McCaw returns to his world-beating best.
New Zealand laid down an early marker for the World Cup in a power packed first half shutting out Australia to take a 17 – 0 lead at the break.
An early Carter penalty, quickly followed by a Nonu try, converted by Carter, gave the side a 10 – 0 lead in as many minutes and when Mealamu added a second try on the 26th minute it looked a long road back for the Aussies who were struggling to come to terms with New Zealand defence and got the worse of the refereeing decisions. Australia did enjoy a plentiful ball supply in the first half but New Zealand concentrated their efforts on disrupting Quade Cooper and the majestic out half struggled to get the exciting back line moving.
Carter added an early drop goal at the start of the second half but Australia managed to open their account with Genia and Beale combining to send Ioane clear. Cooper added the extras taking the score to 20 – 7.
Any thoughts of an Aussie comeback were quickly dismissed with a controversial Sivivatu try from the restart, converted by Carter, and when man of the match Carter added a penalty on the 65th minute to take the score to 30 – 7 the game was over as a contest.
Australia added a late try after good work by Cooper and O’Connell put Elsom in enough space to find his way to the line and Coopers conversion gave the Aussies the second half by 13 – 14 but it was too little too late with the All Blacks closing the game out to win 30 – 14.
Full reports and stats over on the excellent Scrum .com. Click here.
So there we go, zero from three in my Tri Nations predictions, but this one was the biggest surprise given the comfort of the All Blacks win.
From an Irish point of view the New Zealand certainly gave a master class on how to beat the Aussies. Get in Coopers face and he will struggle, but it is easier said than done, and the All Blacks did get considerable assistance from ref Joubert who seemed to get swept along with the crowd and occasion. Cooper faded into the back ground and Pocock, my other key player for the Aussies, was handed a lesson by the resurgent McCaw.
In fairness, New Zealand played with a clinical intensity and made the most of every opportunity that came their way with Australia looking distinctly less composed in comparison. However the worry for Ireland has to be that, while New Zealand have already hit their impressive peak, the Aussies are only going to get better!
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5 Responses to “Tri Nations: New Zealand 30 Australia 14”
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Yes John, a very clinical performance from the AB’s who took the game to the Aussies and as you said played in the face of Cooper. However if the Aussies, who had more possession and territory than the AB’s in the first half, had of taken their chances then it might have been a different game….. but of course they didn’t.
Joubert was very quick to penalise the Aussies for not rolling away at the tackle but the AB’s seemed to be exempt from this as they continued to tackle and lie on the wrong side, and at one point in the game McCaw was praised by the commentary team for tackling and flipping O’Connor onto the wrong side so that his teammates could strip the ball away, where by the letter of the law he made no attempt to release the player OR roll away. The other blatent hate I have is the feed into the scrum, what is the point of going through the crouch, touch, pause … engage crap, when the scrum half feeds it into the feet of the second row with the ref right beside him !!! unreal.
As you say Ireland need to shape up very quickly as the Aussie wingers will rip them apart given the chance.
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John to be honest Ithought the ref was not as bad as you make out. Australia didn’t lose because of the referee New Zealand won because their defence was sound and their attack was focused.
In their own half The ABs at ruck time spread across the pitch intent on a two man defence on the ball carrier once in the Australian half they were inclined to be more committed to the ruck but once inside the Australian 22 there was no holding back.
If the ABs have a weakness it is at 9 but it is compensated for by the vision and skill of Carter at 10.
Australia scored again from the lineout ( in their own half ) going down the touchline much the same as the try against South Africa Genia making the initial half break to take out the front of the lineout/ scrumhalf pass to the wing who bounds to the try line cutting in field to wrong foot the full back.
It has all the hallmarks of a training ground set move — Ireland beware !
The Tri Nations is a funny competion in so far as the home teams always have a huge advantage and the away sides never really perform to their best.
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Don’t think the ref was the worst I’ve seen but he did give a fair few “benefits of the doubt” to NZ. The AB’s did look good though. Have they peaked too early?
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So, New Zealand to win the RWC as usual. Until they bottle it against France as usual.
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New Zealand have cleverly arranged to have France in their group. This means that they will play an unimportant group game but New Zealand would not meet France again until the final.
The chances of the tempremental French holding it together for that long are pretty slim.
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