Out go the ANZACs, defeated by Poms and Frogs ... aaaggh!

This morning (or should I call it afternoon? Given I got up for the second time at 1.30pm today after watching both quarter-finals, it feels like morning to me) I am both frustrated and speechless: frustrated by the Wallabies and rendered speechless by the All Blacks. What an event is this Rugby World Cup!

The English deserved to win their match against Australia (there, I've said it): the Wallabies were ill-disciplined and flabby against an urgent and attacking English side. The scrums were a travesty on both sides (how many scrum re-sets did we have to endure, huh? Set the bloody thing and don't collapse it, bozos!) and the Australians' ball-handling skills were flawed and careless. So many dropped balls out wide. Lote's try was a thrill; however, too many penalties allowed JW to put the points on the board and Sterling's missed kicks at goal sealed the deal. The Australians lost the match because of poor play and that's really really annoying!

Full credit to the English - they obviously wanted it more and played like a team out to show their critics they were up to defending their crown. They lifted over the last week and played like a well-drilled machine. I still can't stand Jonny Wilkinson though - lay the egg and get on with it!

The All Blacks' match against the French is another story: why do the New Zealanders choke in the World Cup?? They don't choke in the Bledisloe or the Tri Nations ... why in this competition? Why? Why?

This was their event for the winning. The best team in the world and a flawless run through the pool rounds. Their first half was immaculate. They played tight, disciplined, fearsome rugby and made several attacks on the French line. Their ball-handling was perfect and they moved the ball around quickly and precisely. At half-time they seemed unbeatable at 13 - 3.

In the second half it was if the two teams had swapped jerseys. The French regrouped and ground down the All Blacks' resolve. McAlister was sent off for ten minutes for blocking, and the beginnings of what could be called rot set in. A try set up by late ring-in Michalak (passing it on to Jauzion to score) came of what appeared to be a forward pass but it did its job - the French could see the door was open. Dan and Byron came off injured in the second half and the panic set in. Despite a determined effort by the men in black to drive the ball over (the forwards would be knackered - they made several attempts at scrummaging the ball over the line, and did in fact score another try) our little ANZAC brothers couldn't keep the Frogs out. A last minute penalty from the French and Les Bleus secured a spot against England in the Semis.

So my tipping for the Semis is now 50% wrong and we're left with the Frogs and the Poms to fight it out next week - I'm practising my 2nd language even harder now - Vivent Les Bleus! I cannot bear the thought of the English winning the RWC for a 2nd time as they'll bloody beatify them and then eract statues and rename the English counties after each of the players. Yuck. The spectacle of the French side playing in Paris to contest the Final is much more attractive.

Who will they play? God knows! If the next two quarters play out like the first two the Fijians will win by 30 and the Scots by 50! Every Australian should be made to barrack for Fiji this evening - not hard, they're a super team and deserving of their large fan base. Plus, the team I absolutely hate the most are the South Africans. The Argentinians will make it a cinderella story if they make it through to the Finals ... imagine the Falkland Wars II should the English be their foe .....

Bah! Go Fiji! Go Argentina! Go France!

The pool rounds are over ... and now the real fun begins!

Eight teams are through to the Quarter Finals and the real fun of the RWC begins ... the knockout rounds.

Australia have their chance to avenge their loss to England in 2003, the French face the All Black juggernaut, the Fijians have caused the upset of the tournament (to face the Springboks), and Argentina lines up against the Scots.

I'm excited for Fiji; they'll be thrilled with their Quarter Final spot even though they face a seemingly ascendant South Africa. Let's hope they give the 'Boks the same drubbing they gave Wales ;-) [Good luck Greg :-)]

Argentina have presented a very strong case for inclusion in an expanded Tri Nations by finishing top of their pool. I predict a Semi Final spot for them.

After a few weeks of reading the rugby results rather than staying up all night to watch the matches, now I start the alarm-clock setting and sleeping in. Thank goodness I'm on 2 weeks holidays. I have a hen's day to attend on the 6th - perfect reason to stay up even later to watch the Wallabies play the English :-) I'll be at the chic Loft Bar in Sydney, in a posh frock - Chic Rugby to the max :-)

The All Blacks romp home against Romania

The All Blacks have stomped all over the Romanians, 85 - 8. Dan didn't play as he has a calf strain. He's saving himself for the French :-)

England defeat Tonga and line themselves up against a Wallaby team ready for revenge :-)

The Tongans played very well against the English to go down 36 - 20. The Poms secured their place in the Quarter-Finals with some room to spare, but the Tongans were not disgraced and were praised by their opposition for their strong play and natural ability.

