England admits cheating against Romania

[travelling_gerry]

Jim Tucker in Nelson The Daily Telegraph September 30, 2011 12:00AM


WAYWARD superboot Jonny Wilkinson has been embroiled in a ball-tampering blow-up, which has seen his kicking coach suspended for one game and dodgy England accused of messing with the spirit of the World Cup.

Rugby World Cup Limited yesterday said England would be "dealt with severely" if there is any repeat of their sideline management hand-picking a ball for Wilkinson to kick for goal during games because of his anxiety over how the controversial World Cup football is flying.

Two English game officials were handing Wilkinson a favoured ball he had selected as the best from the eight in use during last Saturday's England-Romania game in Dunedin before the referee ordered him to stop the practice. The laws of the game explicitly state for the purposes of a conversion "the kicker must use the ball that was in play, unless it is defective."

England's red-faced Rugby Football Union conducted an internal review and have banned Dave Alred, Wilkinson's long-time kicking coach, and Paul Stridgeon, from being in the stadium for tomorrow's crunch clash against Scotland in Auckland.

The RFU admitted substituting balls was "incorrect and detrimental" to the image of the game.

Wilkinson kicked just three from five conversion attempts in the first half he played and his worrying 50 per cent record at the Cup (seven from 14) further fuels controversy over the Gilbert football introduced for the tournament.

Goalkicking guru Braam van Straaten has been flown in to sharpen the goal sniping of Wallaby James O'Connor for the intense pressure of going shot-for-shot against South African superboot Morne Steyn when the World Cup turns cut-throat.

A rush of Australian tries against Russia in tomorrow's battle of Trafalgar Park in Nelson should give O'Connor the ideal rehearsal to groove his kicking stroke.

Steyn has slotted 17 of 20 kicks at goal during the tournament so the ball drama is a myth to him while O'Connor (five from eight) needs a solid day out to prepare for their shoot-out in a likely quarter-final clash on October 9. The World Cup may be awash with tries right now but when the 2007 World Cup got to the business end of semi-finals and the final, a ledger of six tries and 17 penalty goals showed how tight, pressured and kick-dominated contests became.

O'Connor's comfort level is clearly up now that his South African mentor has arrived.

"It's awesome to have him over here. With Braam it is about learning at every session ... a process about how you can become the complete kicker," O'Connor said after being named at fullback for his return.
All Blacks ace Dan Carter (8-from-12) is making no excuse for kicking below his best but believes the World Cup football has a narrower margin of error for less than perfect kicks "so if you don't quite strike it right it doesn't fly as straight as you'd like."

"I haven't had any problems with it ... we (the Australian kickers) are hitting a different part of the ball," O'Connor theorised.

Robbie Deans gave the first clear indication that Berrick Barnes, picked at inside centre, is playing for a frontline role in the quarter-finals and a possible playmaker partnership with Quade Cooper.

The coach said he was adaptable on continuing with two direct, physical centres as has been the policy in the eight Tests of 2011.

"We could (change). Clearly this weekend will have a bearing," Deans said. We have been adapting our game through the tournament and it becomes very much a case of which players we want to involve, what particular approach serves us better and what team we play."

A Barnes/Adam Ashley-Cooper centre pairing has some appeal and it will be moreso if there are good signs against Russia. The return of flanker David Pocock is huge after two games off with a back strain because he will be revving overtime to make up for lost playing minutes.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1226152037595

[Alex]

should be berrick taking the kicks this satirday

[Ecky]

The result of the game should be reversed and points awarded accordingly.

This is an outrage and a serious blight on the game.

.......plus it might help knock England from the top of their pool!

[jono]

Agree completely ecky.
The IRB is being way too nice over this.
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[blueandblack]

The result of the game should be reversed and points awarded accordingly.

This is an outrage and a serious blight on the game.

.......plus it might help knock England from the top of their pool!

Looking at my copy of the RWC excel spreadsheet ladder, they should drop to 3rd if the 67 points they got were zeroed out.

[welshrugbyfan]

Turn it up, you wouldn't be wanting the points reversed if this was Australia who had done it.

[GAFFA]

Turn it up, you wouldn't be wanting the points reversed if this was Australia who had done it.

If any other team other than England had done it the IRB would have done it for us lol

[beige]

Turn it up, you wouldn't be wanting the points reversed if this was Australia who had done it.

Yeah cos we actually seriously mean it...

[Burgs]

In virtually any other sport, being found to cheat, especially when confessed, leads to a reversing of the result, or in the instance of a race the re-distribution of placings as appropriate.
I see no reason why England shouldn't be docked the match points.
I also see no reason why the hell they would do something so high risk against a Tier 3 nation?
Unless there is dollars (pounds/Euros?) involved with Wilkinson's tournament tally why would you risk the scandal???

[James]

You have to ask what the intent was for England. I mean they were never going to lose against Romania- did they hope noone would notice and that they could keep doing it?

[Happy]

You have to ask what the intent was for England. I mean they were never going to lose against Romania- did they hope noone would notice and that they could keep doing it?

pretty much James!! it is a test of the IRB by RFU - you do it against romania and get away with you can then assume you'll get away with it in a later "more important" game
would also give you a case to plead = you didn't say anything when we played Romania so why are you saying something now we are playing "insert QF team here" ???