Tue, Sep 25, 2007 page19

• Australia, All Blacks stroll to easy wins

  WALK IN THE PARK New Zealand said Scotland posed a sterner test than their other opponents at the World Cup so far, but they still cruised to a convincing victory

  • AP
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  It was the day the Rugby World Cup masqueraded as two training matches.

  Australia cruised to a 55-12 victory over a Fiji saving its best players for next week's match against Wales. New Zealand strolled to a 40-0 triumph over a backup Scotland lineup missing its top stars because of a more important game to come against Italy.

  There were plenty of tries and kicking practice for the powerhouse teams who routinely captured places in the quarter-finals by finishing top of their groups. Hardly any full-blooded tackles, no yellow or red cards and few reasons for any of the coaches to frown.

  

  An Australia supporter poses as he waits for the start of his side's match against Fiji in Montpellier, France, on Sunday. Australia won 55-12.

  PHOTO: AFP

  Whether the fans enjoyed it is another matter. The French fans at the La Mosson stadium in Montpellier jeered Australian kicker Matt Giteau even though he amassed 27 points with two tries, four conversions and three penalties. Whenever he lined up a penalty in the second half of a lopsided game, they wanted him to run the ball to give them something more exciting to see.

  Australia coach John Connolly, who used all seven replacements in the first 26 minutes of the second half, acknowledged it was not a great performance.

  "We're not overly happy with the way we played, but there's a certain satisfaction in scoring 50 points," said Connolly, whose team ran in seven tries including three by winger Drew Mitchell and two by 27-point Gitteau. "We're No. 1 in the group and we know where we're headed, so that's good."

  

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  "We played some very good rugby but were very loose in other sections, which is a concern for us. Mentally, we weren't there for the game at times," he said.

  Fiji coach Ilie Tabua, who left 11 of his regular starters out of the lineup so they will be fit to face the Welsh on Sept. 29, admitted that game in Nantes will be more important.

  "We had our chances -- I'm really proud of the way the younger players came in, knowing its a tougher game against Wales next week," Tabua said. "We've got to beat Wales to be in the quarters -- which is our goal."

  Seremaia Bai kicked a conversion for the Fijians although his mind may been elsewhere.

  The center had to race to the French city of Clermont-Ferrand on Saturday to be at the birth of his son and then return for the game.

  "It's really hard, I didn't have much sleep," Bai said. "My baby was born yesterday morning and I spent eight hours driving before the game."

  At Edinburgh's Murrayfield, both sets of players wore almost identical colors to at least make the underdog Scots appear like the All Blacks, who had silver rather than black shirts.

  Once the game kicked off, the difference was very apparent.

  Scotland's Chris Paterson was booed by his own fans for trying an early drop goal instead of attempting to set up a tryscoring opportunity and the game was virtually over after Richie McCaw, Doug Howlett and Byran Kelleher ran in All Blacks tries before halftime without a Scottish point on the board.

  "We were pretty happy. We've scrummed the best we have all tournament, the line-out was OK, we scored a few tries and blew a few as well," All Blacks coach Graham Henry said.

  The home side, including two players making their first international appearances, hardly ever got near the All Blacks line and the only surprise was that New Zealand didn't score more.

  "I think we came across a team a lot harder to break down than in our previous games, they caused us a few problems, but there were a few positives and a few things to work on," New Zealand fullback Leon MacDonald said.

  Howlett captured two of the six tries to move ahead of Christian Cullen as the All Blacks' all time leading try scorer. Ali Williams and Dan Carter also crossed the line, Carter also kicked two conversions and two penalties but missed five more attempts at goal.

  There were no matches in the championship yesterday, but the action resumes today with Canada versus Japan in Pool B and Romania versus Portugal in Pool C. Only pride is at stake because none can reach the quarter-finals.
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