Counterattack

Q. If you see an Australian Wallabies fan on a bicycle, why should you never swerve to hit him?

A: It could be your bicycle.

This is one of the emailed jokes which New Zealanders have been sending their Aussie mates this week, says the Australian news agency AAP. It claims the activity is the result of years of built-up resentment.

"It's also revenge for the 1981 underarm bowling incident and for suggestions that New Zealand could become Australia's seventh state," it reported yesterday.

"Not satisfied with having claimed another Tri-Nations crown this year and the return of the Bledisloe Cup, they are eyeing a victory in the World Cup - the tournament we were meant to share with them.

"But the taunts and the jokes will fall flat if the Wallabies find form and the All Blacks choke as they did against France in the 1999 World Cup semifinal."

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Livewire NSW Premier Bob Carr, asked at a press conference this week if he was looking forward to going to tomorrow's semifinal, replied with a firm "Yes."

Asked by how much Australia would beat the All Blacks, he replied, equally as firmly: "I don't know".

He was open about how many of the 13 cup matches in NSW he had attended. "None," he said, "except the opening one."

Mr Carr was standing in front of a sign reading, "Rugby World Cup - jobs and investment for New South Wales", and claimed the cup would pump A$300 million into the NSW economy.

The World Cup might pay - but you don't have to like it.

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Welsh rugby fans are backing New Zealand or Australia or France to win the World Cup.

They don't mind which of the three wins, as long as it isn't England.

In an internet poll organised by the Western Mail, South Wales Echo and Wales on Sunday newspapers, more than three-quarters of those voting said they would not be supporting the English, who face France in the semifinals in Sydney on Sunday.

England reached the last four with a quarterfinal win over Wales last weekend.

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Telecom is challenging staff at other businesses to show their support for the All Blacks this weekend by wearing black to work today.

Sponsorships and events manager Brett Hollister said: "It would be great to create a black-out right throughout New Zealand where New Zealand workers don their black attire in support of the All Blacks."

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Who said this? "When I look at New Zealand I have to remember to view them with my rugby head and not my heart, but both are saying the same thing - Australia will be put to the sword."

Answer: Zinzan Brooke. Writing for the BBC website, the former All Black number 8 said the Wallabies "have been stumbling along, just about getting through, and Eddie Jones and his boys are under pressure".

"On the basis of what has happened in the past couple of weeks it's difficult to look beyond a Black and Blue final."

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