Monday’s rugby news has an easy RWC win, Cheika asking for more, spying allegations and a disappointing retirement.
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Wallabies cruise past Uruguay
The Wallabies have notched a comfortable 65-3 win over Uruguay, with an impressive attacking performance setting the stage for the crucial upcoming pool matches. The win sees Australia join Wales on nine points in Pool A, while England – their opponents at Twickenham next weekend – have six.
During the win, winger Drew Mitchell scored twice to become Australia’s most prolific Rugby World Cup tryscorer, moving past Chris Latham’s Wallabies record of 11. The 31 year-old was given another chance at World Cup inclusion by coach Michael Cheika’s foreign-based player allowances and is now eyeing All Black legend Jonah Lomu’s record of 15 World Cup tries.
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Cheika calling for improvements
Despite the comfortable win, Michael Cheika has emphasized that his team will need to step up to face England next Saturday, with a number of mistakes and missed opportunities worrying the Australian coach. “We are going to have to improve some of the pieces of our game so that we can get to the standard that we need to be at for the game on Saturday,” he said.
Cheika repeatedly stated that he would field two entirely different starting teams for these first two matches and undertook 14 changes to his team to face Uruguay. He said some players had made the selection battle more interesting on Sunday but it’s something the coaching staff would have a closer look at after the game.
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England accused of spying
A photographer has apparently been chased away from the Wallabies’ training base in Bath, with World Cup chiefs investigating any hint that England were spying on the Australian training session ahead of their must-win clash.
Stuart Lancaster admitted that his squad face the challenge of their lives to avoid being remembered as the least successful England team in Rugby World Cup history after a disappointing loss to Wales 28-25. “It does feel like a World Cup final,” said Lancaster. “Everything rests on this. It’s knockout rugby and we’re playing against a high-quality team.” Lancaster also backed his captain, Chris Robshaw, and the decision not to go for a late equalising penalty and kick to the corner instead
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De Villiers retires
South Africa captain Jean de Villiers has retired from international rugby after being ruled out of the World Cup due to a broken jaw as his tournament jinx returned to haunt him. It was the second such injury suffered in the last two months by the 34-year-old centre, who made a miraculous recovery to get fit for the World Cup, only to fracture the right side of his jaw late in Sunday morning’s 46-6 win over Samoa at Villa Park.
De Villiers has had a horror run of injuries during the last three World Cups but Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer nevertheless commented, “He will go down as one of the greatest Springboks ever and in my eyes he is probably one of the best captains in the history of world rugby, who always put the team first and gave his time for any player, young or old without ever changing who he is,”
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