Wallabies vs All Blacks, Sat.11th Sept., Sydney - Sky Sports 1 10.30am

Judgement Day

The final showdown!

Where to start on this one? The All Blacks, unbeaten in the last 14 games (to all comers) looking to beat the Wallabies for a record 10th time in a row, looking to be the first team in Tri-Nations history to make a clean sweep of the series, Richie McCaw becomes the most capped All Black captain in history overtaking the legendary Sean Fitzpatrick…
While the Aussies, feeling buoyed up after their two most recent encounters with the ‘mighty’ Boks, fancy their chances of turning over New Zealand this time out and minus their talisman, Dan Carter, who is recovering from ankle surgery.
Below, comment on Aussie team from www.scrum.com

Robbie Deans has predictably kept the faith with the side that beat South Africa last week, only introducing Lachie Turner for injured winger Drew Mitchell for Saturday's Tri-Nations finale against the All Blacks.
Sydney-born Turner should feel right at home for the ANZ Stadium clash, where the Wallabies will try to beat the All Blacks for the first time since 2008. Mitchell injured his hamstring in the act of scoring a try last week.
Brumbies hooker Huia Edmonds comes onto the bench for the suspended Saia Faingaa in the only other change.

Australia:

K Beale, J O'Connor, A Ashley-Cooper, M Giteau, L Turner, Q Cooper, W Genia, B Robinson, S Moore, S Ma'afu, M Chisholm, N Sharpe, Rocky Elsom (Capt.) D Pocock, B McCalman.
Bench: H Edmonds, J Slipper, D Mumm, R Brown, L Burgess, B Barnes, A Faingaa.

New Zealand

Mils Muliaina, Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Israel Dagg, Aaron Cruden, Piri Weepu, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (Capt), Victor Vito, Tom Donnelly, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock.
Bench: Corey Flynn, John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Jerome Kaino, Jimmy Cowan, Colin Slade, Rene Ranger.

Venue: ANZ Stadium, Sydney
Kick-off: 20:00 (10:00 GMT)
Referee: Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Christie du Preez (South Africa)
TMO: Matt Goddard (Australia)

My verdict: This isn’t the ‘mighty’ Boks that the Aussies are playing and the All Blacks are unlikely to show any mercy – 10 times in a row for the men in black!

Trust I've got the teams in the right order this time Phat?

john kinsella

All Blacks will win but i dont think it will be a run away victory at all. Robbie Deans a good as coach ashe is is fighting for his job here.
AB's by 6

PhatPiggins

Fair play JD. I fancy Oz by about 6 in a high scoring game.

JustinDee

Aussie by 7.
By more if the Kiwis carry on with that stupid throat slit that has nothing to do with their 'new traditional' haka, Kap O Pongo.

handsomecake

all blacks by 14+

PhatPiggins

handsomecake wrote: »

all blacks by 14+

If they'd lost both games in SA I'd agree but they have momentum and if they lose Deans is brown bread. I think he's popular enough with the players for them to lift it again.

To be honest they must be **** sick of losing to the kiiw's.

thomond2006

3 fullbacks in the back three for the ABs. I think wing is Dagg's best chance of cementing a place in the team because Muliana looks **** hot right now and arguably one of the top players in the world at the moment. Jane is top class too.

All Blacks by at least 10.

Judgement Day

PhatPiggins wrote: »

If they'd lost both games in SA I'd agree but they have momentum and if they lose Deans is brown bread. I think he's popular enough with the players for them to lift it again.

To be honest they must be **** sick of losing to the kiiw's.

Nah, it's the natural order of things!

subfreq

I don't know how much the motivation of the CHCH earthquake will play out for NZ in this one. It's not like they need something to get themselves up usually but playing for the broken hearts of one the countries great rugby cities will lift them a notch this weekend I think. Hansen lost his house and half the team are practically based there.

On the playing side I think they have a tighter defense than Australia even though the Wallabies look a lot more balanced with the shuffle of personnel.

I think NZ will continue to win against the Wallabies in 2010 and we wont see the turning of the tide until next year... When it really counts.

NZ by 9 for me in an open and thrilling game.

Judgement Day

OK less than 20 minutes to go and I'm off to the Antique for this one. Here's something to get you in the mood - I've only watched it once this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZn9zHbBuNc

copacetic

refreshing to see an auld lad belting out the anthem for Australia rather than the usual over the top 'singer'

PhatPiggins

copacetic wrote: »

refreshing to see an auld lad belting out the anthem for Australia rather than the usual over the top 'singer'

We seem to be plauged by a host of "Idol" finalists the past few years. Can't beat a choir in tune. Great atmpsphere

Like your username btw

johnnysmack

Great try for oz. Hope they win

McCaw is experiencing something new - being penalised

johnnysmack

Giteau could cost oz the match. thats 4 kicks he's missed

PhatPiggins

13 NZ penalty and no card

thomond2006

Score/time update?

copacetic

finished off with a nice pressure kick though. good half from australia, but all blacks don't seem to have started yet.

edit - 14-6 half time

johnnysmack

Fair play giteau he scored penalty on stroke of half time. 14-6 to oz

Are the Aussies getting their shít together or will they haemorrhage tries again

sock puppet

Muliania's having an awful game. Needs to be hauled off now.

johnnysmack

19-6 to oz

copacetic

nice finish by Cooper. The finishing has been impressive from Australia, that was only a half chance and he made it look easy. Same with O'Connor in 1st half, he picked ball up and only looked 50-50 to make it, but cruised in without any trouble.

