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As one: The in-form All Blacks
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- Australia
- New Zealand
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- Minute-by-minute: How the All Blacks ran seven past Australia
New Zealand put one hand on both the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe silverware on Saturday as they crushed Australia 49-28 in a classic at Etihad Stadium.
It was simply an outstanding contest between two attack-minded sides. Five tries in the first-half and not a single scrum reset until the 75th minute as rugby was played how it always should be.
The fine result now puts the All Blacks on fifteen tournament points in 2010, with nearest rivals Australia and the pointless Springboks swiftly looking a distant second and third in the south.
But what about this New Zealand outfit? Call it over the top to be talking like this so soon but they have the confident and assured air of a world champion team in the making. Calmness, ruthlessness and attacking brilliance were on show as players like Richie McCaw and Daniel Carter stood up to the plate. They were not alone.
Yes the Wallabies were reduced to fourteen just after the break when Drew Mitchell was shown his second yellow, but in truth the game was up.
The contest itself began at quite a pace and in the end continued in that fashion. First it was Matt Giteau - in for the banned Quade Cooper - who ran from his own 22 in a breathtaking play that led to New Zealand coming offside and the Brumby slotting over the opening three.
However, it only took Carter just three minutes to level matters with a penalty of his own before déjà vu, calamity, whatever you want to call it, hit the Melbourne surface.
Only a minute after DC had knocked over those points, he became the villain when his attempted clearance was too slow in leaving his boot and Mitchell capitalised for the opening try wide out, proving once again he should always remain in this Wallaby squad.
That was the first part of a rather comical sketch though as Carter promptly became a hero by charging down Berrick Barnes' almost identical clearance to score. The visiting number ten did knock over the extra two points - unlike Giteau - to make it 10-8 to the blacks.
Then came a moment of brilliance from wing Cory Jane following turnover ball inside away territory. The impressive Brad Thorn was a key ingredient in the score by drawing two gold tacklers for the overlapping Keven Mealamu to hand on to Ma'a Nonu, who offloaded to centre partner Conrad Smith before Jane's chip - despite being held by Rocky Elsom - dropped perfectly for the supporting Mils Muliaina to grab his first of two scores.
Giteau did pull the scores back to 15-11 and when prop Owen Franks was yellow-carded for a no-arm tackle on Richard Brown, one sensed it could a route back for the Wallabies.
Unfortunately for Australia that proved not to be the case as New Zealand's fourteen men produced another seven points, with turnover ball again the catalyst. McCaw it was who finished this time, superbly I might add down the left wing after one of those moves off of Graham Henry's midweek training paper. It worked a treat mind on 27 minutes.
Penalties were traded by Giteau and Carter to move the scoreline up to 22-14 in favour of the All Blacks, but then came the bonus-point try before the interval. The Cantabrian's penalty-push deep into the corner led to a slick lineout set-move that involved the mobile Thorn and Franks before a switch to the blindside saw Jane finish well in the corner.
The turnaround was a chance for Robbie Deans to rally his troops who were 32-14 down. However, the comeback that the coach was looking for was not forthcoming as Mitchell's second yellow - for slapping down the ball in touch - put the game beyond doubt.
Adam Ashley-Cooper did pull the scores back to 39-21 after his opposite number Muliaina had gone over to complete his rather simple brace, but then Joe Rokocoko, Rocky Elsom and Corey Flynn rounded off New Zealand's eighth-straight win over the Wallabies.
Man-of-the-match: So many stood out but we have gone for Richie McCaw, who provided yet again for the All Blacks. Mentions too for Brad Thorn, Cory Jane and Mils Muliaina.
Moment-of-the-match: No question about this one as Cory Jane's chip over the top for Mils Muliaina was breathtaking. Despite being semi-tackled by Rocky Elsom, the 'Canes man found his full-back for an excellent score that hurt the Wallabies deeply.
Villain-of-the-match: Maybe slightly harsh but the official who pinged Drew Mitchell for an alleged no-arm tackle. We still haven't seen when and where it happened as Australia were attacking at the time. Explain, anyone?
