Rugby World Cup 2011 - Scottish hearts broken by Ashton

THE pool stages at the 2011 IRB Rugby World Cup are over and so are the hopes of twelve teams who were dreaming of reaching the final.  Quarter-final weekend will ultimately see eight of the top nine sides in the IRB rankings do battle; Ireland, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Wales, Argentina, Australia and France.  The team missing out is Scotland, who lost their proud record of having at least made the last eight of every Rugby World Cup competition. 

CRUSHED: Ashton finally put the knell in Scotland's hopes

    For a while on Saturday morning, it looked like the impossible might become possible, as Dan Parks kicked Scotland into a 12-3 lead against England in Auckland.  However, the English dug in throughout another scrappy performance from our boys.  Once again, Johnny Wilkinson had a shocking day with his kicking and surely, Martin Johnson has to consider picking Toby Flood as his no.1 choice at fly-half.  In the end, it was Chris Ashton who once again managed to bail out England.  Trailing 9-12 with three minutes remaining, Ashton finished off the one flowing move England were able to put together in the entire match.  It makes him the leading try scorer in the tournament and earnt us a 16-12 triumph.  It comes at a cost; with a dangerous tackle on Chris Patterson, Dylan Armitage was cited and since been banned from this weekend’s quarter-finals.  Scotland has been unlucky at the tournament, but when you fail to score any tries against Argentina, Georgia and England, I’m afraid it has to be an early flight home.

UPSET: Tonga celebrate a historic victory over the dismal French

     It could be worse, as you could be French at the moment.  They may be in the last eight again, but at the height of a national embarrassment.  They were dominated by a resolute and magnificent Tonga in Wellington and fell to a 19-14 defeat; one of the biggest upsets in Rugby World Cup history.  Only a late try from Francois Clerc was even enough for Les Bleus to secure the losing bonus point.  The French have looked atrocious from their opening match, but knowing them, they have a performance in them, so England shouldn’t take them too lightly.  For Tonga, victory meant like winning the World Cup to them.  It secures them an automatic place for the 2015 finals, at Canada’s expense.  However they will be regretting the loss to the Canadians, otherwise they would be deservedly in the last eight.  Unless they progress on Saturday, France’s rugby players deserve similar treatment to their football counterparts in the 2010 football World Cup; fly home in standard class!

     New Zealand received a hammer blow as arguably, the best player in the world at the moment, Dan Carter was ruled out of the tournament.  He looked in agony and limped away in tears after an Achilles tendon ruptured finished the 29-year’s old participation in his home tournament.  You wonder whether this is his last attempt at the World Cup, after injury ruined his 2007 campaign too.  The All-Blacks didn’t need him against Canada though, cruising to a comprehensive 79-15 victory, scoring twelve tries in the process.  Four of these came from Zac Guildford, while Miles Muliana returned from injury to cross once in his 99^th test for the hosts.  We’ll see how much Carter’s absence will now affect the New Zealand squad and also, the fans. 

    Wales banished their nightmare of Nantes 2007 in their revenge rematch against Fiji.  Samoa’s luckless and narrow defeat to world champions South Africa on Friday meant a bonus point was only required for the Welsh to progress.  The potential banana skin turned into a no contest encounter, with the Welsh cantering to 66-0 annihilation in Hamilton.  Welsh centre Jamie Roberts scored two tries in this emphatic performance.  The Welsh have looked very impressive in the pool stages, and can look forward to a very intriguing quarter-final showdown with Ireland on Saturday.  Fiji; quarter-finalists themselves four years ago, have had a dismal tournament.  No wonder; they even let Namibia score over 20 points!

     In the final pool match of this World Cup, one more quarter-final spot was up for grabs.  Ireland sealed it and it turned into a mismatch against Italy.  Once Brian O’Driscoll crossed the Italian try line in the opening stages of the second half in Dunedin, there was little doubt who was going to be the winning team.  On his birthday, Keith Earles touched down twice, as Ireland scored 27 unanswered points in the second half.  The Emerald Isle eventually won 36-6 and deservedly ended top of Pool C, leaving Australia with a much harder route now to the final. 

     Quarter-final weekend looks a very tasty one and at least three of the games look too close to call.  The final gets closer and with the hard-working minnows dispatched, the real action starts this weekend!  Good luck to the remaining teams left fighting it out for Rugby World Cup glory in 2011!

THE FINAL POOL RESULTS: Georgia 25-9 Romania, South Africa 13-5 Samoa, Australia 68-22 Russia, France 14-19 Tonga, England 16-12 Scotland, Argentina 25-7 Georgia, New Zealand 79-15 Canada, Wales 66-0 Fiji, Ireland 36-6 Italy

CLOSER: Just eight teams can still dream of lifting the trophy in 2011

THIS WEEKEND’S QUARTER-FINALS

Ireland v Wales, Saturday 8 October, from Wellington, 6am UK time, live on ITV1 and ITV1 HD,

England v France, Saturday 8 October, from Auckland, 8.30am UK time, live on ITV1 and ITV1 HD,

South Africa v Australia, Sunday 9 October, from Wellington, 6am UK time, live on ITV1 and ITV1 HD

New Zealand v Argentina, Sunday 9 October, from Auckland, 6am UK time, live on ITV1 and ITV1 HD

Rugby World Cup 2011 - The opening weekend

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.

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