Wales qualifies for quarterfinals by crushing Australia 40-6

Massive congrats to the men in scarlet! Fully deserved spot in the QF. Their forwards completely humiliated the Wallabies. Men against boys. The two Gareths, Anscombe and Davies, were outstanding in the halves.

Australia were pathetic and have never been worse than under Eddie Jones, who will now be fired. Their policy over the past 20 years of recruiting players from the much stronger (in Australia) 13-man code, as well as mercenaries from the Pacific Islands, has allowed rugby to almost die off at grass roots level in Oz.

Please, please Japan  - you can do better than train-wreck Eddie!

The fact is that Rugby union is not a popular sport in Australia. They still think that only elite people can play. It is only played in private schools in 2 states. It has never tried to welcome everyday Australians to play or even watch. Rugby League is much more popular for the rugby sports. It is welcoming to people of all backgrounds. But then that has to compete with Australian football and soccer in most states.

Bye bye Aussies, LOL !!..

Japantime - true observations - well to a point.

But yes - rugby union is the 4th ranked football code in Australia and has none of the interest both by the people and media that AFL, Rugby League and Soccer attract.

Next weekend the Grand Finals of AFL & League will be played.

The AFL game will see close to 100,000 attend and the League game could attract 80,000.

The showtime extravaganzas planned for both final events are more Super Bowl / Olympics in their offerings.

In addition Union is losing considerable ground to Soccer. Many Australians can name members of the Australian national soccer team but only fans of union will know it's members.

Union can rebuild under a new admin, coach and direction, but it will have a very hard time against dwindling resources and interest.

But yes - rugby union is the 4th ranked football code in Australia and has none of the interest both by the people and media that AFL, Rugby League and Soccer attract.

Rugby Union used to be the no. 1. According to Wikipedia, Rugby union holds the match attendance record of any football code in New South Wales (109,874), Western Australia (61,241) and the Australian Capital Territory (28,753). But now it has been over taken by other codes.

Mate. I think you forgot to add cricket. So it should be the 5th.

Wales played a fantastic game and their application of pressure grew the more the match progressed.

Gatland and Jones have both had a second stint at coaching these teams.

Both have had a short time to get their teams competitive.

Wales is bouncing back to where it should be, while Australia has plateaued.

The Eddie Jones experiment was always a gamble, but most of the Wallabies are young enough to play in the next Cup with good experience.

Great game Wales!

Mate. I think you forgot to add cricket. So it should be the 5th.

Cricket isn’t a football code though.

Yoshian - thanks.

Yes - in the old days Union was King and I emphasize The Old Days.

And I agree with the popularity of cricket - but I said "football codes".

Wales didn't even look particularly good to be honest. Australia on the other hand played the worst game that I can recall in almost 40 years of watching, playing and coaching rugby. I suspect a decent team would have put 80 points on them.