The Week to October 19

RUGBY UNION

 

Bernard Foley missed his first three conversion attempts of the match, but kicked the one that mattered right at the end to give the Wallabies at 35-34 victory over Scotland

Upcoming fixtures – Semi-Finals:
SF1: South Africa vs New Zealand at Twickenham, London (Sun, Oct 25 at 2:00am AEDST)
SF2: Argentina vs Australia at Twickenham, London (Mon, Oct 26 at 3:00am AEDST)
Losers to play in Bronze Medal play-off at The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London (Sat, Oct 31 at 7:00am AEDST)
Winners to play in Final at Twickenham, London (Sun, Oct 31 at 3:00am AEDST)

The Week to October 12

RUGBY UNION

The quarter-finalists of the 2015 Rugby World Cup have now been decided with the completion of the pool stages over the weekend, and the Wallabies will be very happy with proceedings in the tournament thus far. For the second consecutive match, they have shown their fighting qualities to pull off an impressive victory, this time defeating a Welsh side with a magnificent defensive display in front of more than 80,000 fans at Twickenham.

In a dour match, the Wallabies led 9-6 at halftime, with Bernard Foley kicking three penalty goals to his opposite Dan Biggar’s two. Foley added another three points ten minutes into the second stanza, but from then on, Wales set up camp deep in Australian territory. The Welsh had plenty of opportunities to breach the Wallabies’ defence, none better than the period around the 60-minute mark when the Wallabies were reduced first to 14 men when Will Genia was yellow carded, then to 13 men when Dean Mumm was sin-binned just minutes later.

Will Genia was shown a yellow card in the 57th minute…

…before Dean Mumm followed just three minutes later, reducing the Wallabies to 13 men

Australia’s brave defence somehow managed to hold out wave after wave of Welsh attack, and when Adam Ashley-Cooper and Kurtley Beale earned a relieving penalty after fifteen minutes of courageous defence virtually on their own tryline, the Wallabies would have felt they had the match won, even though the lead was just six points. They marched back up the field, and were awarded a penalty, which Foley duly converted to push the margin out to nine, and when Welsh winger Alex Cuthbert was yellow carded for a deliberate knock-on soon after, it was virtually game over.

Bernard Foley’s superb goal-kicking again proved crucial, this time slotting five penalties to help the Wallabies to a 15-6 win

The victory was the 11th straight for the Wallabies over Wales, with many calling it one of the finest defensive efforts they had ever seen. The result means that the Wallabies finish top of Pool A, and have a relatively easy route through the finals, avoiding both South Africa and New Zealand, compared with Wales, who would now likely need to defeat both of those sides just to make the final.

A battered and bruised Wallabies side celebrate their win, which sets up a quarter-final clash against Scotland

In Pool B, bonus points decided who qualified for the quarter-finals, after South Africa, Scotland and Japan finished with three wins apiece. South Africa’s opening loss to Japan sent a slight scare through the camp, but they managed convincing wins in their remaining three games to set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with Wales. Scotland snuck past Samoa in their final match to make it through to the next stage, where they will face Australia in the fourth quarter-final.

Results in Pool C went as expected, with New Zealand finishing on top, ahead of Argentina, who only narrowly went down to the Kiwis in their first match, and actually had a better points differential against Georgia, Tonga and Namibia than the All Blacks did.

The winner of Pool D wasn’t decided until the final match, with Ireland defeating France 24-9 to finish unbeaten through the round-robin phase. The loss means France will face New Zealand, whilst the Irish will face Argentina in what will be a mouth-watering clash.

Results:

Pool A

England defeated Fiji 35-11; Wales defeated Uruguay 54-9; Australia defeated Fiji 28-13;Wales defeated England 28-25; Australia defeated Uruguay 65-3; Wales defeated Fiji 23-13; Australia defeated England 33-13; Fiji defeated Uruguay 47-15; Australia defeated Wales 15-6; England defeated Uruguay 60-3.

Pool B

Japan defeated South Africa 34-32; Samoa defeated USA 25-16; Scotland defeated Japan 45-10; South Africa defeated Samoa 46-6; Scotland defeated USA 39-16; Japan defeated Samoa 26-5; South Africa defeated Scotland 34-16; South Africa defeated USA 64-0; Scotland defeated Samoa 36-33; Japan defeated USA 28-18.

Pool C

Georgia defeated Tonga 17-10; New Zealand defeated Argentina 26-16; New Zealand defeated Namibia 58-14; Argentina defeated Georgia 54-9; Tonga defeated Namibia 35-21; New Zealand defeated Georgia 43-10; Argentina defeated Tonga 45-16; Georgia defeated Namibia 17-16; New Zealand defeated Tonga 47-9; Argentina defeated Namibia 64-19.

Pool D

Ireland defeated Canada 50-7; France defeated Italy 32-10; France defeated Romania 38-11;Italy defeated Canada 23-18; Ireland defeated Romania 44-10; France defeated Canada 41-18; Ireland defeated Italy 16-9; Romania defeated Canada 17-15; Italy defeated Romania 32-22; Ireland defeated France 24-9.

Upcoming fixtures – Quarter-Finals:
QF1: South Africa vs Wales at Twickenham, London (Sun, Oct 18 at 2:00am AEDST)
QF2: New Zealand vs France at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (Sun, Oct 18 at 6:00am AEDST)
Winner of QF1 to play winner of QF2 in SF1 at Twickenham, London (Sun, Oct 25 at 2:00am AEDST)
QF3: Argentina vs Ireland at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (Sun, Oct 18 at 11:00pm AEDST)
QF4: Australia vs Scotland at Twickenham, London (Mon, Oct 19 at 2:00am AEDST)
Winner of QF3 to play winner of QF4 in SF2 at Twickenham, London (Mon, Oct 26 at 3:00am AEDST)