Round three of Bledisloe cup concluded earlier today with the heavily injured Australia side pulling off a draw against the out of sorts All Blacks. All though the kiwis came in as favorites they were unable to put up the same performances as they did all year long.
The All Blacks’ 16-Test winning run came to an end with their clash against Australia in Brisbane finishing in an 18-18 draw. It was a low scoring match atypical for Southern Hemisphere rugby, a game full of unforced errors and silly penalties. Although not the best of Rugby is was a game full of excitement and entertainment.
Both teams failed to score a try and collected their points with just six penalties each. Dan Carter put over six out of 8 penalties for the All Blacks whilst Mike Harris slotted in 5 penalties and Kurtley Beale put over a long range penalty for the wallabies.
Harris and Carter exchanged 2 penalties each in the highly physical in the first 30 minutes. The Wallabies controlled majority of the possession and territory in the first half but were unable to break down the well organized Kiwi defense. The Black wall of defense was not as solid as it has come to be known in the recent past but the Wounded Wallabies were incapable of finishing off their pressure.
Harris knocked over two more penalties towards the end of the half taking Australia into the break, leading 12-06 whilst All Blacks prop was shown a Yellow card by referee Craig Jouber who had warned the blacks for repeated offenses around the breakdown.
Ten minutes into the second half Wallaby fly half Kurtley Beale banged over a 50m penalty to give the hosts a 9 point lead with half an hour to play. Dan Carter then knocked over a simple penalty in the 52nd minute and two minutes later brought the Kiwis within 3 points after Micheal Hooper was sin binned for a delayed tackle on Aaron Smith.
Carter slotted over two more penalties in the 66th and 70th minute to take the All Blacks to an 18-15 lead. The Kiwi celebrations were cut short when Harris put over his 5th penalty in the 74th minute to level the scores.
The last five minutes of regulation time along with another five minutes of injury time proved to be the most entertaining of the entire game as the Wallabies pushed on to try and win a penalty or set up a drop goal inside the All Blacks 22.
3 minutes after the final hooter was sounded Ritchie McCaw showed to the world the confidence he had in his All Blacks and their hunger to win when he called for a scrum off a penalty inside their own 22m. The World Champions pushed on increasing the pace of the game taking two more quick taps running from one end of the field to the other in a matter of seconds to eventually set up Dan Carter in the pocket to try and steal the game from the Wallabies, unfortunately for the All Blacks Carter was a few inches off target and that ended the All Blacks win streak.
Kiwi No.8 Kieran Read was a justified man-of-the-match while Beale was Australia’s most dangerous player and skipper Nathan Sharpe starred in his final match on home soil.
In a sometimes heated clash, Richie McCaw was singled out for special treatment from Wallabies flanker Scott Higginbotham, who could be in trouble post-match after kneeing and head-butting the All Blacks skipper.
“It was probably one of the ugliest games of rugby I’ve seen. We’re really, really disappointed, too many avoidable penalties, too many avoidable mistakes. But to play as poorly as we did and still manage to show the character and tenacity to get the draw was pleasing. It’s not the end of the world but there’s enough pain and hurt in the dressing room to make sure we learn the lessons from it” was what All Blacks coach Steve Hanson had to say after the game.
Wallabies lock Sitaleki Timani pulled up in the first-half at Suncorp Stadium and joins the long list of Will Genia, Quade Cooper, David Pocock, James Horwill, James O’Connor, Anthony Fainga, Sa’ia Fainga Ben Alexander and Berrick Barnes, all been sidelined prior to Test matches against France, England, Italy and Wales.
