There was one exception, and it came at prime time, meaning Sunday evening South Africa time. Those who love to hate Australia and in particular their coach Eddie Jones would have been supporting Fiji, who are moving up the world rankings and were unlucky against Wales in the opening weekend.
And the general non-Aussie populace, meaning most neutrals, got what they wished for as the islanders achieved the result that was the stand out of round two and which now plunges Australia into the parlous position of being doubtful advancers to the quarterfinals. If that happens, it will be a first for the nation that won the World Cup twice in the 1990s.
Suddenly the game between Wales and Australia looks like it could knock one of these serial quarterfinalists out of the World Cup. Fiji shouldn’t lose again and are looking fairly comfortable in their second position in Pool C, behind Wales, who have now won twice after beating tenacious Portugal at the weekend, but ahead of the Wallabies.
SEARING INTENSITY
It was a performance of searing intensity from Simon Raiwalu’s team that put Australia on the back foot in St Etienne and while they wobbled a little later on there was never really too much doubt that they would get home for a famous win that rivals their historic triumph in a decisive Pool game against Wales the last time the World Cup was hosted by France in 2007.
For the rest the games went as would have been expected given the disparity in strength between tier one and two nations and the rest. The Springboks’ massive whitewash of Romania was pretty close to the margin that would have been expected and it enables them to keep touch with Ireland in Pool B ahead of the massive square-off between the top two ranked teams on Saturday.
Portugal were impressive for an hour before predictably falling away in the last quarter against Wales, and Ireland and New Zealand won by wide margins against Tonga and Namibia respectively.
The France versus Uruguay game that started the round was closer than we would have expected. Maybe the Uruguayans were being underestimated. After all it is not as if the South Americans are new to rugby.
HIPPOPOTAMI ARE A BETTER WATCH THAN ENGLAND
Talking of South America, Chile were well beaten by Samoa while Argentina enjoyed their bye weekend as they prepare to bounce back from the beating they took at the hands of England in the first round. England continued on their winning way by beating Japan by 20 points but it was a performance far less impressive than the one against the Pumas and watching England play does conjure up the quote from the Welshman Clem Thomas, who once said of a game that “It was about as interesting as watching a pair of hippopotami wallowing in a river but not nearly as novel.”
England do seem to love their kicking at the moment, it seems their only route to success, and it will be interesting as the tournament progresses to see if the English press, who slammed South Africa’s supposedly conservative style at the last World Cup in Japan, come to the conclusion that the end justifies the means if it helps them win.
On the subject of England, the second week of competition underlined what was said after the first: There’s a wide chasm between the four teams that can win the World Cup, and the rest. The rest starts with Scotland, who had a bye this weekend. And England are part of “the rest” too.
They may get lucky though as Fiji have hurt the Wallaby chances, and England would have been expecting to meet up with the team coached by their former mentor in the quarterfinal phase. But oh, lest we forget, Fiji did beat England in the warmup phase. Any money on Fiji going better than they did in France in 2007 by going as far as the semis this time? It can happen.
WEEKEND ROUND 2 RUGBY WORLD CUP POOL RESULTS
France 27 Uruguay 12
New Zealand 71 Namibia 3
Samoa 43 Chile 10
Wales 28 Portugal 8
Ireland 59 Tonga 16
South Africa 76 Romania 0
Fiji 22 Australia 15
England 34 Japan 12
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