Sunday 9 September 2007

Rugby World Cup: England, USA, Australia and the Cherry Blossoms

England 28 - USA 10

There must have been moments in the USA England test where the current world cup holders wondered just who the rugby minnow was supposed to be of these two teams. I didn't see this match but by all accounts The Eagles gave Brian Ashton's men a good run for their money. A quick skim of the British media concludes my investigations that England must have been quite dismal: "England were slow, clueless, imprecise and boring." and 'England were diabolical' suggest that poor old England didn't quite live up to their pre-match hype. Again.

Australia 91 - Japan 3

Australia scored 13 tries to none against John Kirwan's Japan although the Wallabies didn't have it all their own way with the Cherry Blossoms holding them to 23-3 at half time. A major blip for the Australians is the potential loss of one of their key backs, Mark Gerrard to a serious sounding knee injury. Gerrard is quite simply, a brilliant player. Losing him would be a major blow to the Wallaby campaign.

3 comments:

Jason Gatties said...

The Eagles played with a ton of heart and passion. The "rugby pundits" can say whatever they want...that England was slow...sloppy...whatever. Bottom line is, the U.S. stepped up their game, punched the Brits in the mouth and scared a rugby giant.

Look out Tonga...

Nursedude said...

I thought the US played with a great deal of heart, and I thouht in the first half were hard done by the ref who did not yellow card the English player for leg whipping/tripping the US guy who had a break to possiby score. I will admit that the US did infringe by coming in from the side, but I don't know how both ref and linesmen could miss that foul. On the subject of getting hosed, I am currently watching RSA-Samoa, but the ref is really overlooking blatant 'Bok fouls against the samoans-some of it really dangerous play.
I still think England would have won, but you have to admit a try and England playing at 14 people would have been nice. Oh well, such are the joys of being a rugby minnow nation

Matt @ Green and Gold Rugby said...

That trip was
a) completely blatant and
b) right in front of the ref. But it was Kaplan who is a A1 jerk.

Congrats on holding the 'World Champs' to 7 all in the second half.