Rugby Union: New Zealand take lead from golden Lomu

GARETH COOPER, Wales' 19-year- old scrum half, had a question for his coach Geraint John before yesterday's rugby sevens quarter-final against New Zealand: "If I am the last line of defence and Jonah Lomu runs at me, how do I stop him?"

That is a puzzle which has troubled more than one rugby player since the 181/2 stone phenomenon emerged as a marauding menace to international defenders at the 1993 World Cup. England's Tony Underwood was famously unable to find an answer on that occasion; John was unable to provide one here.

"You can suggest tugging at his jersey, or going for his ankles," John said. "But if you can't touch him you can't get either his jersey or his ankles."

Thirty seconds into the second half of New Zealand's 38-14 win, Cooper's feared scenario came to pass. In the circumstances, Lomu's decision to body swerve rather than ram his way to the line counted as a humanitarian gesture.

By the end of a steamy night of superlative competition, the mountainous man of Tongan parentage was topless and jubilant after leading New Zealand to the first Commonwealth rugby title with a 21-12 win over the world sevens' champions, Fiji. There was only one immediately appropriate way to celebrate - the haka.

So patently delighted were the All Blacks, whose morale had taken a dip with their recent Tri-nations defeats, that they performed the ritual dance a second time for the benefit of their supporters on the other side of the Petaling Jaya Stadium.

New Zealand, whose 93-0 win over the Bahamas the previous day, including 15 tries, established a world record in 14-minute sevens, had struggled to come through their semi-final against Samoa 19-14, but - one Serevi- inspired try for Fiji apart - they never allowed their old rivals to dominate.

The world champions themselves had endured a worrying time in the quarter- finals, where they needed a late try to defeat Canada 26-19. That result must have made the Welsh feel better about the previous day's 45-7 defeat by Canada, a result which had caused much ululation in the Valleys.

There were mutterings about the fact that a team of highly-paid professionals, pretty much the strongest Wales could muster, had performed so wretchedly. But yesterday's effort, which followed a team crisis meeting, marked a vast improvement.

The Welsh had been together for two weeks beforehand. The Canadians - recruited from the rugby academy which has been operating in Victoria for the last couple of years - had played and trained together for seven weeks before the games, and their organisation and team spirit had clearly benefited. The lesson there is hardly a difficult one to draw.

England's interest in the tournament, predictably, was ended by a young Australian side marshalled by the 36-year-old David Campese, the man whose late intervention - a knock on which many thought was deliberate - effectively ended England's hopes in the final of the 1991 World Cup. With characteristic tact, Campese had described the team England sent to these Games - drawn largely from the lower divisions - as a "disgrace". A "f...ing disgrace" to be accurate. And he did nothing to soften the approach with his performance, scoring and converting the try which gave Australia a 14-7 lead on the way to a convincing 49-14 victory.

Mike Friday, the Wasps scrum half who was the only First Division player on show for England, distinguished himself with his creative running and last-ditch tackling - but he was marooned alone often enough to be Man Friday.

Campese's criticism was unfounded, given that the Rugby Football Union only allows England to have club players for eight weekends in a year, and that quota had been used up in service of the 15-man game. Those representing the flag here were, on the admission of their coach Andrew Harriman, whose inspired wing play won England the inaugural World Sevens Cup in 1993, a scratch team.

But, unlike England's cricketers, they could at least say they had turned up. And they performed creditably to the limits of their ability, even though they were lacking a player of Harriman's pace to put the points on the board. Nevertheless Nick Baxter, who played for Worcester in the Third Division last year, rose to the challenge with some surging runs which brought him two outstanding tries.

As his Australian team celebrated the 31-12 win over Samoa which earned them the bronze medal Campese, who had slowed the game down masterfully in the closing minutes, skipped like a lamb. This, he announced afterwards, was his last match in an Australian jersey after an international career that began in 1982.

The career he will choose to pursue now will not, one can safely say, be a diplomatic one.