All Blacks rebound against woeful Wobblies

August 17, 2005

The New Zealand All Blacks, stinging from last week’s sloppy loss to the South Africa Springboks, boarded the long flight from Cape Town to Sydney for a must-win contest against their trans-Tasman rivals. If they wanted any chance to win the Tri-Nations, they had to beat the Wallabies in Sydney. If they wanted to retain the Bledisloe Cup, a win would guarantee it. So they had everything to play for.

The Wallabies ran onto the pitch with a re-jigged backline – Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor and Chris Latham all crippled and counted out of action. An injury cloud also hung over Tana Umaga all week, but the natty dreadlocked All Black captain looked transfixed during the pre-match haka, and his gammy leg was ready for battle.

If the All Blacks had to play like their lives depended upon it, they certainly didn’t make a very convincing start. The leather-lunged kiwis in the 82,000 attendance at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium must have thought they were watching Groundhog Day as a case of déjà vu hit the All Blacks.

Just like a week prior, the Blacks fell down 0-3, then 0-6, and before a quarter-hour had elapsed, some new Wallaby replacement fullback kid named Drew Mitchell hypnotized and charmed and snaked his way through the New Zealand backline and carried Jerry Collins over the try-line on his back for a magnificent score. Duly converted, the Blacks were down 13-nothing in as many minutes.

These slow All Black starts must be giving coach Graham Henry ulcers.

Nevertheless, the men in black clawed back. After losing possession on some wayward Keven Mealamu lineout throws, the Black forwards began to methodically dismantle their Australian counterparts. The All Blacks ability to recycle the ball was astonishing; they were driving low and blowing the Okkers off the ball at the rucks. And in the scrums especially, Wallaby tighthead prop Bill Young was ruthlessly exposed by Carl Hayman.

27 minutes in, if you were following the sports ticker, you might have been deceived that it was the All Blacks hanging on for dear life, not the Wallabies. Nevertheless, except for regular delays with Aussie lock Daniel Vickerman crawling around the paddock looking for contact lenses so his teammates could suck in some air, these Wallabies were staring at their third straight test loss. Yes, even down 10 points late in the first half, you knew the All Blacks were on the ascendancy and it was only a matter of time before they’d stop butchering tries. And make no mistake: the Blacks butchered a lot of try scoring opportunities.

English referee Tony Spreadbury didn’t help them either. After mistakenly pinging Richie McCaw a couple of times, he also whistled several knock-ons for balls that were clearly going backwards and almost as convincingly looked like point-scoring chances. What game was this twit watching?!

But at the 28th minute, the Cornish yappy-mouthed Spreadbury made up for it and gifted the kiwis a break. Deep into the Australian 22, the All Blacks knocked the ball on near the goal-line – again! – and Wallaby scrumhalf George Gregan kicked downfield to clear. But the ball never made it to the sideline.

Many a ref would have whistled no advantage and given the Wallabies a defensive scrum. Instead, the ball fell into the arms of AB fullback Mils Muliaina and Spreadbury waived advantage over. Muliaina tore straight back at the Aussies, passing to a rampaging Joe Rokocoko at his left, who in-turn summarily trampled the young Mitchell and powered down to the Wallaby line. Piri Weepu took the ruck ball, bent over and buried himself at the goal. Try New Zealand!

Dan Carter converted brilliantly from near the sideline. The half ground down with more missed opportunities, and injuries to the Wallabies Jeremy Paul, Matt Giteau and Morgan Turunui. The Wallabies led 13-10 at intermission, but they were hanging on by their fingernails. The stat-sheet showed the ABs down by three points, but controlling 65% of territory

At the break, Henry lambasted his squad.

The dressing-down must have worked. The 2nd-half commenced the way most of the 1st half played, with Bill Young crumpling under the strength of Hayman. Penalty to Carter slotted; sides were even.

The All Blacks butchered more try-scoring opportunities. Young was replaced by Matt Dunning, and wouldn’t you know it, Hayman destroyed him too, leading to another penalty, again slotted by Carter, and the All Blacks had their first lead of the game, 16-13. As long as the All Blacks could keep control of territory, it didn’t seem to matter that they were fumbling the ball, because every time the Wallabies packed down for a scrum, they were under extraordinary pressure and conceding penalties. Dan Carter was deadly accurate, and if the ABs were going to style an English victory, they seemed not to care. Both teams were under the gun for a win, and style points counted for nothing.

