SYDNEY, 15 November 2003 — All was set yesterday for the weekend’s World Cup semifinals with New Zealand starting hot favorites to dethrone Australia in the battle of the south and England and France in a 50 50 game to decide the north’s champion.

It’s a mouth-savoring final four which was largely predicted when the draw was first made and for the first time in five weeks of rugby the results are far from being a foregone conclusion.

Australians are finally rallying around their world champion Wallabies as they head into the full force of the All Blacks might at the Olympic Stadium in today’s first game up.

Experienced Wallaby captain George Gregan scoffed at suggestions his side were in for a walloping.

“The game will be nip and tuck for 80 minutes,” he said.

“Apart from the savaging we took in Sydney in the Tri-Nations (50-21) this year our matches generally go down to the wire and I expect this one to do so as well.”

Coach Eddie Jones has indicated he has some tactical tricks up his sleeve to derail the All Black machine but whatever he has in mind his misfiring back division will have to click into gear.

The New Zealanders are probably under more pressure from back home that any of the semifinalists as rugby union is king there unlike in Australia, England or France.

Despite the legend that is the All Blacks, only once have they won rugby union’s top prize and that was 16 years ago at the inaugural competition.

In the last two editions, they have been favorites and failed to deliver — in the 1995 final to South Africa in Johannesburg and famously to France in the 1999 semifinal in London.

All that has been digested, dissolved and put to rest insists skipper Reuben Thorne, a survivor of the Twickenham shipwreck.

“We are a better organized team than we were back then,” Thorne said as his team prepared to fly in to Sydney from their Melbourne base.

“There’s a really strong belief within the side that if things don’t go well, we just carry on and get on with the job in hand.”

Tomorrow it will be a case of how much England have faded since their triumphs of earlier this year and how far France have progressed under the baton of coach Bernard Laporte.

England were given a great shock against Wales in the quarterfinals while France simply swept Ireland aside and the money has been pouring on on the 1999 finalists.

But the crusty England XV are proven winners in big games, while France have players getting their first taste of such action at fly-half, full-back and in the center.

England coach Clive Woodward says the “real England” will show up for the game against France.

“The players are more disappointed than anyone else,” said Woodward who admitted his team had been struggling with their favorites tag.

“I think that in the back of our minds we have all been waiting for this game. Sometimes it is not easy, when you are red-hot favorites to play the underdogs. We have struggled in a few games.”

France in the image of inspirational captain Fabien Galthie have adopted an almost Zen-like detachment from it all at their Bondi Beach base camp since arriving at the start of October and the results have been eloquent. But they know it will be to no avail if they fall to the English like they did in this year’s Six Nations. The tag of second-best in Europe would not be worn with satisfaction.

Wallabies Admit to Playing Below Their Best

Australia captain George Gregan has admitted the Wallabies have been playing below their best as part of an elaborate ploy to try and win the World Cup.

The Wallabies skipper confirmed what some observers had suspected all along when he said the defending champions had been saving their best for today’s World Cup semifinal against favorites New Zealand.

Gregan said Australia had not deliberately lost any matches this year but said they had been holding back so they could try and spring a surprise on the All Blacks.

“There are times (in previous seasons) when we should have held some thing back but we’ve shown our hand too early,” he said.