The scorers:
For Australia:
Tries: Mitchell, Ashley-Cooper, Elsom
Con: Giteau 2
Pen: Giteau 3
For New Zealand:
Tries: Carter, Muliaina 2, McCaw, Jane, Rokocoko, Flynn
Con: Carter 4
Pen: Carter 2
Australia: 15 Adam Ashley Cooper, 14 James O'Connor, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Will Genia, 8 Richard Brown, 7 David Pocock, 6 Rocky Elsom (c), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Dean Mumm, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Saia Faingaa, 17 James Slipper, 18 Rob Simmons, 19 Matt Hodgson, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Anthony Faingaa, 22 Kurtley Beale.
New Zealand: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Joe Rokocoko, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Corey Flynn, 17 Ben Franks, 18 Sam Whitelock, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Aaron Cruden, 22 Israel Dagg.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Cobus Wessels (South Africa)
Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)
By Adam Kyriacou
Comments
SBWAllBlack says...
First yellow was harsh. Id like to see the refs stop ruining games! However, the ABs played exciting, and so did OZ when they where camped down in the AB half. Looking forward to this weekend!
Posted 03:22 04th August 2010
7ton says...
@dclp
"No envy" Then why the hysterical rant with all those childish nah nah nahs and saying that Jonah Lomu was not a Kiwi even though he was born in NZ?
"Just Trophies" Well that's exactly what this article is about "The Tri nations Trophy" and so far I think NZ have won 9 with a good chance of making it 10
S.A have won 3 and Aus 2.
That's a lot of silverware
Posted 00:32 04th August 2010
ande14 says...
All the cards given in the match were absurd, Brown ran into Franks and Franks should never have been carded. Mitchell did also not shoulder charge McCaw, I have seen a helluva lot worse which hasn't been carded Take a look at youtube link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP8c2iwr-u4) to see apparent infringement. Typical Kaplan who called it - and who is on the park as ref for CChurch match - Kaplan! 8 cards so far in Tri-nations it shows that the refs are taking no crap wrt infringements, but surely a replay of incidents should be made so that the correct call can be made at the time.
Posted 09:26 03rd August 2010
7ton says...
Trinats
So you got it wrong and Graham Henry didn't need that excuse you predicted
Posted 23:51 02nd August 2010
dclp says...
@7ton,
No envy here mate...just trophies.
Posted 18:10 02nd August 2010
danut says...
Trinats
Basically I agree with your comments.But if it would have been Pocock try it would not have been Asley Cooper try cause it was the same attack,the best Aus attack with 2 blatant forward passes from Barnes,one to Brown and one to Robinson.
Maybe you were on the field but this is the advantage of tv replays.
The Oz was not hard done by the ref,just a lot of mistakes,worse than irish ref.
But Kaplan is another story!?
He can ruin a game like no other so if you will get high next week will be cause of Kaplan or great sadness cause you can not win in NZ!!
Not now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Much close agree but NZ win.
Posted 17:26 02nd August 2010
Trinats says...
SBWAllBlack:
"Half of England - Born NZ plays for oz."
Who's the Idiots sonny boy?
Posted 13:42 02nd August 2010
Trinats says...
KiwiHua:
If you watch video replay you can see the ball grounded. TMO Ayoub, was spotted viewing the footage "without his glasses on" !!! But it's more so the reaction of Pocock, he was confident he had grounded the ball, not that you would understand that.
As for the foreign imports, I never mentioned it ? but looks like your all time top try scorer will be the "Flying Fijian"
I am not high, maybe next week (if we keep 15 on the park) so enjoy it while you can.
PS Do you live on the gold coast ?
Posted 12:57 02nd August 2010
tokyobogue says...
@Lostie and others
I did write this in my original comment;
"they have been better than their opponents in the games they've played and they have played well."
Sorry if I wasn't overflowing with praise for NZ, but as I'm not from NZ I thought that was enough!
Someone else said I was a bitter NZ-hater, not true, just pointing out that silverware is more important than world ranking. My opinion, of course, if you disagree, fine.
