Kiwis stunned by wonderful Wallabies
Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:17
You beauty: Aussie Stephen Moore congratulates Ryan Cross on his try
Robbie Deans' Australia built on last week's win over the Springboks with another impressive performance to beat a below-par New Zealand 34-19 in a thrilling Tri-Nations encounter in Sydney.
The All Blacks did well to get back into the contest after Australia raced into an early lead, but could not contain the Wallabies, who outscored them by four tries to three in one of the best Tri-Nations matches in recent times.
Have you ever seen a better Test match than that? What a game! What a Test. The idea that Test match rugby is a war of attrition was buried well and truly at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on Saturday night. And eventually it was Australia that thoroughly deserved their biggest winning margin over New Zealand in a Tri-Nations match since 1999.
They deserved a bonus point for scoring four tries and yet it may well have been defensive aggression that really won the match for them against a side that had the majority of possession, but certainly not the majority of territory. This was a victory for Wallaby grit as much as anything else.
The Wallabies started the game well enough but for most of the first half the All Blacks had by far the better of possession and yet it took a try on half-time to save them from a humiliating scoreline as the Wallabies took their chances.
The second half was different. As it went on the Wallabies shut the New Zealanders down, producing in their opponents a frantic desire to run over the Wallabies. They were not going to run over these Wallabies who threw themselves at everything that came their way.
The New Zealanders made changes, none of which worked for them. Poor Sione Lauaki. He came on and went to No.8 and it was a switch that worked for Australia as the huge forward made error after error, two of which gave the Wallabies points.
Testimony to the quality of the match was the number of stoppages - just 65, substantially the fewest in the Tri-Nations this year. But even that does not tell the story of the speed and intensity of a great, great match in a great stadium, packed to the rafters.
If it was the experimental law variations that helped, praise them. Certainly this was a great advertisement for them.
And as far as the Bledisloe Cup goes, this is an important win for the Wallabies who must beat the New Zealanders three times out of four matches to get it back.
As far as a competition between the two (New Zealand) coaches go, Robbie Deans of the Wallabies won hands down over Graham Henry of the All Blacks. What Deans did and planned, beat anything Henry seemed to have done and planned.
Berrick Barnes kicked off for the Wallabies and immediately the All Blacks signalled their intentions to run, but Lote Tuqiri sailed into Mils Muliaina. As the match went on both those players made great contributions.
The Wallabies kept on attacking. Luke Burgess was close when he went after his own chip but knocked on. Wycliff Palu charged and Nathan Sharpe and Adam Ashley-Cooper were close. Then the Wallabies went left and Brad Thorn was guilty of a gross high tackle on Matt Giteau. Thorn, just back after being cited and suspended, was sent to the sin bin. While he was away, the Wallabies scored 10 points.
First Matt Giteau goaled the subsequent penalty and then Tuqiri set up a try. For some inexplicable reason Muliaina chose to kick low and across the field and straight to the big Fijian. Tuqiri raced past Ali Williams, Ma'a Nonu, who like Lauaki had hands that let him down, and Greg Somerville. Sharpe took it on and the Wallabies went left where Giteau had a miraculous pick-up and pass under pressure to Ryan Cross who had an overlap and an easy run-in for the try. 10-0.
The All Blacks had their best passage of play after this, even before Thorn came back. Sitiveni Sivivatu had one of his several great runs. Muliaina, Nonu, Tony Woodcock and Williams were close. The Wallabies were penalised five metres from their line but the All Blacks tapped and went right where Daniel Carter lost the ball in the tackle and Giteau hoofed 60 metres down the field.
The All Blacks' first try was a thriller. Awarded a free kick in their own 22 they tapped and ran and the next thing Muliaina was racing down the right. He kicked ahead. The ball bounced all over the place beating several players, until Muliaina himself collected and the New Zealanders were hammering at the line. Ashley-Cooper got a hand to the ball but it went back to earth where Muliaina picked it up and bashed over. 10-5 after 24 flying minutes.
From nothing Carter broke superbly but Barnes tackled brilliantly.
