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New Zealand All Blacks outplay Wallabies to win 49-28 at Etihad
By Jim Morton
July 31, 2010 The Wallabies failed to learn from past mistakes and were hung, drawn and quartered 49-28 by New Zealand to fall to their worst home loss in seven years.
Australia were their own worst enemies at Etihad Stadium to lose any realistic hope of regaining the Bledisloe Cup but nothing can be taken away from the outstanding All Blacks who all but sealed the Tri-Nations title half-way through the competition with the seven-try rout.
Wallabies skipper Rocky Elsom, among the best of a badly-beaten team, rued a lack of precision and physicality in front of a 51,409 Melbourne crowd.
"The scoreline was a pretty fair judgement," Elsom said.
"We were off the pace tonight."
After the excitement of the vibrant 30-13 win over South Africa, the Wallabies, desperate for a consistent back-to-back performances, once again returned to earth with an almighty thud.
It was their biggest loss on home soil since suffering a 50-21 defeat to NZ in 2003, capping their worst trans-Tasman losing streak in 63 years.
All Blacks maestro Dan Carter finished with 19 points and skipper Richie McCaw was a stand-out in their scintillating display to guide his team to their eighth straight trans-Tasman Test win - their best run since 1947.
Whereas five of Australia's previous seven losses came after they leading at halftime, they were blown away in a 15-minute period in the first half when the visitors turned on three tries.
They once again fell into bad habits and paid the price.
Restarts were not claimed, kicks failed to find touch and crucial tackles weren't made.
Everything had looked good early as the home side tested the world's top team with their fast-paced continuity game.
Matt Giteau opened their account with a fourth-minute penalty following his own 70m line-break, but the Wallabies allowed Carter to square the scores from the kick-off.
Even worse was to follow in a crazy start.
Winger Drew Mitchell charged down Carter to score in the right corner, but the All Blacks' five-eighth immediately made amends by charging down an off-key Berrick Barnes to score himself.
Carter's ensuing conversion put the visitors in the lead 10-8, and they widened the margin to seven after Jerome Kaino forced a ruck turnover off Mitchell to spark a slick counterattack which ended with Mils Muliaina crossing from a desperate Cory Jane chip.
While the Wallabies were able to grow their score through penalty goals, the more clinical All Blacks did it through tries.
Making it more galling for Robbie Deans, NZ's third five-pointer, to McCaw who swooped on loose ruck ball, came while they were down to 14 men with prop Owen Franks sin-binned for a shoulder charge.
It was a blow that gave NZ a 22-11 lead and seemed to break the Wallabies back.
Mitchell then copped the first of his two yellow cards and while he was off Jane pushed off a flimsy attempted tackle by Richard Brown to cross in the corner for a bonus point and a 32-14 half-time lead.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans didn't need All Blacks coach Graham Henry to point out he'd feel "very sad" if he were in the former Crusaders coach's shoes.
"Personally if I had eight losses in a row I'd find it very difficult to handle to be frank," Henry said.
"You'd feel under a lot of heat, that's the nature of international sport I guess."
Deans was most pained by continued lapses in concentration from kick-offs, Mitchell's 47 minutes off the field and particularly a momentum-turning charge down try.
Down 8-3 after Dan Carter had a clearing kick charged down by Mitchell, the All Blacks roared back to life from the restart when Carter scored from a Berrick Barnes charge down.
"Our challenge in the game, it's a lot of little stuff. A charge down after a charge down score (that's) easily averted and they're the things we have to master."
"We have an opportunity next week in Christchurch and you keep going and try to find some solutions."
While NZ clinically took their chances and Australia conceded some soft tries, Deans pointed to Mitchell's yellow cards as a major factor in their inability to claw back from 22-11 down midway through the first half.
"Once we were down to 14 men and we were playing for pride there was potential there for (the scoreline) to blow out,"Deans said.
"It could have been worse."
Mitchell had never before been sent off.
"I let everyone down out there and it's not a nice feeling," said Mitchell, who started the game so with an eighth-minute try.
"It's hard for me to take any joy from that at the moment, watching the game unfold like the way it did is not a pleasant feeling.
"It was gut-wrenching."
The bonus-point win lifts the All Blacks to 15 points from three games to have a firm grip on the Tri-Nations trophy.
Australia (4) must win next week's return clash in Christchurch to stay alive while defending champions South Africa (0) are out of what looks a one-horse race.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...016959,00.html