/ 30 November 2008

All Blacks roll on as Wales upsets Australia

New Zealand, Wales and Argentina were the big winners in the year’s last round of rugby internationals.

On Saturday, the All Blacks completed their third Grand Slam of the home unions with their biggest win over England at Twickenham, by 32-6.

Wales ended a three-year drought against the Tri-Nations sides by knocking off Australia 21-18 in a thriller at Millennium Stadium.

And the beneficiary of both results was Argentina, which retained fourth place in the world rankings. The Pumas, therefore, will head up one of the pools for the 2011 World Cup beside host New Zealand, defending champion South Africa and Australia, and not have to face one of the Southern hemisphere heavyweights in pool play.

The rankings on Sunday were to determine the seedings draw on Monday in London.

England, Wales, France and Ireland will be slotted randomly into the pools, followed by Scotland, Fiji, Italy and Samoa.

Wales could have risen to fourth if it had beaten Australia by 15 points. The Six Nations champions led by eight near the end, and coach Warren Gatland sent in word for his team to push for a third try, but the Wallabies finished better, albeit short of victory.

The All Blacks managed not to concede a try in sweeping aside Scotland 32-6, Ireland 22-3, Wales 29-9 and England on successive weekends.

It’s the first time no tries were conceded in eight Grand Slams in more than a century of tours to the United Kingdom by the Southern hemisphere’s big three. South Africa achieved four Grand Slams, the
last in 1961, and Australia did it at its last attempt in 1984. New Zealand accomplished its first in 1978 and repeated in 2005, also under current coach Graham Henry.

”We did the business and the boys have been superb,” Henry said.

”Winning a Grand Slam is difficult to do, it’s only been done three times now.”

England was rebounding from the humiliation of a record home defeat at the hands of South Africa, but it overplayed its hand with needless penalties, allowing the All Blacks to build a 12-3 lead by the break.

England also handicapped itself with sinbinning offences, first by hooker Lee Mears then flanker James Haskell in the second quarter.

Flyhalf Toby Flood followed soon after halftime and flanker Tom Rees also received a yellow near the end, but New Zealand waited until England was at full-strength before scoring its three tries in the last
quarter.

Fullback Mils Muliaina dotted down the first two, one from a tighthead, and centre Ma’a Nonu scored his third in three Tests after England prop Tim Payne was stripped in a tackle.

All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter was his typical slippery self but he nailed only five shots at goal from 11.

Still, the All Blacks won their third against England this year, and extended their of success against the English to seven since 2003. Not only did they complete another unbeaten tour of Europe, but won their last nine Tests in a row, giving Henry vindication for the controversial decision to reappoint him as coach after last year’s World Cup flop.

”If someone said we’d win 13 out of 15 test matches this year, I’d have grabbed it,” Henry said. ”You don’t go into a season saying you want to win this, this and this. You want to build a rugby side.”

The man who was expected to replace Henry, Robbie Deans, took over Australia and had an eye on the Wallabies first sweep of a four-Test tour of Europe since 1996 following wins over Italy, England and France.

But Wales was far more desperate after losses this month to South Africa and New Zealand.

The Red Dragons’ cause was helped, too, when center Jamie Roberts crashed into Wallabies skipper Stirling Mortlock in the second minute.

Mortlock had to be helped off the field, while Roberts played on for another 15 minutes with a fractured skull.

By then he’d set up world player of the year Shane Williams for the opening try.

Lock Mark Chisholm replied for Australia with a 55m gallop, and Matt Giteau’s second goal made it 10-5 for the Wallabies. When hooker Stephen Moore was yellow-carded, Stephen Jones hit a penalty, then Williams beat three defenders to send in fullback Lee Byrne and went to the break 15-10 up.

Giteau narrowed the gap to two but Jones’ drop goal and second penalty with two minutes left made it 21-13 before Digby Ioane scored for Australia in a frantic last fling.

”The result for us was the most important thing. Irrespective of our performance — we’ve still got things to improve on — but we needed to get the win,” Gatland said.

”I’m pretty proud of the performance. I think the best team won. We deserved to win the game, too.

”We’ve gone quite a long way in terms of restoring pride into that jersey and earning some respect against some of the best teams in the world.” – Sapa-AP