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Rugby World Cup Daily: Head-on-head chaos; Wales-Fiji light up the Cup

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Sep 10, 2023, 10:35 PM

What a finish to an incredible opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup! Wales take the win in Bordeaux, but Fiji’s fightback was inspirational.

These daily files will give you the latest reporting from around the World Cup as well as betting lines, what to watch for information and best reads. Check in with ESPN throughout the tournament as we bring you the latest from France.

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THE LEAD:

Across the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup, there were three head-on-head collisions and a trio of different outcomes. It is a neat snapshot of the sport’s identity crisis and the reason why there is so much confusion around the laws.

First up in the dock: Tom Curry. He was sent from the field in the third minute of England’s eventual 27-10 win over Argentina after he clashed heads with Juan Cruz Mallia — Mallia caught the ball, Curry mistimed his approaching tackle, leading to a head-on-head collision. Curry was originally shown a yellow card, but this was upgraded to a red in the new bunker system.

On Sunday, in the blistering heat in Toulouse, just before halftime in Japan’s match against Chile, Los Condores captain Martin Sigren mistimed his attempted tackle on Kotaro Matsushima, heads clashed, and he ended up in the sin-bin. Halftime came and went, but this time there was no upgrade. Sigren could come back on and continue playing.

And then later on Sunday, in the second minute of the match, Jesse Kriel went to tackle Jack Dempsey but instead his head connected with the Scotland No. 8’s head. Kriel came from distance, it was reckless, and the collision was similar to the above two incidents. This time there was no TMO intervention from Ben Whitehouse and the offence went unpunished.

So how do you explain this to a new viewer? How can you seek to grow the game when there’s so much uncertainty and ambiguity around the laws and their implementation? There’s too much subjectiveness in these calls, too much nuance and it leads to confusion.

Those in the game are also confused. ITV’s coverage of the Scotland-South Africa match in the UK saw John Barclay, Sir Ian McGeechan and Bryan Habana analysing the Kriel call and each were bemused by the lack of TMO-intervention. A day previous and Sir Clive Woodward was arguing that Curry didn’t deserve a red. A quick look at social media saw ex-England international Jeremy Guscott arguing it was a clear sending off. Somewhere in the middle of all of this is the right answer, but the ambiguity is helping no one.

AROUND THE CUP

Wales-Fiji light up the Cup

Wales held off a late Fiji fightback to open their Rugby World Cup campaign with a bonus-point 32-26 win in Bordeaux.

The match was on a knife edge right until the final act, as Fiji threatened an incredible fightback. With 72 minutes on the clock, Fiji were 18 points behind, but two tries teed up an incredible final couple of minutes giving them a chance with the final play of the game to snatch a remarkable victory.

Out of all the players in the world, Semi Radradra would be high up on the list of those you’d want with the tryline open in the final throes of a match to seal a remarkable comeback. He had open ground in front of him, but the last paragraph of a brilliant Rugby World Cup clash saw him knock the ball on. Players from both sides fell to the ground, utterly exhausted, with Wales securing a key opening round victory.

Warren Gatland’s side had Dan Biggar in inspired form with the fly-half pumped up, to the extent he launched two first half verbal volleys at teammate George North. But it was a magnificent match with both sides playing with controlled aggression and it could’ve been a different result had Fiji managed to register points for any one of the three efforts where they crossed the line in the second half.

Wales went into the break 18-14 ahead after Josh Adams and George North scored, with Fiji contributing a beautiful try from Waisea Nayacalevu and another from Lekima Tagitagivalu. It was nervy, exhilarating rugby and the second half started with Wales in the ascendancy with Louis Rees-Zammit profiting from a Jac Morgan cross kick to score in the 48th minute. Nick Tompkins was superb at inside centre for Wales and having teed up North’s first-half score, he was everywhere in the second 40 with Elliott Dee adding Wales’ fourth for the bonus point in the 65th minute.

Wales had been very lucky to avoid a yellow card at that stage, after three offside penalties on their own line, but instead, it was Fiji who had the first sin-bin – a harsh call from erratic referee Matthew Carley – with Tagitagivalu yellow carded in the 64th minute. Wales had loosehead Corey Domachowski follow him three minutes later and it was from there that Fiji launched their incredible comeback. Josua Tuisova’s introduction gave them fresh impetus, his 72nd minute score and Mesake Doge’s in the 78th teed up that Radradra chance. But to the delight and relief of Wales, he knocked on to leave Gatland’s side with a key victory in a pool including Australia, Georgia and Portugal.

