New Zealand All Blacks outplay Wallabies to win 49-28 at Etihad

[travelling_gerry]

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

[robyn <3]

Rocky Elsom shouldn't be captain. As if we needed any more proof, but it's been handed out on a silver platter. The most un-proactive captain who could have easily saved us the red card if he'd been bothered to let his team know that the junky ref was going to bin the next guy. He seems almost uninterested in what's happening - where was he when the All Blacks were getting their yellow? McCaw was present for all of ours. He doesn't have the mindset, or the character it seems, to be captain.

I am disgusted. Bring in Sharpie with a big (C) next to his name.

To sum the whole match up: preventable.

[blueandblack]

How did JOC go against Joe?

[BeeJay]

You make some good points Robyn, though he did complain when the Blacks stopped us taking a quick tap penalty. His style is unlike other captains - more understated - but Sharpie, and certainly down the line Pocock, would be better at communicating with the ref and the team. Despite others assessments I don't think Rocky has been playing at his best. I agree with Mardo - Hodgson should be given a run next week.

[robyn <3]

You make some good points Robyn, though he did complain when the Blacks stopped us taking a quick tap penalty. His style is unlike other captains - more understated - but Sharpie, and certainly down the line Pocock, would be better at communicating with the ref and the team. Despite others assessments I don't think Rocky has been playing at his best. I agree with Mardo - Hodgson should be given a run next week.

Hodgo definitely! I don't think Rocky's the type of player to benefit from responsibility like captaincy - some, like Sharpie, absolutely thrive - but Elsom doesn't seem to find it helps his game at all.

[welshrugbyfan]

How did JOC go against Joe?

Well actually none of the backs played tonight so we'll have to wait until next week to see.

[Hoolly Doolly]

Poor ref decisions aside, the wallabies werent making the tackles stick, werent winning the restarts when they should.
Allblacks defense around the fringes was great. so much so that genia had no oppurtunity to snipe until much later.
Didnt the allblacks also score more points while franks was off the ground as well?

[TOCC]

I thought the ref had a good game

Drop brown, mumm, Mitchell and start simmons, higginbotham and turner/shepherd
Posted via Mobile Device

[palitu]

drop mitchell?? crazy!

[shasta]

Drop Mitchell and start simmons,

Drop him? He was good until he was binned. He would never have been, had Kaplan resisted the urge to make his presence felt. The first infringement did not warrant binning. After the report, Joubert had little chioce as he'd previously, also wrongly, binned Owen Franks. His red card offense was something that happens regularly but the referee again found himself with no choice.

The coach will talk to him about keeping discipline at the front of his thinking from here on in - but that'll be about all.

Niether offense warranted what happened. The automatic red card needs a rethink.
Those yellow cards only confirmed my long held belief that niether colour card shoud be shown for a foul unless it's confirmed by the TMO.

[Hoolly Doolly]

The first yellow card was rocky's fault for not communicating jouberts warning. it was evident the wallabies were frustrated with the ab's delaying tactics and out of frustration tried playing the same game before the verbal warning was given to both captains. it was a really dumb penalty that shouldnt have happened. i think rocky was close to a brain explosion at that point and forgot his duties as captain to maintain composure with the team and himself and to communicate what the ref is telling him to the guys.
The 2nd yellow card in my opinion was weak as piss!! Cant believe they were considering binning whitelock with a dangerous tackle as well but didnt only cos they couldnt confirm if it was 18 or not. There was nothing wrong with whitelocks tackle or franks tackle for that matter.
I quote the wise words of tana umaga....."This isnt a game of tiddly winks!!"

[palitu]

im pretty sure i yelled out that this isnt under 8's netball...

[welshrugbyfan]

The red/yellow card system is fine the way it is. A player who has received yellow should heed the warning and not do ANYTHING that may jeopardise his team mates and the chance of winning a game.

But in saying that a yellow or red should only be given for major breaches of rule breakage.

The game is getting softer and softer. We are losing the plot a bit with all this citing by the video ref and the refs becoming bigger than the game. Bring back a game just once where you hardly hear from the ref.

It's a shame and I hope it doesn't escalate to stupid levels where we lose the element of toughness it takes to play.

[brokendown gunfighter]

the game was knackered as soon as rucking was banned

[shasta]

But in saying that a yellow or red should only be given for major breaches of rule breakage.

You seem to be helping my point here WRF. How can you say it's working fine when it's so obviously not. We see it time and again where players are wrongly carded. All yellow cards should be reviewed excepting for continual cynical cheating.

Neither Franks nor Mitchell should have been binned. There's also the possibility that a yellow card is not appropriate and needs to be made a red one. There's too much at stake in top level Rugby these days to allow wrong decisions like these to (potentially) change the momentum/result of a match. Not that that was the likely case yesterday. It's a very simple thing to have the evidence reviewed instatnlty.