Australian U21's 2006

[Burgs]

Australia v Scotland:

Four Emirates Western Force Squad Members Selected In Australian U21s Side

Friday, 9 June 2006
RugbyWA

Four members of the Emirates Western Force senior squad were named in the starting XV for the Australian Under 21s game against Scotland in Vichy tonight.

Pat O'Connor, Pek Cowan, Digby Ioane and Tajhon Mailata have been selected for Australia's opening fixture of IRB U21 World Championships.

The full team is:

1. Pek Cowan
2. Tatafu Polota-Nau (VC)
3. John Ulugia
4. James Horwill
5. Pat O'Connor
6. Richard Stanford
7. Julian Salvi (C)
8. Leroy Houston
9. Josh Holmes
10. Christian Lealiifano
11. Caleb Brown
12. Lloyd Johansson (VC)
13. Tajhon Mailata
14. Digby Ioane
15. Lloyd Jones

Reserves

16. Geoff Abram
17. Jack Kennedy
18. Tom Hockings
19. David Haydon
20. Dominic Fuller
21. Anthony Faingaa
22. Liam Bibo

[travelling_gerry]

Well done guys.....

[Shaun]

sik! Force all da way!

[Burgs]

Australia 18-14 Scotland

9 June 2006
from IRB website:

Australian resolve broke Scottish hearts in a game of two halves in the first round of the IRB Under 21 World Championship at the Stade Darragon in Vichy.
Scotland led deep into injury time, but a try for Australia's Ulugia stole a likely victory away from John Jeffrey's men and put Australia in a strong position early on in the tournament.

The Scots led 14-0 at the break thanks to a try from Ross Rennie and three penalties from captain Blair but Australia refused to bow and fought back with 18 unanswered points of their own in the second period.

First they brought the score back to 14-13 down with a penalty by Lealifano and tries for Brown and Faingaa, before Ulugia's final dramatic effort swung the game in their favour.

Scorers:
Australia; Tries- Brown, A. Faingaa, Ulugia. Penalty- Lealifano.
Scotland; Try- Rennie. Penalties- Blair.

Quotes:

Chris Hickey, Australia coach: "I'm very happy with this win, which took a lot of sweat and tears to achieve. We had to improvise against a stubborn Scottish defence."

Julian Salvi Australia captain: "This first match was very difficult and a real eye-opener. We got some luck and had to call on all of our mental strength. There's plenty for us to work on going forward now."

Iain Paxton, Scotland coach: "I'm very frustrated and disappointed. It was ours to win and we let them back in. Too many errors. The back row got through a lot of work."

David Blair, Scotland captain: "I'm very bitter after that. We showed lots of passion and determination and had the victory there in our hands but ultimately paid for mistakes and lapses of concentration at key moments."

[Burgs]

The four Force players have been retained for tonights second match against Fiji.
Changes have been made at Hooker and Scrumhalf due to a couple of niggling injuries but both Polota-Nau and Holmes are still available for selection for the crucial next couple of matches.

Australian Under 21's to play Fiji:

1. Pek Cowan
2. Geoff Abram
3. John Ulugia
4. Tom Hockings
5. Pat O'Connor
6. Richard Stanford
7. Julian Salvi (C)
8. Leroy Houston
9. Dominic Fuller
10. Christian Lealiifano
11. Liam Bibo
12. Lloyd Johansson (VC)
13. Tajhon Mailata
14. Digby Ioane
15. Caleb Brown

16. Saia Faingaa
17. Jack Kennedy
18. Michael Dan
19. James Horwill
20. David Haydon
21. Anthony Faingaa
22. Brando Vaaulu

[Burgs]

Australia 43-20 Fiji

Australia recorded their second successive victory in the IRB Under 21 World Championship, beating Fiji 43-20.

The Australians were made to work hard by the Fijians and only led 16-10 at the break, but took greater control in the second half and went on to win comfortably.

The match started with Australia's Liam Bibo scoring three penalties to Fiji's one, before Andrew Durutalo pierced the Australian defence to score the first try for Fiji in the 28th minute. Fiji all of a sudden looked in control, especially as Australia missed their chances to come back into the game, but their pack did start to dominate and just before half time number 8 Leroy Houston broke from a scrum to score.

The second half started as the first had ended, Australia scoring two quick fire tries. Fiji captain Jone Qovu Nailiko brought some hope to his side but Wallaby wings Tajhon Malaita and Liam Bibo both touched down to take their side well clear. Nawalu's late try was but a consolation for the Fijians.

Australia will have to improve for their next match against rivals New Zealand (who are coming off a comfortable 29-14 victory over England), while Fiji can take confidence into their clash with Italy.

Quotes:

Nemia Ranuku, Fiji captain: The guys gave everything today. It was a good match for us but we made too many mistakes. We can play better and we can improve.

Etuwate Waqa, Fiji coach: We're satisfied with the performance today. I'm a bit disappointed with our second half. We lost two players at half time and we committed too many errors.

Julian Salvi, Australia captain: It was a tough match so we're happy to come away with the bonus point. The next one will be really hard against New Zealand - any match between the two of us is tough.

Chris Hickey, Australia coach: We've got a lot of respect for Fiji, they have so much individuality to their game, but today we played much better than against Scotland. There are things that we can improve and we'll need to concentrate now on the next one against NZ. If we win we'll qualify for the next round, and after that we'll see.

