SPORTS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2014

England and in search of a final flourish

LONDON: ’s clash with Australia at (29-26) and (26-23). “We won’t be look to boss the breakdown against an a fly-half, was at inside centre against the Twickenham today may be a ‘preview’ of looking at it like it will set us up for the World England back-row trio led by opposing skip- Pacific Islanders but did not look especially their World Cup pool fixture in just under a Cup,” said Australia captain Michael Hooper. per and rival flanker Chris Robshaw, was in no comfortable. year’s time, but there will be an immediate “We will be playing the English there doubt of his inside backs’ quality. “We were Now Lancaster has dropped Farrell, the benefit to the winners of both sides’ final Test (Twickenham) again next year, but we’re not very strong in midfield in , we are on son of England backs coach Andy Farrell, to of 2014. November has seen England’s calling it a trial match or anything like that,” the up even though we lost,” Hooper said. the bench with centre specialist Billy Twickenham ‘fortress’ conquered by both he added. Twelvetrees recalled to the Red Rose world champions (24-21) and On paper, today’s match is shaping up Strong channel brigade’s thorny area of midfield. “With a rela- (31-28). Australia, adjusting to into a case of whether England’s tight five By contrast, England’s backs remain a tively new 10, and a 12 that’s been there a life under new coach follow- forwards or the Wallabies’ backs will have the work in progress with fly-half George Ford, while, it’s a channel that you’ve got to be ing the shock resignation of Ewen McKenzie decisive say. Behind the scrum-which given a first Test start in last week’s 28-9 win strong down, and for us this weekend we’ll be in the fall-out from the text pic England forwards coach Graham Rowntree over second-tier Samoa, now handed a looking to go there,” said Hooper. Twelvetrees scandal, have enjoyed a win over Wales-the insisted was not a Wallaby weakness despite chance to direct operations against stronger last wore the No 12 shirt against the All Blacks third heavyweight in the 2015 World Cup some notable problems-Australia will field a opposition by coach Stuart Lancaster. in in June. Things went well until a ‘’-this month. settled nine-10-12 combination of Nick “Managing a game like this is a big thing to stray pass led to a try for New Zealand’s Ben However, they too have since been on the Phipps, and . The put on George’s shoulders,” said Lancaster. Smith, a score that proved a turning point in wrong end of a pair of narrow defeats against trio ripped through Ireland’s defense on “We know what a talent he is and this will test the game. “The step we need him to take with top-flight opposition in losing to both France occasion last weekend and Hooper, who will him at the next level.” Owen Farrell, primarily Billy is consistency,” said Lancaster. —AFP Wales eye Springbok launchpad for WCup

CARDIFF: Wales will seek to end a six-year wait for a southern hemisphere scalp when they take on South Africa today with one eye very much fixed on next year’s World Cup. The last Welsh victory over a SANZAR nation was a 21-18 win over Australia in November 2008, coach Warren Gatland’s sole win- ning performance against either the Wallabies, Springboks or All Blacks in 27 matches since he took charge in 2007. South Africa will not, however, be a roll-over, having notched up the year’s sole defeat of New Zealand and also having only ever lost to Wales once in 29 clashes. It promises to be a humdinger of a Test match at ’s , where Wales went down 34-16 to the All Blacks last weekend after leading with 12 minutes to play. “We were obviously disappointed last week,” said Wales fly-half Dan Biggar. “We felt like we were in with a real chance after 68 minutes but we let it slip at the end. “It’s all about moving for- ward now. We’ve put it to bed and it’s all about focusing on this week and making sure we put on a good performance and more importantly getting the win.” Biggar, as Gatland had also stressed, insisted there was not an underlying concern over fitness levels. “I think our fitness has been good. We put quite a big shift in today night push- ing one of the best sides in the world all the way,” the Ospreys playmaker said. “We’re concentrating now on finishing the autumn series on a high.” The last time South Africa played Wales, the home side came back from deficits of 17-0 and 30- 17 to triumph 31-30 in Nelspruit. “We know our record against the Southern Hemisphere isn’t great,” Biggar admitted. “In the summer we played a pretty complete game up until the last few minutes and then we let it slip. “We can take a lot from that performance and hopefully we can push on and get the SAINT-DENIS: France’s full back Scott Spedding (center) is tackled by ’s Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias (right) result today because that’s all that matters.” during the international Test match France vs Argentina at the in Saint-Denis, north of . —AFP International window Gatland has made three enforced changes to his run-on team, Liam Williams notably coming in for injured Northampton winger George North. Veteran prop Gethin ‘Painful Gulch’ rivals Jenkins and hooker Scott Baldwin take over from Paul James and Richard Hibbard, who have returned to club duty with Bath and Gloucester respectively since today’s match falls out- to face off in France side the international Test window. South Africa coach has made eight changes to his team from the one that beat Italy 22-6 last weekend. Prop , PARIS: Reigning French and European in for one another, but with all the respect he added. “It’s become a sort of ‘Classico’ hooker , full-back , and wing champions Toulon tackle their “Painful that we have for each other,” said between the red-and-blacks (Toulon) and duo Cornal Hendricks and will all start. Gulch” rivals Clermont in the plum tie of Boudjellal. “They’re always close battles the yellow-and- (Clermont).” Even so, The changes in the back three were required because Johan the French this weekend. As has so with some stories to tell at the end. We’ll Boudjellal complained that the current Goosen (Racing Metro), (Toulon) and JP often been the case over the last three go into it with a lot of desire, even though country-dominated structure in rugby was Pietersen (Panasonic Wild Knights), who started against the seasons, they are the top two in the divi- we’re weakened.” Both sides will be with- penalizing clubs, pointing to the fact that Azzurri, are not available, while the two changes to the front sion, with leaders Clermont holding a out a number of key international players many big names will be missing from this row are rotational. “We will face a fired-up Welsh side this three-point advantage over Toulon. And who will be recovering following a tough top-of-the-table clash, which has also weekend. They played very well against New Zealand and it the latter’s outspoken president Mourad series of November tests. The match will affected ticket sales as only 30,000 had will be a tough end to our season,” said Meyer, whose team Boudjellal, the comic book magnate, be played at the Allianz Riviera stadium in been sold by the beginning of the week. opened their November series with a 29-15 defeat by Ireland likened today’s clash to the eternal rivalry Nice to account for a bigger crowd than “We’ve got players on holiday for before beating England 31-28. “But we want to finish on a high of the O’Haras and O’Timmins in the fic- Toulon’s 15,400-capacity Mayol stadium matches that they didn’t play with us- and the focus this week has been on ensuring we keep on tious town of Painful Gulch in the Lucky can hold. Even without the missing inter- that’s the amazing world of rugby,” added building on what we’ve done thus far this year.” For Gatland, Luke comic book series. nationals, Boudjellal expects a massive Boudjellal. “Nowadays we realize that cer- the clash against the Springboks will be Wales’ last before next “With Clermont it’s a bit like the Painful battle. “This is the derby (the most antici- tain players who signed on a two-year year’s World Cup in England, in which the Welsh have been Gulch Rivals with O’Hara and O’Timmins. pated match) of the last few seasons. Two contract are only with us for eight months, drawn in pool that includes the hosts, Australia and Fiji.—AFP We’ve been enemies for years, we’ve got it years ago it was the European Cup final,” not including injuries.—AFP