2023-09-24 22:15:01
Wallabies disappointed after their heavy defeat against Wales, Sunday September 24, 2023, at Groupama Stadium in Lyon. SARAH MEYSSONNIER / REUTERS
According to the Rhône prefecture, the seismic risk is moderate, even low, in the department. There is room for doubt. Sunday September 24, the shock wave of the defeat (6-40) of the Wallabies against Wales, at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, was felt almost 17,000 kilometers away, at the other end of the Earth, on the island continent of Australia.
This match of fear between two former glories of international rugby, in difficulty for several years, promised an indecisive encounter. The suspense only lasted half-time. The Red Dragons knew how to exploit the naivety of the Wallabies, who conceded far too many penalties (12) to hope for a better fate.
In this disaster, the absences due to injury of the two Australian captains, the right pillar Taniela Tupou and, above all, the captain Will Skelton, weighed heavily. With an average age of 25 years and 10 months, the Australian team is one of the youngest in the tournament. All of its thirty-three players have only 455 caps. Mainstay James Slipper (132 capes) alone has more capes than the entire pack combined. In short, kids.
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In a country where televisions broadcast more rugby league and Australian football matches, some young Wallabies have not yet mastered all the subtleties of the XV game. Like third row center Rob Valetini, who, forgetting his support, dove in the 38th minute on a loose ball, offering yet another penalty to Warren Gatland’s men. They took advantage of the opportunity and returned to the locker room with a ten-point lead (16-6).
The words of Eddie Jones, the Australian coach, renowned for his toughness, were probably not kind at the break. They obviously did not bear fruit because if the first period of the Australian XV was mediocre, the second was catastrophic. In forty minutes, the Welsh inflicted a severe 24-0 on the Wallabies. In the media box at Groupama Stadium, one word echoed repeatedly in the mouths of the Australian journalists commenting on the match: « humiliation ».
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With two losses in three matches, Australia is virtually eliminated. This is a historic defeat. In nine appearances at the World Cup, this country, double winner of the Webb Ellis Trophy (in 1991 and 1999), has never been eliminated in the group stage. The present remains relevant because the elimination of the Wallabies is not yet certain, but it would take a small miracle to avoid it, for example a defeat for Fiji against Georgia and Portugal.
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