New Zealand 22 Australia 16
Took a dander round to a friends house this morning, bacon butties in hand, to watch the much vaunted Tri Nations match between New Zealand and Australia.
Years ago I used to get up to watch these matches with a sense of excitement, expecting to see the cream of world rugby on display in intense matches full of skill and incident. However as I watched the meagre fare today I couldn’t help but compare it negatively to the thrilling recent encounters between The Lions and The Boks.
Where the bone crunching matches in South Africa delivered skill, excitement and incident in equal measure this game only delivered the tired old stories of New Zealand continually offside and Australia failing to take their chances.
In truth Australia should have had the game wrapped up in the first thirty minutes, a converted try by Barnes being scant reward for their domination, but slowly and surely New Zealand managed to slow down the ball and stifle the game.
With their constant, and largely unpunished infringing, there was only going to be one winner and sure enough the incompetent Joubert handed them enough kickable penalties to edge ahead for the victory.
Thankfully, I won’t have to get up so early next week to watch South Africa hammer the All Blacks. Let’s hope it’s a bit more exciting.
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