New Zealand vs. Australia: All Blacks Held to Draw by Wounded Wallabies

By Jeff Cheshire
at Internationaled.org

Published: October 20, 2012

They are at their most dangerous when they are written off, those Wallabies. And so it proved once again, as a well under-strength Australian outfit was able to hold the All Blacks to an 18all draw, snapping a 16 game winning streak by the men in black.

It was a messy game dominated by mistakes and a very whistle-happy referee, as Craig Joubert blew a total of 26 penalties throughout. These two are never a good mix, and they led to a game that never got any flow on at all. Consequently, no tries were scored by either team, and it seldom looked like one was going to be scored either.

As easy as it may be to look at the game and say Australia dominated the possession and territory stakes, the All Blacks had enough chances but didn’t take them. They had enough ball to work with and created enough half-chances, but they were let down by poor hands and a lack of patience. The Wallaby defence deserves credit, as they were strong and generally shut down the dangerous All Black backline.

Not only did this prevent the All Blacks from attacking, it gave possession back to the Wallabies, who weren’t a lot better with it themselves.

But such was the nature of the game. By holding on to the ball for a handful of phases, a penalty would inevitably come and negate the need to actually create something. Indeed, the Australian backs were rather woeful, never threatening at all and seemingly doing everything they could to lose the game in the final 10 minutes.

But a strong performance from the forwards kept them in it. Forward runners were used, and easy metres were gained close to the ruck as the All Black defence began to look less intimidating. Too many tackles were fallen off and resulted in the momentum being with the Wallabies for large parts of the game.

Ultimately, it came down to a battle of the goal kickers—one that finished in a stalemate with both teams kicking six penalty ...

Article Source: Bleacher Report - Rugby Union

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