All Blacks Bledisloe whitewash

Both teams commenced their spring tours with Bledisloe 4 in Tokyo. However, the result shows that the All Blacks have gained from a 6 week break from playing together, whereas the same problems that have plagued the Wallabies throughout the Tri-Nations have not been improved during their break.

The opening stanzas were a little scrappy but the game was quickly brought to life by a wonderful break from Will Genia. He scooted 50 meters before linking up with James O’Connor. Whilst O’Connor did not score it showed that the Wallabies were willing to throw the ball around.

That willingness however did not convert into momentum as the All Blacks hit back in imperious form with a masterful try in the corner. Sivivatu was the man to cross the paint but importantly it showed that the All Black players have a skill level that on the whole is slightly higher then the Wallabies players. The ball went through numerous hands like it was a hot potato, and the All Blacks don’t need to look where they are passing as they are always in support.

The Wallabies looked to hit back straight away with some bustling running, but they fell short with Thorne executing a brilliant strip to regain control of the ball. And with that the game fell into a bit of a rut with the ball acting like a slippery soap that neither team could catch.

The Wallabies appeared to catch that soap with some quick passing and wide running, albeit when they did succeed in doing that they were left isolated.

Just before halftime the game took an unexpected turn…Sivivatu tackled Adam Ashley-Cooper high in the air and even though he was quick to apologise he was sent from the ground for a 10 minute breather.

With that the Wallabies made the most of the numerical advantage. Will Genia’s pass found Pocock on the bounce. Pocock burst through the ALL Black line. The Wallabies retained the ball from the ensuing ruck and went wide to Heynes who despite being smashed by 3 covering All Black’s was adjudged to have grounded the ball.

This was the Wallabies first try against the All Blacks since the 1^st Bledisloe cup match in Auckland earlier this year.

The momentum appeared to swing briefly in the Wallabies favour. From the restart the Wallabies managed to regather the ball and Genia chipped over the All Black ruck. Heynes chased onto it and but for the diving efforts of Nonu (who illegally pushed the ball over the dead ball line rugby league style) would have scored the Wallabies second try.

From the ensuing scrum, Palu ran forward like a rhino and it was only a miracle tackle from Cowan that stopped him from scoring and held up the ball over the paint. Again another scrum to the Wallabies, but the All Blacks quickly regathered and kicked for touch.

With the momentum heavily in favour of the Wallabies, the All Blacks fortunately held on until half time without conceding any further points.

Wallabies 16-13 All Blacks

The second half started with many Wallabies realising that whilst they have lead 5 out of the past 6 Bledisloe cup matches, they have failed to bring home the bacon in each of those games. And it did not start well for the Wallabies with Heynes knocking on from the restart.

This would prove to be indicative of the Wallabies second half performance as again they lost their way against some solid and crunching All Black defence and pressure.

The All Blacks piled on point after point evincing memories of the comments made by Robbie Deans after the last loss (i.e. that the Wallabies ‘rolled over’ at the end).

On many occasions, Wallabies were left isolated in the tackle and the All Blacks turned over the ball faster than Paris Hilton changes boyfriends.

The All Blacks second try all but sealed the match. It was again a try made out of nothing. Sivivatu broke through the line and was dragged down by some covering Wallaby defenders. The All Blacks managed to get quick ball and Cory Jane made a break from nothing, got his hands free and put Conrad Smith over for a try. Smiths journey to the line (all 5 meters of it) was littered with Wallaby players, but apparently there was a sniper in the stand as all the defenders appeared to fall down without laying a hand on Smith.

From there on, whilst the Wallabies tried to mount some counter attacks, they simply had no answer to the All Black defence and commitment. Even bringing on George Smith for his 106^th cap did not alter the changing winds of the second half. G.Smith did have some impact but his fellow players did not follow his energetic lead.

Sadly, the mistakes kept flowing and the Wallabies appeared to have rested on their first half laurels. Of particular annoyance for the Wallaby staff will have been the silly penalties and ball retention that the Wallabies struggled to control in the second half.

