Bad deal for Australia !
Our friends from Down Under messed up everything last week-end...
"Plan A" was to have France defeating Australia in Paris in Rugby Union, while at the same time the Kangaroos were supposed to celebrate another victory in 2008 Rugby League World Cup in Brisbane...
Things went all wrong... French fly-half David Skrela decided to miss no less that 6 easy penalty or drop kicks and let a good standing French side lose 13-18 vs Australia... At the same time, the Kiwis produced one of the biggest upsets in Rugby League history to become 2008 RL World Champions... As the newspaper read, the Kiwis "forced the engraver to scratch off the name of 'Australia' off the trophy"... 34-20 final score...
Bad deal for Australia, indeed !
Actually, my upper picture is the cover page of the programme of 3rd test match between Australia and France (yes, Rugby League !), in Sydney Cricket Ground, July 23rd. 1955. Not exactly my usual memorabilia, but nice gold and green however... (larger picture here @ Flickr )
Thinking about early France-Australia fixtures, let's also share this cover print of French sports magazine "Sporting" dated January 24th 1928, showing French international forward Jean Galia, future pioneer of Rugby League in France in the 30s, breaking the Waratahs' line. That day, New South Wales (touring in Europe) managed a short 11-8 victory over France in Paris... 
Headlines read "Les Waratahs à Paris" (Waratahs in Paris), whereas small caption explains "Les Neo-Gallois du Sud ont battu l'Equipe de France par 11 à 8 - Une trouée des avants français : GALIA soutenu par MORERE à sa droite et CAZENAVE à sa gauche, est passé entre M.BLAIR d'une part, et W.BRECKENBRIDGE et G.STOREY" (need for a translation ?). Jean Galia belongs to the "Hall of Fame" of French rugby and surely deserves a full story one of these days...
But, say, the true reason of this Franco-Australian story today - half Wallabies, half Kangaroos - is to say "hello" and "thank you" to my friend Sean Fagan in Sydney... ;-)
("Sporting" :large picture here - king size picture there...)