[Burgs]

Australian Under 21s to play New Zealand:

Stade Darragon, Vichy, France, June 17, 6pm (local time)

1. Pek Cowan
2. Tatafu Polota-Nau
3. John Ulugia
4. Tom Hockings
5. James Horwill
6. Richard Stanford
7. Julian Salvi (C)
8. Leroy Houston
9. Josh Holmes
10. Christian Lealiifano
11. Liam Bibo
12. Lloyd Johansson (VC)
13. Anthony Faingaa
14. Digby Ioane
15. Caleb Brown

Reserves

16. Saia Faingaa
17. Jack Kennedy
18. Pat O’Connor
19. Dominic Fuller
20. Tajhon Mailata
21. Lloyd Jones
22. Brando Vaaulu

[Burgs]

Australia 21-17 New Zealand

17 JUNE 2006

By Rachida El Azzouzi

Australia beat their trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand 21-17 in Vichy on day three of the IRB World Championship to proceed unbeaten to the Cup semi finals, where they will play France.

New Zealand also qualify for the semi finals, having finished fourth of the 12 teams after the pool stages and play top seeds South Africa.

New Zealand will certainly rue missed chances here today but Australia's defence, desire and organization was ultimately worth the win.

The Australians led 7-3 early on, Holmes' converted try to Brett's penalty. But Brett pulled another back and then a try for Jeremy Thrush took the New Zealanders ahead 11-7.

Two crisply struck penalties for Australia's Bibo, however, to add to his earlier conversion, put Australia 13-11 in the lead at half time.

Ioane's yellow card just before the break meant that for the first five minutes of second half the Australians played with 14 men but their defence held firm.

With Ioane back on, Bibo added a further penalty, which was cancelled out by Brett before a New Zealand lapse let in Holmes for a second try and a 21-14 Australian lead.

Final attacks from Patterson, Somerset et Pisi brought a penalty for Brett and confirmation of the defensive bonus point for New Zealand that takes them through to the semis.

Australia and South Africa remain unbeaten and on course, but will no doubt await the respective backlash from France and New Zealand on Wednesday.

Quotes:

Greg Cooper, NZ coach: We didn't take our chances today. We dot a difficult draw and the most important thing was to qualify for the semi finals. Now we're there, we'll prepare for our next match.

Jamie Mackintosch, NZ captain: Australia played very well. We didn't get enough ball to the backs and we're disappointed but will now prepare for a tough match against South Africa.

Chris Hickey, Australia coach: I like the result, but not the performance. We won because of our kicker and because of the determination of the group.

Julian Salvi, Australia captain: New Zealand play a very physical game and it wasn't easy but we wanted to make the semi finals and now it's France.


Australian U21s beat New Zealand to make semis

June 18, 2006 - 6:05am
Story by: ARU

Australia is through to the Semi Finals of the IRB Under 21 World Championship after beating arch rivals New Zealand by 21-17 overnight in front of a full house in Vichy, France.

Two tries to scrumhalf Josh Holmes helped secure the victory - the first try coming after ten minutes, the second with just ten minutes left on the clock.

The match was sold out two weeks ago and Australia didn’t disappoint the ex-pats in the stands. They started strongly, dominating the set piece and the breakdown and showing a major improvement in building phases.

The Australian front row of Pek Cowan, Tatafu Polota-Nau and John Ulugia was outstanding, laying the platform for clean ball in the scrums and also making a big contribution in open play.

Holmes’ first try came after the team drove its way into the New Zealand quarter, with the strong scrumhalf darting from the base of a ruck and muscling his way through the defence and over the line.

New Zealand centre Stephen Brett kicked two penalties, and when their lock Jeremy Thrush scored mid way through the first half, New Zealand took an 11-7 lead and were looking dangerous.

However Australia remained composed, with the boot of winger Liam Bibo pegging the margin back to 11-10.

Fellow winger Digby Ioane was unlucky to be yellow carded just before half time when he took a player out under a high ball. However Australia’s defence was outstanding and denied New Zealand any points during the crucial ten-minute period.

Bibo added two more second-half penalties and when Holmes crashed over for his second try, Australia was out to a 21-14 lead with ten minutes to play.

New Zealand had several chances on attack in the last part of the game, but Australia’s backline showed plenty of starch and a lot of maturity, especially considering they have four 19-year olds in the line.

Australian coach Chris Hickey said he was pleased with the effort but said there was plenty of room for improvement.

“We didn’t execute as well as we should have, but great determination and effort, along with a very solid scrum and some good goal kicking by Liam Bibo was enough to get us over the line,” Hickey said.

“Our second try gave us a 21-14 lead, but good teams like New Zealand are capable of coming back and scoring. But we remained composed and were able to force turnovers when they were attacking in our quarter.”

“However we will need to improve if we are to be a realistic chance to make the Final.”

Australia will play host nation France in the Semi Finals. France demolished Ireland (26-8 ) and Wales (32-3) in their first two pool matches, but could not overcome South Africa overnight.

South Africa won that match 14-10 to top the table and put them into the Semi Finals against New Zealand who edged England out of fourth place with a superior for-and-against record.

Australia 21 [Josh Holmes 2 tries, Liam Bibo 1 con, 3 pens]
New Zealand 17 [Jeremy Thrush try, Stephen Brett 4 pens]

Other results:

Fiji 43 Italy 17
Argentina 13 Wales 10
England 31 Scotland 12
Ireland 47, Georgia 0

Final standings (Top four qualify for semi-finals):

1. South Africa 13 points
2. Australia 13
3. France 11
4. New Zealand 10
5. England 10
6. Argentina 10
7. Ireland 6
8. Wales, 6
9. Scotland 6
10. Fiji 5
11. Italy 0
12. Georgia 0.

Australian Results to date:

9 June Australia 18 defeated Scotland 14
13 June Australia 45 defeated Fiji 24
17 June Australia 21 defeated Zealand 17
21 June Semi Finals – Australia v France & South Africa v New Zealand
25 June Finals

[The InnFORCEr]

I had a Kiwi (read Sparko) tell me last night that they are favorites to win U21's. SA and Australia = 1st and Kiwis 4th?? That's Kiwi logic for you!