Wallabies bring emotion to Kev’s big night
ON PAPER the All Blacks should have romped away with the test in Brisbane.
The New Zealand lineup came stacked with the biggest names in world rugby, and on the back of form so good they’ve quite rightly been rated as possibly the best All Blacks team ever.
On the other hand Australia battled to get players on the field who had even been on the radar before injury rattled the Wallaby ranks the way a mouse did the Ridges.
The Aussies were relying on Mike Harris to kick the goals. Harris is a very good player, but let’s be honest, he cut his footy teeth playing for North Harbour, not exactly the perfect place to build up the habit of winning.
What became obvious from the kick off last night was that the test meant a hell of a lot to Australia, to the unfortunate point of Scott Higginbotham following a knee to Richie McCaw’s throat with a head butt, and that Harris is already a test level goal kicker.
It made for a dangerous combination if you were an All Black, or an All Blacks supporter.
The All Blacks were hoping to mark the occasion of the 100th test for one of their most popular team members, Keven Mealamu, with a special effort, but the Wallabies had their own emotional touchstone, with Nathan Sharpe in his last game for Australia leading the side.
Both teams, as the game lurched from penalty goal to penalty goal, knock on to knock on, were also dealing with referee Craig Joubert in an unusually officious mood.
Add it all up and you were reminded that this was, as a rugby mad friend noted last week, a ‘‘money’’ test played not to decide a championship, or to win or lose the Bledisloe Cup, and certainly not because there are not enough internationals in either side’s calendar, but basically for gate receipts.
A draw was about as fair as you could get in a game where the All Blacks, while never less than hard working were often as messy as Australia, and sometimes undisciplined. To be blunt, neither side looked polished enough to score a try.
In the end it was such a frustrating match the sweetest sound was the final whistle.
THE ITM competition roundrobin has been confusing, too crowded, and lacking in crowd support.
How amazing that the cup final in Christchurch this Saturday between Auckland and Canterbury promises to be nothing less than sensational and that this golden game has emerged from the near chaos of pool play.
When it comes to nerve-tingling moments it’d be hard to beat the remarkable semifinal victory by Canterbury over Taranaki.
Robbie Fruean has sometimes seemed too sunny natured a person to make full use of his massive frame and explosive speed. But when he returned to the field during extra time we all got a look at what he’s like when he’s angry and, sure enough, Taranaki tacklers found they didn’t like him at all.
And to win against a Taranaki side with grit and edge, Canterbury not only needed men like Fruean, but also men like Andy Ellis, who for 100 minutes was snapping right at the heels of his forwards when, by rights, he should have been looking for an oxygen mask, and men like George Whitelock, who plays in the way boring old guys at footy clubs claim every forward in the 1950s did, with his head down, his bum up, and never heading in any direction except forward.
The semi in Wellington didn’t catch fire until the second half, but it never lacked for exciting players.
One was Wellington hooker Dane Coles. He’s so seriously fast he often embarrasses backs who are chasing him, scuttling across the field with his legs whirring so quickly you wouldn’t be surprised if he left two perfectly rotary hoed furrows in the turf behind him.
And, in the course of yet another of his stellar games this season, there was one effort from Auckland fullback Charles Piutau so brilliant you needed replays to believe your own eyes. A high kick landing on his own side of halfway left him a fraction short of a clean take, so he slid into the ball on his knees, used his own momentum to rise back up running, and darted 30 metres to set up a move that was just one held pass away from a try.
New Zealand rugby is stacked with massively talented players in the back three, but Piutau, who only turns 21 at the end of the month, will surely wear an All Blacks jersey in the near future.