MONDAY MAUL

What was worse? New Zealand choking again or Australia ending their worst World Cup campaign?

Neck and neck. But after one of the most demoralising days in the history of trans-Tasman rugby, the All Blacks still win the atrocity award.

Australia will get over their early World Cup departure. New Zealand won't.

In Australia, rugby union is a side dish. It isn't in New Zealand. Rugby is the country's heart and soul, its identity. The All Blacks' brand is No.1. The land of the long white cloud is now the land of the long black cloud. New Zealand is in mourning.

The ramifications of a nation strangling itself for the fifth World Cup tournament in a row will be immense. There will be sackings, reprisals and, with it, undoubtedly the end of Robbie Deans being in line for the Wallabies coaching job next season. Graham Henry, like all the other failed New Zealand World Cup coaches, will be the scapegoat, and Deans appears his inevitable replacement.

Nonetheless, the Wallabies cannot hide behind the All Blacks' disaster in an attempt to avoid the flak, because they also deserve a backhander after their least impressive World Cup campaign.

The Wallabies would have been forgiven had they survived another week and disappeared at semi-final stage. No one expected them to go any further than a meaningless third-fourth play-off.

But to bow out at quarter-final time against a pedestrian England team is unacceptable and a complete embarrassment for Australian rugby.

No wonder anyone wearing green and gold in Marseilles on Saturday night was the subject of endless taunts, forcing them to hide in their hotels before anyone realised they supported a team that huffs and puffs but can't even blow down a cardboard box.

And try to ignore all the spin during the next few weeks from those involved in Australian rugby, who in trying to protect their positions keep pushing supposed positives from this cup. The fact is, this is the Wallabies' biggest World Cup failure.

Australia also left the tournament at quarter-final time in 1995, but the England team that knocked them out in Cape Town 12 years ago was an appreciably better line-up than the one they faced on Saturday. This England team were rated no chance by their media and their supporters, because they apparently lacked the width, speed and nous of the Australian game.

Instead, England didn't even have to play smart to beat Australia. They preferred the most basic of forward smash 'em and bash 'em football. They relied primarily on the most lopsided scrum battles to overcome an opposition of supposed superstars, but who were instead shown up to be overpaid bumblers.

In the lead-up, the Australian forwards talked tough, even going on about how they wanted to be the best pack in the world, but when it mattered they were wimps. They were exposed for what they are - a second-rate scrummaging unit.

More worrying was that their breakdown play also fell apart under pressure. There was a lack of organisation around the tackle area, with the ball often sitting unattended at the back.

As for the departing Wallabies coach John Connolly, his two years in the job were often, to use one of his favourite terms, "one step forward, two steps back".

There was some progress under Connolly, but nowhere near as much as he and others at the Australian Rugby Union would have liked. Problems within the team - including members of the coaching staff struggling to gain the respect of several key players - were exacerbated by sometimes erratic managerial direction, including trying to place the blame elsewhere.

However, Connolly will be treated far better than his New Zealand counterparts. As All Blacks breakaway Jerry Collins said a few days ago: "It's a long way to swim home." He wasn't kidding.