QUARTER-FINAL weekend at the 2011 Rugby World Cup provided some great stories, some emotional heartbreak and some graceful and emotional goodbyes. For England, they don’t fit into any of these categories.
The death knell in their torrid time in New Zealand came to a painful conclusion at Eden Park on Saturday. Their worst performance in the competition since the inaugural 1987 tournament was sealed by a 19-12 defeat at the hands of France. Actually, the scoreline reflects quite positively on England, but if anyone had watched the game, they would have seen that the French were completely on top for 90 per cent of the encounter. After a flying opening, the English failed to score a point and paid for a number of issues with their basic game. Some woeful tackling, poor discipline and iffy handling came together to give the French a 16-0 half-time lead.
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| DECISIVE: Maxime Medard's try ended England's sorry adventure |
The dangerous Vincent Clerc and Maxime Medard both crossed the try line as for the first time in this tournament; France looked like a decent side, which I had sadly predicted previously. Matt Dawson; scrum-half in the 2003 winning England team summed it up on BBC Radio 5 Live; “England were blown away in the first half and probably got a proper telling off. They came out with a little more pace and precision, but they made too many mistakes with knock-ons, penalties and turnovers.” Ben Foden and Mark Cueto highlighted a slight improvement from England in the second half with tries, but the damage had already been done. Martin Johnson has refused to answer questions about his future as head coach, but this tournament has been a flopping disaster. The RFU has insisted it will hold a review into the shambles of this Rugby World Cup. I hope Johnson keeps his job, but unfortunately, coaches are judged on World Cup success, not autumn internationals and Six Nations championships. His future is looking very bleak. To finish matters off, Manu Tuliagi, who had been one of the bright sparks in this dreary campaign, was arrested by police after deciding on Sunday night to jump off a ferry! It cost him £3,000 for a stupid, daft and foolish piece of behaviour and sadly, if players do this, the media has every right to crucify them. England have arrived home, a far sorrier and unruly bunch than it was when they left these shores at the end of August.
Whilst England headed for the airport, Welsh fans were beginning to move from Wellington to Auckland for a World Cup semi-final. Since that agonising opening weekend defeat to South Africa, the Welsh have been getting better and better. They are a team that is gelling together at just the right, decisive moment. Their first semi-final since 1987 was sealed by a very impressive 22-10 triumph against Ireland in what was the best quarter-final of the weekend. Shane Williams put Wales infront after just two minutes and the Irish resistance got blown away by second half tries from Mike Phillips and Jonathan Davies. At the start of the second half, Keith Earls had pushed Ireland onto level terms with his sixth try of the competition. However, as the game wore on, the Irish began to run out of legs and the young, fresher Welsh squad prevailed. It marks the end for a golden Irish generation, with the likes of Ronan O’Gara, Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll surely set for retirement now. Ireland gave it their all, but it wasn’t enough on the day. Although the final result was devastating for them, they made their mark in this competition by shocking Australia in the pool stages, so they shouldn’t be too disheartened. Wales go from strength to strength and will fancy their chances against the unpredictable French on Saturday of making a Rugby World Cup final for the first time.
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| PACKING: JP Pietersen reflects on South Africa's painful defeat |
Sunday’s second semi-final will be between old rivals, Australia and New Zealand. The Wallabies somehow managed to send the defending champions South Africa packing on Sunday morning. They won 11-9 in a game full of bruising tackles and competitive build-up play, but lacked clinical scoring opportunities. The only try of the match came early on, courtesy of Australia skipper James Horwill. Afterwards, a heroic rearguard action by the Australians was enough to restrict the Springboks to kicking attempts. Fly-half Morne Steyn sent over two penalties and a drop goal, which did have his side 9-8 in the lead with eight minutes remaining. However, winger James O’Connor responded for Australia, with a brilliant penalty kick from near his own half to seal the victory for the Wallabies. The Springboks will be wondering how they managed to have so much possession, yet lose the match, equalling their worst performance in RWC history, which was back in 2003. It means that still no-one has ever managed to retain the Webb Ellis Trophy. Coach Peter de Villers hailed an ‘incredible journey,’ but made an emotional goodbye to the job he loved in the post-match press conference. Like Johnson, his failure to bring the big trophy home will be sadly what he will be remembered for in South Africa.
As expected, New Zealand saw off a brave Argentina outfit, although the final 33-10 scoreline did flatter them. Nerves looked to have got the better of the All Blacks, infront of an expected crowd and they trailed early on through Julio Farias Cabello’s try. Gradually though, the Pumas resistance was worn away by the cup favourites. Seven penalties from Piri Weepu showed that there is life after the much missed Dan Carter before tries in the last quarter from Kieran Read and Brad Thorn made the game safe. Felipe Contepomi bids farewell to the rugby stage, after three World Cups where he showed that he was one of the best players to have graced the game in modern times. Argentina were rightly praised by Graeme Henry, the New Zealand coach for the tough encounter he got and the South Americans can look forward to joining the former Tri-Nations series alongside South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the newly named Four Nations next summer.
So, four sides now remain after an intense quarter-final weekend. All English fans will be gutted by this shameful early exit, but I urge them now to back Wales all the way! Let’s see what France, Australia and New Zealand have to say about it in what is bound to be an even tenser semi-final weekend coming up.
QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS: Ireland 10-22 Wales, England 12-19 France, South Africa 9-11 Australia, New Zealand 33-10 Argentina
SEMI FINALS
Wales v France, Auckland – Saturday 15 October (9am) live on ITV1 and ITV1 HD
Australia v New Zealand, Auckland – Sunday 16 October (9am) live on ITV1 and ITV1 HD
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