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October 20 Archives

LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS... (posted 20th October 2003)
Another top weekend of Rugby! The Kiwis walloped the Canucks on Friday night in Melbourne - you can read my match report here, and despite NZ dominating the game it did show some flaws in the All Bads game - their forward line can be broken, and they still get rattled when teams take it right up to them :) That backline though toss the ball around faster than a pinball machine, and they can run!

Saturday afternoon saw yours truely at the Australia vs Romania game at Suncorp stadium in Brisbane. What a day! What a party! Read all about it right here! Can't believe how many people we ran into that we knew - even the screamer (a small girl with a big set of lungs) who drove me mental at last week's game was there!

Up in Townsville the French took on Japan in a really good hard game that shows that the Cherry Blossoms are certainly heading in the direction of a force to be reckoned with. My take on the match is here, and later on Saturday night the great clash of the titans we'd all been waiting to see happened over in Perth when the Poms took on South Africa. The Poms won, but South Africa kept them from getting a bonus point :)) Match round up is over here.

Sunday was another feast on rugby day with Wales taking on Tonga in a fierce tussle in Canberra. While the Welsh managed to walk away with the win, Tonga managed to get a bonus point and the final score was only 27-20. Wales/Tonga roundup. Meanwhile in Sydney, the Irish romped home over Namibia scoring a walloping 10 tries to Namibia's one. The Irish have been moaning about being in the same pool as Australia and Argentina, but at the moment they're sitting on top of the Pool A ladder with 10 points! Read about the Ireland/Namibia game here.

Over in Perth, the Samoans also had a big win - theirs over Georgia, and their win taking them to the top of THEIR pool - knocking the Poms off top spot when the English couldn't take home a bonus point against South Africa the night before. More on that match on this page.

I hope no one's getting exhausted watching all this rugby because we've got another game to watch today :)) Scotland takes on the USA in Brisbane this evening. I'm not sure what the weather's supposed to be doing by later today, but it's raining at the present so we could be in for an interesting game. Scotland's been looking rusty, and the USA had that awesome game against Fiji just a few days ago. I'm looking forward to a close battle, but I suppose since there's five Australians in the Scottish side I'll have to be barracking for them to take the win.

Big day for birthday honours is today October 20. Many happy returns and birthday punches for these guys: Georgia Chiriac from Romania, Will Greenwood from England, Paul O'Connell from Ireland (I hope you don't get the call to face the IRB tribunal for a birthday present :O) and Heino Senekal from Namibia as well.

Will Greenwood is headed back home to England on compassion leave. Apparently his wife is having preganancy problems - let's hope that all goes well for the two of them and their unborn child.

George Gregan suffered a corked thigh during the match on Saturday afternoon against Romania so he'll be out for the next Wallaby game - will be interesting to see how the Wallabies go without him ;)

Michalak is again the leading points scorer sitting on 50 individual points, while Flats is now on second place with 44 after kicking all those conversions in Brissie on Saturday. Jonny Wilkinson is on 36. Geez I like seeing Elton Flately sitting higher than Jonny Wilkinson for that one ;))

And... Blair has been sent home by the Kiwis after suffering an injury that will keep him out of the rest of the tournament. Bad luck for Blair - best wishes for a full recovery.

Cheers in your Beers!

I've just put up a forum message board so you can all have your say on RWC. Click Here to access the forums. Make sure you register and vote in my Matt Burke poll - or just say G'day even :))