The semis have pitched Aust & NZ (wallabies & All Blacks) in one of the two major games on Sat & France & England in the other.

To many people it is two lots traditional foes ...

The All Blacks and Wallabies in a semi or a final attracts enormous regional interest & nationalism.

For France vs England it goes beyond just sport but a deep seated challenge that is as old as the French defeat by the Brits at the Battle of Agincourt (the French have *never* really emotionally got over it even if it was in the 15th century - the British use of two bent fingers (v-sign, nails outward) as an insult, goes back to that battle).

The overwhelming feeling here is that for the NZ vs Aust game, the All Blacks are in better form than the Wallabies & that in the Brit vs Frog game, that the French are the surprise of the tournament & may well down England.

Whatever, it promises to be an exciting week-end for us Rugby fans matched only by the outcome of the final the week after.

Cheers

Doug M

The games are [link|http://www.rugby.com.au/aus.rugby/pages/110|http://www.rugby.com...s.rugby/pages/110]
15th Nov 8pm (AEST) Aust vs NZ
16th Nov 8pm (AEST) Eng vs France

Both games to be played at what was the olympic stadium in Sydney

Some background links ...

[link|http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s987920.htm|http://www.abc.net.a.../2003/s987920.htm] (England France war)
[link|http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s985681.htm|http://www.abc.net.a.../2003/s985681.htm] (comments on both semis)

[link|http://rugbyheaven.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/08/1068243305621.html|http://rugbyheaven.s...068243305621.html] (the NZ vs Sth Africa game)

[link|http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=%2Fsport%2F2003%2F11%2F11%2Fsfnwal11.xml|http://www.telegraph...11%2Fsfnwal11.xml] (the England vs Wales game - but watch out for the flying big mac - worst & most intrusive advt I have ever seen )

Cheers

Doug

PS I would have sent you tapes of the matches but my recorder only records PAL format. My DVD encoder can only fit 1 hour on 1 DVD (after taking several hours to process the input)