ENGLAND SQUEEZE THE AUSSIES, SCOTLAND FADE OUT

 

England have made the Rugby World Cup quarter finals for the 6th tournament in a row. Last time round, they faced Wales at the Suncorp Stadium. Johnny opened the scoring but tries from Stephen Jones and Colin Charvis left us facing embarrassment before a Will Greenwood try converted by Wilkinson and a load of pens from our then-new ace kicker. Martyn Willams got another try for the Welsh, converted by Iestyn Harris but Johnny had the last word with a drop goal, England won 28-17.

This time round we face Australia and we actually lost our last game against the Wallabies, getting caned to the tune of 43-18 in the Colonial Stadium. The last time we beat them was back in '05 at Twickenham to the tune of 26-16. Of course, if you're going to be talking about World Cup history vs the Aussies you don't need to go back very far. The '03 final at the Telstra Stadium, won 20-17 after extra time with 'that' drop goal to create rugby history.

As our '06 result suggested, we haven't exactly been on the best of form recently but the latter pool games were suggesting that we now had our act together and with Jason Robinson somehow managing to return to international action(with Phil Vickery returning as captain) there was no reason that we couldn't give the '07 vintage Aussies a match at the Stade Velodrome quarter final. Despite topping thier pool, the Aussies had their own injury issues and were being a little bit cocky but that was fine by us.

The opening minutes were a mixed bag and it was the Aussies that took first blood with Stirling Mortlock due to early England indiscipline which looked to be our biggest Achilles heel but it was nowhere near as big an issue as the Aussie pack which was clearly useless. Panicing defenders don't help either, they give away penalties and Johnny levelled the scores with one pen before turning the game round with a second pen after the Aussies collapsed the scrum one too many times. England came at the rest of the half with much more energy but the Aussies were eventually going to get big ideas of their own and the England defence gave out, allowing Lote Tuqri to grab a try, Mortlock converting, allowing the Aussies to lead 10-6 at half time but that deficit looked easy to overhaul.

Both sides had decent runs early on in the second half but England responded to the Aussie attack by booting the ball back into their 22. The Aussie pack was still on no use whatsoever so scrums proved to be a useful base camp back we still had to get points. A Johnny pen following at Aussie offside proved to be a good start and then after some messy play on both sides, the Aussie scrum got anhiliated yet again and a Johnny penalty put us back in the lead. The Aussies tried drop goals(too far away), they tried runs(intercepted) and we added Matt Stevens to the pack just as the Aussies were begging for mercy at the scrum. England still couldn't get clear air though and a last minute Aussie penalty attempt went wide. The last even of the game was an Aussie knock on, a bit anti-climatic but England are well and truly back in business now, winning 12-10!

As for Scotland, well like England are in the Rugby World Cup quarter finals for the 6th tournament in a row but last time round in '03 they got beat 33-16 by Australia at the Suncorp Stadium. They haven't actually won a World Cup quarter final since '91, the tournament that was my introduction to rugby. They were up against the surprise package of the tournament Western Samoa and beat them 28-6 at Murrayfield back when Gavin Hastings and crew were at their peak.

This time round they faced Argentina and the wierd thing is, even before the Pumas' recent rugby rennaisance the Scots had a bad record against them. Last time they played was a friendly at Murrayfield back in '05 that the Scots lost 23-19. Scotland have only beaten the Argies once and that was a Murrayfield friendly back in 1990. 49-3 was an impressive enough scoreline but it happened before I'd ever watched a rugby match! The two sides have never faced each other in the World Cup though.

So now there was this quarter final at the Stade de France to deal with. The Argies caught their entire pool on the hop which wasn't the best omen for the Scots but Frank Hadden's crew are always capable of quality rugby of their own. The Scots lineup looked pretty much unchanged from the Italy game and so the stage was set for what was the freakiest quarter final of the tournament. The Scots have only made the semis once, the Argies never!

The Argies first move was a prayer of a drop goal attempt and though the Argies had the better opening attacks the Scots looked to hold out at least and Argie hands in the ruck allowed Parks to open the scoring with a long range pen. The Scots own indiscipline eventually cost them though, a high tackle from Hines resulting in a Felipe Contepomi pen to level the scors and the Argie kicker kicked a second pen to take the lead after confusion over whether Rory Lamont had touched the ball down after an Argie missed drop goal or not. By this point the Argies were clearly the better side and when a Parks kick was charged down, Gonzalo Longo run straight through for the try, Conetpomi converting. Patterson was allowed to kick a pen for Scotland to pull three back but it was still 13-6 Argies at half time with no real base for a Scottish comeback.

The Scots had even less of a base after they dragged down a rolling maul, Contempomi adding another penalty. Scotland might have been able to come back from that if they weren't all over the place and Juan Martin Hernanez effectivly finished the game with a drop goal. Twenty minutee too late and the Scots finally ripped into the Argie defence and forced them back to their tryline and when Kelly Brown found Cussiter in space the Scots got a try, Patterson converting. The Scots could have pulled off a second try late on but to be honest they wouldn't have deserved it. Argies won 19-13.

Elsewhere France somehow managed to beat New Zealand at the Millenium Stadium despite their full efforts having seemingly been subdued early on. Elsewhere, South Africa beat Fiji 37-20 at the Stade Velodrome despite the Pacific Island side giving the Boks headaches on both ends of the pitch. What initially looked suspiciously like the first ever all-southern hemisphere semi final lineup has been avoided with France being the round's surprise winners.

So now we have the semi finals and England face France in the Stade de France. It a rematch of our '03 semi final but that certainly doesn't count for anything. What might count for me is that we don't have a good recent record against the French, particularly not on thier side of the Channel. Then again, we are hitting form at the right time and when we are on form the French are certainly beatable so I'm going to file this as too close to call.

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