AS THE British and Irish Lions of 2001 discovered, it does not pay to write off a wounded Wallaby; he has a tendency to bite, kick and scratch.
But let’s first acknowledge a performance of wit and eloquence from a Wallabies side who had self-belief oozing out of every pore. Written off as sacrificial lambs for New Zealand’s vibrant strike runners by almost everyone in the week preceding this
match, they opted to take the fight to the All Blacks from the start, probing their weak points with the precision of a surgeon and producing awesome defence when it was required. The effort in this department by the home pack was absolutely outstanding and contributed in large measure to ultimate victory. The try count was one apiece at the end, but the lone effort by captain Reuben Thorne apart, the All Blacks never looked remotely like crossing the Australian line.
Crucially, too, while the penalty count against both sides was about the same, six of the awards against the All Blacks were in kickable range and Wallaby centre Elton Flatley converted five of these. Leon MacDonald, for once, had an off day with the boot, missing two inside the first half-hour when it was vital for his side to get on the scoreboard.
This was a grand occasion, with the magnificent Telstra Stadium packed to the rafters with a tournament world record crowd of 82,444 and with a highly-charged atmosphere adding to the import of the match. For once an Australian rugby crowd had come to support their team rather than simply getting legless on XXXX Gold in the stand. The evening was charged with electricity.
As he had promised, Wallabies coach Eddie Jones had constructed a game plan that involved the targeting of New Zealand stand-off Carlos Spencer with wing Wendell Sailor invariably standing off at first receiver to run at the Kiwi playmaker in an effort to expose his defensive frailties. When Sailor wasn’t running at Spencer, Stephen Larkham was, the Australia No.10 returning joyously to something close to his best. In the end, Spencer and the rest of this highly-touted backline were never seen on offence - they were too busy putting in tackle after tackle - 156 in all - in an effort to stem the tide. Some of this defensive work was of the dubious variety and both Thorne and the No.8 enforcer Jerry Collins were lucky to stay on the field, Thorne following a blatant body-check on full-back Mat Rogers as he ran a wayward kick back and Collins for a head-high tackle on Nathan Sharpe that sent the Wallaby lock into the middle of next week and hastened his substitution.
The truism that defence wins matches was never better illustrated than with the build-up to Australia’s first try, scored by the outstanding Stirling Mortlock. Larkham, after nine minutes of Wallaby pressure, was just wide with a drop goal when New Zealand finally managed to get into opposition territory courtesy of a burst through the middle by Collins. When the All Black spun the ball right, full-back Mils Muliaina appeared to have got over in the corner, but the video ref ruled, rightly, that he had touched the corner flag in Lote Tuqiri’s tackle and Australia breathed again.
Almost immediately, Spencer’s floated pass, an effort that could have been read by Mr Magoo, was plucked out of the air by Mortlock and the centre ran all the way from his own 22, thrillingly, for a try converted by Flatley. New Zealand were badly rattled, an impression reinforced when, after MacDonald had missed his first penalty attempt from the 10-metre line, Elton Flatley switched play at the restart and caught the Blacks napping and the usually immaculate flanker Richie McCaw stupidly went offside.
Then, when Collins knocked Sharpe senseless, Flatley kicked the penalty and Australia led 10-0 with 23 minutes gone. It was all Australia by now with Larkham already embarrassing Spencer simply by running round him time after time. Mortlock, too, was proving to be uncontainable and another incursion by the powerful centre caused New Zealand to stray offside again and Flatley stretched the lead to 13-0.
New Zealand finally got points on the board, courtesy of Australia’s eagerness to attack from anywhere. Larkham’s run out of his own 22 was halted by Kevin Mealamu and the All Blacks hooker managed to turn the ball over in the tackle. At once Spencer was away, dancing past three defenders and leaving it to Thorne to plough the last three metres for a try converted by MacDonald. Until then, New Zealand had never been in the game, a fact not lost on Australia who reappeared after the interval with their confidence undamaged. Again, Flatley fooled the dozy All Blacks at the kick-off and, sure enough, after a couple of darts by Mortlock and Lote Tuqiri they went offside again for Flatley to kick his third penalty and make the score 16-7.
Nothing was going right for the men in black. Joe Rokocoko, touted as a potential match-winner beforehand, farcically spilled Rogers’ clearance with no-one in sight and all the best picking and driving always ended with a New Zealand error.
In the meantime, Flatley kept on kicking the penalties, his fifth successful effort taking the score to 22-10 going into the final quarter, with only a forlorn effort by MacDonald by way of reply.
In the end, New Zealand had been outscored, outplayed and outcoached, an unforgivable state of affairs for this proud rugby nation. Heads, as they say, will roll.
