Springing the Boks
What you need to know:
RUGBY. Australia and Wales tackle each other tonight with the reward for the winner being that they avoid South Africa in the quarters.
Warren Gatland says World Cup quarterfinalists Wales are “desperate” to win tonight’s Pool A decider against Australia at Twickenham.
Although both teams are already through to the last eight, the group winners would then face Scotland or Japan, while the runners-up tackle two-time world champions South Africa. Wales, though, have got it all to do, having lost their last 10 Tests against Australia and not beaten the Wallabies since 2008.
“We are desperate to win this game, because win this group and potentially your road through to the quarters, semis and final is a little bit easier than the other side of the draw,” Wales head coach Gatland said.
“We’re desperate to finish off well and win this group, and hopefully give ourselves potentially a second seed team in the quarterfinals.
“The last five times against Australia there has been a score in it. We’ve been ahead in games and not been able to finish it off.
“You learn from that, and experience comes from that and it showed in the autumn against South Africa. We closed that game down, and were brilliant in the last 15 minutes against England (12 days ago), coming from behind and showing maturity to close that game down.”
Gatland has made six changes to his team, with a first Test start for New Zealand-born Gareth Anscombe, who features at fullback. But flanker Dan Lydiate does not feature in this Match Day 23, with Gloucester’s Ross Moriarty providing back-row bench cover.
Equalling the record
South Africa’s hat-trick try hero Bryan Habana warned the Springboks are getting stronger with every game as he celebrated a 64-0 thrashing of the United States on Wednesday.
Habana’s second-half treble saw him equal Jonah Lomu’s record of 15 World Cup tries as South Africa booked their quarter-final place. The 2007 World Cup winner was on the field as the Springboks were beaten 34-32 by Japan in their opening Pool B match.
But he expressed pride at the way in which South Africa bounced back with wins over Samoa, Scotland and the United States, conceding just one try, to top Pool B.
“We took a bit of a tumble that first week against Japan, so the last three weeks have been important as to how we’ve responded,” said Habana.
