Sydney, Oct 01: Romanian, Canadian and Argentine squads arrive as the Rugby world cup event begins in Australia.
Romania, Canada and the remainder of the Argentinian squad, including captain Agustn Pichot and coach Marcelo Loffreda, arrived in Sydney on Wednesday (October 1) with Brisbane the touch down point for France and the USA Eagles. At the airport Pichot commented on the fact that he was handed the captaincy when centre Lisandro Arbizu was forced out of the team with a knee injury. He said Arbizu's loss was critical for the Pumas.
"Lisandro was very important for us in the structural defence of the midfield so I think it's going to tough to replace him and in order to get on with it but still we are trying new things in the midfield and to see who is gonna play in that position because as you know we as a team we are very slowly in the midfield so we need to back to that again", Pichot said. Pichot wouldn't be drawn on whether he could lead his side to a repeat of their 1999 quarterfinal appearance. It is reported that Pichot has given Stephen Larkham a stiff rebuke over his "dirty tactics" comments.


Larkham had said Argentina would do "whatever it takes" to beat Australia, including dirty tactics, when the teams clash in the Rugby World Cup opening match next Friday. The tournament continues with 48 matches until late November.


The Wallabies' shaky 17-6 win over the Pumas in Buenos Aires last November was followed by the Australians accusing their hosts of eye-gouging, punching and kicking.


At the time Pichot called the Wallabies cheats who played negative rugby. The Pumas square up against both world champion Australia and Ireland, currently ranked No.3 world. There was no need to ask the bus driver for directions when the Canadian squad touched down in Sydney on Wednesday.


Fullbacks James Pritchard and Quentin Fyffe and backrower Jeff Reid were all raised in Australia as was coach Dave Clark but have qualified to represent Canada.


"It's been terrific support from people back at home so far. I know the world cup as a whole is huge and if if we get that added bit of support because there's a few Aussies in the team then I don't think anyone will complain about that," Reid told reporters at Sydney airport.


Managing Director and CEO of the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) Mr John O'Neill officially opened the media centre venue on Tuesday (September 30) which will see more than 500 accredited journalists pass through the doors this week alone to collect tournament accreditation passes.


Designed to be a media "drop-in" centre, the facility has a work area for up to 80 working journalists. Accredited print journalists will have access to the centre whilst all accredited broadcast journalists will have access to day passes.

John O'Neill said that the decision to create a Media Central was made in order to not only provide a world-class service but to understand the needs and challenges of a 44 day, 48 match tournament.


Bureau Report