About the kindest thing that can be said about last night's Bledisloe Cup/Rugby Championship match in Sydney was that it ended. And when it did, the All Blacks were eight points to the good.
The match began with a Berrick Barnes penalty goal, and ended with a Dan Carter penalty goal. They book-ended a pedantic refereeing performance from Alain Rolland of Ireland that marred what could have been a terrific match. Quite why the IRB insists on bringing referees in from their off-season in the Northern Hemisphere is one of life's mysteries, but Rolland's performance robbed the match of any shape.
To be fair, both teams made far too many mistakes, and Robbie Deans' tenure as Australian coach will again be under the microscope. The Wallabies played dumb rugby in the first half especially.
The All Blacks weren't a lot better. In horse racing parlance, they will be better for the run when they take on Australia again at Eden Park next weekend, and four championship points away from home, especially whilst denying the home team a bonus point is not to be sneezed at.
3 comments:
I thought all the AB players played their roles well BUT they were playing a pretty average side and were ahead by just 5 points before the last kick of the game so 6/10 for me.
I expect we will be better for the game, not sure what the Aussies can do.
Mistakes from both sides by the hundred ruined what little chance the ref allowed for a good game. I sitched back and forward between the rugby, the cricket and dozing off.
As far as the AB's were concerned it roved three things.
1. SBW and Nonu does not work in the midfield.
2. Messem makes far too many errors.
3. Weepu is still only there to lead the Haka.
Slug Hansen clearly saw a threat no one else did when he ran the haka number 1 on for the last scrum 5 meters from the Wallaby line.
The midfield clearly suffered from the disrupted lead-up with Williams not cleared to play by his Japanese Club until Tuesday, four days out. Oh and his next big boxing match was notified against an old boor who could barely split a wheel barrow of wood. That Saffa would make Willie Nelson look like a contender.
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