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Stade De France

Rugby

2024 All Blacks Spring Tour v France: ABs unable to get past the Les Bleus following their one-point loss by 30-29 at Stade De France in Paris

by Sports Benches

It might not be the day today for the All Blacks off the back of their two wins lately v England and Ireland, but it was certainly another good game of Rugby though in this year’s Autumn Nations Series and the French got what they wanted with the home win by a single point in Paris, 30-29.

Yes, the ABs fired off well with two early tries that sets up a seven point lead going into the break (10-17).

But unfortunately, a few injuries including one setback right away after kick-off and also risk averse tactics despite winning penalties backfired so badly – which made more and more difficult to get out of jail in the end v the scrambled French defense.

I’m sure there’s more good days to come between those two teams when the ABs welcome France on their home turf for a three-match tour in July next year, but what they need to do now is finish off the tour on a high v Italy next weekend at Juventus FC’s Allianz Stadium in Torino.

Thomas Ramos – what a performance he’s had at 10 for the mighty French side on home soil at a packed Stade De France in Paris. He has a great creativity collection of Swiss Army Knives that eventually got the home supporters pumping, especially on the counter-attack – like the Roman Baros TRY on debut & that cross kick for Louis Bielle-Biarrey to score one over with pace on the wide left after the ABs stuffed the ball up at the halfway mark. Also, he’s never shy at kicking conversions between the posts, even from long range that was enough to shut them down by just 1 point.

Then here comes the towering second rower 4 in Thibaud Flament who had a stellar performance all night long to protect the French from slipping away v the ABs. He’s bit of like a nightclub bouncer really, who doesn’t give his opponents easy passes to walk in, but he certainly kicked them out to give his French side the points they really need as his defensive strong hold was key to his country’s big win. And yes, the French nightlife went wild even more overnight thanks to their winning efforts v the ABs.

And Tamati Williams was unbelievably powerful with extreme force on the loosehead front row 1 for the ABs, particularly in the 1st half who sets up some amazing tries including winning penalties/scrums along the way. He’s been there and done that many times before including with the Crusaders as sure we will get to see more of his best work going into 2025. It would’ve been better though if the ABs went all in when it comes to winning penalties that would make Tamati even more dangerous to nail down the French for tries but when going for the safe penalty goals, um that didn’t go well.

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Paris 2024 Closing Ceremony: Australia’s best ever Olympic Games campaign as we say goodbye to Paris

by Sports Benches

One word to describe our Aussie Olympic Games performance at Paris 2024: simply extraordinary!! That’s right we finished 4th overall on the medal tally with 18 gold, 18 silver and 14 bronze after 16-18 days of action, which is our most successful games ever since Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 with also back-to-back 4th.

Sure, we might not be the biggest country when it comes to size and investments with likes of USA and China who always finish 1st and 2nd, but still we had plenty of stunning gold medal moments though including some in silver and bronze when it comes to various other sports as we relive our golden fortnight.

Our Aussie Dolphins Swim Team always as strong as ever in the pool with seven gold medals despite being pipped by Team USA on the ninth and final night last weekend. We continue to see more success of Jess Fox with her sister Noemie now a first time Olympic gold medalist in the women’s canoeing events that made her canoeing family proud with their parents dad Richard (a former British slalom canoeist) & mum Myriam (also a former French canoeist who won bronze back via the K1 class race in Atlanta 1996 for France), especially where Jess and Noemie are both Western Sydneysiders from Penrith. 

We also love riding with glory on a bicycle where one came on the road from Grace Brown via time trial, another coming from BMX in Saya Sakakibara after an emotional last few years, and one on the velodrome with the men’s team pursuit.

What else? We went skateboarding & collected two gold there thanks to 14-year-old Arisa Trew & 23-year-old Keegan Palmer in their respective women’s and men’s park events. We also can’t forget our men’s tennis triumph last weekend at Roland Garros when Matt Ebden & John Peers came from behind to win over USA’s Austin Krajicek & Rajeev Ram via 3rd set tiebreak to 10 in the men’s doubles Final since Todd Woodbridge & Mark Woodforde back in Atlanta 1996. 

