Rugby: Jamie Roberts keen to claim a major scalp

Jamie Roberts has said that victory over a Tri-Nations superpower will be the minimum requirement when Wales kickstart their World Cup build-up in November.Wales, the Grand Slam champions in 2008, have won just two of their eight Tests so far this year, including back-to-back tour defeats to New Zealand in June.Gatland's men tackle the All Blacks again at the Millennium Stadium this autumn, along with Australia, South Africa and World Cup group rivals Fiji.Roberts will have to watch from the sidelines after undergoing a wrist operation but he knows Wales cannot afford a string of gallant defeats with the World Cup so close."It's a very big year for us leading up to the World Cup and I'm sure we will be firing in the autumn," said the Cardiff Blues centre."It's a great testing environment for us and we're at that stage now where we need to get results, not just give performances, and it's important we look to win some of these matches in the autumn." he said. Wales last beat a Tri-Nations team in 2008, when tries from Shane Williams and Lee Byrne helped them to a 21-18 victory over Australia. Wales have not beaten the Springboks since 1999.And New Zealand's winning streak over the Welsh stretches right back to 1953."It's a great opportunity against the top three sides in the world and Fiji who are going to be in our group in New Zealand next year," Roberts added.Roberts was one of the stars of the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour but, hampered by the wrist injury.Roberts suffered the injury in the second Lions Test and played the whole campaign without the full use of his right hand. After going under the knife last month, Roberts vowed to come back better and stronger in time to play a key role in Wales' Six Nations and World Cup challenge."I will be out for five months which is disappointing but every player has been through it and now it is my turn," Roberts said."You have to treat it as a lesson in disguise and come back fitter, faster, stronger than ever and look to lay down my marker for the Christmas derbies for the club." he said.Although Wales have to find significant improvements on the field, Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Roger Lewis insisted everything is in place off it to ensure a successful World Cup campaign.Gatland and his management team used this summer's tour to New Zealand to scout out the training and hotel facilities they will encounter next autumn."We are so looking forward to the World Cup next year," said Lewis. He was announcing a sponsorship deal with travel agents Thomas Cook."We travelled across New Zealand to make sure the guys are familiar for next year and we are going into it in great shape and with fantastic preparation and a spring in our step." he said.The WRU have also confirmed Wales' touring schedule for the next nine years. it includes full tours to Australia (2012), South Africa (2014), New Zealand (2016) and Argentina (2018).During the Lions tours of 2013 and 2017, Wales will travel to Japan and the Pacific Islands respectively.There are no June tours in World Cup years (2011, 2015 and 2019) but Wales will arrange warm-up Tests nearer the time.

Wallabies look for new twin peaks as Ella hands over baton

The baton will officially be handed over this morning when Saia and Anthony Faingaa receive a pep talk from Wallabies great Mark Ella before tomorrow night's Bledisloe Cup Test. Meanwhile they are the first twins to play for the Wallabies since the Ellas.Ella has offered his assistance to the Wallabies in their bid to become the first Australian side to win in New Zealand since 2001. ?He will meet coach Robbie Deans before addressing the team.Australia's most illustrious five-eighth could not have picked a better time to impart his advice. Standing before Ella this morning will be a pair of brothers preparing to start their first Test together - something Mark and Glen Ella experienced almost three decades earlier.The Ellas played for Australia in 1982-83 to become the Wallabies's second set of twins. The 1st twins were Stewart and Jim Boyce in 1964-65. The Faingaas were yesterday unaware they would be meeting Mark Ella this morning, but shortly after the Wallabies team was announced they made a point of mentioning the importance of the Ella family to Australian rugby.''To be even considered as half as good as the Ellas would be an honour,'' Saia said. ''They've done a lot for their country, and hopefully we can do the same. They were magnificent ambassadors for Australia and .. they represented their family well.''

