Ambush in Oz

First topic message reminder :

With Kefu,Palau,and Drew Mitchell picked for Brisbane plus Ashley Cooper returning the Wallabies
will be very much stronger than thought previously.Australia in OZ are NEVER a formality so the
record is in real danger.Methinks this could be another Hong Kong certainly not the the pushover
some pundits were predicting.If we go on the 2011 final 3Ns game there could be a lot of injuries
to key NZ players.Also who is subbing for Rettalick as presumeably he is now not available thoughts?

H'bum will have to go for that after etzebeth

ooohhh headbutt?

Wow, Richie on the wrong side... first time for everything.

Higgers will be in trouble for that.

Yeah. Replay shows a little knee as well which might should add a couple.

Mccaw just penalised

James slipper really struggling at TH

HT 12 - 6 The Kiwis will start the second half a man down because Woodcock got binned just before the break.

Well that makes it interesting. 10 minutes off in the bin in the second half and 6 points down. NZ just giving away possession too easily and Australia are just getting too much ball to play with and getting territory to strike. NZ have to be patient and retain possession more. I don't think they'll be as poor as that first half but will a tighthead missing for the opening 10 minutes prove costly. Australia must make that advantage further count.

Any chance they won't replace a flanker and just scrum with two in the front row?

Two giant errors from Joubert. Not going upstairs to confirm Conrad smiths try, an apparently unable to see a headbutt whilst looking right at it.

Australia should be playing with 14 men rather than NZ.

It raises the question: how many good games can a ref string together? Is it less than 16?

boomeranga wrote:Any chance they won't replace a flanker and just scrum with two in the front row?

I don't think i've ever seen Mccaw penalised three times in one game. Must be losing his edge...

I thought Joubert has had a very good match so far. With the Smith try you can easily see that the Oz player touched it, and the headbutt was very sneaky-looked more like a head to head then a proper geordie kiss.

He's definitely still the best ref in the business.

Smith could be pulled from the game soon. Awful kick. He hasn't had a good all round game with some poor options.

Four times yappy! 20 October 2012. Mark it down sports fans.

boomeranga wrote:Four times yappy! 20 October 2012. Mark it down sports fans.

F@%&ing hell the Mayans were right!! It's the end fellas!

Do the Wallabies just not bother to practice restarts? They've been so poor there this game.

Fair enough. He took two steps after kicking.

Oz could lose this now. Their no.7 has just been binned and at the 55th minute it's 15 - 12.

Can NZ now take advantage of a man in the bin? Australia didn't but NZ will look to score psychological points as well as on the scoreboard.

yappysnap wrote:Do the Wallabies just not bother to practice restarts? They've been so poor there this game.

Unbelievable isn't it. The dumbest part is the AIG ABs are so good in the air on the back of a former AFL player in the staff. I wonder if our guys have thought of getting one of those.

Well done honey badger!

I love TPN, but he's always had feet for hands.

Wallabies getting away with murder at the breakdown. Off their feet, coming in from any angle.

Three consecutive red zone penalty advantages? Sounds like that should have been yellow! Did Joubert bottle it in front of the hostile Brisbane crowd?

We kill our own chances of winning these games.

anotherworldofpain wrote:Wallabies getting away with murder at the breakdown. Off their feet, coming in from any angle.

We learnt from your blokes.

Deliberate defensive offside and throwing th ball away...still no yellow from Joubert!

Your bloke actually kicked the ball away after a penalty earlier. Why no comment? Oh, right.

Not only the test winning streak is at stake. It's been 10 years since the ABs haven't scored at least a try in the match. I don't think the ABs will care about that record though so long as they get the win. Australia making crucial errors at the wrong time.

Forward and collected offside, but just a knock in called...

Joubert sure plays a short advantage!

Remedial skill levels in the game.

Not just all the handling errors, but the lineout and scrum have been dire from both teams.

I thought this was supposed to be no1 vs no2

A draw would probably be a fair result as there are no winners.

Bad luck Wallabies. Proud of you.

Ohhh, tense ending.

Carter hits the drop goal wide 5 minutes into injury time.

18 - 18

So angry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Feels like we've lost.....

Joubert bottled it there, failing to award the penalty for wallabies not rolling away and leaving their feet in the final rucks...shocking after sin binning an all black for the same thing in the first half.

Dreadful stuff.

Wow, what a finish! Hard game to watch but well done wallabies, gutsy effort.

Well AWOP you may have a point, the rucks were a hell of a lot messier than when the Wallabies were stuck on our 22 when we got the penalty....

