07 STIRLING MORTLOCK PICKS OFF SPENCER
With New Zealand winning both the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, it makes it harder to recall that they have had more than their fair share of horror campaigns defined by single moments.
One of those was in 2003. It was the semifinal between the All Blacks and Australia in Sydney – a game the men in black were strongly fancied to win, having won on the same ground against the same opponent by 30 points just a few months earlier.
It didn’t happen like that. Only nine minutes into the game and the All Blacks were building a sweeping attack.
They moved the ball left and first-five Carlos Spencer was running hard, looking to hit one of the many runners lined up outside him.
But he held a fraction long, made his intention a little too obvious and when he threw his long pass across the defence, Wallabies centre Stirling Mortlock was already in full flight, his hands on the ball.
He stormed 85 metres down the field to score a try that began the start of a dreadful night for the All Blacks where they were outplayed and out thought and dumped out of the competition.