We also did well over in the sailing when Matthew Wearn successfully defended the men’s laser event from Tokyo 2020 on what has been his second straight Olympic gold triumph. And finally in the track and field/athletics, Nina Kennedy became the 18th and final Aussie gold medalist of Paris 2024 when she won Olympics gold for the first time in the women’s pole vault – how good was that!!

She had an outstanding 12-24 months that began with Diamond League & Commonwealth Games title in 2022 as well as by a World Championship win last year in Budapest, Hungry, and now Nina’s an Olympic champion fast forward to Paris 2024!! Keep an eye out for her as she has came from a long way since her setbacks at the start of this 2020s decade & she knows how to respond with by achieving so many huge accolades along the way!!

As Paris 2024 has drawn to an excellent close, we now say goodbye to Paris who has been a great host over these last 16-18 days of world-class sports competition. Next stop: Los Angeles in the United States of America when the 34th Summer Olympics edition will take place in July 14-30 2028.

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Rugby

Olympics News: Aussie Men’s Rugby 7s team fall short by Flying Fijians in the Medal semi-final at Stade De France

by Sports Benches

Ah, so gutted for the Aussie Men’s 7s team whose gold medal chances unfortunately came to an end at the hands of Fiji, 31-7.

Yes, great start by Ben Dowling who found the ball that came to him after one of the Fijian players couldn’t put the ball down first at the in-goal area. They just couldn’t build on it when Fiji levelled the scoreboard going into half-time 7-7 before being simply unstoppable throughout the 2nd x 7 minutes of play including that brilliant finish to the Medal semi-final.

Less ball didn’t help especially when going up against a seasoned gold medalist side while their attack lacked support at times including in defense & the Aussies should’ve brought some new faces a bit earlier than expected if one thing would’ve helped them get past tactically the Flying Fijians. One thing for sure though that the Aussie Men’s Rugby 7s side has made it this far having gone from a long, long way. But they still got a chance though to take home the bronze later on v South Africa. 

All the best to Fiji if they can go all the way with their three-peat for the Olympic 7s gold since the sport’s inception back in 2016. But if there’s one nation that can stop the Flying Fijians, then it’s the host nation France as well, who wants to light up Stade De France with a match-winning gold medal right in front of their home crowd, off the back of their unbelievable late turnaround when they were scoreless during first 7 minutes v South Africa, 5-19.

UPDATE: Fiji unable to get through France in the gold medal match on what has been their first ever loss at the Olympics as congratulations to the host nation with the 28-7 win while the Aussies unfortunately got left out of the 3rd and final podium spot for bronze by South Africa who got away from them unscathed 26-19. Again, our men’s sevens team made it as far as they can which was unbelievable – let’s hope they can continue to dominate the yearly 7s circuit that would mean everything.

Now over to you the Aussie women’s 7s team as their bid to bring back their Olympic crown from 2016 will begin later tonight at the same venue.

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Rugby

Olympics News: The Aussie Men’s Rugby 7s team on a roll to the medal semis after their wins v Argentina to top the group stage followed by an easy last eight win v USA

by Sports Benches

Can you believe it? The Aussie Men’s 7s team had another excellent field day on the road towards gold in the Men’s Olympic program. Not only they topped their Group stage undefeated off the back of a decent win v Argentina but they were also too good v Team USA in the last 8 with the medal semis to pick up tomorrow v Fiji. Now we need our Aussie supporters and for those currently in Paris to go to Stade De France this Saturday by cheering them up for the green & gold!!

Now that last group stage game was a bit challenging with the fast starts which is something they need to improve on, especially when going up against the top notch teams as always. But they’ve still done it though where they’ve bossed the pitch by expanding their attack through the wide areas on what has been a team-led effort against Argentina, 14-22.

Then as said above during the medal Quarter-Finals, we saw another team-led effort off the back of some amazing finishing tries from several players this time v Team USA 18-0.

