From: doc@docdevl.actrix.gen.nz (Paul Waite) Subject: Bledisloe Cup: Match Report Message-ID: Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 06:13:41 GMTHere is my match report for the second Bledisloe Cup match played yesterday and won by the All Blacks, who take the 'series' 2-0.
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NEW ZEALAND 34 AUSTRALIA 23 Half-time: 12-13
at Sydney Football Stadium
New Zealand tries F Bunce(2), J Lomu, A Mehrtens, J Wilson
kicks A Mehrtens(3 conv, 1 pen)
Australia tries W Ofahengaue, D Smith
kicks M Burke(3 pen, 2 conv)
The Teams NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA
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15. Glen Osborne Matthew Burke
14. Jeff Wilson Damien Smith
13. Frank Bunce Jason Little
12. Walter Little Tim Horan
11. Jonah Lomu Joe Roff
10. Andrew Mehrtens Scott Bowen
9. Graeme Bachop Steve Merrick
8. Zinzan Brooke Tim Gavin
7. Michael Jones Daniel Manu
6. Mike Brewer Willie Ofahengaue
5. Ian Jones John Eales
4. Robin Brooke Warwick Waugh
3. Craig Dowd Mark Hartill
2. Sean Fitzpatrick Phil Kearns
1. Olo Brown Ewen McKenzie
Scoring NZ AUS Player Cumulative
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1 min try F Bunce 5-0
15 mins pen M Burke 5-3
19 mins try A Mehrtens
conv A Mehrtens 12-3
32 mins try D Smith
conv M Burke 12-10
36 mins pen M Burke 12-13
Half-time------------------------------------------------------------
41 mins try F Bunce
conv A Mehrtens 19-13
47 mins pen A Mehrtens 22-13
49 mins pen M Burke 22-16
61 mins try J Lomu
conv A Mehrtens 29-16
67 mins try J Wilson 34-16
74 mins try W Ofahengaue
conv M Burke 34-23
Full-time------------------------------------------------------------
Just before the teams ran out onto the field, a large number of famous All Blacks and Wallabies of yesteryear formed a guard of honour for today's players, who are threatening to turn their backs on all that they held dear and sacrosant, to chase instead the lure of the dollar. What was going through their minds I wonder.
That aside, the Sydney Football Stadium, bathed in bright and warm Saturday afternoon sunshine, looked absolutely splendid, and a fitting venue for such a match. With the ground hard and dry, the setting was perfect for running rugby, and that was provided aplenty.
Coming from an indifferent and somewhat ill-deserved win last week in Auckland, the All Blacks had much to prove, and they went a good way to doing that by beating the Wallabies on their home turf by 5 tries to 2, producing a scoreline of 34-23.
Although the result was brought about by a general sharpening of performance across the whole team, it was chiefly the result of a much better effort from the tight five. Tackles which were missed last week were made, and the lineouts were much more secure providing enough quality ball for the All Black backline, which must by now be regarded as the best in the World, to run in the tries.
Not that it was a one-sided match. The difference between scoring a try and not, is sometimes a very slim one indeed. The difference on this occasion was one man: Jonah Lomu. Justifiably receiving the Man of the Match award, Lomu featured significantly in four of the All Black tries, and scored one himself slipping the despairing tackle of the man he admires so much, David Campese, before going around another defender to cross the line. Although being a substitute meant that Campo was not wearing his famous No.11 this time, Jonah was still immensely proud to swap shirts with Campese after the match, and managed to get it autographed into the bargain.
Lomu is certainly maturing as a winger very quickly. He showed in this match that he is already improved over his World Cup performances, by needing much less prompting about positioning, and his general play on the ball shows greater awareness of the options as they develop around him. The Australian defence is still one of the hardest ones in the World to crack, however Lomu allowed the All Blacks to do it in this match, whereas conversely, the All Black defence, in the forwards, and particularly in mid-field where Frank Bunce had a towering game, held the Australians largely at bay throughout.
The first try was reminiscent of the World Cup. Robin Brooke won the lineout on an Australian throw on the right hand side of the field near halfway. A superb long flat pass by Bachop went through only two sets of hands and was straight out to Lomu in enough space to set sail for the line. Fending at Damien Smith, who made the mistake of going high at him he tried to go around him but two other Wallabies joined in. Stopping and shrugging them off he surged forward and brought a few more defenders in before looking to unload. Frank Bunce took the infield-pass to topple over the line in the company of two or three Wallabies. Mehrtens failed to convert.
Michael Jones, controversially brought into the All Blacks at the expense of Josh Kronfeld showed that he could still foot it at the very top. His defensive contribution was outstanding, with several crunching tackles being made to stop Australian momentum. On attack he was always there, supporting the ball-carrier. Unfortunately his comeback was truncated when he was substituted at half-time for Josh Kronfeld due to injury, however the dynamic Kronfeld certainly did not disappoint, and turned in a superb effort all round. Of course comparisons can be made between them, but I have a feeling that given the chance The Iceman could still show them a thing or two. As it was, with little in the way of hard matches under his belt, he performed very well.
After about 20 minutes in the first half, New Zealand scored their second try. A Jonah Lomu break, again down the wing taking on Damien Smith, led to Robin Brooke taking an in-pass. Looking in-field Brooke saw Andrew Mehrtens in full flight and gave him the ball. No-one could touch this flying first five-eighth with the speed of a winger as he dotted down under the posts.
