Wallabies 24 All Blacks 28
FOR a few minutes, it looked as though some silverware was at last heading Australian rugby's way. Then the All Blacks decided to get serious and simply eased the Wallabies out of the Brisbane Test.
While the Tri Nations and Bledisloe Cup trophies remain in New Zealand, the Wallabies were left lamenting wasted opportunities which let their Tri Nations campaign fall just short.
The Wallabies made the fatal mistake of antagonising the All Blacks by taking a 17-7 lead, then attempting to defend that lead with half an hour yet to go. The upshot was that the All Blacks picked up the pace, scored three tries in 17 minutes, exposed the Wallabies as lacking the required composure and grabbed the trophy off them.
Despite an exciting end to the match, with the Wallabies closing to within four points and desperately seeking the winning try, a New Zealand win was the right result because for most of the night, the home team looked wonky. The All Blacks were better organised, soaking up much of the Wallabies' aggression early on, and they made the most of every chance they got.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans congratulated his team for his fighting spirit, but realised they faltered too often.
"We seek the consistency the All Blacks have," Deans said. "They have a habit of winning these games. We're getting there. But we're not there yet. But I was impressed with the team's pride and that they kept coming. We gave it a fair old crack, and finished just short."
All Blacks coach Graham Henry was delighted his players 'showed a lot of togetherness and guts to come back from 17-7.'
"The guys got better the longer the game went along."
The first half was almost a complete waste for the Wallabies. For most of it, they dominated territory and possession and repeatedly found themselves hovering in the All Blacks half - but it looked as if they were still going to be behind at the break.
That is until it all gelled when a cross-field kick by Matt Giteau was taken by winger Peter Hynes, who offloaded in the tackle to Adam Ashley-Cooper. The fullback then evaded Conrad Smith and Mils Muliaina to dive over and give the Wallabies the lead for the first time in the game.
They took advantage of that position by picking up the pace from the outset in the second half, and second-rower James Horwill broke through to put them 10 points in front.
It was unexpected, because until those five minutes, the Wallabies had been anything but inspiring.
While the All Blacks defence was phenomenal, the Wallabies made it easy for them - they were off the mark with their positional kicking, midfield passing, communication and method.
For most of the first half, the Wallabies did not look right, wasting several overlaps because players were either too greedy to pass it or didn't really have any idea where they were going to focus their play.
The endless interruptions, with referee Jonathan Kaplan issuing a string of free kicks at the breakdown, did nothing for the Wallabies, either.
But they definitely had enough ball before the break to at least take a solid lead.
The reason they didn't was that the All Blacks slowed the ball at the breakdown so well, kept their poise and waited for the Wallabies to make mistakes.
The pressure was taken off the All Blacks in the early stages because too many Australian kicks were wasted. There was also a dreadful period midway during the first half when the Wallabies were involved in blunder after blunder.
First Giteau wasted a penalty kick for the line, which went over the dead-ball line. That was followed by a meaningless Stirling Mortlock chip-kick, then Wycliff Palu wasted a two-man overlap when he hogged the ball and then dropped it.
In contrast, the All Blacks used their limited chances in attack to good effect.
A succession of free kicks allowed them to advance towards the Wallabies' posts with the Australian defence becoming compressed in midfield, allowing the All Blacks an easy chance of playing the ball through the hands. Muliaina finished off the move.
The All Blacks' second try came when Tony Woodcock out-ran everyone over 20 metres to bring the visitors back into the game.
NEW ZEALAND 28 (Daniel Carter, Mils Muliaina, Piri Weepu, Tony Woodcock tries Carter 4 cons) bt AUSTRALIA 24 (Adam Ashley-Cooper, Ryan Cross, James Horwill tries Matt Giteau 3 cons pen) at Suncorp Stadium. Referee:Jonathan Kaplan (RSA)
