NELSPRUIT // Lucas Neill, the Australia captain, reacted angrily yesterday to suggestions that his team were a bunch of whingers. The Australians have been criticised by some sections of the media back home for complaining about some of the refereeing decisions that have gone against them at the World Cup. They have had a man sent off before half-time in both of their matches. "Everything that's been written in the past couple of days is the fact that we're all of a sudden a team of whingers," Neill said. "I think it's everybody else who's doing the whingeing. Australia have never been a team that whinges, we don't want to be regarded as a team that whinges.
"Did we whinge when we were down to 10 men? We took it on the chin, stood up and in the end probably could have won the game. "That's not a team that whinges," he added. "A team that whinges is a team that would have lost 3-1 or 4-1 and then come in and complained to the referee." Australia face Serbia in their final Group D match today needing a win to stand any chance of going through to the last 16.
* Reuters