This week’s roundup also features an homage to Garth Crooks, an angry goalkeeper and a behind-the-scenes look at the Long Room
1) After 137 caps and 71 goals for Germany, Miroslav Klose has retired from football at the age of 38. Who can forget that hat-trick in Germany’s 8-0 trouncing of Saudi Arabia in 2002? Spoiler alert: it features some pretty rank defending.
2) It’s once more unto the breach then for Wales this Saturday … they’ve lost their past 11 matches against Australia, the last nine of which have been by less than 10 points, and in five of the last six they have been within a try. The exception is last year’s World Cup pool match when Warren Gatland’s side could not break down the Wallabies’ defence despite playing against 13 men for the best part of 10 minutes. Other gut-wrenching defeats include 2014, when Bernard Foley’s late drop goal and penalty sealed a 33-28 win, and perhaps most galling of all, in 2012 when Kurtley Beale grabbed an injury time try for a 14-12 victory, despite Leigh Halfpenny putting his head where it hurts, and Nathan Sharpe taking the conversion just for good measure.
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