Australia coach Robbie Deans is under no illusions about his side’s trip to Auckland for their next Tri-Nations match despite the fact they comprehensively outplayed New Zealand in Sydney on Saturday.
Deprived of the ball for much of the match and forced to make twice as many tackles, the Wallabies seized their limited opportunities to score four tries and beat the All Blacks 34-19, preserving Deans’s unbeaten run.
Deans, who missed out on the All Blacks head coaching position to Graham Henry, is wary of facing a wounded New Zealand team at Eden Park.
”Just the context of being in Auckland, the All Blacks won’t want to go down again,” Deans told reporters after New Zealand suffered their second successive loss in this year’s Tri-Nations.
”It’s going to be a another notch up. ”They’ll be hurting and you’ll see the response next week, without a doubt.”
Richie McCaw’s possible return from an ankle injury should help the New Zealanders at the breakdown where they were often driven off the ball due to lack of numbers or had it pilfered by Australia captain George Smith.
Better defence
Wallabies flyhalf Matt Giteau and inside centre Berrick Barnes were also particularly prominent in tackling like extra loose forwards and helped slow the All Blacks’ possession.
Henry said Deans’s influence on the team’s patterns was already showing.
”The defence is better, probably more structured,” Henry said. ”Field position is a key and they play a good field position game … For sure, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
While the All Blacks scored three tries, too many errors, including turning the ball over 25 times, and an attack from anywhere game plan also played into the Wallabies’ hands.
The tactics were heavily criticised by former All Blacks prop Richard Loe, who said he had expected New Zealand to win by more than 20 points.
”It was a shocker, an absolute shocker by the All Blacks, and I am still searching for reasons why they were so bad,” Loe wrote in his column in New Zealand’s Herald on Sunday newspaper.
”I thought the All Blacks gameplan was questionable — trying to run the ball out of their own 22 where they often got nailed by the Wallaby defence.
”That loss … will create some big head problems and give the Wallabies huge confidence.” – Reuters