There then followed a frustrating passage of play by the All Blacks which took them until half-time, and presumably a talking-to by Laurie Mains, to shrug off. Time and again they gave away silly penalties through over-zealous play in the rucks and general ill discipline. This let the Australians back into the match, although it would do them a disservice to imply that they were just waiting for this to happen. To a great extent the All Black infringements were instigated by the pressure they exerted, however this cannot be used as an excuse. The end result was that territory was continually given away by missed touches or penalty touch-finders, as the game swung Australia's way.
The culmination of this was a superb solo-effort by Wallaby winger Damien Smith to score an excellent try after 32 minutes played. Having won the ball from a lineout on the right just outside the All Black's 22m, Smith brushed off three fairly strong tackles before crashing down just short having been tackled by Glen Osborne. Momentum carried him the required couple of inches, and although some might accuse him of a double movement, it would be churlish to do so indeed, given the superb effort that the try represented, and the final result of the match itself.
New Zealand were still leading, but the match was still in the hands of the Australian side, with the All Blacks finding it impossible to develop their own game. Yet another penalty at ruck time allowed the Wallabies to go to the half-time break with a deserved lead 13-12.
After half-time, the All Blacks obviously heeded Laurie Mains' request for more discipline, and they started the half off on the right foot with a super try to Frank Bunce. Winning a 5m scrum after pressuring the Wallabies, they moved it right to Bunce who fended off Matthew Burke and showing his tremendous stength whilst on the run, shrugged his way through two other would-be tacklers before cutting across the goal-line to force. The conversion was added, and the game had swung back to Black.
Exerting good, clean pressure, the All Blacks looked generally more capable of scoring than the Australians, who were more likely to try running the ball up the middle through their excellent tight-five and loosies than spread it wide most of the time as preferred by their opponents. The crisp, fast passing and high speed understanding which was the hall-mark of the All Blacks at the World Cup was beginning to re-appear, although it might be argued that they are still at least one more test away from being at the level they showed in South Africa.
After two-thirds of the match had gone at about the 60 minute mark Jonah Lomu finally scored a try of his own. Some excellent play by Glen Osborne and Mike Brewer going down the right of the field was followed by the ball being quickly passed in-field, and then a long floater by Mehrtens out to Lomu again in space. Chasing and despairingly trying to stop him was David Campese, who had come on for an injured Damien Smith. Lomu's big legs simply knocked the attempt out of the way, and he then skipped around another defender to force midway between touch and the posts. The try was converted, and New Zealand were firmly in control.
The Australians never looked dejected or lost for ideas going forward throughout the whole match. Halfback Steve Merrick had an outstanding game when running, although he perhaps went a little too far ahead of support sometimes, and tended to neglect the first requirements of a halfback - to supply the ball to the back-line. A standout amongst many Wallaby attacking weapons was Warwick Waugh. The big lock made some towering runs which more than matched those of Willie O, and he always required some determined tackling by one or two All Black forwards to stop.
The main difference between the sides though was that the All Blacks always looked to have that something extra which would break the game open. Standing head and shoulders above the rest in this respect was Jonah Lomu. The final try the All Blacks scored was the best of the match. A nifty scissors by Andrew Mehrtens running to the right ended with the ball in big Jonah's hands at full steam going straight towards the Wallaby line in midfield about 30m out. An Australian defender (which may have been Bowen) unfortunately tried to take him on head-on, and was bounced backwards out of the way without noticably slowing the big winger. Surging through two more tackles Jonah flicked a low pass out to the right to Bunce and Little, who rapidly found Jeff Wilson. Wilson exorcised the Gregan 'ghost' to some extent by running in and diving over in a classic if a little hammed-up style. Mehrtens failed to convert.
Many teams would have been demoralized by the scoreline at 34-16, but as has been stated, in general play there was not actually a lot of difference between the teams. The Wallabies were determined to score, and the All Blacks equally as determined to keep them out. The final 10 minutes were all Australia, with a little help from some inadvertent fumbling by New Zealand at one or two stages.
Acute pressure on the All Black line saw the ball come to Willie O 5m out. The 'Tongan Torpedo' rammed himself at the line and was stopped dead but was not held and managed to step sideways and maintain the drive until he found a gap to go over and score a well deserved consolation try. The conversion brought the score to one more indicative of the difference between the sides.
In mid-field the names of Horan, Little, and Little were not really mentioned as standing out. To a large extent Bunce and Walter Little once again proved that they can nullify Tim Horan and Jason Little, whereas Frank Bunce had an immense game, and found the space to score his try. Bunce was a good candidate for Man of the Match, although none could argue with Lomu getting that particular honour.
Once again Andrew Mehrtens had a good game overall, although he continues to blot his copybook by missing simple touch-finders and putting his team under unwanted pressure.
In general this performance exhibited all the characteristics we have come to expect from Laurie Mains' tenure. It had some glorious moments on attack, accompanied by a predilection towards fluffing the basics of the game at times, and a more than occasional lack of discipline.
-oOo-
Thus ended the last Bledisloe Cup match, fittingly the 100th, to be played under 'The Old Regime' where players played for Country, Honour, and the Glory of the game. What the future holds for this fixture which has, over the last 100 years, produced some of the most entertaining rugby to be seen, no-one can foretell.
____________________________________________________________________________ Paul Waite doc@docdevl.actrix.gen.nz Wellington, New Zealand +64-4-233-1764 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------