I'm actually an England supporter and whilst I would have been happy if we were the #1 ranked team in the build up to the 2003 RWC (were we, i think so...?) I was over the moon when we won and wouldn't trade that world cup for a month of Sundays as the nominal 'best team in the world' on some list.
Looking forward to 2011 I'm sure that NZ will be the top ranked team (rightly so, they are playing well and beating everybody out of sight), the favourites and will have home advantage. But is being #1 really better than being world champions? With all the 'chokers' jokes that go with it? All the questions about temperament, bottle, living with pressure and desire to win? (of course #1 team and world champions would be best!)
But anyway, do I want NZ to win RWC 2011? No, I want England to win. That doesn't make me a NZ-hater but an England supporter.
Posted 12:34 02nd August 2010
Trinats says...
Just spoken with Fox Sports producer. The reason behind not showing the incident is becasue they couldn't find it until the ref explained after the game. It was the "collision" between McCaw and Mitchell. McCaw changed his line to act as a dummy runner and ran into Mitchell (who went to tackle him) left arm came up in tackle but right was unable to because of timing of change of angle from MaCaw. All the linesman saw was Mitchells right side and out of the corner of his eye at it was away from play. What Kaplan saw was Macaw fall over and made an assumption, which he always does !!! worrying, very worrying.
Posted 10:34 02nd August 2010
KiwiHua says...
Meneer and trinats - are you guys high?
There have only been 14 players in over a 100 years of All Black rugby not born on the shaky isles. If they were not born in NZ they came from the islands (NZ is the polynesian capital of the pacific) and RAISED in NZ.
Australia are the worst when it comes to foreign imports - captained by a zimbabwe player (gregan) and peppered with more and more NZ, Island! And SA rejects..... quade cooper, David pocock dean mumm, will genia, matt dunning, lote tuqiri, Clyde rathbone, digby ioane, guy Sheperdson, Stephen Moore, Cameron sheperd, Jeremy Paul.... And they are the ones off the top of my head let alone a foreign coach!
And the Bokke where do we start, is Zimbabwe the same as South Africa? Too many players from this other country to count. The Beast was even found last year to not only be Zimbabwe but also NO south Africa citizenship.
As for the other ridiculous comments about the ref and the Aussie try that should have been awarded. Please tell me when you passed your referee exams and when you perfected x-Ray vision. I had a few beers on board but you have posted proof you are fools. Go and sit in the corner with Capelone.
Same hate, same envy, same bruised pride sore loser biz, same excuses. Go buy a season ticket to the AFL or the soccer.
Kia kaha aotearoa
Posted 10:14 02nd August 2010
7ton says...
cuw31
To answer your question and using the same statistical format I think the All Blacks therefore have had 5 top four finishes in 6 world cups.
Of coarse statistics can be misleading and football has far more top teams competing for the trophy so we can't really make a comparison but I think Rugby Lovers point may be that being the favourite can just pile on the pressure.
On another note has anyone figured out why Mitchell got the first yellow card?
Posted 09:16 02nd August 2010
bruce says...
Perhaps the view from the neutral corner is always gonna be different, but I thought the refs had a good game. Perhaps that puts the Irish refs into perspective with regard to the SA games.
The red card was unfortunate. Many have made a point that the first DM incident went unseen by them, alas that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It was clear the ref wanted a fast-flowing game - first Rocky complained about the quick penalty, then the exact same thing happened at the other end, then the ref took the time to call both captains and lay down the law. That it was DM got petulant at the line out was unlucky. The ref was caught - either he does the "one more warning" or he acts. I thought it was courageous, and correct, of him to do what he did knowing full well the consequences thereof.
Was he perfect in the rest of the game? Nope - there were some mistakes, and also stuff that went unseen. That's gonna happen I guess - and often they can be key moments in the match. It happened plenty in the games in NZ. But I maintain that for this game, as for those 2, the ref's mistakes did not affect the result. The score maybe, but right now the AB's are untouchable.
It's certainly true though that they rely enormously on an in-form Carter & McCaw. You only have to look at the results last year to see the difference they make. The Crusaders as well are built around the pair. No wonder Dan gets special dispensation to play overseas.