The Australians now have the chance to avenge their defeat against the English in the 2003 World Cup Final. It will be a close game, especially with Jonny "I'm a pain' Wilkinson finding kicking form. Zut alors!

The All Blacks line up against the Romanians shortly, with the Australians versus the Canadians a couple of hours later. By tomorrow morning the 8 teams to play the Quarters will be decided and then the really tough stuff begins :-)

Go Australia!

The ANZACs clean up, and the Tongans give South Africa a scare.

Australia and New Zealand have virtually secured their berths in the RWC quarterfinals with good wins over Fiji and Scotland.

The All Blacks (wearing a nice grey jersey this match – the All Greys doesn’t have the same ring though) held the Scots to a scoreless result for the boys in blue, beating them 40 nil. The Wallabies met more resistance from the Fijians, who always play with heart and flair, but held on to win 55 – 12.

The Fijians meet Wales in their final pool match – let’s barrack for them so they come second in our group. Then they can play the South Africans and scare them like the Tongans did in their 30 – 25 game in Lens. There’s a lesson to be learnt here for coaches – resting star players is great for preventing injuries leading into the knockout rounds; however, you risk losing your pool game and finishing second in your group! The South Africans held on to win; however, the Tongans revealed some chinks in the Springboks armour. Don’t expect them to make that mistake again

As for Chic Rugby’s tipping results … she’s back to coming second in her group of fellow tipsters. Her friend Reece is pipping her by three points, and he’s a soccer player! Some score-lines are easier to pick than others.

Oh, and the English beat the Samoans, but only because JW is a girly kicker of the rugby ball - 2 drop goals ... huh, I ask you! Score a try, Jonny! I dare you :-) Eng 44 - Sam 22

Go the Wallabies/Fijians/Cherry Blossoms!

Big wins to the Wallabies and the All Blacks!

ChicRugby and ChicRugby's friend Cat stayed up last night to watch the Wallabies v Japanese and the All Blacks v Italians.

Actually we drank champagne and chatted during the All Blacks game. I could see Dan kicking away, with my peripheral vision, but we had other things to talk about and we got distracted ...

No matter. The upshot is that this morning both the Australians and the All Blacks are sitting nicely at the tops of their pools with cricket scores against their names - excellent. I pity the poor Cherry Blossoms; they got hammered. They continued attacking as best they could but tiredness and the superior fitness of the Wallabies wore them down in the second half. Rocky Elsom played very well and scored the fastest hat-trick by a forward in the Cup's history. The Wallabies scored 13 tries!

The All Black match just seemed to feature Dan kicking a lot. The New Zealanders scored 11 tries.

Very tired this morning (I fell asleep on Cat's sofa) and am thinking that coffee will be my best friend until the 20 October.

Oh, and the English won as well - but we don't care about them.

Wallabies in France

So the Wallabies have arrived in Montpellier, after a day-trip to Villers Bretonneux and the WWI cemetery containing the graves of several hundred young Australian soldiers.

The Wallabies play their first match against the Japanese in Lyon on the 8th. It should be a nice warm-up match for them; however, the Japanese are a spirited team and will give the men in green and gold an entertaining, if not overtaxing, game.

Eddie Jones - the former Wallabies' coach - has criticised the Australian forward pack, just in time for the first match. We remember what his coaching record was like with the Wallabies. Let's hope he takes the same approach in his job with the South Africans.

Gosh he annoys me.

The All Blacks are firming as favourites to win the Cup. It's usual for the All Blacks to head into the RWC as favourites - they've done so every Cup - but history has shown that the New Zealanders reach a peak, and then crash just when it matters most. They lost to the Wallabies in the 1991 semi-final, choked in the 1995 final against South Africa, went out to France in '99 semi-final and to Australia in the 2003 semi-final. To win the All Blacks will need to keep their form until late in the competition if they're to stand on the winners' podium (rugby trivia: the All Blacks have won the World Cup once - the first one in 1987 - whilst we've won it twice and been in the finals three times).

I'd like to think the Wallabies could rise above recent poor form and slog it out to win for a third time. With inspiration from those young men buried in the fields of France, they can take it to their opposition and get the job done.

Time, and the sometimes unpredictable game of rugby, will tell. Roll on the Rugby World Cup!

Farewell Bledisloe and Tri Nations Cups

Now, it's been a few days between posts at Chic Rugby.

