We were a bit up and down during the group stages, starting with a narrow loss to South Africa that really should have been a win, following up with a nervous win over our old nemeses Samoa, and then two easy wins over Namibia and Fiji that included lots of confidence-building tries but didn't really tell anyone anything useful. So we'll see. My only worry is that we may just go into the semi-final as slight favourites, which is an unaccustomed position for us, but if we play like we did against Ireland there's absolutely no reason why we can't win.
Inevitably there's been lots of harking back to the inaugural World Cup in 1987, which was the only previous occasion Wales got to this stage of the tournament, eventually finishing third after a last-gasp 22-21 win over Australia in the play-off match, thanks to this Adrian Hadley try and Paul Thorburn's touchline conversion. It's also been noted that the four semi-finalists here (Wales, France, New Zealand and Australia) are the same as at the 1987 tournament.
Here's another little statistical oddity that makes this current World Cup unique, though: three of the four semi-finalists have lost at least one pool match on the way.
- Wales lost 17-16 to South Africa
- Australia lost 15-6 to Ireland
- France lost 37-17 to New Zealand
- France lost 19-14 to Tonga
- France in 1987 who drew 20-20 with Scotland in the pool stages
- England in 1991 who lost 18-12 to New Zealand in the pool stages
- England in 2007 who lost 36-0 to South Africa in the pool stages
- France in 2007 who lost 17-12 to Argentina in the pool stages
2 comments:
I think you'll find kick off is at 9am which gives you a bit of a lie in and a chance to put the bacon on. Last Saturday was a stressful occasion and this weekend will be no better. I hope they win cos if they don't I will have to buy yet another ticket to the bronze final, and I'm running out of money!
Are they both in Auckland then? Different days though, I assume. We haven't actually beaten the French since the Grand Slam match in 2008, but I really think it could happen. Especially if France go back to being rubbish.
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