Scotland will attempt to succeed where England and Wales failed by crossing the Australian try-line in their Rugby World Cup quarter-final at Twickenham on Sunday.
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But after the 36-hour window to cite players following a game passed, the Australian will be free to play in this Sunday’s quarter-final against Scotland, should he be passed fit.
Despite defending their line with 13 men for seven minutes, and restricting Wales to just two penalty goals in the 15-6 win, Grey is desperate to ram home the message that they can do better – starting with their quarter-final against Scotland at Twickenham on Monday morning. “It’s the World Cup, you have worked hard for it and when you get to possibly three finals to play, you miss out”. Taulupe Faletau needed to do that far more against Australia.
After winning 16 straight matches between 1982 and 2009, Australia lost two in a row against Scotland, before rebounding to win in 2013 at Murrayfield.
He played 92 Tests before he was unceremoniously dumped by then-coach Robbie Deans on the eve of the 2011 World Cup.
“I’m looking forward to it. It’s a huge opportunity for us”.
“We are very sorry for Liam, he’s been outstanding in the last couple of years”, said Wales skills coach Neil Jenkins.
“All the guys have got something to play for”. I think I was the only player to finish with a minus.
The former captain produced the game of his life in the quarterfinal stages four years ago, inspiring the Wallabies to an 11-9 victory over South Africa as he made 26 tackles and forced a remarkable nine turnovers, while the Springboks dominated with 76% possession.
That’s exactly what Moore intends to do against Scotland this weekend as the Wallabies eye their third World Cup triumph. When I hang up the boots I might look back at this type of thing.
“In my experience, and the players’ experience, every time we have played against South Africa it has been a very physical, attritional, uncompromising game, and it is going to be no different on Saturday”.
The team debrief of that 13-minute period when the Wallabies were short of numbers won’t make pleasant viewing at the Wales squad base in Weybridge this week.
“There is an argument that you shouldn’t change what you usually do because the players will take time to adjust”. Japan were completely out-muscled in that area so rather than try to compete, they used channel one to get the ball out as quickly as possible. “More access, more vision, more opinion and people watching the game; the authorities have decided that is the way they are going to go”. If we had done that we really would have put them under pressure.
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“They’re very well coached … you’ve got Vern Cotter [as head coach] and Scotty Johnson is in the background, rubbing his crystal ball and pulling teams apart”, said Wallabies defence coach Nathan Grey.
