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/ 8 September 2007
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Hot tournament favourites New Zealand got their World Cup campaign off to the ideal start at the Stade Velodrome with a scintillating 76-14 rout of rivals Italy. The contest was dead and buried after the first 20 breathless minutes, during which the All Blacks scored five converted tries against an Italian team shown up to be woefully inept in their early defensive alignment.
Club rugby in the northern hemisphere has long been derided as the poor cousin in world rugby. But the post-World Cup exodus of a raft of top-flight internationals from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will help confound that long-standing belief.
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/ 19 November 2006
New Zealand cruised to an easy 23-11 win over France in the second of the two autumn Tests on Saturday but the home side at least mustered more resistance than in last week’s seven-try drubbing. Tries by Joe Rokocoko and Ma’a Nonu and 13 points from the boot of the unflappable Dan Carter cancelled out Cedric Heyman’s early try and two penalties from Dimitri Yachvili for the home side.
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/ 16 November 2006
The All Blacks are braced for a backlash from France in Paris on Saturday after the 47-3 pasting the tourists handed the home side in the first autumn Test match last week. Assistant coach Wayne Smith said France boss Bernard Laporte had been right to ring the changes after his side suffered their largest home defeat in Lyon, which saw the French players roundly booed and whistled off the pitch.
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/ 13 November 2006
France were branded ”impotent” after crashing to the second heaviest defeat in their history against New Zealand, and coach Bernard Laporte admitted it was back to the drawing board in a bid to salvage some face in the rematch in Paris on Saturday.
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/ 12 November 2006
New Zealand completely outclassed France in the first of two autumn Tests in Lyon on Saturday, handing the home side an emphatic seven-try 47-3 drubbing. In an entralling display that combined ferocious defence with fearless attack, New Zealand made a mockery of the game’s billing as a contest between the world’s two leading rugby-playing nations.
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/ 25 September 2006
Portuguese clubs Benfica and Porto will try to put a dent in Manchester United and Arsenal’s hopes of reaching the second round of the Champions League on Tuesday. The Premiership giants will bid to regain some face for England after the country’s World Cup exit to Portugal.
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France have put their slow start to the World Cup on the backburner and have fixed their sights firmly on a second final after outclassing defending champions Brazil. Powered by tireless captain Zinedine Zidane, France recorded a 1-0 win over a lacklustre Brazilian team thanks to a sumptuous 57th-minute Thierry Henry volley.
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Ukraine outclassed Saudi Arabia in their crunch Group H game in Hamburg on Monday, firmly setting their stuttering World Cup campaign back on track with a convincing 4-0 win. The World Cup debutants showed their attacking intent against a toothless Saudi team from the start.
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Arjen Robben powered the Netherlands to a vital 1-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro in their first World Cup Group C game on Sunday. With Argentina beating the Ivory Coast 2-1 on Saturday, this was a must-win match for the Dutch in the tournament’s ”group of death”, and an irrepressible Robben ensured just that.