New Zealand media lavished praise on Michael Cheika’s revitalised Wallabies but said the All Blacks remained favourites to win the tournament.
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Head coach Cheika insisted Australia must produce “something extra just to be competitive” against the All Blacks, with both sides bidding to lift the Webb Ellis Cup for a record third time at Twickenham.
Hansen, speaking before Australia’s win, says he intends having a talk with World Rugby referees boss Joel Jutge in a bid to get consistency in rulings.
“In the second World Cup semi-final the Wallabies returned to the line speed, breakdown dominance and clinical use of the ball that has been the trademark of their World Cup campaign”.
“They’re obviously the world’s No. 1 and they’re there for a reason”, he said. “I hope our legacy is the way we play the game, the Pumas have always been very committed, but our legacy is the way we play the game”.
Australia will now face neighbor New Zealand in the finals, the first time the two great Antipodean rivals will clash in the Rugby World Cup finals.
Slipper nearly derailed Australia’s World Cup when he threw the intercept pass that allowed Scotland to take the lead from Australia in the dying stages of the quarter-final.
“Maybe Argentina got a bit more of that because they were probably more of the underdogs in that game, people were liking their story too”, coach Michael Cheika said.
“It’s a great rivalry and clearly we’ve played each other a few times but it’s pretty special to play in a World Cup final against them”.
Fullback Israel Folau missed two matches going into the semi-final with an ankle injury and came off before the end on Sunday.
Australia had looked on course for a comfortable win with two tries by Ashley-Cooper in the first half as Argentina were punished for a reckless opening with their flanker Tomás Lavanini sent to the sin-bin for a unsafe tackle.
“The final will be a better contest for Australia’s presence”, the New Zealand Herald’s Chris Rattue wrote, while Fairfax NZ’s Liam Napier declared it: “A fitting finale”.
“We don’t have any rules around the place, we’ve just got common sense”.
Guscott observed a New Zealand side which reduced penalties conceded in the second half, played a pragmatic territory game in the wet, and punished South African mistakes. We’ll try to get the right balance.
Told that South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer had considered the match meaningless, Creevy said: “I don’t know why he says that, it means something now, it’s our prime objective”.
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“It is a learning curve, we will have to review and see what mistakes were made and we’ll try to correct the mistakes but we will follow this path, because I am sure we are on the right path and this is what we are looking for Argentine rugby”, Hourcade said.
