I was there four years ago, way up on high at Telstra Stadium ,when Jonny Wilkinson in an act of unrivaled sporting cruelty tore the heart of Australia and denied us a World Cup on home soil.
Last night, Wilkinson (and a committed English team) again denied Australia a chance at glory in the Marshal Petain Cup. But the better team did win. Australia seemed off their game and their enthusiasm waxed and wane. England on the other hand always seemed to have their entire forward pack at the breakdown, often embarrassing the Aussie pack who often seemed a few seconds behind the play. Wilkinson didn’t quite have his radar working but it was more than enough to get England home.
Alas England can taunt us with four more years. The only saving grace is that the All Blacks have amazingly suffered the same fate and were bundled out of the cup by France.
Mourners can also congregate at Club Troppo.
6 responses so far ↓
Mungo Amanda // Oct 7, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Bad news: Lost $50 betting on Aust to win the Marshal Petain Cup.
Good news: Won $53 betting on the Frogs to get past the Kiwis.
Yet to be allocated: $13 on Fiji to knock out the dirty Saffers.
I may object to the existence of Yawnion, but I’m not above making (or losing) some cash on it.
Bring Back CL's blog // Oct 8, 2007 at 7:59 am
it was boringly apparent to football lovers that the Wallaby pack was poor to bad yet nothing was done. tony Daly is slower and fatter than me and he is playing prop!
Gregan like howard has stayed on too long and has a pass as slow as old get up.
Even in our worst hours no socceroo fan ever got out of the real world cage. Why did this happen to thugby fans?
They are supposed to be educated tofs aren’t they
Bring Back CL's blog // Oct 8, 2007 at 8:07 am
I will be banished forever. fancy mistaking Tony Daly , a very very good prop, with Matt Dunning.
eek
Plastic Druid // Oct 8, 2007 at 10:35 am
We can’t blame Wilkinson for our inadequacies. The Wallabies needed to follow a game plan that capitalised on their superior backs instead of trying to take on the English forwards. Easy to say from the armchair, of course – you can’t score points without the ball. Jonny had an indifferent day by his standards, but so did the Wallabies.
Shaun // Oct 8, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I agree PD but Wilkinson does seem to be Oztraylia’s WC curse.
But the Wallabies did seem ill-prepared. I’m interested in the half-back position. Is Cordingley the best we have after Gregan or is it a case of safety first?
Patrick // Oct 10, 2007 at 8:59 am
Gregan was the best we had. He has retired now, so I think we need to look at Josh Valentine, Brett Sheehan, Matt Henjak or whoever else puts their hand up in S14 next year.
Cordingley is alarmingly ineffective sometimes. Athough he passes it off the ground, he often passes it awry, and although he runs more often, there’s reason Gregan doesn’t – these days, the half-back usually just gets hammered, as Cordingley does when he runs with it.
No, we can’t blame Wilkinson. We can only blame ourselves – we were insipid. Mitchell should have started, and obviously we would have liked Larkham, but we didn’t have him, and we choked.
The silver lining is that ew have an impressive pipeline of young backs and a decent set of young back fives. The tear in that lining is that we really need something different in the front row.