Great entertainment with Rugby World Cup

If anyone doubted the spectator appeal of top class running rugby then they should have been there at the comfortable end of television coverage of the five matches played on Saturday and Sunday in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia.

Next Saturday New Zealand (All Blacks) play South Africa (Springboks) and Australia (Wallabies) play Scotland then on Sunday it will be England v Wales followed by France v Ireland. Each game is by no means predictable and the bookies odds have shortened for the previously not so favored teams of Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

This correspondent will be in Melbourne (from Darwin) for the two matches at the Docklands Stadium and will bring a first hand account of the games and the atmosphere.

Scotland started the display against Fiji on Saturday afternoon in front of a capacity crowd of 38,000 at the Sydney Football Stadium. Until this game the Scots had shown little flair and kept the ball in the air through continual line kicking. Today they threw it around as if to be trying to match the Fijian flair and pulled it off by just two points 22-20. While it did not put them in superstar status it did show that the "off the field" troubled team will give Australia a fight in the quarter final.

Fiji was unlucky but only has itself to blame for too many penalty kicks given away for undisciplined play and simple mistakes. The star performer in the first half winger Rupeni Caucaubinaca was sensational in scoring two tries but then was injured and limped through the second half a "passenger".

It was then the turn of the Samoans to show South Africa that they were no "easy beats". Although it took them until half time to get their game together the second half was a great display of free flowing rugby by both sides. The Samoans got to within ten points of the more favored Springboks but could not keep it up and in the last ten minutes the South Africans turned on the points winning by 60-10. Brian Lima starred for the Samoans while the debutante Springbok fly half Derrick Hoogard showed fine form for the Boks. The crowd at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane was 48,000.

Australia then took on the might of Ireland and was stretched to the limit winning in the end by just one point 17-16. The Docklands Stadium in Melbourne was full with 54,000 people watching the game.

A failed field goal attempt and two penalty misses by Ireland would have given them an upset but luck was not on their side. For the Australians there were too many mistakes by way of lost ball from knock-on, turnovers or better lineout jumping. The Wallabies lost five lineouts against the throw and lost three tight head scrums more that the Irish. The men in green (Ireland) had more possession and territory in the game and really deserved to win. Brian O'Driscoll inspired the Irish with a good try and intelligent kicking in general play. For Australia George Smith and Phil Waugh were busy at the breakdown and Mat Rogers was continually injecting into the game from full back. The final score was made up of just one try each and kicking being the difference.

The next display came from the England team against the plucky Uruguay side which had beaten Georgia only five days earlier. England won convincingly and never looked like being threatened but the vote for courage has to go to the South Americans who made sure the tournament favorites knew they had a game.

In the final game for the weekend the bookies had New Zealand odds on favorites to beat Wales and nearly had to pay out big as Wales pushed the champion All Black team to the end with the final score 53-37 in favor of the Abs. Featuring a balance of youth and experience the Welsh unleashed vigorous raids on the NZ goal line and went in for four tries and seven goals. The star back for Wales was newcomer Shaun Williams who for a little man showed tremendous speed off the mark and deceptive sidestep and swerve. It was only in the last 15 minutes that the NZers scored three tries after trailing 34-37 for the early part of the second half. It would have been the first win by Wales against All Blacks since 1953 had Wales won. 80,000 saw the game at Stadium Australia.

It is now to the quarter finals next weekend and if anyone doubted that the best of the best are in Australia for the festival of running rugby they need only look at the attendance figures. Capacity crowds again at every game. It is a feast of brilliant entertainment.

Any one wants to argue? Write to me. I'm looking forward to being in Melbourne to witness two great games -- New Zealand vs. South Africa and France vs. Ireland. Neither match has an obvious winner!