Blacks within reach of rugby heaven
16 Oct 2011
RYAN VREDE watched the All Blacks take a step closer to ending their World Cup misery with a 20-6 victory over Australia at Eden Park.
Surely now. Surely the suffering will end. Surely the team that has so often betrayed the faithfulness of their long-suffering fans, nay, disciples, will claim the one prize they most covet.
France lie in wait in the final. On the evidence of their woeful performance in victory over Wales last night they will not live with this flawed but formidable team and its superlative players – Israel Dagg chief among those.
On current form Dagg is without peer in the game, possessing every technical gift on offer, and, more pertinently, the temperament for the biggest occasions. All those qualities were on show as he crafted their only try, beating three would-be tacklers then defying the laws of physics to offload a pass to Ma’a Nonu while plummeting into touch. Breathtaking is a word too liberally used to describe mediocre feats. It is inadequate for that inspired action.
Dagg was the headline act in a play with a range of compelling sub-plots, none more so than the vendetta against a son of New Zealand’s soil, Quade Cooper. It took 32 minutes for the flyhalf to do something right (a drop-goal), the preceding period being spent chastising himself for errors or peeling himself off the canvas from statement hits.
While Cooper’s star waned, his counterpart Aaron Cruden’s shone brightly. In the context of his Test career – its genesis seeing coach Graham Henry hailing him as the natural successor to Daniel Carter, and its nadir coming when he was unceremoniously dumped shortly thereafter, before being recently recalled – his was a mature effort, particularly in light of the magnitude of the occasion and the quality of the opposition.
But in a game shaped by the principle of cause and effect, Cruden’s ability to rock rested heavily on the shift put in by his roadies in shirts one through eight. Immovable at the gainline on defence and irresistible on attack, the Blacks’ heavies were mighty. Their spirit was encapsulated in the superb performance of Richie McCaw, who excelled despite his foot being held together by hope and some items found in a mechanic’s toolbox. ‘I know he will try to be modest and give credit to the tight five [for laying the platform], but he was just outstanding,’ coach Graham Henry said of McCaw.
Australia boast a player of Dagg’s calibre in openside flank David Pocock, who appears to possess the supernatural gift of omnipresence. But he was rendered a non-factor at the breakdown thanks to the efficiency of the Blacks’ strike runners and cleaners.
It would be remiss not to acknowledge the Wallabies’ unkillable spirit in the face of incessant pressure. It was the outstanding feature of their game against the Springboks last week, and they exhibited that again tonight. To restrict the Blacks to one try is a notable achievement given the hosts’ surfeit of territory and possession. However, they lacked a clinical edge in the 22m, which was decisive to their fortunes.
That they were in touch at half-time – trailing 14-6 – bore testament to their resolve as much as it did the Blacks’ frequent impatience on attack. But they did little more than survive, when reopening the psychological wounds the Blacks sport from previous failures in this tournament required considerably more.
Just after the restart Piri Weepu kicked his third penalty to go with a Cruden drop goal, extending the lead to 11 points. There was a observable change in focus from the Blacks thereafter, with panache giving way to pragmatism on attack and granitic defence being the bedrock of their resistance.
Australia succumbed, albeit not meekly, to a team who have no equal in the game. France are vastly inferior opponents. For the Blacks, ending their suffering will be more a test of exorcising their own demons than it will be about vanquishing Lievremont’s mad mob.
By Ryan Vrede, at Eden Park
Follow Ryan’s World Cup coverage on Twitter
1,170 Comments
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16 Oct 2011, 14:01 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-748:
LOL – i stand corrected
16 Oct 2011, 14:02 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-748:
hahaha, yeah Stephen Doanld was our best # 12 in 2009.
Yawn, not that match BH
16 Oct 2011, 14:03 pm
@cab(cab)-751:
not so fast Cab. The best Centre in the world was Smith, he was missing from the ABs
16 Oct 2011, 14:03 pm
@Sheriff(Sheriff)-749: A new stereotype for a Kiwi…
No longer anything sheep needed…
Just an “honest brycie” will do…
As in:
“Howzit Cane, you’re a real honest brycie, aren’t you?”
