How the world saw crunch weekend in Sydney


"Once again, England looked like a team that does not know how to lose, surviving everything a frustrated and gradually fraying French team threw at it. [Jonny] Wilkinson stood up to his critics in the most emphatic fashion. Under intense scrutiny after several below-par performances, the 24-year-old was peerless, marshalling his troops in the terrible conditions as he slotted all his team's points. There was not a sign of the timid, mistaken-riddled five-eighth from the Wales quarter-final." Herald Sun

"It was almost as though the rugby gods designed it, swamping last night's semi-final at Telstra Stadium not only with a flood of white-shirted England supporters but also a deluge of rain that made the stadium feel like a wet and drizzly Twickenham. For France, rugby's ultimate fair-weather team, the elements didn't make them feel nearly as miserable as the remorseless Jonny Wilkinson, whose three field goals and five penalty goals supplied all his side's points." The Australian

"Saturday's final will provide a classic confrontation between the sporting arch rivals after Australia sealed the rugby league series against Great Britain in Hull on Saturday, Steve Waugh's Test team easily won the Ashes last summer and the Socceroos defeated England in a friendly at Upton Park in February." The West Australian

"The 24-year-old fly-half missed three penalty goal attempts during the match, but [Wilkinson] broke French hearts with three brilliantly-taken drop goals to give England an 18-7 lead midway through the second half. Wilkinson then sapped the life out of France with two more penalty goals to leave devoted England fan Prince Harry high-fiving Woodward's wife in the stands." Sydney Morning Herald

"Australia's last step to a third World Cup title last night became the hardest of all when England's Jonny Wilkinson became able to turn his kicking radar to a dream Ashes final. Wilkinson's peerless kicking game gave England full value for the pressure they put on France." Daily Telegraph

"We bluffed the poms 12 years ago and it helped us win a World Cup. Somehow, I don't think they'll fall for the same three-card trick again. This English team are no dummies. They'll know their best chance of beating Australia is to play the style of rugby they play best. Kick it into the corners, mount the pressure, wait for the Wallabies to make mistakes and then call on Jonny Wilkinson." David Campese in the Daily Telegraph


"Les Bleus: soluble in water" l'Equipe

"Yesterday the world saw the true face of England - and particularly their exceptional capacity to adapt to weather conditions that were disastrous for a World Cup semi-final. France were never in this match, outplayed in atrocious conditions that simply did not favour the development of their fast, wide game." Liberation

"The victors also showed complete mastery of the fundamentals of the game: winning the ball, the right tactical and strategic choices, constant pressure, quality work with the boot, occupation of their opponent's half, discipline and realism. It was a perfect lesson in adapting to the adversary, as much as to the weather conditions." Alain Gaillard, former French scrum-half, in Liberation

"Repeated errors, lack of control, appaling place kicking - on D Day, les Bleus blew it. We will no doubt be speaking for years to come of the dreadful weather that accompanied this match but it alone cannot exonerate the French team. In the pouring rain, the wretched English hung us out to dry." Le Parisien

"France played a terrible match in Sydney, the worst since its 15-12 defeat by the Irish in the Six Nations in March. The conditions were identical, and the problems were identical: when it rains, France can't play. The Laporte system, which produces such scintillating and brilliant results in the dry, is simply not waterproof." Le Monde

"[Frédéric Michelak] fell brutally from his pedestal against the English: four attempts and as many failures for the penalties; some worse than approximate place kicking; a few terrible choices. As he himself said - useless. But he will have learned a very great deal from it." Le Parisien

"From winning the ball to their mastering of the climate, the English team transformed itself into a giant iron hand which held their rivals' shoulders. France became so frail that they were unable to cope with the pressure of the event. Yesterday we realised that rugby, at that level, is a fighting sport which requires control and authority. The indisciplined French pupils got their knuckles rapped by their English masters. And it hurt." L'Equipe

"France's efficiency may have surprised many during this tournament. But it is a quality that has taken decidedly better root in English rugby than in French. This World Cup has not seen England play their most manicured rugby, and it is highly unlikely that the final will give them that opportunity. But the efficient English have a different priority: winning France were defeated by a strong English team who managed to take smart advantage of the weather conditions. English rain, English game, English penalties and thus English victory." Le Monde

New Zealand:

"World Chumps" Sunday Star-Times

"The mortification and self-flagellation has begun. Keeping a sense of proportion does not mean diminishing our disappointment. The team, in the end, were too brittle. They were put off their game and could not recover the composure to play as well as we know they can. We have to live with the loss. This time, let's do that well." New Zealand Herald

"Is this the end for John Mitchell? The All Black circus moved back to Melbourne yesterday, the marquee torn and the bunting askew. [The All Blacks] have been victims of the upset of the tournament, just as they had against France four years ago. For 44 matches, this World Cup had not produced a surprise. The 45th will go down as one of the All Blacks' most inglorious losses." Otago Daily Times

"The All Blacks were beaten by a sounder game plan, a more committed side and by their own elementary mistakes. The Australians were crisp, clean and deadly in all they did. The Wallabies proved once and for all that the black jersey with the silver fern is no longer a symbol that strikes fear. It is, however, a suitably sombre colour for the funeral march of New Zealand rugby." Sunday Star-Times

"Commercially the New Zealand Rugby Union likes to trade on the All Blacks' proud history. It has one but, since professionalism, the All Blacks have been relegated to being perennial contenders." Star-Times

"It's bound to have an impact [on the New Zealand economy] because if people are feeling depressed about the result they don't tend to do anything and just mope around." Economist Arthur Lim in the Star-Times

"No passion, no pride, no brains, no leadership, wrong tactics, wrong options. Bloody gutted." The Daily News

"[John Mitchell] has made few friends during his time in charge as he's treated the New Zealand Rugby Union, media and public with arrogant aloofness or outright hostility." Waikato Times

"The difficulty with searching for the reason why the All Blacks yet again fell at the second-to-last fence in the biggest tournament of them all is that the answer lies deeply buried somewhere in the murky combination of intellect and emotion that is the ferocious will to win... New Zealand rugby teams do not contain enough of the ferocious will to win that they once did." New Zealand Herald

"The mood is a bit despondent after a loss like that, and you get the corresponding work with it." Christchurch police sergeant Pete Stills quoted in The Press following several arrests for drunken behaviour after Saturday's defeat.