TROPHY HUNTING: Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie is in a confident mood ahead of his side’s clash with the Springboks in Cape Town.
Australian coach Ewen McKenzie says the Wallabies have ”one hand” on the Mandela Challenge Plate as they gear up for a Cape Town clash against the Springboks – but admits the passionate home crowds could snatch the silverware away.
Australia edged out the Springboks 24-23 in their first clash of 2014 earlier this month in Perth.
“There’s no question – South Africa is hard to play in South Africa,” McKenzie said on Friday.
Rugby Heaven
“Cape Town hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for us for a while.”
McKenzie will take an injury-hit 28-man squad to compete in the remaining Rugby Championships Tests against the Springboks on 27 September and Argentina in Mendoza on 4 October.
Despite the injury setbacks, he said the squad announced on Wednesday had a good chance at walking away from Newlands with something new for the trophy cabinet.
“We’ve got one hand on the Mandela Plate,” he said.
“But we only play against teams pretty much in the top 10.
“On any given day, you’re going to have close games. You don’t get easy games.”
McKenzie has opted for 16 forwards and 12 backs for the tour, calling up veteran prop Benn Robinson and halfback Will Genia.
Meanwhile, rising cult star Will Skelton has been omitted.
McKenzie said he stood by the decision to leave the giant lock out of the squad, allowing Skelton to get more match time playing in the NRC ahead of the spring tour of Europe.
But McKenzie said Robinson had shown good form in recent months and fully deserved his recall.
“Adding experienced players in the front row is probably a good thing when you’re on the road,” said McKenzie.
The All Blacks have a stranglehold on the Rugby Championship, leading the standings with 16 points after four rounds, ahead of South Africa and Australia on 10 apiece and winless Argentina on three.
With one hand on the hexagram and one hand on the girl
Ewen balances on a wishing well that all men call the world
We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky
And lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye.
1 @ cane:
sorry cane…seems the only eye you’ve caught on the RT subway is mine…
stories of the street – leonard cohen
The stories of the street are mine,the Spanish voices laugh.
The Cadillacs go creeping now through the night and the poison gas,
and I lean from my window sill in this old hotel I chose,
yes one hand on my suicide, one hand on the rose.
I know you’ve heard it’s over now and war must surely come,
the cities they are broke in half and the middle men are gone.
But let me ask you one more time, O children of the dusk,
All these hunters who are shrieking now oh do they speak for us?
And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?
Why are the armies marching still that were coming home to me?
O lady with your legs so fine O stranger at your wheel,
You are locked into your suffering and your pleasures are the seal.
The age of lust is giving birth, and both the parents ask
the nurse to tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass.
And now the infant with his cord is hauled in like a kite,
and one eye filled with blueprints, one eye filled with night.
O come with me my little one, we will find that farm
and grow us grass and apples there and keep all the animals warm.
And if by chance I wake at night and I ask you who I am,
O take me to the slaughterhouse, I will wait there with the lamb.
With one hand on the hexagram and one hand on the girl
I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world.
We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky,
and lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye.
@ ufo:
2 Brilliant words Cheers pal
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