Saturday, November 29, 2008

Live text - autumn Tests

SCORES:

England 0-0 New Zealand (1435)

Wales 5-7 Australia (1430)

LATEST ACTION (all times GMT)
606: DEBATE
Text 81111 (with "RUGBYU" as the first word) or use 606 (Not all contributions can be used)

By Tom Fordyce

1446: TRY - Wales 5-5 Australia
Disaster for Wales - from a lineout deep in Aussie territory, the ball breaks for Chisholm and the big unit races all the way down the other end for a score completely against the run of play.

1445: Chance for England, five metres out - but Flutey is swarmed and is penalised for not releasing.

1442: Lordy - Byrne hoists a high one and is absolutely cleaned out as Drew Mitchell slips into contact. Ref Rolland rules it accidental, and it'll be a scrum just over halfway.

1440: McCaw is penalised for offside - interesting. Flood will have a pop at the posts - but misses left from 35m. Groans from the crowd.

1437: Nick Kennedy disrupts the first NZ line-out after two Toby Flood errors. Nervy at Twickenham.

1436 - TRY - Wales 5-0 Australia
Fantastic move from Wales, Lee Byrne freeing Roberts. There's an overlap out wide, and Shane Williams gathers to dive over. Lovely handling all the way through. Stephen Jones misses the conversion.

1435: Morlock's not going to carry on here - he limps off, with Cooper replacing him.

1433: Haka-time at Twickers, and the England players are arm-in-arm on the 10m line as the crowd bellow out Swing Low.

1430: We're off in Cardiff, and Wales win an early scrum midway inside the NZ half. Jamie Roberts and Stirling Mortlock run into each other from the subsequent ball and both players are in trouble.

1427: ...and they're out at Twickenham too, or at least the All Blacks are. England seem to be waiting back in the dressing-room, maybe as an anti-haka move, maybe because they're just plain scared.

As Richie McCaw strides out, half the East Stand starts sobbing.

1425: Here come the teams in Cardiff - tremendous noise as Ryan Jones leads the way. The lid's on again up above, and here come the anthems.

1421: And now for a slice of Warren Gatland: "I spoke to the players and told them 'the losing's over'.

1419: Apparently it's 30 degrees warmer in Brisbane today than in Cardiff. I'm not sure whether to be surprised or not. Nice burst of Delilah around the Millennium Stadium.

1413: Little bit of chat from the brooding brow of Martin Johnson: "We have a game plan in mind for the first 20 minutes, we'll see where we go from there. New Zealand have not lost a lot of Test matches here but we have a chance. We have very little to lose and we are big underdogs.

"It's been a tough week and today is about character, every game is."

From BBC Sport's Bryn Palmer at Twickenham: "A sight to strike fear into the heart of every Englishman...Have just seen the great Jonah Lomu being escorted around the West Stand perimeter with six security guards in tow. The big man looks in good shape. He has happy memories of Twickenham of course. Tries against England in both their pool matches at the 1991 and 1999 World Cups. Then there was that 1995 World Cup semi-final...but let's not go there."

1408, from Polska_leeds on 606: "Sat here in Cardiff the streets are running red with just a tinge of gold to highlight it. Was here to greet the Welsh bus on St Mary's Street and the boys look fired up."

1402: Chilly afternoons in both south-west London and south Wales. My colleague Bryn Palmer at Twickenham is wearing four layers, with a fifth to reach for at half-time. Hats a medical necessity, I'd say.

1356: Interesting chat from excellentovalball on 606: "England ARE going to win. They haven't got much left to lose."

Anyone else follow that logic?

I sense it's going to be one of those games where England fire

1350: A reminder of today's teams, should you have been asleep all week:

England: D Armitage; P Sackey, J Noon, R Flutey; U Monye; T Flood, D Care; T Payne, L Mears, P Vickery, S Borthwick (capt), N Kennedy, J Haskell, M Lipman, N Easter.
Replacements: D Hartley, M Stevens, T Croft, T Rees, H Ellis, D Cipriani, D Hipkiss.

New Zealand: M Muliaina; J Rokocoko, C Smith, M Nonu, S Sivivatu; D Carter, J Cowan; T Woodcock, K Mealamu, N Tialata, B Thorn, A Williams, J Kaino, R McCaw (capt), R So'oialo.
Replacements: H Elliott, J Afoa, A Boric, K Read, P Weepu, S Donald, I Toeava.

And in Cardiff:

Wales: Lee Byrne; Mark Jones, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams, Stephen Jones, Gareth Cooper; Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Adam Jones, Ian Gough, Alun Wyn Jones, Ryan Jones, Martyn Williams, Andy Powell.

Australia: Drew Mitchell; Peter Hynes, Ryan Cross, Stirling Mortlock, Digby Ioane; Matt Giteau, Luke Burgess; Benn Robinson, Stephen Moore, Al Baxter, Mark Chisholm, Nathan Sharpe, Hugh McMeniman, Phil Waugh, Richard Brown.

1345: Afternoon all - all set?

Let's be honest - it's been a somewhat tricky autumn for the northern hemisphere teams against the south. For Wales there's been two good 40 minutes, but not in the same match; for England, about 40 decent minutes out of 240.

Will that change today? Here's one clue - you can get 14-1 on an England win; Wales are marginal favourites in Cardiff.

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