I reckon those Wallabies are too used to those boomerangs in their neck of the woods, since they threw this match away and clearly expected it to come back to them.
You don’t have to be too clued up on southern hemisphere rugby to know this was always going to be a contest between the two famous Number 10s on display.
“Deeen Caht-ah” was returning like the prodigal son on one side, while Matt Giteau was on the other keen to make him wish he’d stayed away.
Well whatever happened in the first 78 minutes of this contest, it was in the last two that we saw who came out on top.
Trailing by two, Carter kept up the All Blacks’ 2nd half territorial advantage by lobbing a kick perfectly into the Wallaby 22. Drew Mitchell collected it, and probably should have kicked or at least run it out of play to give his lads a breather. But he chose to run and his opponents could smell blood so after a desperate fling to his fellow winger Turner, his pack couldn’t catch up in time and a penalty was conceded in decent enough kicking range.
These are the situations where a place kicker can become a superstar. Think Johnny Sexton in Edinburgh. Not that Carter wasn’t already being paid the big bucks, but here was his chance to show us why. Reasonable distance, but the wrong side of the park for a left footer.
Well I don’t think he could have put the ball more down the middle between the sticks if he used a T-square.
Still, the match wasn’t over, and Giteau was to have his chance. The Wallabies recovered their own kickoff, then lost it, then sub scrum half Genia pinched it back again. This was pretty much how the open play had gone throughout the match.
They started to move it out the line, but I thought surely they’d set up the drop goal given the situation, and sure enough they ploughed through a few phases to bring it more central. Eventually the ball got to skipper George Smith who burrowed his way to a perfect spot under the All Black posts.
And the ball got fired back to Giteau, who was, of course, perfectly placed to slot over the winning drop goal…
Erm, only he wasn’t. For reasons only he will know, he was out wide and tried to continue the move to score a try. Eventually there was a knock on and there’s your ball game, there’s your Bledisloe Cup and there’s the Aussies knocked out of Trinations contention with their third defeat from three.
Although it has become an overworn cliché I’m reluctant to use, in this case it can definitely be said that the Wallabies really did “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory”.
As for the All Blacks, although of course they will be delighted to have gotten one over their rivals, I’d be very surprised if Graham Henry was happy with the way they did so.
Even the one try they did get was down to another mistake by Giteau, who attempted a kick for territory when it clearly wasn’t on. Sure, there followed some weaving by Sivivatu and a good finish by Nonu, not to mention the toughest (location-wise) kick of the night by Carter to convert, but the situation was handed to them on a green and gold platter.
And you have to put serious question marks against referee Jonathan Kaplan’s abilities to officiate the breakdown. New Zealand won the battle there in the second half, but only by Richie McCaw & co, shall we say, flirting with the wrong side of the law on more than one occassion.
All in all, it seems the biggest winners on the night weren’t even playing. John Smit and his Springboks had to be watching this thinking that if they can bring their impressive form so far in this tournament on the road over the coming weeks, their first TriNations championship since 2004 is there for the taking.
Meanwhile the Wallabies, who have been throwing this competition away since 2001 themselves, will have a long wait to see it come back to them based on this performance. Hopefully it’s one they can repeat in Croker in November because a full-strength Declan Kidney XV would be all over them.
One quick word about Rocky Elsom...he gave it his all on the night, but it appeared he could have been brought back a shade early. Still, as any Leinster fan will tell you, a half-fit Rocky is better than none at all...
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