No doubt they will be coming back hungry with a point to prove v gold medallists Fiji this weekend such as Henry Hutchinson, James Turner & ACT Brumbies regular Corey Toole. Then we can dream in order for the Aussies to get over the line should they make it for the Gold Medal match v either France or South Africa. They’ve came from a long way so far & hope they can replicate the success that the women’s team has done in this 7s format.  

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Rugby

Olympics News 2024: Australian Men’s Rugby 7s team off to a flying start overnight with back-to-back wins against Samoa and Kenya

by Sports Benches

The Australian Men’s Rugby 7s team were off to a brilliant start to the Olympics campaign with back-to-back wins v Samoa (21-14) and Kenya (21-7) last night. Now they’ve got Argentina next up tonight before they will turn their attention to the Medal Quarter-Finals later on during the day regardless of this final group stage result at Stade De France.

Yes, the only weaknesses they need to work on is the strong starts where the Aussies have been disadvantaged or have been levelled earlier on, especially when things may eventually go out of hand by the time they take on the other top-notch Olympic nations as it progresses. That next match v Argentina is the first real acid test where correcting this weakness could change everything so they can hopefully go all the way rather than being dropped out & not being able to win a medal.

However, they too have dominated for the majority though when it comes to the possession on this fast-paced format of Rugby off the back of a few brilliant tries and also a couple of opposition handling errors through the gate that sums up their perfect start of their Olympic campaign as still a long way to go towards chasing that gold medal come Saturday.

Hats off to Henry Hutchinson, who scored two tries in the first game v Samoa. So does an excellent group of backs on what has been a team-led brilliance v Kenya with James Turner, Nathan Lawson (also scored the team’s other try from the opening game) & Brumbies regular Corey Toole sharing the pie of tries being scored.

Plus, hats off to Dietrich Roache on his spotless conversion kicks through the two sticks. Keep an eye on him as their main man when the Aussie Men’s 7s team is set to get tested a bit tougher on the speedometer but we’ve got some of our experienced backline that can cause the opposition trouble starting with Argentina tonight.

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Rugby

2023 Rugby World Cup Final Review from the weekend: Springboks hold out the All Blacks by just one point en route towards being the first four-time Webb Ellis Cup holders in Paris

by Sports Benches

Wow!! How dramatic and thrilling it was to close out the 2023 Rugby World Cup Final in the 47th & final match of the six-week tournament at Paris’s Stade De France where one of the two almighty nations will become the first 4 x Webb Ellis Cup winners – All Blacks & the Springboks. The first half has been full of penalty kicks where the Boks led the way from the beginning & while the ABs have caught them up at times, but then they lost skipper Sam Cane for the rest of this match due to a high jaw tackle on Jesse Kriel – which was initially seen as a yellow card before being upgraded to red by the referee Wayne Barnes. Half-time: 6-12. Although the ABs may have scored the one & only TRY by closing in on the Boks by just a single point later during the 2nd half. Unfortunately, not only they struggled to get away these kicks between the sticks from a difficult & long range, but they also couldn’t find a way to get past a scrambled Boks defense before it was too late. Despite no 2nd half score & seeing both skipper Siya Kolisi & Cheslin Kolbe sitting in the naughty chair, the Boks held on their one-point buffer really well en route towards their 4th World Championship title after full-time, 11-12.

Pieter-Steph Du Toit is one of the Boks’ most important players out there thanks to an all-round display in the Openside role at No.7. He’s extremely tall who did well to limit the All Blacks’s attacking play while he puts his body on the line through their wall every time the Boks have the ball on hand, which shows how much they need him so badly as the longer they hold on, the better it will be to see light at the end of the tunnel that saw the ABs struggle under pressure. Next up Handre Pollard ends up as the No.1 kicker and No.10 player for the World Championship winning Boks team. He’s an excellent team member who can give them everything as his kicking conversion accuracy was spot on as always thanks to these winning penalties, even though all the points his side has accrued has been three-point kicks. Both of them have been stronger as ever that reflects the Bokke’s rebuild from the top since 2018-19 whereas nearly all of their four original Super Rugby franchises now ply in Europe – congrats on being the first team to lift 4 x Webb Ellis Cup trophies now in Rugby World Cup history.