Rugby: French coach Lievremont in awe of All Blacks

France coach Marc Lievremont admitted on Monday that the Six Nations champions have a lot of work to do if they want to challenge the All Blacks at next year’s World Cup in New Zealand.Lievremont said he had watched all four Tri Nations matches to have been played so far between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and had been highly impressed by the standard in each one."To play such rugby at such speed, four matches at such a level and with such an intensity -- it is a new trend in the Tri Nations," Lievremont told French sports daily L'Equipe."Certainly it is a result of the new application of the rules that prioritise ball possession. The kicking game is uniquely for attacking." he saidThe All Blacks top the table having beaten South Africa twice on home soil and, on Saturday, demolishing Australia 49-28 in Melbourne - three performances that have left Lievremont purring about their rapid short-phase passing game."They have not hit this level since last November in Marseille against us (when New Zealand won 39-12). To produce this style of rugby in three consecutive matches is extremely rare," says Lievremont."They play a game of three pass phases maximum except when they can complete the action. The ball-carrier looks for the contact." he also said,"They are always going forward, always looking to release the ball, always trying to play while defending. The smallest error from the other side is immediately punished."In spite of seeing France shipping 40 point defeats to both South Africa and Argentina during the summer tour, Lievremont is happy to see the All Blacks style of winning through in the tournament over that of the world champions."South Africa are not good at the moment," he says."They settled on a very pragmatic game, a massive physical engagement and they walked over everyone. That this kind of rugby has been overpowered doesn't worry me at all.""Of course, the All Blacks method is the one which we will try to put in place - although I don't like to admit it."he said"What hurts most is the technical quality of the New Zealanders in every department. Everything stems from that. Our difficulties over the last three years essentially come from that." he also said. Lievremont, who says he is still "bitter" about the disastrous summer tour, believes that France will now be playing catch-up if they have any realistic hopes of repeating their surprise quarter-final victory over the All Blacks in the last World Cup four years ago.Lievremont said, "We have to move towards players who are very strong in contact and support, capable of breaking defences.he said,"If we want to rival this kind of rugby then we have some work to do because apart from the physical shortcomings we noticed big gaps in June.""After the physical preparation we will have workshops on individual technique. We will eat and drink it! From there we will try to catch up.Lievremont will get a chance to see if his players are closing the gap on the Tri Nations teams when France meet Australia in Paris on November 27.

Aussie coach: 'We were punished for our mistakes'

Australia coach Robbie Deans admitted his team were their own worst enemies during Saturday’s heavy Bledisloe Cup loss to New Zealand in Melbourne.Having made a dream start when Drew Mitchell crossed for the opening try in the 8th minute, the Wallabies came back to reality as the Kiwis ran in four unanswered tries before the break.When Mitchell was sent off by South African referee Craig Joubert in the 43rd minute after being shown a second yellow card for deliberately slowing down play, victory was all but assured for the visitors.“The little things are important in Test rugby and we gave them a lot of assistance all night,” an emotional Deans said after the 49-28 loss.He said, “We didn’t have any consistent possession in the first half and that was a big contributing factor to our circumstance, and obviously playing with fewer than 15 men for the greater part of the game compounded that."“A lot of our challenge in the game was a lot of little stuff. You know a charge-down immediately after a charge-down and score is the sort of stuff that’s so easily averted. And that’s the sort of detail we’ve got to master if you want to prevail.” he also said.Asked his opinion on the Mitchell red card, a clearly unimpressed Deans conceded: “It was damaging. I don’t want to comment on the decision, I mean the decision was made and we suffered the consequence.”Pressed on his thoughts of Mitchell’s actions after the winger foolishly slapped the ball out of a New Zealander’s hands after the whistle had already been blown, Deans said: “Costly. It’s the only way you’d describe it.”But, while disappointed at having suffered an eighth consecutive loss at the hands of the All Blacks, Deans took some comfort out of his team’s second-half effort.“Once we went to 14 men we were playing for pride I guess, because there was the potential there for it to blow out,” Deans said.“The boys showed a lot of courage to essentially win the second half up until the last score, I think it was 17-14 the second-half score and, under the circumstances where we had 14 men playing against the All Blacks, it could have been worse."“But essentially the contest was over in many ways at that point.“Obviously it wasn’t the ideal circumstance going into half-time, without a doubt, but we showed that with 15 men we can be competitive because with 14 men we were."“We get an opportunity next week in Christchurch and you keep going and try to find some solutions.”

