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R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Aussies take new approach into semifinal
Posted: Wednesday October 27, 1999 10:04 PM
TWICKENHAM, England (CNN/SI) -- "Respect" has many meanings in the world of sports. When it comes from Australia's Rugby Union team for example, and it's used about their semifinal opponents, South Africa, you get the impression that it masks a multitude of less than altruistic thoughts, the likes of which would be bleeped off the air or asterisked out of newspapers. Saturday's semifinal at Twickenham, in England, brings together two of the sport's fiercest and most talented rivals. Forty-one times they've gone head-to-head, a count that would have been higher had South Africa not been excluded from world sport during the apartheid era. During those encounters, South Africa won 28 times and Australia 13. The fact that there've been no draws is proof that in games between these Southern Hemisphere giants, winning is everything. Curiously, though, you'd hardly notice the passion with which the Aussies are approaching this match by hanging around their training ground. There, among the leafy glens of rural England, the talk is as genteel as the high tea and finger buffet that is doubtlessly available on the hotel menu. Accordingly, the South Africans are, in the words of Aussie skipper John Eales, "A side that is never going to put their hands down, always going to come out fighting, and one which does very well under pressure." Similarly, Tiaan Strauss, a former Springbok now naturalized behind enemy lines in the Wallabies' camp, praises his former teammates as "world champions, who always play with passion and will rise to the occasion." In fact, extracting anything negative about the South Africans from the lips of the Aussies was like trying to block Jonah Lomu from the try-line -- it wasn't going to happen. So what's behind this new diplomacy? Have the Aussies gone soft as they bid for a place in the final for the second time? Don't count on it. Respectful they may be, but humble they are not. And when it comes to reverse psychology, a little R.E.S.P.E.C.T. can go a long way. Terry Baddoo is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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