All Blacks continue their domination over Wallabies

 

By , 1 Nov 2009 Darren Walton is a Roar Pro

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Furious Wallabies coach Robbie Deans blamed South African referee Mark Lawrence for ruining his side’s chances of making a triumphant start to their spring tour after the All Blacks powered to a seventh straight Bledisloe Cup victory in Tokyo on Saturday night.

An exasperated Deans broke from his routine of refusing to publicly criticise match officials after the All Blacks won 32-19.

Deans claimed Lawrence soured the showpiece encounter as a spectacle by not sin-binning the All Blacks for blatant infringements that killed a series of Australian try-scoring opportunities.

The Wallabies won the penalty count 13-9, but Deans insisted the yellow card should have been used to deter spoiling tactics.

“I know of (our) first six penalties, four were in the red zone and there probably should have been a couple of others where the ball was lifted out of the rucks one metre short of the line,” Deans said.

“That’s frustrating from our perspective, particularly when playing a fixture in Tokyo where you’re trying to promote the game. I don’t think it contributed well to the game to that end.”

Deans aired his frustrations after the injury-hit Wallabies produced a vastly-improved performance despite ultimately squandering a halftime advantage for the fifth time in their past six trans-Tasman encounters to slump to a 4-0 series defeat against the All Blacks for the first time since 1962.

Winger Peter Hynes had boosted Australia’s hopes when he broke the Wallabies’ four-and-a-half-hour tryscoring drought against New Zealand five minutes before the break to help the side to a 16-13 advantage.

But the All Blacks rebounded strongly in the second half, with a converted try to centre Conrad Smith and four Dan Carter penalty goals enough to give the world’s second-ranked outfit a triumphant start to their spring tour of Europe – and ruin the Wallabies’ hopes of a stylish opening to theirs.

But against the odds – following a series of injury setbacks and team disruptions – it was a vastly-improved performance from the Wallabies who were hammered 33-6 in their most recent meeting with the Blacks seven weeks ago in Wellington.

Again outpointed at the breakdown, the Australians were nevertheless far more competitive at ruck time with Deans’s contentious decision to start young bull David Pocock ahead of record-breaking flanker George Smith proving correct.

Rookie halfback Will Genia was fabulous in just his third Test start, his instinct and crisp service sparking the backline, while teenage fullback James O’Connor played with far more assurance than during his mixed Tri Nations campaign against New Zealand.

Hynes’s five-pointer marked the first time Australia had breached the New Zealand line since Berrick Barnes scored in the fourth minute in Auckland three Tests ago.

Star five-eighth Matt Giteau nailed the sideline conversion, having earlier also slotted three difficult penalties, to counter a 21st-minute converted try to All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu and two Carter penalties to hand the Wallabies their halftime lead.

But perhaps the writing was on the wall in the opening minute when Rocky Elsom’s first touch of the ball as Australia’s 76th Test captain proved a shocker, the flanker spilling a regulation pass from Adam Ashley-Cooper.

Then vice-captain Giteau had a kick charged down, placing the Wallabies under more pressure.

They recovered to make a match of it, finally playing some nice attacking rugby – but it still wasn’t enough.

The Japanese crowd – enjoying their first Bledisloe Cup Test – gave the All Blacks rousing applause after the performance of their traditional pre-match haka.

The Test was taken to Tokyo to help promote the game in Japan, where the 2019 Rugby World Cup will be staged.

The Wallabies depart Tokyo on Sunday for the UK for the grand slam component of their five-Test, seven-match tour.

© AAP 2012
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