Says it all really.
16 Oct 2011, 14:03 pm
If the AB’s lose next week it will be the biggest choke in the history of sport. I have always said that if the Boks don’t win I’d like to see the AB’s win it. There is quite simply no more deserving side in the history of the game and its about time we get a Sir Richie McCaw I mean FFS he has won everything else. After Tindalls behaviour it wouldn’t surprise me if the Queen gave him a grand daughter too.
16 Oct 2011, 14:05 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-745: Possibly. We are saying the same, i.e. that if we had quick ball we believed we would have done the same. Also if they where penalised we would have scored more through penalties, like the ABs did tonight.
Are you saying we cannot score tries at all? I would wager that we probably had similar possession and territory stats against Fiji, so why did we manage to score tries there?
So explain that to me, incapable for scoring tries vs. scoring tries from one game to the next?
I suppose Aussie defence right? So how would the ABs breakdown defenses? I assume multiphase quick ball right an then use backs to exploit gaps, mismatches and overlaps?
So if the ball is slowed down and defenses are able to set again, then you have to score tries from effectively 1st of 2nd phase possession.
In that case you are right, we do not have enough talent to score consistently against the top teams in the world during the 1st or 2nd phases.
16 Oct 2011, 14:06 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-753: lol you had Nonu at 13, hardly a step down, that’s as close to full-strength as we saw those two sides and NZ lost – at home.
16 Oct 2011, 14:07 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-753:
hahahah…u a funny man hurricane, to be the best centre in the world u need at least some natural pace. i think pdivvie is faster thru the gap than smith.
16 Oct 2011, 14:08 pm
this RWC win will be hollow for me! He never played the Boks and last time we played them, they kicked our buts! Boks the real world champs then! damn you Boks! Always 1 up!
16 Oct 2011, 14:09 pm
@cab(cab)-750: possibly, however we need to earn that right as well, not just say we could have IF we had gone through to the semis.
We’ve not played well, regardless of who the “best players” are, over the last 2 years.
I also think we have great potential in players, however our national side needs to make better use of these players and we should prove that consistently over the next 4 years.
16 Oct 2011, 14:09 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-748: When was the last time you beat us at Eden Park? 1937 big hit. The boks were never going to win the tournament, simply not good enuf, poorly coached, worng tactics. Game has changed since 2009, SA havnt.
Oh and arnt you an English supporter from memory? they are great at this cup wernt they, struggled past argy and scotland and lost to france! Haahaaaaa good job Bit Hit,
16 Oct 2011, 14:10 pm
@Sheriff(Sheriff)-719:
“But you do not deserve to win the RWC; that’s for sure. We will forever remember the fraudulent ways of Bryce Lawrence; nothing has changed – you guys still fear the Boks the most.”
Speak for yourself. I’m South African but I certainly won’t remember it that way. If NZ wins the cup, they’ll have deserved it just as much as SA deserved it last time around. As “we” used to say when it suited us: you can only beat what’s in front of you.
As for the idea that “you guys still fear the Boks the most”: by and large, NZ has had the Boks’ number since re-admission. (Come to think of it, Australia has also had the better of most recent encounters, with or without Bryce.) Instead of trying to explain the record away by conjuring a vast conspiracy, how’s this for a simple answer: generally, they’ve simply played better rugby than the Boks.
In short: looks at the scoreboard, and leave the whingeing to the poms.
16 Oct 2011, 14:10 pm
ja well
the keewee
dipsh!ts
organised
themselves
a final
maybe
the truth
will come out
some day
16 Oct 2011, 14:11 pm
@NZMaori(NZMaori)-761: Dont be such an “honest Brycie” with such rubbish.
16 Oct 2011, 14:11 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-757:
Spinn it all you like but it was not our best team. Donald at 12 should have shown you this but carry on.
@cab(cab)-758:
lol, you think pace is all you need to be the best centre.
