Test Match Rugby

I’m flying to Rome tomorrow to see the Wallabies play Italy. I am then flying back to London after the game. I can’t really be bothered hanging around in Italy to do anything else so I’d rather just head home. Gutted though I will be missing Kiwi FC match, it will be the first game this season I will have missed.

Anyway, the Wallabies should really beat Italy by a considerable margin otherwise there is something seriously wrong. I didn’t see the game against Wales last week and I’m keen to see how the Giteau, Rogers, Larkham inside backs combination works out. The pack needs to keep improving though and it will be a good test for them as Italy have a strong pack of forwards. It promises to be an enjoyable game to watch, it will as well complete the set of six nations sides for me; I have seen Australia play test matches against all other 6 nations sides apart from Italy. I will not however have been to every 6 nations stadium as when I saw the Wallabies play Scotland, it was at Hamden park in Glasgow. I will complete that set in 2 weeks time when I see them play at Murrayfield.

Yesterday morning was a particularly stressful time as I attempted to order a set of tickets to the Rugby World Cup 2007. Individual tickets came on sale at 8am GMT and I was at my desk in readiness to log on to the site and order them. Needless to say there were a hell of a lot of other people with the same idea and the site was overloaded. Finally after receiving so many page errors, clicking back, getting to the last page before being timed out and other incredibly frustrating obstacles; I finally had my ticket request processed, four and a half hours after I first started trying. Fortunately I have not been very busy at work this week.

So I will be attending Australia’s pool matches against Wales, Fiji and Canada as well as Quarter final 1; which hopefully Australia will be playing in if they manage to win their pool. If they do win their pool and advance beyond the quarter final, then their opponents will most likely be the All Blacks (unless the have choked already) However if Australia were to come second in their pool, they would not face the All Blacks until the final if they were to make it that far. But they have to be beaten and so it doesn’t matter whether that is in the semi final or the final itself. I think the All Blacks are the clear favourites for next year’s World Cup. They have a large squad of high quality players will lots of test experience. Graham Henry is a superb coach and his team plays excellent controlled and tactical rugby. However they can still be beaten on the day; a team that wants to win the world cup must defeat the All Blacks.

Oh and I’m also going to see Romania vs Repechage 1 in what promises to be one of the tournament’s marquee matches.