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How Samu Kerevi rates Wales as Wallabies World Cup hangs in balance
By PA
Samu Kerevi says Australia must put outside pressures to one side when they scrap for Rugby World Cup survival on Sunday.
The Wallabies have to beat Wales in Lyon or their hopes of avoiding a first pool-stage exit in World Cup history will effectively be over.
A 22-15 defeat to Fiji in Pool C last weekend means they can afford no further losses.
Even even if they defeat Wales for a sixth time in eight World Cup meetings – and then see off final opponents Portugal – it still might not be enough to progress.
“The pressure comes from within this week, and the pressure from outside we have to put aside,” Wallabies centre Kerevi said.
“Wales will still be pretty physical. They have one of the great world-class 10s (Dan Biggar) and a great forward pack.
“They are a tough team, they grind it out for the whole 80 minutes. You saw that against Fiji where they took a great lead and Fiji came back, but they stayed in it.
“We understand the toughness about Wales. They are a team that have been together for quite a while and have that experience.
“We need to bring that intensity early in the game, and we can’t wait for the game to come. We have to take it to them and apply pressure.
“Fiji were outstanding (against Australia), their back-line outplayed us and full credit to them.”
Kerevi was yellow-carded when Australia played Wales at the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Wales won a thrilling encounter 29-25 in Tokyo, which propelled them towards topping the group. Australia, as runners-up, also qualified for the knockout phase.
“It’s all a blur now,” he added. “We didn’t play to our full potential and there were a few little incidents that were bizarre to me.
“This is another important game, and it’s always an important game against Wales. No game is guaranteed, and it’s a really exciting challenge to turn the tide on what happened last time.”
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Latest Comments
They also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
Go to commentsYes for sure, thanks for sharing. I fully understand that both parties are better off, no one needs to lose, neither competition suffers, in fact both can be better as a result.
Too many true rugby fans (and analysts) don't understand that.
I wouldn't imagine there is a date aye. It was a long decline rugby in SA and Australia was going through, and was so bad it even effected NZ, caused them to argue to can a couple of teams. The nation of SA probably grew into it? I know I watch more of the NH now specifically because of the SR teams playing there. I actually had to mention to Nick Bishop (because of his stubborn perspective) the other day that I've never been a fan of Super Rugby, I don't think they chose the right way to go about professionalism back in 1995. Unfortunately, NZR was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it had SA's and Australians that ran their unions by States, so we had to separate into "two or three" teams as a result. Our game is in the kak now because of it, they want to kill off the lifeblood of our National Provincial Championship. But now we might see a way out of it, so it's all good.
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