In contrast, All Blacks coach Graham Henry was understandably delighted with his team’s performance.“Obviously we’re very pleased with the way the guys played,” he enthused.“To score seven tries against Australia in Australia is a great performance really and I think that’s a record since 1937... before the war anyway, so we’re very pleased with that." he said. “I thought there was some scintillating rugby and I’m sure the people who watched it would have been pleased to watch the game, and I think both sides contributed to that.“The Australians went down to 14 players and that seems to be par for the course these days, but they never gave up – they actually played better when they had 14 than when they had 15. So it was a very pleasing performance.”

Australia Center Rob Horne Ruled Out of Tri-Nations With Elbow Fracture

Australia center Rob Horne will miss the rest of rugby’s Tri-Nations championship after scans revealed a small fracture in his right elbow.The 20-year-old, who made his sixth appearance for the Wallabies in a 49-28 defeat to New Zealand in Melbourne, also has ligament damage, the Australian Rugby Union said in a statement.Horne will require surgery for the injury, which also includes ligament damage, and is expected to be sidelined for the remainder of the season, the Wallabies said Sunday.“It’s bad luck for Rob, but he’s made an encouraging start to his international career, starting in every Test that we’ve played this year,” Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said in the statement. Horne’s place in the 24-man Australia squad has been taken by Queensland Reds loose forward Scott Higginbotham.Ben McCalman, and winger Cameron Shepherd have been added to the squad to play New Zealand on Aug. 7 in Christchurch.The All Blacks lead the championship with 15 points after three straight wins. Australia has four points from two matches, while South Africa has lost all three of its games.

Rugby-Hard referees better than soft, says NZ coach Henry

Graham Henry, New Zealand coach, has praised Craig Joubert's hard-line refereeing that resulted in three yellow cards and left Australia reeling with 14 men during its 49-28 loss to the All Blacks on Saturday.Joubert sin-binned All Blacks prop Owen Franks and Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell for seemingly innocuous tackles in the first half at Docklands, then red-carded Mitchell two minutes after the break for deliberately holding up play."I think it's good they're strict," Henry said."Okay, there might be some debate about some of the decisions, there's always going to be some debate about the decisions."he also said. "What you don't want is referees being soft and therefore you get a game that doesn't flow and there's a lot of illegal stuff happening at the tackle.""If he's grey at the tackle area or he's grey on people throwing the ball away when the other side wants it, you've got a shambles on your hands.He said, "So I think it's good that he's strict and he sticks to what he says he's going to do."Henry says his team played "exceptionally" well in the crushing win that delivered the All Blacks their eighth successive victory over their trans-Tasman rivals and propelled them 11 points clear of the Wallabies on the Tri-Nations table."There were some dull patches and some mistakes and we'd like to eradicate those if possible but you have to be pleased with seven tries," Henry said.The All Blacks head to Christchurch this week for their next Tri-Nations match against the Wallabies.There is only one fitness concern clouding half-back Jimmy Cowan, who came off the ground early with a rib cartilage injury."Apart from that I think we're pretty good," Henry said."I think it'd be a miracle if (Cowan) played next week. He'll probably be right for South Africa (on August 21)."Cowan's injury could open the door for Blues half-back Alby Mathewson to be recalled to the squad for the Christchurch encounter where the All Blacks could possibly seal their fifth Tri-Nations title in six years.

Mitchell escapes without further punishment

Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell has escaped further sanction after being sent off in Saturday night’s Tri Nations thrashing by the All Blacks.Mitchell had to face a judiciary hearing on Sunday morning after being marched in the 43rd minute for his second yellow card offence during the 49-28 defeat at Etihad Stadium.However SANZAR judicial officer Peter Ingwersen obviously felt missing almost half the match was penalty enough as he decided no further penalty was required.Mitchell had earlier been sinbinned for a late, no-arms tackle on All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and was red carded by referee Craig Joubert when he slowed down play by knocking the ball from Kiwi fullback Mils Muliaina’s hands as he gestured to take a quick throw-in.

Watch the red car of Mitchell: