rugby, physiology, psychology, winning

The Rugby League World Cup semi final line ups are now complete after Fiji defeated Ireland 30-14. Before the tournament had even kicked off three of the semi final teams were already known with England facing New Zealand on Saturday and Australia playing Fiji on Sunday.

After beating Fiji Australia will of course then destroy whoever they face in the final to yet again win the Rugby League World Cup.

Ireland had actually proved to be the only team to bring any sense of abnormality to the tournament after unexpectedly qualifying from their group and expectation was through roof as they looked to defeat Fiji for a place in the semi final. Alas it was not to be and the predictability of this tournament resumed after a tight first half when Fiji scored three tries, eventually easing to victory.

That will be the last time Fiji experience any sort of ease though in this tournament as they will now almost certainly face annihilation at the hands of Australia on Sunday. This will be a mismatch of immense proportions as Australia will dominate possession with their technically greater fly and scrum halves and squeeze the territory using their physically superior forwards. The only consolation Fiji can take is that this mismatch generally takes place whenever Australia face a team- for evidence look no further than how easily they dispatched England and New Zealand, their supposed rivals for the World Cup title.

Fiji can draw some inspiration from the recent performance of Papua New Guinea who went down 46-6 despite many predicting Australia would reach triple figures. A gutsy and tireless display helped keep the score down but even so it is a strange way to enter the semi final of a World Cup thinking about damage limitation. Fiji will need to play without fear, summoning every ounce of effort and energy and then hope the Australian's have an off day whilst they are dealt with an enormous slice of luck.

The other tie between England and New Zealand should prove to be the match of the tournament and if their group game is anything to go by then we are in for a real treat. Taking Australia out of the equation these two sides are the best in the world and Saturdays clash saw New Zealand secure a narrow victory after trailing at half time. Both sides scored some slick tries and big hits but it will be New Zealand who enter the tie as favourites following their second half fight back.

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	Author:	The Sports Nut (The Sports Nut's profile, The Sports Nut's blog)
	Posted On:	Mon, 2008-11-10 18:29
	Tags:	rugby, winning, psychology and physiology
	Comments:	1 comment, go to comments