Again, BH is talking rubbish, with Donald at 12 that is not NZs best.
I am a kiwi, he isnt. Nowt that should be enough
16 Oct 2011, 14:12 pm
I think if Bismarck du Plessis had been picked 2 weeks ago, we would have beaten the Wallabies, not just either, but by 10 points. And the game against NZ would have been the game of the tournament and been an exceptionally close afair.
16 Oct 2011, 14:12 pm
To all the sad sacks intent on pissing on other peoples’ parade, get some class,get over your disappintment and remember the powerful words of Rudyard Kipling’s poem …’ if you can Meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same’. Be a man my son.
16 Oct 2011, 14:12 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-754:
Watch out, you might get BRYCEd
16 Oct 2011, 14:12 pm
@Richie_7(p0ppa69)-759: Lol, ok we get the point. You do know that the AB supporters said the same exact thing after the last RWC …
Anyway, ABs will (hopefully) deservedly win the RWC and then we can hopefully give you guys a bit of competition next year, RWC champsion and all …
16 Oct 2011, 14:13 pm
@danuk(danuk)-769: champions …
16 Oct 2011, 14:13 pm
@cab(cab)-766: You’re talking absolute rubbish… Dont be a farken “honest Brycie” now, twat.
16 Oct 2011, 14:14 pm
@NZMaori(NZMaori)-761: England were far more entertaining off the pitch then New Zealand have been on it.
16 Oct 2011, 14:14 pm
@Sheriff(Sheriff)-768: Hellsteeth, I don’t want to be BRYCE’d thats for sure…
Farken no Brycecream for me, no thank you very much.
16 Oct 2011, 14:15 pm
@Thucydides(Thucydides)-762: Yip, agreed, ABs will be more than worthy champions and I’m sure will be VERY happy to get the choking tag off .
16 Oct 2011, 14:16 pm
@danuk(danuk)-760:
no you are quite right, i’m not taking anything away from NZ they can only play who are in front of them and if our lot are stupid enough to think they going to buck the entire history of union by winning despite not selecting their best, well we then deserved to lose as we did, lesson learned the hard way.
I dont blame the referee, I blame ourselves, I blame the Boks for their selfishness. This is as good, if not better better, than any Bok team talent-wise since readmission and was good enough to knock over anyone anywhere but by fielded their 2nd best, they got knocked the fk out. the lesson was there against wales and they ignored it, now its too late and we left to wonder.
16 Oct 2011, 14:16 pm
Boks would have fckd these Blacks up 6 Love.. No f’ng question about it.. all the dumb fcks had to do was park off Smit, Spies and FdP and play Bismark, Alberts and Hougaard.. and Bryce the f’ng Schmyce or NOT.. we would have creamed Both the wannabees and the AB’s twice in a row unfluttered
Boks played into the f’ng hands of destiny and P’OB’s underhand scheming..
They plaid their weaker team.. dumb fck idiots.. Burger coughed it TWICE.. FdP spilled it ON the LINE… Spies went wrong way down the blind side … and Bryce cleaned up the breakdown handing it ALL to Pocock every time without a stitch of correction..
How come Pocock corld NOT steal any ball today.. simple as… the pied piper had changed his penny whistle…thats how..
Had Boks played Bismark, Alberts and Hougaard.. with Aplon off bench .. rest assured we’d have hammered AB’s in the semi’s today after taking care of Wannabees last weekend..
Smit, should have schmyced.. and Boks were raring to take this g’ddam thing THRICE..!!!
Simple f’ng deductions .. not even a meager doubt .. without Smit Boks were 90% home and dry.. instead they CARRIED the cancerous conundrum all the way OUT the competition..
Stupid DUMB FCKS.!!!
16 Oct 2011, 14:17 pm
@HongKongSlong(HongKongSlong)-772:
Well at least NZ are still on the pitch so i dont really have a problem
16 Oct 2011, 14:17 pm
@danuk(danuk)-774: maybe, oneday, by some miracle, the proteas can do the same
16 Oct 2011, 14:18 pm
@Sheriff(Sheriff)-768:
I scream…
You scream…
Paddy screams…
For Brycecream.
