That hadn’t happened in 69 years, but it wasn’t surprising. And to confirm that Australian rugby is going through one of the worst moments in its history, and that the Fijians, on the contrary, are more consistent and disciplined than ever, the Wallabies took to the field at the Rugby World Cup: having been so close to beating Wales, Fiji beat Australia (22-15) and threw Portugal’s group into confusion.
In the remaining Sunday matches at the 2023 World Cup, Romania once again showed huge weaknesses (0-76 defeat to world champions South Africa), while England won again: in the fourth attempt at “match ball”, the English defeated Japan, 34-12.
And in Saint-Etienne, where they will play again on October 1 against Portugal, Australia were given a shock of reality. The team revealed unacceptable indiscipline for an ambitious team – 18 penalties were awarded – and the Wallabies were never able to take control of the always exciting match in Fiji.
Having come so close to defeating Wales, Fiji once again showed that they were now more than just a messy team failing through their mistakes, and with Simeone Corofoli showing herself to be very competent in the game on foot (he scored 17 points), throwing the Portuguese group into disarray. Of confusion.
With this result, next weekend’s clash in Lyon between Australia and Wales will be decisive in the battle for first and second place, and defeat will leave the Australians a foot and a half away from the World Cup.
In the remaining matches, there was another embarrassing performance from Romania. After losing 8-82 to Ireland, Portugal’s European Rugby rivals once again faced title favorites and once again gave a very poor image.
Defeated by the world champions 0-76, the Romanians, after two matches, suffered their two heaviest defeats so far in the competition.
On the other hand, England started the crisis again. After beating Argentina 27-10, the English continued to struggle against Japan (13-9 in the first half), but they once again showed quality in defence, and just like Wales against Portugal, they were able to get the attacking bonus point. “Game Ball”: With a try from Joe Marchant, the world runner-up won 34-12, adding five points against the Japanese.
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