From a Wallaby scrum Giteau got through a half gap and Ashley-Cooper grubbered down towards the All Blacks line. Tuqiri chased and footed through as Sivivatu challenged and Peter Hynes happened to be the Wallaby to score. 17-5 after 31 minutes.
After Muliaina had broken, Andrew Ellis lost the ball in a tackle by Rocky Elsom and George Smith, but just on the break the All Blacks scored, They tapped a free kick and went right where Andrew Hore cut back past Giteau, Stephen Moore and Sharpe and then burst through Elsom and Horwill to score a try. This time Carter converted. 17-12 as the half-time whistle went.
The All Blacks had a dream start to the second half when Carter broke through Giteau and Barnes and Nonu was right at the line. The ball popped out. Ellis tried to grab it and knocked it up but caught it again to swoop over and the All Blacks had the lead. 19-17 after 43 minutes.
Only once after this did the All Blacks really look like scoring. On a different day they may well have been awarded a score.
After scoring his try, Ellis went off and was replaced by Jimmy Cowan. This would later be a talking point as when Cowan was hurt, Ellis came back, 12 minutes later, and then later Cowan was back for Ellis. It seemed that Ellis had gone off with a knee injury which would have nullified replacement as blood would not have.
The Wallabies were close when Tuqiri chipped and chased but somehow Cowan, always a great defender, flung himself at Tuqiri's toe and saved - for the time being. Cowan got up with the ball and kicked but it was not out and Ashley-Cooper countered. The Wallabies attacked till Sharpe gave to Elsom who straightened, beat Muliaina and scored. 24-19 with 25 minutes to play.
With the exception of a brief moment, those 25 minutes belonged to the Wallabies.
The brief moment came when Sivivatu was dribbling an awkward ball near the Wallaby line and the ball was heading goalwards when Cross tackled the wing from behind. In many cases that would have resulted in a penalty try, which may well have altered the result of the game.
From now on the Wallabies, leading, played with renewed vigour and kept the All Blacks pinned down in their own quarter.
After Lauaki - the fourth of seven errors - fumbled, the Wallabies attacked and with his right foot Giteau, a left-footer, kicked a soaring drop goal. Australian spectators often boo a drop attempt. They cheered this one.
Carter broke well again, Cross raced past Conrad Smith, Giteau chipped and Anthony Tuitavake, who had an otherwise anonymous game, saved and then Lauaki knocked on again and the Wallabies attacked. The Wallabies went on a pick-and-drive spree until James Horwill picked up and wandered past Lauaki for a try near the posts. That was it - victory and a bonus point.
Man of the Match: For the All Blacks Dan Carter was sublime. For the Wallabies there were several stars - George Smith, Nathan Sharpe, Stephen Moore, Cliffie Palu. Lote Tuqiri, Berrick Barnes, Adam Ashley-Cooper... But if you choose the Man of the Match as the player who played rugby best in all its phases, attack and defence, you pick Daniel Carter of the losing team. Heaven knows what the result would have been had a lesser mortal played.
Moment of the Match: There were moments such as Brad Thorn's ugly tackle, the try that Mils Muliaina scored, Jimmy Cowan's brave, saving drive but perhaps it should have been Lote Tuqiri's first run for the first try of the match that signalled Wallaby intent.
Villain of the Match: Brad Thorn.
The scorers:
For Australia:
Try: Cross, Hynes, Elsom, Horwill
Con: Giteau 4
Pen: Giteau
DG: Giteau
For New Zealand:
Try: Muliaina, Hore, Ellis
Con: Carter 2
Yellow card: Brad Thorn (New Zealand, 6 - Dangerous play, high tackle)
Teams:
Australia: 15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Ryan Cross, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 George Smith (captain), 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 James Horwill, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Daniel Vickerman, 19 Phil Waugh, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Timana Tahu, 22 Drew Mitchell.
New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Anthony Tuitavake, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Andy Ellis, 8 Jerome Kaino, 7 Daniel Braid, 6 Rodney So'oialo, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony Boric, 19 Sione Lauaki, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Conrad Smith.
Referee: Craig Joubert
(South Africa)
Touch judges: Mark Lawrence (South Africa), James Bolabiu (Fiji)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)
