Australia and Wales will look to tomorrow’s bronze final at Eden Park for some consolation after their hopes of winning the World Cup were extinguished following semi-final defeats last weekend.
The Wallabies were bloodied and battered in 20-6 defeat by New Zealand, while the Welsh are still bemoaning a 9-8 loss to France, where they played with 14 men for the last hour.
While pundits question the relevance of a third place playoff tacked on to the end of a demanding six-week tournament, both teams say they have plenty to play for in their curtain-fall appearances at the seventh World Cup.
Photo: Reuters
The Wallabies are licking their wounds having been second best in all aspects to the All Blacks, but are determined to go out with a bang after promising so much, but delivering so little.
Meanwhile, Wales say they are equally as determined to prove they should be in Sunday’s final instead of France after coming within a whisker of beating the French, despite having skipper Sam Warburton sent off midway through the first half for a lifting tackle.
Wales’ Western Mail newspaper devoted its entire Monday front page to an emotional editorial entitled “Is This How You Feel?” lamenting the defeat and what might have been.
Photo: AFP
Senior Wallaby back Adam Ashley-Cooper said the match was a chance for Australia to give something back to their fans.
Australia coach Robbie Deans has made eight changes to his team, several as a result of injuries.
The most significant saw -Kurtley Beale included following a hamstring strain that saw the attacking full-back miss the semi-final, while lock Nathan Sharpe is set to win his 100th cap after replacing the injured Dan Vickerman.
Sharpe is in line to become only the fifth Wallaby to play 100 Tests — the others are George Gregan, George Smith, Stephen Larkham and David Campese.
Meanwhile, exciting 19-year-old wing George North said Wales ought to have a tangible reward for an impressive tournament.
“The way we’ve been playing that’s something [third] we really deserve,” North said.
Wales defeated Australia 22-21 in the playoff for third place at the inaugural 1987 World Cup in New Zealand, and neither team has played in one since.
Warren Gatland, whose coaching reputation has been enhanced by the Welsh displays at the World Cup, said he wants his exuberant team to finish on a high.
“We face Australia back home at the Millennium Stadium in just over a month’s time and we are single-minded in our assertion that we want that homecoming to be a celebration of us achieving the status of one of the top three teams in the world,” Gatland said.
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