And Mark Telea rounds off the Top 3, having done the best he can to try and get the All Blacks over the line on the wide right at No.14. He’s an excellent communicator who backs up really well as being tested both in attack & defense before Mark was able to make good use of the ball such as the pace including these 1 v 1 battles against defenders that saw him found the quick ball assist to fellow Blues player Beauden Barrett with the team’s only big score. Sadly, ill-discipline has hit them very hard where the ABs were so behind before they couldn’t get it done under pressure in the end as runners-up.

After 47 games over the last six weeks, the 2023 Rugby World Cup has come to a close as we look forward to the next World Cup edition in four years time at our own backyard in Australia. It’s been great seeing the Southern Hemisphere teams dominate once again despite some early round defeats against 1-2 best Northern sides out there including some first-time moments from the Tier 2 nations, such as Portugal’s win v Fiji 23-24 in Pool C & Uruguay def. Namibia 36-26 in Pool A respectively. Now we’re going to swap the Gilbert rugby ball with a cricket bat and ball for the summer as always following a long season this year before we go back all again beginning with a brand new season of Super Rugby in February 2024 followed by the Wallabies & Club Rugby (Shute Shield & QLD Hospital Cup) campaigns during the 2nd half of the year.

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Rugby

England def. Los Pumas for the best of third as the All Blacks-Springboks Final awaits to finish off the 2023 Rugby World Cup tournament in Paris tomorrow at 6AM AEDT

by Sports Benches

We’re now one match left to wrap up the 2023 Rugby World Cup tournament with the All Blacks v Springboks final around the corner tomorrow AM AEDT time where we look back at the Bronze match final between Los Pumas v England. England got off to a great start while Pumas made up some lost time with their first TRY not long from the break 10-16. Although the Pumas found the breakthrough for the lead at one point, but then England responded really well by regaining the lead before they went on to shut them out on the run home for the best of 3rd – 23-26.

Commiserations to the Pumas who didn’t play bad where they’ve caught up to the English really well including a short 2nd half lead not long after the break. But just couldn’t hold it off or get the job done under pressure where England’s great start & the way they regroup themselves with patience has saw them fell short towards the end there. Hope things will get better & strong for the Argentinians going forward to next year under the helm (Head Coach) of Aussie’s own Michael Cheika.

And England played really well as we’ve seen by taking a few safe plays with the number of three-point penalty goals for a start. Glad they’ve made some improvements here & there when it comes to collecting these big points as the game goes on, which is something they should’ve done (like five-metre line-out when it comes to a close winning penalty from the TRY area for example) against a scrambled Springboks defense during the 2nd semi last weekend. But all in all, great seeing England collect the bronze/3rd place, who has been good in the last two World Cup campaigns. They’re still the only Northern Hemisphere team so far to lift the Webb Ellis Cup once back in 2003 against the Wallabies at Stadium Australia in Sydney when No.10 Jonny Wilkinson broke their hearts at extra time courtesy of that winning drop goal through the posts, 17-20.

2023 Rugby World Cup Final Preview: All Blacks-Springboks at Stade De France

Now the tables have turned to one of the world’s long-time rivalries in World Rugby that takes place every year – All Blacks v Springboks. The Boks have won against them a few times in recent years after struggling for the majority between after the 2007 World Cup win to around 2017 beforehand including the warm-up game in London back in August, even though they’re no longer in Super Rugby & instead ply themselves in Europe. All Blacks on the other hand have been one of the world’s greatest sporting teams that everyone looks up to as their source of inspiration & they too have always been winning lots of matches here & there, but they had some downtimes too including the opening WC game v France as well as the three-match series v Ireland at home last year & they also lost to England during the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final in Japan.

Given the Boks have won three of the last six games v the ABs since 2021, their scrambled defense & the way they gradually get themselves into the game by being right on the money will be the key to their success that will leave the ABs bereft of options before being haunted at the opposition’s own danger zone. If not, look out for the ABs possession-based tactics where they will look to get the best out of their attacking football through the gate before being able to defend at ease & that is going to be the secret weapon by making the Boks difficult to chase them up during 80 minutes of play tomorrow AM.

