Australia's Billy Slater attacks for try during the Rugby League test match between Australia and New Zealand in Brisbane, Australia, Friday, May 8, 2009. AP Photo/Tertius Pickard
Australia reasserted themselves as rugby league’s No.1 outfit and sent a chilling warning south of the border as the all-Queensland backline put World Cup champions New Zealand to the sword with a 38-10 pummelling in Brisbane on Friday night.
Six months after their stunning World Cup triumph, New Zealand proved no match for a rampant Kangaroos side with Johnathan Thurston and Justin Hodges scoring doubles in the seven tries to two romp to continue an 11-year drought for the Kiwis in mid-year Tests.
New Zealand’s pain would no doubt have flowed all the way back to NSW with Australia’s all-Queensland backline providing all 38 points for the victors in an ominous warning shot ahead of the State of Origin series.
And while the win would have done nothing to ease the pain of last year’s World Cup final loss, it did at least reassure Australia’s status as top dogs, a mantle which had been under threat from the Kiwis.
“They won the World Cup last year and we can’t take that away from New Zealand, we can only come out tonight and play the way we did,” Kangaroos skipper Darren Lockyer said.
“You walk away from winning tonight feeling good about ourselves and felling proud about playing for Australia.”
Asked if the win showed Australia deserved to be world No.1, Lockyer said: “I suppose, yeah.
Told by coach Tim Sheens that their defence in conceding 34 points in last year’s World Cup final was unacceptable, the Australians responded.
“Our defence early in the first half set the platform for the night for us and sent a message to ourselves and the opposition,” Lockyer said.
“That’s where the game was won for us.”
New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney admitted a poor ten minutes either side of the break cost his side as Australia turned a 10-6 lead into a 22-6 advantage.
“I’m disappointed obviously with the result, but the one thing I couldn’t fault was the lad’s effort.
“I guess a couple of instances in the game … they were moments in the game that made it really tough for us.”
The haka again provided a fitting fiery opening with new Kiwis skipper Benji Marshall eyeballing Kangaroos opposite Lockyer, but both sides were anything but red hot early in the game.
Cameron Smith’s 40-20 attempt sailed over the sideline, but it had nothing on Iosia Soliola’s gaffe when he coughed up possession from a scrum win five metres out from his own line.
Australia made him pay for the blunder with Israel Folau diving over out wide from the ensuing scrum but the Kiwis surged back with five straight sets on the home side’s line.
The Kangaroos resisted every advance and were lucky to be let off the hook when an incorrect tip to English referee Richard Silverwood saw Jerome Ropati called offside, though the Kiwis went over at their next opportunity with Sam Perrett giving the visitors a 6-4 lead.
Having worked so hard to get in front, the Kiwis quickly relinquished it, Soliola and Adam Blair failing to lay a hand on Thurston with his ‘show and go’ putting the Kangaroos back on top.
The Kiwis were sucking in the big ones but a costly period either side of halftime proved telling with Justin Hodges brushing through a David Fa’alogo tackle to score just before the break and Thurston nailing his second three minutes after the restart.
Billy Slater kept the avalanche coming to open up a 26-6 lead, Manu Vatuvei hitting back with New Zealand’s second try of the game.
It hardly mattered as the Australians smelled blood, Darius Boyd scoring his first Test try with a stunning acrobatic effort as he planted the ball over the back of his head before Hodges scored his second after Slater was denied the same honour due to a controversial obstruction call.
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May 9th 2009 @ 10:01am
tifosi said | May 9th 2009 @ 10:01am | Report comment
They still didn’t win the world cup though and thats all that matters.
May 9th 2009 @ 12:43pm
sheek said | May 9th 2009 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
Gee,
Rabbits Warren et al made a lot of noise about the Kangaroos not being current world champions, etc.
It’s not as if rugby league has the same worldwide depth of talent as soccer, or rugby union even. I admire many of the Aussie rugby league players, & wish some of them could be playing union.
But on the world stage, rugby league is small fry, & it was cringe material listening to the commentators going on about “world champions”.
I thought the game itself was disappointing. The Kangaroos were clinical & clever, but unfortunately the Kiwis didn’t come to play tonight.
