Western Force's Wallabies contingent shine in Hong Kong clash

[lara93]

NEW Zealand have heaped more pain on Australia with another gritty comeback win over the Wallabies in the historic Bledisloe Cup Test at Hong Kong Stadium.

Aided in no small way by some generous refereeing from Irishman Alan Lewis - who did his best to spoil the spectacle for the near-sellout crowd of 39,682 - the All Blacks rallied from 14-9 down at halftime to post a hard-earned 19-14 victory.

Lewis hammered Australia, at one point awarding New Zealand 11 penalties to two - including seven in a row in the first half - and sharp-shooting Dan Carter took full advantage to slot three penalty goals which ultimately proved the difference between the two sides.

The Wallabies were gallant in defeat, playing some brilliant expansive rugby, particularly before the break, despite the humid and wet conditions which greeted the first-ever Bledisloe Cup clash contested outside of Australasia.

Alas, a superb tryscoring double from winger Drew Mitchell and some outstanding individual displays, most notably from five-eighth Matt Giteau, back-rowers George Smith and Richard Brown and hooker Stephen Moore, were not enough to see the Wallabies home.

After recovering from 17-7 down to clinch the Bledisloe Cup, as well as the Tri Nations trophy, for another year with a 28-24 triumph over Australia in Brisbane in September, the All Blacks completed a 3-1 series win over the Wallabies with tonight's success.

Mitchell's two strikes in the seventh and 26th minutes, both converted by Giteau, were the only tries of an entertaining first half...

Read more...

[Thequeerone]

Apart from the ref - who did actually ping McCaw - the Wallabies just ran out of puff

[qld supporter]

The Wallabies played pretty well but I think weight of possession through a massive penalty count drained too much out of them. I can't believe how many 50-50 calls went against us tonight. I thought Drew, Gits and Mortlock were fantastic.
No shame in this result, there's not much between these two teams. [except of course Mr Lewis]

[Burgs]

When questioned during the week about the hard fitness sessions the Wallabies had had since Brisbane Deanes replied, "It's just a drop in the ocean..."
It's going to be a bad week to be a Wallaby, I wonder if there are any sand dunes near their Italy base...

Trestle yet again was underwhelming, hopefully his last Wallaby start.
Minor credit where it is due, I thought Dunny actually made an impact.
With the "talent" to cover both #1 & #3 I hope that is what he does, warms the bench for the rest of the Tour and unleash the 245 combined kilo's of Ben Alexander and Sekope Kepu to give them a solid series of matches to get a combination working.
Also in the never again category, I hope that's the last time Mortlock has a #12 on his back.
Awesome that Bam has his first cap but I'm not really sure why Robbie bothered putting him on, he was just getting a roll on and it was all over. Per minute played he did very well though on debut.
I have trouble working out the way Robbie made up and utilised the bench and wonder how much was a vital match and how much was making those on the field work for the full 80.
Brownie was well held in the first half but I feel he actually had a really good second half amongst a field of fading Wallabies.
As for Drewballs, 2 good tries, 2 clangers....overall pretty good and enough for me to say bye bye Lote...but it won't happen.
In all, if the definition of player of the match is to man who influenced the outcome the match the greatest then I think that honour should go to Mr Lewis.
Full marks to the AB's for playing to the interpretation of the Ref and kick up the Khyber to the Wallabies for not adapting soon enough, but really he was pretty ordinary.
There was certainly enough seen to head to Europe with some confidence and hopefully the courage to see a bit of a changing of the guard in a couple of self evident positions.

[Woody]

In all, if the definition of player of the match is to man who influenced the outcome the match the greatest then I think that honour should go to Mr Lewis.
.

I think Aussie was on the wrong end of some awful decisions. Trestle was no wear near as bad as the ref would say.
Brown was strong and solid. Gits and Mortlock keep showing their class. I doubt we'll see Carter at 12 again this tour.
For all the talk about this being a great thing for the game blah blah, the pitch was awful and the atmosphere nil.
Kinda boring and dominated by poor refereeing. Highlight was Aussie Bob getting sprung having a sly perve.