It all comes down to just two top-quality teams in the 47th & final game of this tournament where one of them will be the first four-time Webb Ellis Cup winner in Rugby World Cup history at Paris’s Stade De France since its inception in 1987. And if I was going to pick a winner between those two, it’s going to be the All Blacks  – even though it will be a close one by seven points.

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Rugby

2023 Rugby World Cup, the best of two Southern Hemisphere teams all set for the Final after the All Blacks too good for Los Pumas while Springboks hold off England by one point off the winning penalty goal

by Sports Benches

The 2023 Rugby World Cup Final is all set through the best of the two Southern Hemisphere teams & also both 3 x champions, whom they’ve shared a lot of history together as rivals that happens every year via The Rugby Championship & also the Freedom Cup Series trophy. It’s the All Blacks v Springboks for the Webb Ellis Trophy next Sunday AM at 6am AEDT at Stade De France in Paris (You can watch that big final match-up live & free on 9Gem). Plus, Los Pumas will take on England the day beforehand (also 6am Saturday AM AEDT) when it comes to the best of 3rd place in the Bronze Medal Final.

Los Pumas might have opened the scoresheet first via the penalty goal (and also collected the 2nd three-pointer later during the first half), but the ABs were too good fair & square all along from 6-20 at half-time to 6-44 in the end off the back from the Will Jordan hat-trick brace on his wide right role. Meanwhile, the 2nd semi game was a close one where the first half was full of three-point kicks with England leading the way v the Boks 12-6. Later on the Boks responded to Owen Farell’s drop goal with the one & only big score of their own before a successful scrum penalty saw their own No.10 Handre Pollard kick that winning three-point conversion from such a long distance with four minutes left towards the end by a one-point win 15-16.

Not the day the Pumas was hoping for where the first points were there off the back of the winning penalties, even though it’s just through a penalty kick conversion. But their open play performances wasn’t the same where the Pumas unfortunately didn’t score any big points as the ABs were simply too good for them. Speaking of ABs, they were outstanding from start to finish. They’ve  been patient with the ball on hand that dominated easy possession v the Pumas, while the passage of play & execution with the safety of their numbers has been effective in order to get the job done.

Looking at England now, they weren’t bad for a start in the way they use their winning penalties towards a shot between the sticks. I don’t blame them for that strategy one bit but it would’ve been better if they took a bit more risk by dismantling a robust Boks defense when it comes to the big points where holding on such a small lead was sadly backfired towards the end there. And the Boks are on their way on what is going to be another World Cup final at the same place they’ve last won back in 2007 also against England. They did so well to keep up with the English initially with the winning penalties before the Boks finally found a way to split their territory while dominating the rest of the match in all areas with the match-winning penalty goal to savour as a fourth title awaits to whichever winning team comes out first alongside fellow 3 x World Champs the ABs.

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Rugby

France vs Australia rugby: Result and final score as late Damian Penaud TRY won the game for France

by Admin

• Match ​ ​ : Australia vs France
• Series ​​ : Autumn International
• Venue​​ : Stade de France
• Time ​​ : Sunday, 6th Nov. 2022

The Wallabies led late after impressive tries from Lalakai Foketi and Jock Campbell, but Damian Penaud’s brilliance seized the win for the French at the death.

Points Summary

FranceAustralia
TriesTries
Penaud 75′Campbell 40′
Marchand 40′Foketi 17′
ConversionsConversions
Ramos 40′Foley 18′, 57′
Penalty GoalsPenalty Goals
Ramos 6′, 9′, 32′, 37′, 45′, 72′Foley 3′, 12′, 42′, 65′
Hodge 74′

• In a game that featured 33 points from penalty goals, the first of four tries saw Tom Wright fly down the left flank before putting Lalakai Foketi through to score as Australia raced into a 10-3 lead with a 100-metre effort. France rallied, though, and Thomas Ramos kicked two more penalties before Julien Marchand crashed over on the stroke of half-time.