16 Oct 2011, 14:18 pm
@cab(cab)-766: have to say I disagree cab, BDP and Alberts had their opportunity to change the game but even they couldn’t overturn Lawrence’s reffing of the breakdown. SA were sacrificed for the financial future of Oz/NZ rugby, they were the team who could’ve really spoiled the love-in so Lawrence snuffed them out.
16 Oct 2011, 14:18 pm
What a load of asbolute Bryceshit.
16 Oct 2011, 14:19 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-776:
hmm so what happened in the last two Tri nations.
You honestly do not know how your team would have played this week.
If they played their best and the we played our best you woulds have been going home anyway.
Of course thats my opinion.
16 Oct 2011, 14:19 pm
Correction:
What a load of absolute Bryceshit.
16 Oct 2011, 14:19 pm
Please stop Bryceshitting us.
16 Oct 2011, 14:19 pm
@cab(cab)-766: Thats the truth.. and whoever think different are STILL dumb fck deluded by pathetic hero besmirched arsecreeping delusions..
Smit stood between Boks and a WC defense and that is the pitiful unadulterated truth whichever way the hero worshipers wanna try sell themselves ANOTHER f’ng stupendous dummy…
16 Oct 2011, 14:20 pm
And Skop takes his show on the road.
16 Oct 2011, 14:21 pm
That Mexican Tijuana ****** hooker has the biggest, hairiest, loosest, smelliest bryce you have ever seen.
16 Oct 2011, 14:21 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-780:
shut up man, your just feeding them
16 Oct 2011, 14:22 pm
I smell a bryce (sorry, mr rat, you have been usurped)
16 Oct 2011, 14:23 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-776: dude you seriously need some help, passion is good but your carrying on like a religious extremist … get some medication and counselling
16 Oct 2011, 14:23 pm
@ashampoopaloo(joel1yahoo)-776:
lol – old ou doosie has gone off on one.
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-780:
fair comment, but i’ve always had a differtent take on these things, which is that rugby imo is alot about momentum and you give away alot of that if you dont start with your best, and the results in 2009 would support that when the boks would outblitiz the other sides for the first 60 or so, and slow down in the last 20, by which stage the game was won, since then we’ve not got that going again except for the 3N match againstt NZ 8 weeks ago when bismarck and alberts started and that momentum was again there and it was all over by 60min (tho against a weaker NZ team).
16 Oct 2011, 14:23 pm
I will come and farken bryce you up six love.
16 Oct 2011, 14:25 pm
Don’t worry kiwi fans. According to Skop we won a lucky packet world cup last time and you are about to do the same. Maybe one day the real champs will be the actual champs
16 Oct 2011, 14:25 pm
this
is an even
more
embarrassing
rwc than
1987
16 Oct 2011, 14:25 pm
Bryce you!
Actually Bryce all of you!
I will come and kick all of your Paddies and bryceadilly all of you from a dizzy height.
16 Oct 2011, 14:26 pm
@Porra the Fat and Clever Speedster(Porra)-794:
how do you know, you wernt invited.
16 Oct 2011, 14:26 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-782:
AT LEAST it would have been a FAIR reflection as to who is indeed the best team in the world..
Now you or we will never know.. due to 2 obviation’s
1. Another ref last week and we’d have met you today
and
2. Had we played our BEST from beginning.. we’d have met you today..
And THEN we’d have known who really deserves to blow out the candle on the victory cake…
We did it to ourselves as much as allowing the orchestrating powers that be to ruin the true run at the final party…
16 Oct 2011, 14:27 pm
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-796:
invited
being the
operative
word
16 Oct 2011, 14:28 pm
Skopskiet talks the biggest amount of repetitive Bryce you will ever be unfortunate to read…
What a farken hairy Bryce.
16 Oct 2011, 14:30 pm
Cab and Skop are probably the two of the most unpatriotic, disloyal Bryces you probably will ever meet as Bok supporters…
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