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By Travis Meyn & Stephen Petroff
Today’s Pool A matches panned out as
planned with a well rehearsed Australian unit dismantling the spirited Greeks
54-0.
The win came on the back of a star
performance from Co-captain Drew Dalton who finished the match with a personal
tally of 14 points.
Greecelooked dangerous in the opening encounters with prop forward Adam Kambouris
breaking the line early to no avail.
Australiathen switched themselves on when halfback Brogan Gibson opened the scoring for
the Aussies when he crossed under the posts in the 4th minute of the
match.
The next 20 minutes of the match were in
the balance as Greeceshowed the spirit which has made them a crowd favourite over the past week, but
two late first half tries to Drew Dalton gave the home side an 18-0 lead
heading into the break.
The second half started much the way that
the first half ended, with inspirational lock Nuku Hifo scoring in the 40thminute.
The next 30 minutes resulted in a steady
flow of points with tries to captain Jonathon Crawley, Jason Gangaram, Josh
Whitty, Eugene Seddon and Justin Volker.
Australia’s
backs capitalised on the bruising performance of their forwards with front
rower Alan Kemp sending two Greek players from the field with some solid
defensive hits.
Australia has now scored a whopping 136 points in 3 matches without conceding
any and will face Walesin the cup semi-final.
The final match of the day was another
whitewash with Englandeasily accounting for Scotland,
32-0.
A duo of tries to prop forward Dave Saxon
helped the English to an impressive win in a match which saw players from both
sides sinbinned for fighting.
The big English forwards were too mobile
for Scotland in what was an
encouraging match for Englandwho will now face New Zealandin the semi’s.
There were no surprises in the Pool B
matches played earlier today at Burleigh’s Pizzey Park sporting complex, with
Wales demolishing France 42-6 in the opening Round 3 match.
The Welsh obviously enjoyed the perfect
Gold Coast conditions, piling on five second half tries to finish second in
their pool and book a semi-final showdown with Australia on Wednesday night.
Wales were always in complete control of
proceedings, turning a slight 14-6 half-time advantage into a seven try romp, with
fullback Gareth David scoring a try and booting seven goals in an all-round
flashy performance.
It was another spirited effort from France,
but they again struggled in holding out a much larger opposition, and they now
turn their attentions in salvaging some pride in Tuesday’s Plate semi-final
against Scotland.
A late surge from New Zealand saw them
register a spiteful 32-10 victory over a plucky Irish outfit in the second Pool
B fixture, with their six tries to two victory securing them a semi-final
showdown with England on Wednesday night.
The Kiwis failed to match the intensity of
the boys from Ireland for the majority of the match, with Ireland failing to
capitalise on their early opportunities to trail 4-12 at the half-time break.
It took the injection of rampaging New
Zealand forward Karerua Savage to spark the defending champions into action,
with the elusiveness of reserve fullback Tasi Cordtz setting up the Kiwis hard
fought victory.
Universities World Cup Scores
– Round 3
Pool A
Australia 54 (Drew Dalton 2,
Jonathon Crawley, Jason Gangaram, Josh Whitty, Brogan Gibson, Brenton Stonier,
Eugene Seddon, Nuku Hifo, Justin Volkner tries; Drew Dalton 3, Gavin Duncan 3,
Eugene Seddon goals)
Defeated
Greece 0
England 32 (Dave Saxon 2, Craig
Cornelia, Sam Gee, Dawny Inman, Chris Clarke tries; Mark McKinley 3, Danny
Sarside goals)
Defeated
Scotland 0
At
Langlands Park, Brisbane
Standings after round three: Australia 6, England4, Greece 2, Scotland 0
Pool B
Wales 42(Rob Worrincy 2, Gareth
David, Grant Epton, Jason Mossop, Owen Lewis, Daniel Wright tries; Gareth David
7 goals)
Defeated
France 6(Frederic Marcerou try
and goal)
New Zealand 32(Mahana Toka 2, James
Roughan, Rema Smith, Paul Atkins, Laupepa Pasene tries; Scott Hurrell 4 goals)
Defeated
Ireland 10(Bernard Westman, Paddy
Barcoe tries; Greg Mannion goal)
At
Pizzey Park, Burleigh Heads
Standings after round three: New
Zealand 6, Wales 4, France 2, Ireland 0
For further information contact Universities World Cup
media managers Stephen Petroff (0422 418241) or Travis Meyn (0418 14637)
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