Match 17 -- Australia v. Portugal

Sunday,  01 October 2023

My 17th match, and the 31st of the tournament, was Australia v. Portugal in Saint Etienne. 

Portugal is at the bottom of Pool C and not expected to be much of a threat to Australia. But Australia has been underperforming these last few weeks, so anything could happen. 

Again, a really good seat.

The view from my seat

The national anthems. I was on the players's side for a change

Australia took a 3-0 lead in the first few minutes, but Portugal came back quickly with a try to go up 7-3. That woke up something within Australia, who scored three unanswered tries to take a 24-7 lead into halftime.

I don't think I've mentioned yet that there are a few new rule implementations for this year's World Cup. One is that kickers now have a "shot clock". They have 60 seconds to take a penalty kick once they indicate that they want to kick for points. And 90 seconds to kick a try conversion. The mechanism is handled by displaying a large countdown timer on the big screen. The problem is that the big screen is also where the replay is shown after a try, and a lot of the fans in the stadium want to get a better look. Especially if the try was scored in a part of the field that they don't have very good sightlines to. However, the countdown timer and associated wording is so big, it squishes the replay down to about 40 percent of the screen. 

The abominable shot clock

I don't imagine anyone from World Rugby, or from the French organizing committee, or from Tudor (apparently the sponsor of the clock) is reading this, but if they are -- please allow the replay to use the entire screen and overlay the timer in a corner.

Portugal figured things out in the second half and slowed Australia down significantly. They held the Wallabies to 10 points -- two unconverted tries. Portugal themselves scored another try, in the 70th minute, and the crowd went wild. But Australia won, 34-14. By scoring four or more tries, Australia earned the bonus point they needed to stay in the running for a quarterfinal spot. (It's highly unlikely as it would require Portugal beating Fiji next week and Portugal denying Fiji a bonus point. But if Fiji wins, or scores four tries, or loses by seven or fewer, Australia will be going home, missing the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time ever.

Of Australia's five tries, three were scored by the forwards. A prop, a hooker, and a lock. And apparently I had both the prop and the hooker on my entirely-not-scientific fantasy team.

The Portugal fans were great. I had a bunch of them around me. I'm generally hoping for a good match rather than for a particular team to win, and in today's case, that meant I was a Portugal fan. While advising some Australia fans as to which tram stop to get off one the ride away from the stadium, I realized that I'm somewhat hoarse. I guess that being among all those vociferous Portugal fans rubbed off on me, and I cheered and yelled more than I usually do.

Portugal's scrum half (#9) getting the ball out of the ruck and to his teammates

A line out in my corner

Twilight clouds

...doug