| |
|
| ||||||||||||||||
 Back in time New Zealand appears firmly in control at Rugby World Cup
Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 07:52 PM
By Leora Blumberg, CNN/SI ATLANTA -- With the second round of pool play over in the Rugby World Cup, things are shaping up much as the smart money anticipated -- with a few minor exceptions. Saturday's match between New Zealand and England, which since the draw has been considered a pivotal match of the tournament, may have given the rest of the World Cup squads some nightmares. It wasn't that England failed to attack or even tanked the match, so much as that Jonah Lomu apparently chooses to peak in the tournament. England must have thought it was caught in a time loop from the 1995 semifinals when Lomu charged down the field, flattening four England defenders in the process to score a try, and leading the All Blacks to a 30-16 victory. The result of this match is that should England manage to get pass the second round, it will probably face South Africa in the quarterfinals. New Zealand on the other hand is almost guaranteed a berth in the quarterfinals, where it will probably face Scotland in Edinburgh. In the other key match of the weekend Australia flattened Ireland in the second half of the game, after Ben Tune and Tim Horan both scored tries as the Wallabies put together a 23-3 victory. Ireland had more pluck than luck as it gamely held close to the men from Down Under for much of the match. But the Irish may want to practice their kicking after missing three of four attempts at goal. One man who needs very little practice at kicking is Argentina's Gonzalo Quesada, who led the upset of the weekend as the Pumas wiped out a 16-3 halftime deficit to defeat Western Samoa 32-16. Quesada was successful in nine out of his 10 kicks at goal, including a drop goal. He failed only to convert lock Alejandro Allub's try. The last match that bears talking about was the matchup between Romania and the United States on Saturday. The United States went into the match as favorites and started off well, with a 17-5 lead at the half. But by that stage the Eagles had received a major blow: Their best player, Dan "Captain America" Lyle, had received a serious shoulder injury and had to be replaced. The Americans should learn a valuable lesson from this: No matter how good, one man does not a rugby team make. To give the Romanians their due, they showed fine fighting spirit as they fought back to win 27-25. As for the man of the weekend, that honor must surely go to Lomu, who outshone Neil Jenkins' tally of points to equal Michael Lynagh as joint top pointscorers in the world with a total of 911, while Argentina's Quesada's accuracy with the boot gave the Pumas victory. The quote of the weekend belongs to Lomu, who when asked about Saturday's try at Twickenham replied, "I had some space and went for the shortest route." True enough, but it doesn't hurt to be 6 feet, 5 inches (1.96 meters), 260 pounds (118 kilograms) and able to run the 100 meters in 10.8 seconds. In other matches on Friday, Scotland beat Uruguay 43-12, while France put down Namibia 47-13. On Saturday, Fiji triumphed over Canada 38-22, while Wales had absolutely no trouble in dispatching Japan 64-15. South Africa gave many of its starters a rest on Sunday when it trashed Spain 47-3. In the final match of the weekend Tonga beat Italy in a humdinger of a match 28-25.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
