Wallabies thumped to finish last in Tri-Nations

 

By , 20 Sep 2009 Jim Morton is a Roar Pro

Tagged:
 , , , ,

159 Have your say

Related coverage



Furious Wallabies coach Robbie Deans accused his outmuscled team of “rolling over” in Saturday night’s 33-6 capitulation to the desperate All Blacks.

In a Tri-Nations dead-rubber where Australia were outplayed right across the park, Deans was most upset they threw the towel in with eight minutes left at Westpac Stadium.

After New Zealand repelled wave after wave of Wallabies attack to make the game safe at 19-6 at the 72 minute mark, they ruthlessly finished off the visitors with easy tries to Ma’a Nonu and Joe Rokocoko.

Deans admitted the three-try rout — a sixth straight loss to NZ — was a sobering step backwards after his developing outfit’s last-start 21-6 upset of South Africa in Brisbane.

“The All Blacks were hugely desperate, played very well and the most disappointing thing from our perspective we essentially capitulated once the game was gone,” Deans said.

“At that point when we weren’t successful in scoring and the All Blacks did we rolled over and that was didsappointing becasue that was the one thing we didn’t want.

“We were competitive throughout but … when the game came out of our reach we actually departed the contest.

“I guess how damaging that is will depend on the response.”

The loss leaves Australia with their third Tri-Nations wooden-spoon in 14 tournaments and continued a recurring nightmare of losses on NZ soil.

It’s their 10th straight defeat across the Tasman dating back to 2001, a record that sorely needs to be rectified before the 2011 World Cup.

Many Australians will want to forget the unacceptable display, none more so than out-of-sorts back-three duo Drew Mitchell and James O’Connor who failed to cope with the Cake Tin’s pressure-cooker environment.

But they must stew on the result for six weeks until the end-of-season tour kicks off in Japan – against the All Blacks.

Deans lamented a distinct lack of intensity and urgency, especiially at the breakdown where Richie McCaw led a spirited performance by the NZ pack.

“The margins are small in Test rugby and you’ve got to earn your stripes in every outing,” he said.

“I think we possibly got a little bit ahead of ourselves and we were looking at our next job when the first job hadn’t been done and the breakdown was evidence of that.”

“The most obvious thing was a lack of volunteers.”

The Wallabies were very much in the tussle at 9-6 late in the first half and holding the advantage with Isaia Toeava in the sin bin but All Blacks winger Cory Jane’s first Test try swiftly swung the momentum.

Speedster Jane, an attacking stand-out in his hour on the field, leapt high over the top of fullback O’Connor to field a Mils Muliaina bomb and then slipped out of a poor Mitchell cover tackle to score.

It gave the All Blacks a 16-6 halftime lead and, while the Wallabies only conceded one more penalty goal until the 75th minute, they were completely outmuscled after the break.

The inconsistent NZ lineout redeemed itself while the scrums were a mess throughout.

Adding injury to insult, Australia’s world-class loosehead prop Benn Robinson finished with a neck injury after a collision with Nonu.

© AAP 2012
Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.

Get a daily rugby union email

Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it.

We value privacy. More.