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, 11:15 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-311:
You probably never watched the Bulls Vs Tahs this year, or England vs Wales in 2011 and England Vs the Wallabies in 2010?
That guy is on the taking!
16 Oct 2011, 11:16 am
@Peter Mkata(Peter Mkata)-348: big kick this one
16 Oct 2011, 11:18 am
Worst in the Wallabies’ line up:
8, 9, 10 and 11
All are not Australian by birth!
16 Oct 2011, 11:19 am
sheesh Boks would’ve killed this NZ team! they have no kicker! lucky in the 2 twice they’ve won the RWX, they’ve never faced the Boks
16 Oct 2011, 11:20 am
Ai dagg. What you trying.
16 Oct 2011, 11:20 am
Silly play by the ABs I think, should have kept the ball
16 Oct 2011, 11:20 am
Dagg has a boot like a mule. Nearly as big as Frans Steyn
16 Oct 2011, 11:21 am
Richie, wow !
16 Oct 2011, 11:22 am
Gee, the All Blacks are playing. Ding dong battle.
16 Oct 2011, 11:23 am
Kaino is immense… has really been fantastic all game..
16 Oct 2011, 11:23 am
Whoa who’s the new aussie surfer dude
16 Oct 2011, 11:24 am
@Mills_is_kak(p0ppa69)-354: Yeah yeah
16 Oct 2011, 11:24 am
Final nail in the coffin time.
16 Oct 2011, 11:24 am
correct call Joubert
16 Oct 2011, 11:25 am
@Dawn(Dawn)-361: huh? The guy who looks like Cher’s daughter before or after the *** op?
16 Oct 2011, 11:26 am
Wow Mealamu played like Bismarck today!!!
16 Oct 2011, 11:27 am
Barnes should have started the game. He was needed to counter the ABs kicking game.
16 Oct 2011, 11:27 am
But messy, ABs should put them away now, don’t want to keep Aussies in with a sniff
16 Oct 2011, 11:28 am
No reechie the one who looks like surfer dude
16 Oct 2011, 11:28 am
I reckon both these sides have put in more kick and chase balls than the Boks did in the entire tournament.
16 Oct 2011, 11:29 am
nonu & smith are very quiet.
16 Oct 2011, 11:30 am
I thought it were the ABs who rotated the scrum illegaly?
16 Oct 2011, 11:30 am
@Dawn(Dawn)-369: ok, post-op boy
16 Oct 2011, 11:30 am
@David lol, yeah I also thought the Aussies and ABs where supposed to make the RWC into a try feast? More tries in the 2007 semi final thus far …
16 Oct 2011, 11:31 am
need to land that killer punch!
16 Oct 2011, 11:31 am
@danuk(danuk)-374: Yeah, but look at the 2007 opposition
16 Oct 2011, 11:31 am
BRUTAL STUFF
16 Oct 2011, 11:31 am
a lot of blood in this game.
16 Oct 2011, 11:31 am
The Wallabies don’t deserve to be in this Semi.
The only side who would have made a game of this would have been the Boks.
How convenient they are not playing today.
16 Oct 2011, 11:32 am
Brutal game.
Bloodfest
16 Oct 2011, 11:32 am
Piri get his chance back to steer the ship to the final.
16 Oct 2011, 11:32 am
AB’s have done less than the Boks and are winning easy. Imagine if the Boks were given a fair crack. Ref made the difference last week. Aussies struggling when the ref blows the breakdown
16 Oct 2011, 11:33 am
Oz scrum sucks
Basics.
16 Oct 2011, 11:33 am
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-379: do you think they are watching from their lounge rooms?
16 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
Allez Le Blues!
16 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
big scrum
16 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
The donkeys could not do that last week
16 Oct 2011, 11:34 am
@JEZ(DEE DAH)-382: Ausies will claim after the game Joubert was trying to prove a point and call fro an investigation
16 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
So lovely to see the Wallabies squirming – the little worms. If they ever thought they were going to win the Cup they were very very sadly mistaken. Effing robbers.
16 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
@David(David)-370:
It’s the sub standard of both the FHs and the scrummies on both sides that makes attacking rugby impracticle
16 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
Well done AB’s.
Deserve to win this. Totally dominant.
With a decent ref it shows.
Boks were totally dominant last week.
16 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
Ahhh, can finally un clench.
16 Oct 2011, 11:35 am
Mkata stop with the donkeys already
16 Oct 2011, 11:36 am
sbw…
16 Oct 2011, 11:36 am
See you, Frogs, next week. We’ll smash you even with 14 men.
16 Oct 2011, 11:36 am
If a ref like Joubert was reffing last week the Boks would have had an even bigger scoreline advantage than the ABs today.
16 Oct 2011, 11:36 am
@Slumtown(Slumtown)-389:
Yeah, they were just as sadly mistaken as the boks were.
16 Oct 2011, 11:36 am
@Peter Mkata(Peter Mkata)-387:
More tries in last cups semis, there are a lot of donkeys on display in this match
16 Oct 2011, 11:37 am
@Richie_7(Richie_7)-376: True, but so you are saying that running rugby is great, but that sometimes, in RWCs running rugby does not happen when games are tight?
Also, seems to me that ABs are taking points on offer, just like the Boks did in 2007. I think it’s right approach, but was not popular …
16 Oct 2011, 11:37 am
So its the ultimate showdown? This kind of feels engineered. The ultimate grudge match New Zeland vs France. Very odd that the finalist is the top of their pool and the other finalist is the 2nd in the same pool who got clobbered by the other team. Echoes of 2007? England vs Springboks? Kinda weird. Thats why I thought it might have been an SA vs Wales final. Not that we clobbered them but same scenario.
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