If they, and the others stay fit, and on form they should easily win the WC by a country mile. Hard not to see the parallels though with previous AB sides that have proved unbeatable the year before a world cup.
Posted 08:01 02nd August 2010
SBWAllBlack says...
Haha!
Funny!
You gotta love the bok/oz supporters who try to bring up claims that the all blacks use players from different nations.
Here's a few of your own:
Bobby Skinstad - Born Bullawayo Zimbabwe
Gary Teichman - Born Bullawayo Zimbabwe
The Beast - Born Harare Zimbabwe
David Pockok - Born Zimbabwe plays for OZ.
Quade Cooper - Born NZ plays for OZ
Half of England - Born NZ plays for oz.
Idiots!
Posted 06:48 02nd August 2010
brazilrugger says...
i'm a traditional supporter of SA, but am also objective and loved watching the NZ in this game. They were beautiful. I am dismayed by the supporters from all 3 countries who write on here though. Jeepers, people, its a game. Chill.
Posted 06:40 02nd August 2010
FezJay says...
@Meener
OMG with every one of your posts, the average IQ of this forum goes down.
The All Blacks beat the Boks with there forwards and set pieces.
If anything, the wallabies were lucky that there weren't more scrums. Also, this is testament to the skill levels of both teams(high handling errors = more scrums).
As for the line outs, why Kick the ball when you have a back three like the All Blacks...it would be silly. However, when it did come to the Lineouts, NZ were very good.
Please pull your head out
Posted 05:30 02nd August 2010
FezJay says...
@Meneer Im pretty sure if you go back far enough in just about anyone case, you will find that their ancestors were not born in there country of citizenship.
So do you reckon that they should not be able to play for the Country they call home.
20% percent were not born in NZ aye, how many of that 20% are NOT NZ citizens or did not grow up (from an early age) in NZ?
Also you might want to consider the fact that NOT growing up and playing rugby in NZ from a young age and going through NZ's rugby development, these players may not be as good as they are today.
Mate your a clown. Your basically trying to say that NZ went over to Samoa and Fiji to look for 3-6 year olds to play for the All Blacks one day. Brought there families to NZ, and then nurtured them to play for the All Blacks. That is CRAZY.
Posted 05:22 02nd August 2010
Jagman says...
20% of this All Black squad is not born in New Zealand, including 2 Australians.
Would Meneer please inform us of how 3 from 21 becomes 20% and also who the 2 Australians are..........
Posted 05:12 02nd August 2010
LeinsterDude says...
The only thing I picked up from this game is that the Aussies can't beat the Kiwis with only 14 men.
Since when is this a surprise?
Posted 04:28 02nd August 2010
Kiwirooster says...
It worries me a bit to see Graham Henry throwing a little pick at Robbie Deans during the post match interview. It brought me back to 2006 when the All Blacks side was equally dominant and Graham Henry was getting increasingly cocky.
I remember that in 2007 prior to the Cardiff fiasco, all the Kiwi journalists were firing at G.H.'s rotation policy. Two months before that, G.H. was untouchable and his rotation policy was the greatest thing since sliced bread. (sliced bread by the way has never been great it is full of sugar and glucose)
While I agree G.H. should have never kept his best players out of the Super 14 at the time, I disagree with the main reason of the fiasco. The All Blacks version 2010 are no different than the All Blacks version 2005-2006. Maybe the 2005-2006 version was even more dominant given that their direct opponent were on their way to a World Cup title and the Wallabies were more experienced than they are now.
Incidentally, the common point between those two All Blacks sides is the absolute reliance on Richie McCaw and Dan Carter. Over the last three games, those two have been at the start and at the end of almost every single action leading to a try. Just like they were in 2005 and 2006. Nothing new under the sun...
So where is the plan B? Why not starting McCaw and Carter to replace them with Braid and Cruden sometimes during the game? Surely when the opponent is one man down, it is a good time to test a plan B. Apparently not.
I am delighted with the way the All Blacks play, it is extremely positive and it has always been but I just cannot see what Graham Henry has brought to the team that we have not seen before. Put it this way, if McCaw and Carter are injured or unfit we are back to square one.
Posted 03:59 02nd August 2010