That's because I didn't watch 3/4 of the game between Australia and the All Blacks.

I was at my hairdresser's.

Needless to say the result was disappointing for the men in green and gold.

And Dan the Man Carter was responsible for a goodly part of the carnage. We love Dan, but not as much when he's playing Australia. See him kicking another penalty goal in the picture above. 21 points to his name.

Ouch.

Where to now for the Wallabies? The World Cup Final, that's where! The boys will need to get it together to overcome the mental challenge of losing two prestigious competitions against the World Cup favourites, in order to regroup and retake the prettiest cup on offer in world rugby. They can do it, they have the potential.

On another note, former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has scored a job with the Springboks as they too prepare for the World Cup. John O'Neill, the recently reappointed head of Australian Rugby has made the jokey comment that Jones' appointment will actually help the Wallabies as he wasn't that great a coach during his tenure and the Australians lost lots of matches!

Hope he gives them the same match tips he gave the Wallabies. Maybe he could go coach the All Blacks as well?!

Richie McCaw ... cute, but a cheat?

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw is creating discussion in the lead up to Saturday's test match against Australia.

Just what is he up to?

My observations of Richie's play is that he comes in at the breakdown from off-side a lot. The All Blacks' assistant coach Steve Hansen is quoted in rugbyheaven.smh.com.au as describing the debate as "nonsense". That "a lot of the time he's forcing them (the opposition) to come from the side to remove him, so we should be getting the penalty. He's that quick, he'll make a tackle and get to his feet. Sometimes it's an optical illusion."

I'm not so sure. It's a lot of optical illusions .... it seems to happen in every game. Is he getting away with it because he's the captain? Or because he's in with the refs? Or because he's cute?!

Off-side is a tricky rule to police in rugby as the action is fast and the ref's eyes can't be on every player at every stage of the game. 'Off-side ref!' is a common cry from disgruntled spectators watching a match.

It remains to be seen if Richie is simply 'that quick' or he's sneaky enough to take advantage of the chaos after the scrum breaks down or a maul has scrambled possession of the ball. There are distinct rules about from which direction a player may enter the break-down and coming in from the wrong direction results in a penalty.

And successful penalty kicks equal 3 points for the other side (i.e. us!).

Let's hope the refs are onto it on Saturday .... we need every point we can get :-)

Just as we thought ... the All Blacks bring down the 'Boks.

I didn't watch the game yesterday as I was otherwise engaged but my prediction that the All Blacks would win was right! They scored three converted tries in the last 12 minutes of the game (that's 21 points).

However, the collective wisdom of the rugby press is suggesting that the All Blacks wouldn't be so pleased with their performance against an understrength South Africa. Chris Foley in Rugby Heaven says they were uninspiring in attack even though they had possession of the ball for most of the game. This means the Springboks were able to defend their line against an 'all over the shop' game strategy by the men in black. It didn't translate into tries for the South Africans but kept the scoreline lower for the All Blacks. The New Zelanders will go back to the drawing board for the game against Australia this coming weekend. Let's hope the Wallabies are not wobbly.

Dan scored a try and made 3 conversions and 4 penalties! As gorgeous as he is let's pray he doesn't do quite so well this Saturday. The upcoming game decides both the Tri Nations and the Bledisloe Cup, hence a lot of national rugby-lovin' pride is at stake :-)

This weekend: New Zealand v South Africa

Saturday afternoon (our time) will see the All Blacks up against the Springboks, in Christchurch. Both teams are coming back from defeats against Australia and will have something to prove.

The smart money is on the All Blacks, as they are always fiercer competition when they have the home-ground advantage. The Springboks will be playing under their fourth captain in four games, Johann Muller. He plays in the second row of the Bok's scrum, and looks it (oh dear).

The All Blacks have announced some team changes due to injury and poor play. Byron Kelleher, another All Black hottie (and the lovely Dan's playing partner at half-back), will not be playing.

But Dan will - hooray!

This is the one time you can all barrack for the All Blacks.

By the way, Australia is currently leading the Tri Nations table with 9 points. The other two nations are on 5 apiece. Let's see how things stand after the weekend but it's certainly looking exciting for the match between Australia and the All Blacks on July 21 (the second game of the Bledisloe Cup).

Aaaagh, it's too much :-)

My favourite rugby player: Dan Carter

Alas, he is an All Black but he is GORGEOUS. Here he is promoting Jockey shorts for Jockey NZ.