• More penalties followed early in the second stanza before Jock Campbell found his way over in the corner to give the Aussies a 23-22 lead as Bernard Foley nailed the conversion. Ramos, Foley and Reece Hodge kicked further three-pointers and Australia led 29-25 with five to go when France threw the ball wide to the right.

• Penaud had played out a relatively quiet game, making half-breaks here and there aside from solid defence on the wing. But when he caught Matthieu Jalibert’s pass, he defied gravity, logic and the Wallabies’ cover defence to beat three before gliding over in the corner. Ramos couldn’t convert but France still had the lead, and they held it for three more tense minutes as the clock hit 80 to seal a one-point victory for Les Bleus.

Match Preview

  • The Australian team showed a good aggressive style of play in the first half. Then after the France team started scoring points, it was tight contest between the two sides.
  • At the end of the first half, the France team was leading by 16:19. After a tight contest in the second half Damian Penaud’s last minute goal won the match for France.

Wallabies will come back stronger

  • Any rustiness seen last week against Scotland was truly ironed out in this game as the Wallabies threw the ball around seamlessly and created many an opportunity to score with ball in hand.
  • Foketi’s opening try will go head-to-head with Penaud’s winner in the ‘try of the autumn’ stakes, and the more Australia play like that, the more likely they’ll be to finish on the right side of future contests.

France set standard ahead of South Africa visit

  • The tough tests don’t let up for France, with their match next weekend coming against the current Rugby World Cup holders, South Africa.
  • The Springboks are a tough test of physicality and skill for any side but if France want to be seen as true contenders to win their home World Cup in 2023, they’ll need to push the Boks as closely as they were pushed by the Wallabies here.
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Real Madrid vs Liverpool – UEFA Champions League Final

by Admin

By Haider Manzar

Preview: Yesterday, May 28, the Champions League final was played between the Royal Whites of Spain and The Reds of England. This was the ninth meeting between these two teams in the UEFA Champions League and the previous competition European Cup.

Liverpool was not able to get any win against Real Madrid in their last five matches (D1 L4). This was also the third time these two European Giants were facing each other in the final of UCL (1st in 1981, 2nd in 2018).

Liverpool, after days of speculation, started Konate and Thiago. Diaz joined Salah and Mane on the front. Meanwhile, Real Madrid had 5 players from the lineup that won the 2018 UCL final.

The match was also delayed by 30 minutes due to a drama that happened outside the stadium as the fans climbed the gates and entered the stadium without tickets. The pepper spray was also sprayed on the fans which resulted in quite a drama before the final.

1st Half: The first half started and as expected from the Klopp boys, they started well. They did everything to get the lead in the early minutes. At minute 16, Salah’s shot was blocked by Belgium wall Courtois, who has been phenomenal for Real Madrid this season. 5 minutes later, another attempt by Mane was saved by Courtois.

The match kept going on at an incredible pace and just before the end of the first half, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema scored after a mix-up by Liverpool defenders but to their great luck, the goal was ruled offside by VAR. The first half ended with Liverpool being the dominant side but the result was still 0-0.

2nd Half: The second half started and Salah was again leading the attack but his shot at the 58th minute was again denied by Madrid’s keeper. After the rebound, the second shot was blocked by Alaba’s hand but the penalty wasn’t awarded as it was unintentional and his hand couldn’t be moved away. At minute 59, the ever-hungry young gun of Real Madrid – Vinicius Jr scored the goal and gave Real Madrid the lead.

Liverpool didn’t let themselves down and their attack kept attacking at Real Madrid’s goal but what a guy Courtois is. After this Salah was again denied by Courtois two times. He blocked 9 shots from Liverpool’s attack and kept the clean sheet till the end of the match.

Result: Real Madrid won their record 14 UEFA Champions League, twice more than any other team in the competition. Real Madrid did it again just 3 years after they did the 3-peat UCL. Liverpool did everything in their power but the Klopp boys were not able to get the prestigious trophy. The main credit goes to Courtois because he was the man that kept Real Madrid in this final fully alive till the end. Real Madrid are the CHAMPIONS of Europe!

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