Chile makes history in defeat

It was an historic day for Chilean rugby and the wider South American rugby collective as Los Condores took their World Cup bow, becoming the 26th nation to feature on the game’s greatest stage. Their supporters had plenty to cheer about early on, too, as Chile showcased an entertaining attacking endeavour that brought about a try to star fly-half Rodrigo Fernandez after just six minutes. But two first-half yellow cards allowed Japan to take control of the match from there, the Brave Blossoms eventually pulling away to a bonus-point victory that has them on top of Pool D. But the Chileans were far from disgraced, with scrum-half Marcelo Torrealba, fullback Inaki Ayarza, and hard-working No. 8 Alfonso Escobar, who scored Los Condores’ second try, among those to catch the eye.

“We are always proud because I know where they come from,” Chile coach Pablo Lemoine said. “It was very emotional for me. Many countries will understand that we are ready for the World Cup and we are there. So I was proud and I have always been proud. But today, I think we created a new image, a great one.”

Boks’ World Cup defence up and running

The Springboks were made to work for their opening win in France, but in the end their greater physical presence told as they wore down a dogged Scotland team to triumph in Marseille. South Africa dominated the first half, but only had a 6-3 lead to show for their work, with Manie Libbok’s goal kicking radar wide of the mark. And the Scots had the best opportunity of the half, too, though Darcy Graham will regret his decision not to pass on one of the few occasions Scotland did manage to break down the Boks’ rush defence.

But an early second-half try from Pieter-Steph du Toit got South Africa back on track, before a sublime cross-kick from Libbok to winger Kurt-Lee Arendse resulted in a further seven points, with Faf de Klerk having replaced his No. 10 as goal kicker. Cheslin Kolbe and replacement scrum-half Grant Williams both made line breaks later in the second half, but there would be no further scores as South Africa got their title defence up and running with a competent performance, but one they’ll be keen to improve on against fellow Pool C favourites Ireland.

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NEWS OF THE DAY

World Rugby is under pressure to get its act together, so too the local organising committee, after an opening weekend marred by operational failures. As well as the lack of food and beverage staff at Stade de France for the tournament opener, and the fact the stadium had run dry of the much sought-after amber ale before kick-off, the weekend’s clashes in Bordeaux and Marseille witnessed chaotic scenes of ticket holders stuck outside venues after kick-off.

Social media was adorned with images and videos of fans struggling to make their way into the venue for Ireland’s win over Romania in Toulouse on Saturday afternoon, so too England’s 14-man triumph over a disappointing Argentina in Marseille.

In Marseille, in particular, some supporters feared for their safety as large groups gathered around entrance points, the risk that people could be crushed under the sheer size and weight of the crowd a real concern for tournament organisers.

Reacting to the chaos on Sunday, World Rugby moved to avoid a repeat of the ugly scenes moving forward, announcing it would be adding further service volunteers at in Marseille to direct fans to their correct entry points; increasing announcements on public transport to ensure fans were aware at which metro stop the should disembark; and that the stadium would be opening three hours before kick-off to better spread the entry of the 60,000 ticket holders.

While the general consensus was that people were able to access the stadium with greater ease for Sunday’s game between South Africa and Scotland, there were more reports that both beer and water supplies had been exhausted before halftime.

World Rugby and the local organising committee still have some work to do yet.

Wallabies say belief has always been there

Australia were walking a little freer on Sunday morning, after they at last broke their duck under Eddie Jones having put away Georgia 35-15 a night earlier. While the Wallabies won’t be getting carried away with that win, assistant coach Dan Palmer did admit there was a “bit of a buzz” about the camp when talking to media on Sunday morning.

But he insisted the squad had never suffered from a lack of self-belief under the Jones regime and the direction he was trying to take the team, Palmer echoing Jones’ comments from the previous night that Australia had not been short on confidence to begin with.

“There is a bit of buzz, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary too different,” Palmer told reporters via Zoom. “We’ve built a lot of belief in this group over the last few months. And like I’ve said previously we feel like we’re constantly improving [but] it was really good to see that on the scoreboard last night.

“But as a group we feel like we’ve been improving over the last couple of months and last night was just another step in the right direction, and we’re going to have to maintain that in the coming weeks.”

Asked specifically where he thought the team’s big improvements had come, Palmer pointed to the Wallabies’ ability to revert back to the pre-match strategy for Georgia, just as it looked like the wheels might be about to fall off early in the second half.

“Well like I said our focuses are going to be different game to game, but what we’re seeing at the moment is us coming together tighter as a group, we’re evolving a game plan that really suits the group and they’re buying into that,” he said.

“And like I said at the start what we saw evidence of at the start was our ability to stick to that under pressure and when things started to get a bit loose we were able to go back to that plan. So we’re seeing the group come together and we’re seeing a deeper understanding of how we want to play.”

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This article was originally published by Espn.co.uk. Read the original article here.