Wallabies back-row the best, says Eales

The Wallabies are likely to go into the final as underdogs, having beaten the All Blacks just once in the 11 matches they have played since the last World Cup in 2011, which New Zealand won after defeating Australia in the semi-finals.

The South Americans, not long ago regarded as a “second-tier” nation, confirmed their status as a major rugby force with a run to the World Cup semi-finals that saw them lose 29-15 to Australia at Twickenham on Sunday.

The Wallabies set up a marquee final at the 2015 Rugby World Cup against their trans-Tasman rivals and defending champions New Zealand.

“Every game at this level is so hard and you’ve got a team like New Zealand who have many threats”, Cheika said.

“So they’ll be feeling they’ve got our measure and it’s going to be up to us to do something special, something extra just to be competitive”.

The Wallabies sealed safe passage to next Saturday’s final against the All Blacks at the home of English rugby thanks to wing Adam Ashley-Cooper’s hat-trick of tries, lock Rob Simmons’ score and nine points from the boot of fly-half Bernard Foley.

Louw, who wants his global future to continue beyond this World Cup, insists the seemingly unstoppable All Blacks should not take victory in the final for granted.

“I thought it was great, Australia winning, the Wallabies and hopefully they can make it through the final and beat New Zealand”, said another fan Tony Frey.

“Pocock puts his head in places that are pretty unsafe and gets the ball out, and not just forcing penalties but a clean steal, and that changes the momentum of the game”, Hooper said. “We wanted to win, but very sad we didn’t do it today”, said Argentinean captain, Martin Landajo. “We might have been a bit flat (against Scotland) last week, but everyone was getting around the park and putting themselves about tonight”.

“Street fighter coach Michael Cheika has revived Australia, but the tournament was always going to stretch their power resources to breaking point”, he wrote.

“You know when you are around good guys everyone is driving to stay on the field”.

Ashley-Cooper has been a mainstay of the side, playing more than 100 games in the gold jumper since debuting in 2005.

They started the tournament as an under-rated pack which wasn’t expected to cause any trouble for England, Wales or any other team with a good set piece.

“I’ve been brought up that tries are what it’s about”, Cheika said.

Told that South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer had considered the match meaningless, Creevy said: “I don’t know why he says that, it means something now, it’s our prime objective”. The young players in the team have a huge future and no doubt the Boks will produce going forward, but we’re still coming to terms with losing to New Zealand.

“But they did the analysis and came to their conclusion and we have to respect their decision”.

“We’ll see how that applies to a few of his specialities such as scrummaging and mauling, and we’ll take it from there”.