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| COLOURFUL: New Zealand welcomed the rugby world spectacularly |
THE seventh IRB Rugby World Cup began in New Zealand last Friday with a colourful and electric opening ceremony. After the opening ten matches of the tournament, no clear-cut favourite has been established, with many of the elite rugby teams really struggling to perform and win matches against the rugby union minnows of the world. Despite this, there has been no massive upset so far and the rugby is only bound to get better as the tournament progresses.
As hosts, New Zealand are under great pressure to deliver for a nation, that has suffered this year from the tragic mining disaster and the earthquake that battered Christchurch back in February. They made a professional start, in defeating Tonga 41-10 in Auckland, but it was far from glorified rugby we’d expect to see from the All-Blacks. Tonga matched them in the opening ‘Haka’ arrangements, but that was as good as it got for the Pacific Islanders. They seemed to be overwhelmed by the experience of playing in the opening match and it showed in the first half. Richard Kahui and Ishrael Dagg both scored two tries as the hosts raced into a 29-0 lead. After the break, Tonga improved and scored a deserved try from Alisona Taumalolo. The All-Blacks only managed one further score in the second half and despite the lack of competition from the opposition; there is plenty of room for improvement. Coach Graeme Henry, who regained his job in 2008, after no-one else wanted it following the quarter-final elimination at the hands of France in October 2007 must be concerned about the amount of handling errors made by the hosts.
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| BRAVE: Faletau's try wasn't quite enough for Wales on Sunday |
The home nations all made their tournament bow at the weekend, but only Wales put in any kind of performance that they can be proud of. Typically then, they lost! The brave Welsh were beaten by world champions South Africa in their Pool D opener on Sunday. However, the 17-16 scoreline in Wellington reflected how close they came to a mighty upset. Once the Springboks took an early lead in the third minute, courtesy of a Frans Steyn try, the writing looked on the wall for Warren Gatland’s side. However, they showed a lot of class and determination in rattling the champions, who looked distinctively average. Brian Habana, the fastest man in world rugby, was a pale shadow of his domination in 2007 and went off with a knee injury. It wasn’t long after his departure when Wales crossed the try line to lead the contest, through energetic no.8 Toby Faletau. Critically, when they needed a score, South Africa managed to turnaround the deficit as Francois Hougaard scored with 15 minutes to go. A late penalty miss from James Hook cost the Welsh, who must see this as a missed opportunity. As for the Springboks, they must play better if they want to stand any hope of retaining the Webb Ellis Trophy.
However, don’t expect Ireland to make a formidable challenge either. They laboured to a 22-10 success over the USA in New Plymouth on Sunday morning. Declan Kidney; the Irish coach will be disappointed that his team didn’t get a bonus point for scoring four or more tries. Ireland winger Tommy Byrne went over for a try on the stroke of half-time in a game littered with handling errors from the favourites. A ten-minute spell which saw Byrne again and hooker Rory Best go over the line was enough after the interval. Like Habana, Brian O’Driscoll is struggling for form and his terrible pass in injury time, allowed American centre Paul Emerick to score a poignant try for the US, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
As for Scotland, it is two wins from two, but nowhere near in convincing fashion as Andy Robinson would have been hoping. On Saturday, only two late tries from Simon Danielli got them out of jail against Romania, one of the weaker teams in the competition. Despite a bonus point, the 34-24 final score was a real close shave for the Scots. This morning, they stayed in Invercargill to see off Georgia 15-6. Terrible weather conditions meant this match was not one that will be fondly remembered. The boot of Dan Parks got Scotland over the line and they head for harder challenges, at least with points on the board, even though they looked well short of quality.
Which bring us onto England? Although they got the valuable win on Saturday against Argentina by 13-9 in Dunedin, it was a shambolic performance, which had echoes of the Grand Slam collapse in Dublin earlier this year. Johnny Wilkinson had a day to forget; missing five kicks and hopefully, Saturday’s performance was just a blip from our reliable fly-half. For long periods, Martin Johnson must have been staring at the barrel of defeat against a team that has plenty of experience, but is beginning to age from the third place finish the Pumas achieved four years ago. Fortunately, there was light at the end of the tunnel for England, courtesy of a try from replacement scrum-half, Ben Youngs. Even watching the highlights, it was awful to watch, so imagine what it felt like watching the game live. A win is a win, but it lacked style, class and panache and will give worried looks to many English followers.
Final word in this first round-up goes to Canada, who caused a minor upset this morning. The Maple Leaf that has appeared at every RWC tournament beat Tonga 25-20, despite being ranked lower in the IRB rankings. Two late tries in the final 12 minutes were enough for the North Americans, who can now look forward to an exciting duel with the unpredictable French on Sunday.
THIS WEEKEND’S RESULTS: New Zealand 41-10 Tonga, Scotland 34-24 Romania, Fiji 49-25 Namibia, France 47-21 Japan, England 13-9 Argentina, Australia 32-6 Italy, Ireland 22-10 USA, South Africa 17-16 Wales, Samoa 49-12 Namibia, Tonga 20-25 Canada, Scotland 15-6 Georgia
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