gareth Jenkins made key positional changes, with Stephen Jones' performance at flyhalf the catalyst for the selection of an experienced over experimental team.
Jones swung the match after replacing James Hook with the Welsh trailing 17-9 in the second half.
He was one of three veterans recalled to face Australia, with coach Gareth Jenkins selecting Colin Charvis in the backrow and Gareth Thomas at fullback and captain.
The trio, with a combined 251 Test caps, all came off the bench against Canada.
"We have brought in three players who showed last weekend what experienced heads can do to a performance," Jenkins said. "They picked up the game and were able to fashion a victory for us."
Jenkins said he put as little emphasis on Wales' recent record against the Wallabies at Cardiff as he did to the two losses a depleted Welsh squad had on tour of Australia earlier this year.
"It's the most important match a Welsh side has played for a long time," Jenkins said. "We have gone through practically every emotion possible in our last four meetings with Australia."
"But World Cup rugby pays no respect to history or to emotion. We have selected a team to win this Test match," he said.
The x-factor at the Millennium Stadium in favor of the Welsh is the 72,000-strong crowd, which will be brimming with local supporters in full voice.
France did a deal with the Welsh and Scottish unions when it submitted its bid to host this year's tournament, and both nations get key home matches as a consequence.
"The fact that the match is being played in Cardiff is a huge factor,"Larkham said. "The World Cup is meant to be in France -- to play Wales at home is a totally different game to playing them away."
Wales held Australia to a 29-all draw in Cardiff last year, after an upset win at home in 2005.
Connolly said those results should be viewed in perspective.
"That was an experimental tour -- 28 or 29 players ran through the four northern Tests," he said. "I think we're a fair bit of the way down the road and our form in the Tri-Nations showed that."
The key to the match will be in the forward exchanges. Both teams rate their chances in the backs, where Australia has the most experienced combination and Wales one of the most dangerous.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but