The Wallabies are halfway there.
Australia's bid for a first Grand Slam of the home unions in 40 years is off to a great start after a last-gasp win over England and a thumping of Wales.
The end-of-year tour of Britain and Ireland might be about to get tougher.
“The test against Scotland is going to be the hardest one yet," Australia lock Will Skelton says of his team's visit to Murrayfield in Edinburgh on Sunday.
Then come the Irish a week later. They are the No. 2-ranked team in the world, behind South Africa, and the reigning Six Nations champions.
How about a win in Dublin to seal the Slam?
Before that, though, Scotland — a team that can blow hot and cold, but has undoubted match winners in the backline like flyhalf Finn Russell and center Huw Jones — should offer a stern examination for a new-look Australia team containing an 18th debutant in 2024 alone.
And he's sure to be a headline grabber whether he scores a try or not.
Harry Potter, a 26-year-old winger born in London before he moved to Melbourne at the age of 10, will make his first appearance for the Wallabies. Fittingly it comes in the city where the famous books about his fantasy namesake were written by J.K. Rowling.
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is building a player base for a busy few years for Australian rugby, which includes the British and Irish Lions tour next year and staging the men's Rugby World Cup in 2027.
It's why the likes of Potter is being tested out — and why Joseph Sua'ali'i has been fast-tracked into the squad. The guy who switched from rugby league only last month will make his second start in the 15-man format after coming in for suspended center Samu Kerevi.
Also returning to the lineup are captain and No. 8 Harry Wilson, openside flanker Carlo Tizzano and scrumhalf Jake Gordon.
Schmidt is fully aware that Scotland is in a very different place to the Wallabies.
“The core of the Scotland team has been together for a number of years," he says. "They’re cohesive and combative and we will need to be at our best on Sunday.”
Schmidt said Australia's buildup has been complicated this week because freezing temperatures have meant training fields have been unplayable.
“The group have adapted well to the situation,” he says, just like the Australians have reacted well to a last-place finish in the Rugby Championship after five losses in six games.
The Scots were dealt a blow when they lost former Wallabies No. 8 Jack Dempsey to a shoulder injury, and have summoned 2023 World Cup captain Jamie Ritchie, and winger Darcy Graham, who has seven tries in his last four games.
Scotland has thrashed Fiji 57-17, lost to South Africa 32-15 and beaten Portugal 59-21 this month. The host has beaten the Wallabies in three of their last four meetings, and lost the most recent in 2022 only when Blair Kinghorn missed a late penalty kick.
“We have to start (beating the world's top teams) if we really want to be taken seriously,” Huw Jones says. "It's all well and good beating Fiji and Portugal but we want to take strides. We've got to nail it against Australia.”
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Australian players celebrate winning the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Australian players celebrate winning the Autumn Nations series rugby union match between Wales and Australia at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The United Nations' annual climate talks pushed into overtime Saturday as negotiators pressed on to get a deal on money for developing nations to curb and adapt to climate change.
Several countries were left angry and disappointed at the latest proposed deal from the talks on Friday afternoon. That draft pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, more than double the previous goal of $100 billion set 15 years ago but far short of the annual $1 trillion-plus that experts say is needed.
Top leaders and negotiators — including the U.K.’s Ed Miliband, Germany’s climate envoy Jennifer Morgan and delegates from Central and South American countries — huddled in offices much of Saturday as they hashed out a new deal that both rich and developing nations could agree on. Sources within the negotiations told The Associated Press that the next version of the deal could see a new, higher figure of $300 billion under the right conditions.
But for Panama's negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez even a higher figure is “still crumbs.”
“How do you go from the request of $1.3 trillion to $300 billion? I mean, is that even half of what we put forth?” he asked.
Alden Meyer, of the European think tank E3G, said negotiators now have very little room for error.
“They’ve got to make sure whatever they put on the table is something that can fly. ... Because otherwise we start to lose critical mass as ministers start to leave tonight and into tomorrow,” Meyer said. “So, they are under a deadline, but this is when it gets real.”
The climate talks, called COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, were scheduled to end Friday. Workers have already begun dismantling the venue for the talks.
Wealthy nations are obligated to help vulnerable countries under an agreement reached at these talks in Paris in 2015. Developing nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to help adapt to droughts, floods, rising seas and extreme heat, pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather, and transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy.
On Saturday morning, Irish environment minister Eamon Ryan said that he felt there'll be a new number in the next draft.
"We’ll have to see what the final number is. I don’t think it’ll be the one initially published yesterday," Ryan said. “But it’s not just that number — it's how do you get to 1.3 trillion."
Ryan said that any number reached at the COP will have to be supplemented with other sources of finance, for example through a market for carbon emissions where polluters would pay to offset what they emit.
The amount in any deal reached at COP negotiations — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater climate spending. But much of that means loans for countries drowning in debt.
"We have to get agreement quickly. And I hope and believe we can,” Ryan said.
Panama's Monterrey Gomez slammed rich nations for how they've handled negotiations.
“This is what always the developed world does to us in all multilateral agreements. You know, they push and push and push, and at the last minute, they get us tired, they get us hungry, they get us dizzy,” he said.
It means any agreements reached “don’t truly represent the needs of our people," he said.
Some observers were also wary about how negotiations were going Saturday.
“A fundamental principle of U.N. summits is that they are a party driven process, where countries are supposed to be negotiate directly with each other. COP29 however has seen that eroded,” said Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa.
"Not only have the open negotiations been replaced largely with backroom deals, but there has also been pressure for developing countries to accept the paltry offer that’s currently on the table. This is a worrying sign and must not be allowed to happen,” he said.
Meyer of E3G said it’s also still up in the air whether a deal will come out of Baku at all.
“It is still not out of the question that there could be an inability to close the gap on the finance issue,” he said. “That obviously is not an ideal scenario.”
Several dozen activists marched in silence outside the halls where delegates meet late Friday, raising and crossing their arms in front of themselves to indicate rejection of the draft text.
Also late Friday, 355 civil society organizations released a letter in support of the G77 and China negotiating group’s rejection of the latest draft.
The letter urged negotiators to “stand up for the people of the Global South," saying that “no deal in Baku is better than a bad deal.”
Lidy Nacpil, a Filipino coordinator with the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, said activists would still be unhappy if the climate finance number doubles to $500 billion.
“We’re still at this point where we are asking developing countries to stay strong and not just give in to far, far less than what should be,” she said.
Associated Press journalists Ahmed Hatem, Aleksandar Furtula and Joshua A. Bickel contributed to this report.
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Jennifer Morgan, Germany climate envoy, speaks in a hallway during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, walks in the hallway during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Panama Climate Envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez speaks to members of the media at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Marina Silva, Brazil environment minister, stands near a sign for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, center right, and U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, center, walk outside the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A member of security stands with the Baku Olympic Stadium in the background during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Attendees pull luggage as they walk into the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Australia Climate Minister Chris Bowen, center, walks through a hallway at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
U.S. Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, right, and Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, second from right, walk out of an elevator during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
John Podesta, U.S. climate envoy, right, walks through the hallways of the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
People sleep in the Chinese delegation offices at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Activists demonstrate in silence protesting a draft of a proposed deal for curbing climate change at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
