BIG BAD BRAD’S CALL TO ARMS 10
The All Blacks were more than a little nervous at having to play Australia in the semifinal of the 2011 World Cup.
The Wallabies had beaten them in the semifinal of the 1991 and 2003 tournaments and also in Brisbane just before the tournament kicked o .
That’s why the All Blacks were focused and intense in a way they hadn’t previously been at the tournament. They went up a level with their urgency and aggression and ripped into Australia.
Poor old Quade Cooper was destroyed mentally and physically that night and the more the All Blacks dominated, the more the crowd came into it. When the Wallabies just couldn’t find any space or way to fight back from being 20-6 down, the crowd sensed the All Blacks were going to make the final.
With five minutes left the All Blacks packed down a scrum on the halfway line where they destroyed the Wallabies pack. The crowd roared and then giant lock, Brad Thorn, waved his huge hamlike arms in a windmill motion, asking for more noise. He got it. And in that instant a nation suddenly knew they had put the past behind them.
Everyone knew then that the All Blacks had tuned a corner. No more were they this psychologically frail team that wilted on the big occasion. They had fixed all that and Big Brad Thorn was telling everyone so.