The moment of the match came in the game’s 66th minute. The Blacks were pounding away at the Wallaby line when Spreadbury whistled a Wallaby infringement at the ruck. As soon as Richie McCaw heard the whistle and saw Spreadbury’s raised arm, he did not hesitate and took a quick tap. He took aim at little George Gregan’s chin, drove his head low and underneath five Wallaby defenders for an audacious score, again converted by the perfect Carter, and the All Blacks stretched their lead to 23-13.

The back-breaker came seven minutes later. The Wallabies were desperate to get back in the game. Close to the All Black line, they won a penalty. There were still several good minutes left in the game, the Wallabies needed at least two scores; but they hadn’t cracked the New Zealand line in a full hour of game-time. The wise decision would have been taking the easy three, putting huge pressure on the All Blacks, and playing out the last six minutes for a last-ditch try.

It was a tough decision, regardless, the Wallabies kicked for the line and took the lineout. They pounded the All Black defense for repeated cycles, and then gamely turned the ball over. In a heartbeat, the ball was out wide to the left for an All Black counter-attack. Joe Rokocoko took the pass, zoomed down the touch, put a grubber-kick past the Wallaby line, re-gathered the ball, and was away for a 70 meter score, giving the fans a classic Fijian dive to seal the deal. Converted by replacement Luke McAlister, the All Blacks went to the final whistle as convincing 30-13 victors, having scored 30 straight unanswered points to get themselves right back into the Tri-Nations championship.

Post-mortem: All Black golden-boy flyhalf Dan Carter went a perfect 5-for-5 kicking against the Wallabies, but broke his leg at the 68th minute. His loss for the Tri-Nations is massive, and could turn the entire tournament on its head. He is scheduled to miss up to 12 weeks of action, but has set a target of the northern hemisphere tours in November as his comeback. …

The All Black selectors haven’t named Carter’s replacement yet, but former AB players and coaches Earle Kirton and Laurie Mains are convinced young Luke McAlister has the right stuff and is up to the challenge. If Graham Henry is truly serious about building depth and confidence in his squad for the 2007 World Cup, then Carter’s injury may be a blessing in disguise. It’s no good blooding new players against the likes of Tonga and Italy; they need to be thrown to the wolves to see if they have the mental and physical nous to step up. …

Rugby Planet named Wallaby newcomer Drew Mitchell as their Man of the Match on Saturday. The Red Terror would like to politely tell Rugby Planet to lay off the crack-pipe for a minute. True, Mitchell was sterling in an otherwise overmatched Wallaby team. He scored a great try and made four surging line-breaks. But he was penalized for failing to release the ball on two of those breaks, and let’s face it guys, his team LOST. Any of the All Black forward pack did as much to contribute to their team’s success as Mitchell did for pluck, especially props Carl Hayman and Tony Woodcock, who destroyed the Wallabies repeatedly throughout both halves. Richie McCaw was his usual greatness, Joe Rokocoko showed he is back to his blistering best, but none was better on the field in both attack and defense than Jerry Collins, who continues to prove skeptics wrong. The man can tackle as hard as any player in world rugby, he never shies away from contact, and his wide passes down the backline completely belie his position. Jerry Collins is Man of the Match, bar none.

So, after two games for each side, the mid-way Tri-Nations standings are:
South Africa 8 points; New Zealand 5 points; Australia 1 point.


The AB-Bok test in Dunedin in two weeks time looms as the titanic championship decider.

But looking directly ahead of that, the injury-strapped Wallabies have to re-group in time to host the Springboks in Perth on Saturday. It doesn’t look good for the Wallabies, who appear to be in disarray. Their growing list of injuries is exposing the depth in Australian rugby, and the side that takes the field on Saturday will be one of their weakest in recent memory. A bombshell has been the omission of George Smith from the starting XV. And if the All Blacks scrum pushed around the Wallabies as badly as any team seen at this level in years, the depleted Australians can’t be looking forward to the South African hardmen, because the Bok pack did a job a week earlier shunting the kiwis backwards. Needless to say, the Springboks will fly into Perth with their tails high in the air, and the benefit of an extra weeks rest. And yet – it was only five weeks ago these Wallabies crushed the Boks five tries to nil at home.

Beware a wounded Wallaby!!