[oxleymoron]

Highlight was Aussie Bob getting sprung having a sly perve.

I saw that as well, it had to go into the commentary.

[Thequeerone]

Another Highlight was Ox's commentary - getting pretty profess now - hope he doesn't defect to the Brumbies

[TommyM]

Trestle yet again was underwhelming, hopefully his last Wallaby start.
Minor credit where it is due, I thought Dunny actually made an impact

Must say I'm not sure I agree here. The Wallabies scrum was actually going forward the whole time Lay-Down- Ali was on, and started going backwards when Dunning replaced him. The matter of the penalties continues to baffle me- even on replays, I cannot see what the Aussies are doing that the referee is calling- I really think its Baxter still suffering from the 'perception' that he's collapsing the scrum going back to his annihilation at the hands of the English way back.

Makes you appreciate the ELV sanctions though doesn't it? Long arm penalty and 3 points for some bizarre ruling in the scrum that no player, commentator or spectator can make heads or tails of...

[TommyM]

It seemed to me that the Wallabies got a bit shy at the breakdown in the second half after being penalised so many times in the first and even threatened with a yellow card. I didn't think they ran out of puff, but simply didn't get any ball, and thus couldn't do much with it (I think the possession stats for he 2nd half were 80:20 :-(

Agree with above that there were some very positive signs going into the rest of the tour though

[Burgs]

Yeah, my judgement of Trestle each match is his impact away from the scrum as it is assumed he will be inefectual in the scrum anyway.
Ordinary positional players can redeem themselves if they at least offer something around the park.
As usual he gave away several penalties in the rucks and knocked on several times, ironically causing himself to be shown up in yet another scrum restart...
IMHO, the greatest sign of how effective a pair of Props are at scrum time is if the attacking team is warned for collapsing and the next scrum is rock solid then they are the ones dictating the terms.
Not one would fit that description for Australia but virtually every time there was such a situation for New Zealand the scrum was picture perfect.
Trestle just does not have the technique to compete and unfortunately Robinson isn't big enough to have an influence on the situation as he is flat out holding his own side together.
There are mitigating circumstances with the surface but both sides had to contend with that and strangely, fresh off the bench, Dunnies first scrum was also rock solid.

[robyn <3]

just to clear things up, that was MY Drew. the winger who SCORES TRIES LOTE TURQIRI!

i'm very proud of the first half. i'm just to really watch the second half, i broke the antenna on my portable TV at halftime so the signal went pretty haywire. but Drew was AWESOME!

if lote is selected ahead of drew... i don't really know what i will do. something i might live to regret.

that referee was bonkers. consistency is not a method used in his srumming technique and it wasn't OUR BLOODY FAULT! if you go crouchtouchpauseengage and then crouch-touch-pause............. ENGAGE the boys are bound to be confused. afterall, they are frontrowers!

we should have won. it was a weak second half and that angers me lots...

but drew was FANTASTIC!

(i'll go watch the replay before i say any more )

[Thequeerone]

Ref was a bit hard on the Wallabies - but the Kiwis adapted better to "his rules" -

the pause between touch and engage is excruciating for most front rows - hard on the ol calf's - but you can be sure that Deans and Co will be checking out the nounces of the next NH ref before the game.

[Jehna]

that referee was bonkers. consistency is not a method used in his srumming technique and it wasn't OUR BLOODY FAULT! if you go crouchtouchpauseengage and then crouch-touch-pause............. ENGAGE the boys are bound to be confused. afterall, they are frontrowers!

He was just making sure there was time for us to make a coffee in between pause and engage...

In all fairness though even if the ref is bonkers (which he was) you need to play to the man with the whistle and the boys just didn't adapt...particularly Moore who i thought was going to thump him at one stage...fair call really.

[tragic]

So many refs seem to have difficulty in managing the scrums. Do we need specialist scrum refs? Blokes who have actually packed down at some point in their lives?

[Darren]

Maybe they can be driven in on the 'ambulance' to adjudicate each scrum? Might need an ambulance upgrade to take teh weight....