May 9th 2009 @ 12:44pm
sunshinecoaster said | May 9th 2009 @ 12:44pm | Report comment
All it really shows us is that if you stack all the odds in Australias favour then there likely to win,
Its like the All Blacks saying to England,ok you have to pick a team on the Sunday night straight out of the Guinness premiership you have four days to prepare and we will play at Eden park,in otherwords its set up to make the All Blacks look good
May 9th 2009 @ 1:05pm
JimC said | May 9th 2009 @ 1:05pm | Report comment
It was a good display from the Kangaroos, but its tough to win two on the trot in Brisbane. If the kiwis got them at North Harbour, after a warm up game, it would be closer.
May 9th 2009 @ 1:22pm
kevin from glebe said | May 9th 2009 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
rugby league internationals are so 1 sided these days.
people are saying with more prep time the kiwis would and will do better, maybe they will.
but at the end of the day league is only ‘really’ played in oz, uk, nz and the island nations and the premier status of the nrl comp will mean that australia will always be the dominant team of the world (no lets make it the 4 or 5 nations that give a sh!t about the sport!).
May 9th 2009 @ 1:34pm
Working Class Rugger said | May 9th 2009 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
Last year’s win in the RLWC for NZ was a apparition. Just like their Ashes win several years ago. The field hasn’t caught up. Aus took them too lightly and got stung. Resume usual transmission.
May 9th 2009 @ 2:51pm
oikee said | May 9th 2009 @ 2:51pm | Report comment
All i am going to say is the game was crap, the scheduling was crap the timing crap and to me they wont win support with anzac test played 2 weeks after the event. The kiwis turned up short on numbers thanks to the aussie scheduling. Keep this up and i will just watch Union tests. The dinorsaurs are killing this game.
May 9th 2009 @ 3:53pm
Hemjay said | May 9th 2009 @ 3:53pm | Report comment
How can the restore world order the next world cups not for another 4 more years. So what you won an Anzac test that the Kiwis were never going to win big bloody deal no one cared thats why the game wasn’t even sold out the only people it seems who were in the pubs watching it in NZ it has been widely reported were Aussies.
I know which trophy I’d rather have and it certainly aint the ANZAC trophy, 4 more years Cobber 4 more years. Australia is quick to point out its winning the game that counts and we won the most important game there is in Rugby League and we effectively have one professional team compared to Aus 15 hmmm just slightly in Australias favour. But we don’t care the World Cup looks mighty fine in our cabinet and will do for another 4 years.
May 9th 2009 @ 4:21pm
Hemjay said | May 9th 2009 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
Its so funny the rubbish that Aussie media trys to spin. They were never not number one in the world they always were but they are not World Champions so how the hell can you restore world order doofus when they were already number 1.
May 9th 2009 @ 4:29pm
Greg Russell said | May 9th 2009 @ 4:29pm | Report comment
I have a simple question from the game: how come the Kiwis had all the ball at the beginning of the game, making the Kangaroos do something like 4 sets in a row of defence on their own line, and yet by the end of the first half it was the Kiwis who were exhausted and conceding soft tries? It’s meant to be the defending team that gets tired!
If the Kiwis were from a competition with a lower level of fitness, then one could understand the above. But everyone is from the NRL, so one would expect roughly equal levels of fitness. But very clearly not.
I think too many of the Kiwi players are in bench roles in their NRL teams, and consequently do not play enough minutes. By contrast, most of the Australians are 80-minute players, even the props (e.g. Price, Bailey). Hence the vastly different levels of fitness. So I think the NZ selectors need to give more thought to fitness levels in choosing their team. In this respect it was idiocy to have Sika Manu on the bench. They should have brought in a player like Russell Packer – he may be very young, but at least he could have given them 50 minutes of playing time.
The other thing I took from last night is the huge difference that Justin Hodges makes. The Australians like to think they have unlimited depth, but in hindsight they suffered big-time in last year’s World Cup from the absence of Gasnier (French rugby) and Hodges (injured). Folau and Inglis, the center pairing from last year’s WC, did not fire a shot in the final. This meant the Kiwis were not damaged out wide as they usually are against Australia, and the balance of the game was completely changed (in their favour). Last night with Hodges probing out wide, it was clear NZ never had a chance. Imagine if Inglis had also been able to play well!