HOW I BEAT THE ALL BLACKS: No3

Australia 22-10 New Zealand 2003 World Cup semi-final, Sydney

“Four more years! Four more years!” Yes, that was me with a bit of grandstanding over my opposite number, Byron Kelleher, caught on television just before the end as we knew that we were on our way to the final and New Zealand would have to wait another four years to have a crack at winning the title.

We were confident we could cause an upset. We had lost the Bledisloe Cup that year to New Zealand and had even conceded 50 points to them in Sydney. However, it was the game in Eden Park that persuaded us that we could win if we were to meet again. That was the message Eddie Jones, our coach, kept repeating. We had only lost by four points in Auckland (21-17) and knew we had troubled them.

We had also trained well for this stage of the tournament. There are some similarities to what Eddie is doing with England. He had taken us to a hot-weather camp in Darwin. And, boy, that was hot. As was Sydney for the semi-final. It was 30C prior to kick-off. The next day (for the England v France semi-final) it tipped it down and did not stop for the rest of the week. So, yes, you do need a bit of luck as well.

There is no magic formula, though, that you bring out for such occasions. You have got to have a good set-piece, be strong defensively, sharp in attack and take your chances. One thing you must not do is kick poorly because an All Blacks back three will invariably shred you if you do.

We set out to keep the ball in hand going through the phases and make New Zealand tackle. We were not going to hand it to them. Sound boring? Yeah, but that is what it is about – mastering the detail. Eddie has not changed in that regard.

People often wonder if we targeted their fly-half Carlos Spencer, but we did not. Carlos had been on fire for the Auckland Blues as they won the Super Rugby title. Carlos can cut you to pieces with his skill. Stirling Mortlock was taking a bit of a punt when he went for the interception after 10 minutes, but he came up with the goods and went 75 metres to the line. If Stirling had missed that, Carlos would have skinned us on the outside.

Elton Flatley kicked his goals, finishing with 17 points and we were on our way to the final.