NZ face tough hurdles before Cup semifinals stage

By CHRIS RATTUE

The All Blacks will have to overcome South Africa or England to make the rugby World Cup semifinals in Australia next year.

The draw, released in Sydney, suggests that New Zealand would play Australia in a semifinal, and would meet their nemesis France only if they both make the final.

While the form books indicate the All Blacks' first major hurdle will be against South Africa or England in a quarterfinal, New Zealanders wanting to attend will find it suddenly gets tougher at the semifinals stage.

The All Blacks have been planted in Pool D with Wales and three teams yet to qualify.

They are likely to be Italy - coached by former All Blacks John Kirwan and Leicester Rutledge - Uruguay and Canada.

Their fourth pool match, against Wales, will be played on November 2 at Sydney's 79,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, where the semifinals and final will be staged.

Unless former Canterbury and Crusaders coach Steve Hansen can work the sort of miracles for Wales that turn a couple of fish and a few bits of bread into a massive feed, the All Blacks will win their pool.

The bottom line to all World Cup tournaments is that to win, you have to beat the best of the rest.

It is not always so simple for spectators, but in this case Australia is leaning slightly backwards to help New Zealanders travelling to the tournament.

There will be 15,000 tickets for general sale in New Zealand for each of the pool games, and ticket boss Matt Carroll said last night that the number would be only slightly less for the quarter-finals.

The All Blacks will open their campaign at Melbourne's 55,000-capacity Colonial Stadium against the European qualifiers on October 11, and play the American qualifiers there six days later.

The All Blacks' third match is at Brisbane's revamped 55,000-capacity Suncorp Stadium.

The winner of New Zealand's Pool D will play a quarterfinal at Colonial Stadium.

Carroll said ticket prices had not been set yet, and he would not speculate on how many would be available in New Zealand for the semifinals and final.

The best option for New Zealanders wanting to see those major games may be through package deals with travel agents, who will get their tickets through Rugby World Cup Ltd.

RWC can claim up to 50 per cent of tickets for all matches.