Alphonsi keen to focus on the Rugby World Cup positives

Maggie Alphonsi has said it is a shame that this week has been dominated by controversy surrounding the Rugby World Cup rather than the focus being on the pulsating quarter-final stage.

The 31 year-old won the Women’s World Cup with England last year before retiring from the sport soon after the conclusion of that success.

Alphonsi has been working as a pundit throughout this tournament and feels that the great rugby on show in the last eight of the competition has been overshadowed by controversy in Australia’s win over Scotland.

Bernard Foley slotted over a late penalty to send the Wallabies through to the semi-finals, but replays showed that referee Craig Joubert had wrongly awarded the penalty sparking controversy across the rugby world.

But Alphonsi believes that we should spend more time talking about the quality of rugby on show rather than the referee’s performances.

She said: “I was in the ground and I had the TV screen to look at. Unfortunately, the decision which Joubert made was incorrect.

“What is a shame is that we are spending the whole week talking about the referee when really we should be talking about what a great quarter-final weekend we had.”

With Scotland exiting the tournament, it meant that there is no Northern Hemisphere representation in the last four for the first time in the history of the Rugby World Cup.

France, Wales and Ireland were all eliminated last week as the Southern Hemisphere proved the gulf in quality is slowly widening and Alphonsi thinks that there is one aspect of the game which highlights this more than most.

Alphonsi added: “The level of competition is different with the Rugby Championship and the intensity over there is greater, but at the same time, the main difference is the mentality and one of those aspects is how the Northern Hemisphere views the breakdown.

“You look at the Southern Hemisphere teams at the breakdown. The way they use their backrows is significantly different to the way we do in the Norther Hemisphere.

“To be fair, you look at Wales, Scotland and Ireland; they all have Kiwi coaches and we have seen in this tournament, that that has made a difference  for those sides at the breakdown as they are a lot more mobile and challenging, hence why Wales and Scotland’s matches were a lot closer that first expected.”

This weekend now sees the top four teams from the Southern Hemisphere battle it out for a place at Twickenham in the final next Saturday afternoon.

Alphonsi is backing Argentina to cause Australia problems on Sunday while she thinks the All Blacks may prove too strong for South Africa.

“What’s great is that we are going to see some very good games in these semi-finals potentially Argentina getting one over Australia,” she said.

“Argentina have been excellent so far and are playing in a sort of style like New Zealand. They are playing a very expansive, high pace game and as for Australia, they were fortunate to get into the semi-finals and I think they might have to change the way they play in terms of retaining ball and being disciplined.”

“In terms of the other semi-final, New Zealand are in form. Everyone is saying they peaked to soon, but for me, the All Blacks haven’t peaked at all – they are only just warming up!

“South Africa had another tough, physical game against Wales, but they seem to only have that one style of play and against New Zealand, they will need to have more variety in their game so I think they may struggle against a side building in pace and confidence."