Rugby World Cup 2011: Wallabies VS Wales Bronze Medal match preview
Australia and Wales will be standing toe-to-toe in their last match of Rugby World Cup 2011 on Friday, October 21, in Auckland, to determine the third and fourth position teams in the tournament. Both sides were stunned in the semi-final contests respectively
by All Blacks and France, which are mustering up the courage to claim glory on coming Sunday. It is surely not going to be a hot battle between the teams and their last outgoings proved heart breakers for them. However, the sides are quite eager to end their
campaigns on high notes.
Both the sides finished off their pool matches at second on the point’s tables and paved their way through to the knock out stages. In quarter-finals, Wallabies tamed the defending champs Springboks after a nail biting clash and some controversy was also
involved. However, Wales cut off the Ireland's chances to make their maiden entry into the semi-final stages and fell just short to the unpredictable French side on last weekend.
The Welsh side was in a good position to play their first ever final of Rugby World Cup but they received a severe blow in the most important match of their history as their skipper, Sam Warburton, was red carded by the referee just in the 18th
minute of the match and finally lost the match by 9-8 after a close match.
On the other hands, Wallabies proved too rusty for the All Blacks before a jam-packed Eden Park and lost the much anticipated battle by a handy margin of 20-6. During the whole tournament the Aussies could not make a good impression as they also lost one
of their pool matches to Ireland.
Meanwhile, both sides have revealed their teams and expect victory in the upcoming match. Wallabies’ full-back Kurtley Beale talked about the match and said that, “I've got an opportunity to step it up against the Welsh. They're a great side and I'm just
going to try to bring a lot of enthusiasm and confidence to the team to try and help the guys get a good win. This is a good test for us. Our dream is gone now, but we have to step it up and finish it off in a good way.”
Wales coach Warren Gatland also expressed his views about the clash and said that, “We feel very hollow and very empty about what happened against France and pretty unfulfilled, really. We felt like the better team is not in the final of the World Cup.”
Quade Cooper, Will Genia, David Pocock and James Horwill will be key men for Australia for this particular match. The Welsh side will be expecting better play from Gethin Jenkins, Shane Williams and Bradley Davies.
Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 James Hook, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Ryan Jones, 7 Toby Faletau, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Luke Charteris, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Paul
James, 2 Huw Bennett, 1 Gethin Jenkins (c).
Replacements: 16 Lloyd Burns, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Alun Wyn Jones, 19 Andy Powell, 20 Lloyd Williams, 21 Stephen Jones, 22 Scott Williams.
Australia: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 James O'Connor, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 James Horwill
(c), 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 James Slipper.
Replacements: 16 Saia Faingaa, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Anthony Faingaa, 22 Robert Horne.
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