Well done Wallabies for getting the draw and preventing the winning streak. The drop goal not going over was a fair result. Too many mistakes from both sides. The record meant a lot because they sure as hell went for it with that scrum. The players looked gutted at the end but it's an important lesson to know that if you're not on your game you're going to lose.

Fitting end, Wallabies did their best to lose it in the last half an hour. Hell of an effort from the boys though.

Well didn't see that coming.
So winning streak ruined, and first time on over 100 games that the All Blacks have failed to score a try. The curse of AIG!?

anotherworldofpain wrote:Joubert bottled it there, failing to award the penalty for wallabies not rolling away and leaving their feet in the final rucks...shocking after sin binning an all black for the same thing in the first half.

Dreadful stuff.

Those final rucks looked no different to the ones at the other end that the attacking team were penalised for.

End of the day the AB's only have themselves to blame, this was a dire Oz team that had been cobbled together to play a NZ team with little to no injuries and the Kiwi's just couldn't get in to the game, skill levels were NH like for most of it.

If I was an AB fan i'd be relieved to have got a draw!

Sadly that ends the run for the All Blacks to make it 17 test wins in succession.

Quite disappointed, a draw was the most disappointing outcome from my perspective.

I thought Joubert was a bit tough on the All Blacks in the first half, second half was better, quite a bit of kicking, handling errors and poor decisions.

Aw well, I suppose a draw is the same as kissing your cousin from across the tasman.

GLove39 wrote:Well didn't see that coming.
So winning streak ruined, and first time on over 100 games that the All Blacks have failed to score a try. The curse of AGI!?

Winning streak over, but not losing streak still going strong...

I'm not sure we can blame AGI. AIG, on the other hand...

No for me, this was one game to far for Craig Joubert. Normally the composed no.1 referee in the world had a shocker.

In the first half Tony Woodcock was sin-binned after a borderline "not releasing" call, just the All Blacks fourth of the game.

In the second spell, Australia committed 6 not releasing offences but a consistent yellow was not awarded. Let's add on the failure to go upstairs to check what appeared to be an opporunistic try to Conrad Smith, missing the head butt whilst looking straight at it, and it's easy to see he was off-song.

Another contentious point - Beale drops the ball cold in his own 22, but Joubert calls advantage over almost immediately, whilst strangely provided Australia with three clear phases of advantage from the ensuing AB knock on from the same phase...bizarre.

Into the closing minutes and as NZ breakaway, the Australian 7, 6 and then 4 all join rucks from the retreating side as they scramble to shut down the AB breakaway. Joubert, turns a blind eye to the penalty that should have given the game the NZ.

Make no mistake, Australia's inexperience and lack of composure went unpenalised as the normally unflappable Joubert seemed influenced by the hostile home crowd.

All this talk about the AB's winning streak, what about the Wallabies vying for 2 on the trot which would have been some sort of record under Deans. Maybe next time.

Full Credit wrote:All this talk about the AB's winning streak, what about the Wallabies vying for 2 on the trot which would have been some sort of record under Deans. Maybe next time.

If you don't win it's a loss. A draw meant nothing to those AB players out there. That's why they went for the attacking scrum. The undefeated streak continues but not the winning streak.

We didn't react well to the breakdown in particular. Wallabies were able to flood the breakdown area and disrupt far too much. Piri Weepu couldn't clear the ball away on our own scrum and we had to defend at the wrong end of the crowd.

In the end Carter's misses proved costly and Harris was more accurate. We never got enough ball to get our backs some space. To make matters worse I'm hungover and it's raining outside. Hard to find positives today.

Anti-climax a penallty shoot out,a missed Drop at the death no winning record but at least te allblacks are still unbeaten.Excellent result for OZ.!!!!!

Yes, it speaks volumes about the relative pecking order in world rugby that between the #1 and #2 teams in the world a home draw leaving them winless in the Bledisloe cup this year will be celebrated like a victory, whilst in NZ the draw largely determined by Joubert will fell like a stinging loss.

Beale outplayed Carter at 10 today as he was provided with more space by a simple game plan of flooding the breakdown, keeping in narrow and frankly, being allowed to get away with murder.

Joubert had a Bryce Lawrence today, and if he has half the dignity he will come out and admit it.

I dont remember an All Black team giving away soooooooo many penalties.

I also cannot remember a game when the All Blacks havent scored atleast 1 try...To get all the points at the boot of Carter is just staggering.

Well done to Australia for getting the draw and ending the winning streak of the All Blacks.

I wonder if this draw will mean the All Blacks will be their for the taking in the Ais. Or will this loss/draw make the All Blacks alot harder to beat.