Finally, the All Blacks could have won by a bigger margin had they not butchered a try over the line. Having said that, from about the 70 minute mark their win was never in doubt.

Again this loss will highlight a number of things for the Wallabies, but most importantly the need to get the basics right. There were so many passes that did not hit the mark or that were knocked on that should that continue in Europe, any notion of a Grand Slam will be amended to ‘a challenging and developing tour’ party line.

On the other hand, the All Blacks look very good to have a successful spring tour and they are perhaps starting to build some momentum for the 2011 World Cup.

In short, another frustrating loss by the Wallabies 32-19 and yet more bragging rights to the All Blacks.

Storm clinch 2009 NRL title - Vini Vidi Vici

On Sunday evening the Melbourne Storm sent the western suburbs of Sydney into a spiral of depression. Meanwhile the majority of Melbourne jumped on a sporting bandwagon that has no signs of abating.

Melbournians, on the whole, know about as much about rugby league as Chicago knows about Olympic bid techniques, but they appreciate quality when they see it. They will claim the Storm victory as their own and hail it as a certainty, whilst at the same time wondering what a maths fraction has to do with Brett Finch.

In contrast, Parramatta knows rugby league like Einstein knew physics. Parramatta had surfed a wave of optimism for the past 3 months where they believed anything was possible. And why not? They had beaten the Dragons (Minor Premiers), Titans (3rd Place) and the Bulldogs (2nd place) to get to the big show, not to mention everyone else just to make the finals. Many Eels fans thought that this was the end of their long premiership drought (stretching back to 1986) and a return to their glory days of the 1980's.

How wrong they were. Anyone who saw the opening seconds of the match would have realised that the hit on Fui Fui Moi Moi was evidence that the Storm were not going to roll over and play dead. Yes Moi Moi hit back (see the hit on Brett White) over and over again, but without fellow enforcers, excluding Hindmarsh (who made a staggering 62 tackles) he was for the most part strangely uninspiring.

There was no doubt that the Eels were the underdogs and the way they played showed this. They threw the ball around like it was a pair of dirty jocks and created numerous breaks up the unusually soft Storm ruck. But for all their flamboyance and skill the Eels could simply not break through the last line of impenetrable Storm defence. It didn't help the Eels' cause, in fact some might argue that it created the bridge to far, when Inglis and Slater decided to leave their own marks on the game with two amazing tries.

To their credit, when all seemed lost, the Eels came back from the dead. It was that man again, Moi Moi, who led from the front (this time with some weary but courageous followers) and had the Eels back and within a whiff of victory after his rampaging run and try in the corner deep in the second half.

The Storm quickly put an end to the Eel revival with Inglis' drop goal (one of the ugliest drop goals you'll ever see, but nevertheless successful) and with only a few minutes left the premiership was again heading south.

Despite Melbourne's general lack of understanding about the game, the Storm's victory will go some way to illustrating that they have one of the best teams of all time in their own back yard. Rugby League is far from being a religion in the way that AFL is but this team is special. No ordinary team makes 4 grand finals in a row. And with such a high rate of player turn over Bellamy has shown that he has that inspirational coaching quality of make good players a hell of a lot better when under his tutelage. It obviously doesn't hurt having a core group of players such as Smith, Slater, Inglis, Cronk and Hoffman to further your success, but prior to this season who had ever heard of Dane Nielsen, Aidan Tolman, and Ryan Tandy. Only 2010 will tell whether Bellamy can do it all over again, but with that core back again for another tilt, don't rule it out.

A small aside, this was Daniel Anderson's third grand final loss in a row as he had lost the last two English Super League Finals with Leeds. As they always say, things come in threes, so what are the chances of a turnaround next year? He will find it particularly difficult with the salary cap putting a huge squeeze on his playing resources, but he turned around the club from being near bottom dwellers to grand finalists so nothing is beyond the realms of possibility. Having said that bookies are already putting the Storm back near the top of the favourites for the 2010 premiership, so there is no doubt 2010 will be eagerly awaited by sports fans all over the world. Only 156 days to go.....