Wallabies fight back after All Blacks lashing
NEW Zealand coach Steve Hansen described his side’s first 50 minutes against Australia yesterday “as good a rugby as you’ll ever see” after the world champions established a 54-6 lead in the opening match of the Rugby Championship.
While the All Blacks coach was not as happy with the final half an hour when the Wallabies scored four unanswered tries, the emphatic 54-34 victory could not have come at a better time after a week studded with off-field distractions.
Lurid details of scrumhalf Aaron Smith’s toilet tryst at Christchurch airport last year were published in the Australian media and were followed by allegations of an extra-marital affair levelled at flanker Jerome Kaino.
Kaino, who had been rested from the Sydney Test, was sent home to deal with a “personal issue”, New Zealand Rugby said in a statement.
In addition, the week was peppered with revelations from the All Blacks camp during the trial of their former security guard, who was found not guilty on Friday of planting a bugging device in the team’s meeting room last year.
“Rugby’s always going to have moments where you are not happy with things that are going on but ultimately it’s all about Saturday isn’t it?,” Hansen said.
“It’s about winning the game and doing things that you are proud of. We’ve done that tonight.”
The World Cup-winning coach said he thought Smith had played “really well” and bridled when asked whether Kaino would be considered for next week’s return test in Dunedin.
“I think that’s a pretty low question,” he added. “We all know what the problem is and he’s got some stuff he’s got to deal with.”
Hansen and captain Kieran Read were much keener to talk about the side’s display in running in eight tries to take a 54-6 lead in the 48th minute.
“Any time you can put that number of points on any international team that feels pretty good,” Read said.
“And it really just came about by us doing the simple things well.”
Hansen’s delight at the “really special” spell was tempered by what happened in the last 30 minutes but even that, he felt, might prove a useful wake-up call.
“I think we got a little seduced by the scoreboard and went away from some of the fundamentals of what we wanted to do.
‘It’s another learning for a group that’s re-establishing itself and that will give us something to really focus on. If we’d gone on and won the game the way we were playing in the first half, I don’t think would have done us any good either.”
Meanwhile, fuming Australia coach Michael Cheika blamed a substandard defensive performance for the crushing defeat.
Australia sought to reinforce their defence at half-time, but after missing 31 tackles in 31 minutes the damage had been done and the world champions ran out comfortable winners.
“Our defence wasn’t good enough. The adherence to way we want to defend and the tackling has to be better,” Cheika told a news conference.
“That first-half performance was not at the level we can be at.”
The display will inevitably raise question marks against the Wallabies’ defensive coach Nathan Grey, but Cheika said he had 100 percent faith in his former assistant at the Waratahs.
Australia now face the daunting prospect of a return game against the world champions in Dunedin, a city where Australia have won just once, 23-15 in 2001. – Reuters