BRISBANE, Australia — Of all the sounds that might charm an ear on a sidewalk at a pub window, here came a ripper. It flowed from inside a half-full bar called the Cauldron, up the street from a stadium that rugby apostles nicknamed “The Cauldron.” It landed about three hours after that stadium staged a 49,000-person stress test of a World Cup quarterfinal that Australia’s adored Matildas won by a hairbreadth. It soothed even as its singers might have lacked both classical training and sobriety.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me …
By the time it died down, an unforgettable Saturday night had passed for the team with the jaunty nickname everyone uses and the 128-year-old song from which that nickname almost certainly stems, during a tournament in which the Matildas have embodied at least one vein of the song.
