How things look It’s an indication of the tightness in the WXV structures that the Wallaroos have an outside chance of going home with the trophy. That’s less than probable, but the addition of the now familiar bonus points makes it possible. The Wallaroos are just one of several nations for whom the tournament has
France v Australia, New Zealand v Wales The Wallaroos produced the shock of the tournament by outplaying France from start to finish. The two tries they scored in the first 20 minutes were a pointer to their form. Though Les Bleues showed more than mere flashes of brilliance, they were far too error-prone, losing line-outs
It’s tight at the top and the bottom of WXV1. Both Les Bleues and the Wallaroos will be hunting for every point they can scrape from this second-round clash. The French approach is to give everyone a go, but to ensure they have two competent Fifteens, one to start and one to finish each game.
Australia v England The two teams had the honour of launching the top tier of the new WXV venture. Result: Australia 7 England 42 Player of the match Holly Aitchison England gained their expected win at the Sky Stadium, Wellington, but they couldn’t keep a clean sheet. They were nearly picture-perfect at the start. After
Jay Tregonning has not been afraid to experiment with the 23 he’s selected to face England on Friday 20 October. The Squad: 1 *Brianna Hoy (NSW Waratahs), 2 Tania Naden (ACT Brumbies, 6 caps), 3 Eva Karpani (NSW Waratahs, 17), 4 Michaela Leonard (captain, Western Force, 18), 5 Annabelle Codey (Queensland Reds, 4), 6 Siokapesi
Three nations, Australia, Canada and Wales, have a prime role to play in how the top division works out. They may rank behind England, France and New Zealand, but their dearest wish will be to topple one of the assumed giants. They don’t fit neatly together in the two pools of three. Wales, the one
New Zealand v Australia The first of an unparalleled five test matches taking place around the globe on the same day. Unfortunately, it was same old, same old in Hamilton. It’s a great sadness that these two teams who have no other opponents of comparable standard close by, remain so widely separated in ability themselves.
Take a look at the Wallaroos’ fixture-list (down below) and wince. But they are made of sterner stuff than mere reporters, so they will be relishing meeting in sequence the world second-ranked whom they’ve never beaten, the first-ranked and the third-ranked. We can only imagine how their last WXV game against Wales will turn out.
A digest of news from Australia, France, Aotearoa and your local bookshop Turmoil in Australia On 20 August the Wallaroos issued a combined statement condemning RA for its unbalanced treatment of them viz å viz the Wallabies. They claim that promises of a full-time professional coach and pro-contracts have not be fulfilled. Major players are
The Australian Croquet Association has announced their Golf Croquet players selected to play in the GC World Team Championship, known as The Openshaw Shield Included in the selection is the latest Women’s World Champion Jamie Gumbrell, who competed along with 55 other players from around the world, at the GC Women’s World Championship held here
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