Australia sent out a seismic World Cup warning to Wales – and England for that matter – by recording a terrific 27-19 win against New Zealand in Sydney today.
Advertisement
White’s penalty and converted try settled a lively contest in which the lead see-sawed back and forth all evening and gave the Wallabies their first victory over the world champions since 2011.
He wasn’t concerned the Wallabies’ first win in 11 games over New Zealand would give them any advantages heading into the Eden Park clash.
The New Zealand news media rounded on the All Blacks on Sunday saying they deserved to lose the Rugby Championship decider while Australia have become “genuine World Cup contenders”.
“Now they are genuine World Cup contenders after being just the second side to beat the All Blacks in the last two seasons”, the Herald on Sunday said.
“We just need to be a lot more physical”, Messam said on Monday.
Asked how he felt about Australia’s chances of breaking the drought at Eden Park this weekend, following the tough 27-19 win at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, new coach Michael Cheika was more circumspect than his predecessor. “It’s about preparation, trying to improve every day, and we’ll try and improve again tomorrow”, he said. Regardless, what do we need to fix in the next six days?
“It’s nice for the lads”, added Cheika.
He said: “I don’t want to be a sad sack, but you take a moment to congratulate your players and then you start thinking about the next game and what you have to do to be ready”.
That means a lot of adapting in a short time to establish combination in the lineout and scrum.
They were “out-muscled at scrum time, beaten at the breakdown” where Australia successfully experimented with dual opensides Michael Hooper and David Pocock. It’s something we’ve talked about but it hasn’t happened. It still sucks.
Yet at 33-years-old and having suffered numerous injury problems, Carter is still fighting to secure a starting berth at the tournament and despite scoring three out of three penalties, his cause was not helped by two missed conversions and poor kicking from hand. A thundering burst from prop Owen Franks put New Zealand on the attack on half-time but a great covering tackle by Hooper on winger Julian Savea saved the situation for the Wallabies.
All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick says the team have had a “honest review” following Saturday’s Rugby Championship defeat to the Wallabies in Sydney.
Does he now go “all in” with a similar side to try to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup, or does he find game time for needy players, Wycliff Palu for one?
But this time it was the Waratahs talisman who collected a terrific Matt Toomua grubber, beating the All Blacks full-back to touch down in the right corner.
Advertisement
The fact that they did so in spite of a ragged line-out and a wretched performance from scrum-half Nick Phipps attested as much to their own versatility as to the peculiar lethargy of the men in black, who were inaccurate and complacent in only their second defeat since December 2012.
