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 Notebook Wallabies defensive wall
Posted: Wednesday October 13, 1999 04:53 PM
LONDON (AP) -- The meanest defense in the World Cup? Australia has conceded just 12 points in its two games so far -- four penalties and no tries. The Wallabies yielded nine points to Romania in Belfast, where they ran in 57 points after a slow start, and then scored a 23-3 victory over Ireland in a brutal encounter at Lansdowne Road. Now the United States can at least get something out the World Cup before it goes home, the first try against Australia when they meet at Limerick on Thursday.
Taste for moreAfter beating Spain and then giving Scotland a tough game at Murrayfield, the Uruguayans are delighted with their first appearance at the rugby World Cup and want to come back for more."We have definitely progressed and felt better after the game against Scotland, when we lost, than we did after beating Spain," said Diego Ormaechea, whose team faces defending titlist South Africa at Hampden Park, Glasgow on Friday. "Everyone at home has been impressed by the team's performances, the way they played and the courage they have displayed and they fully understand the differences between professional teams and amateur teams like ourselves. "We are delighted that South Africa have picked a full strength team as we prefer to play their first team," said Ormaechea, at 40, the oldest man in the tournament.
Woodie in disguiseLimerick's favorite son, Ireland hooker Keith Wood, has headed home -- in disguise.While the real Wood was with the rest of his teammates in Dublin, the irreverent Australian team displayed a cardboard cut out of him on its four-hour bus journey south. The Wallabies decided the baldheaded Wood, who one team member said has a "noggin like a peeled potato," would look better with hair, so they drew him a computer-geek style and teamed it with some bushy sideburns. Wood is being used by cup sponsors Guinness as the main promoter of the tournament in Ireland and it seems that every corner pub has a picture of him in every corner.
Bravo MaxMax Brito, the Ivory Coast winger who is still confined to a wheelchair after suffering a neck injury playing against Tonga at the last World Cup in South Africa four years ago, will be guest of honor at the final at the Millennium Stadium November 6.
Aussie ballotAustralia's World Cup players have cast their votes in the country's upcoming referendum on whether to cut ties with Britain and become a republic.Australia votes on Nov. 6, the same day as the World Cup finals, and the players are confident enough not to want to miss out for a rugby match. The team voted at a temporary polling booth set up at Australia's ambassador's house in Dublin on Tuesday night. Although a secret ballot, captain John Eales made it clear he supports a republic. "It would have been good to play England in the final," Eales told The Australian newspaper. "We could stuff them on the field and stuff them in the vote. "I've gone for the republic. I think it's great the history we've had and the connection with Britain. But for all intents and purposes, Australians make decisions about Australia -- there's not a lot of relevance to the monarchy." England and Australia will meet in a semifinal, if at all in the tournament.
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