Another missed kick though, the misses are keeping the All Blacks in the game.

Peter B

Score, minutes left?

Thanks

johnnysmack

19-9, 22 mins left. AB's have been terrible last 5-10 mins. Loose kicking, bad decisions.

sock puppet

19-9 to Aus with just over 20 left.

The AB's tactical kicking has been terrible. Totally headless.

copacetic

Beale takes over the kicking and makes it 22-9..

DDC1990

Great defence from the Wallabys! AB's on their line for ages. Turner with a big hit. Pen to AB's they take the scrum 5m out.

EDIT: McCaw try off the Scrum. 22-16. Weepu with the Conv.

sock puppet

What a great return to Tri-Nations rugby for Turner. Has been excellent all game.

try mccaw converted weepu, 22-16 aus

[Jackass]

McCaw breaks early from scrum to get into winger position before 8 picks ball and immediatley passes out wide to his 7...

How he gets away with everything he gets away with is beyond me. The master cheat. He was a good 5 yards away from the scrum before the 8 picked.

Makes for a great finish now!

Roanmore

What are the guidelines for playing advantage? They went through 9 phases and about 2 mins of play and he called them back for the penalty which led to the try. I've seen advantage called over in shorter time than that.

Reid in for a try, 22-23 to NZ

DDC1990

Try AB's. Reed. 23-22. Conv Weepu. Tiredness telling from the Aussies

handsomecake

try read

handsomecake

Roanmore wrote: »

What are the guidelines for playing advantage? They went through 9 phases and about 2 mins of play and he called them back for the penalty which led to the try. I've seen advantage called over in shorter time than that.

turner was offside and knocked it on anyway

bazzman

yeah he broke so early from the scrum, dont know how the ref/touch judge missed it!

NZ just got another try and are now leadin 23-22 with about 5 left!

johnnysmack

try for Read. 22-23 to AB. Oz must be sick, leading whole match and this happens 6 mins from time.

DDC1990

Aussies dropping like flies. Inside NZ territory with a Lineout. 77mins

EDIT: Pen NZ. Game over really.

DDC1990

80mins. Aus on halfway with lineout.

EDIT: Knock on. Game over. Sickened

handsomecake

first team to ever win all 6 tri nations games,and ten wins in a row against australia

johnnysmack

Disaster!

Shzm

Woot!

PhatPiggins

Elsom is a terrible captain. Oz getting every 50/50 decision and he was still bugging the ref for yellow cards. Lost every call after that.

handsomecake

slade was better then cruden.kaino did the nuts and bolts better then vito,ranger is an absolute handful off the bench

Stev_o

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Elsom is a terrible captain. Oz getting every 50/50 decision and he was still bugging the ref for yellow cards. Lost every call after that.

He ll be the difference between them winning and losing a RWC. If he's captain they don't have a chance cause he's just way too much of a bollox to the ref to the point where they ll start favouring the other team. Must be hard for the refs not to tell him to f*ck off.

thomond2006

Well done ABs.

Anyone care to do a regular report for someone with **** broadband again?

Entertaining game or not?
MOTM(s) for both sides?
Who was the better team?
Did Australia lose it or NZ win it?
Positives for Australia?
How did Dagg and Cruden do?

handsomecake

Stev_o wrote: »

He ll be the difference between them winning and losing a RWC. If he's captain they don't have a chance cause he's just way too much of a bollox to the ref to the point where they ll start favouring the other team. Must be hard for the refs not to tell him to f*ck off.

it was great when the ref joubert asked upstairs for the penalty count when rocky was cribbing,and the penalty count came back 3-2 against aus in the red zone. i thought it was a nice touch from the ref.didnt know they could do that.

handsomecake

thomond2006 wrote: »

Well done ABs.

Anyone care to do a regular report for someone with **** broadband again?

Entertaining game or not?
MOTM(s) for both sides?
Who was the better team?
Did Australia lose it or NZ win it?
Positives for Australia?
How did Dagg and Cruden do?

yes, par for the course frantic stuff
turner for aus,kaino for nz and he only played 20 mins or so
giteau missed 11 points worth of kicks .nz didnt miss any
dagg had some superb touches like a banana kick infield for muliaina and a couple of nice runs. cruden was garbage(slade will take his place as carters understudy i think)

positives for aus.they now know that rocky aint a captain and giteau aint kicker.mc calman is a better 8 then brown

copacetic

thomond2006 wrote: »

Well done ABs.

Anyone care to do a regular report for someone with **** broadband again?

Entertaining game or not?
MOTM(s) for both sides?
Who was the better team?
Did Australia lose it or NZ win it?
Positives for Australia?
How did Dagg and Cruden do?

Good game, Australia better for 70 but faded badly. They lost it by not being further ahead at that stage imo. Missed kicks (3 or 4). AB missed no kicks at all.

Positives were that the moved ball well and stood up to AB up front. They also closed down the ABs back line altogether. Good finishing from the backs. Dagg and Cruden were relatively invisible.

Judgement Day

Well, yet again reason for my religious beliefs to be strengthened! The great man was clearly watching Sky Sports today. Anyone catch the Sky commentator saying that that was the first time Richie McCaw was penalised in 16 years?
The difference between this match and the previous two encounters - Dan Carter - or the lack of him. Cruden is not fit to be a spectator in the same stadium. I went for All Black try scorers today and , as usual, was cleaned out but who cares because.....


THE BOYS ARE BLACK IN TOWN!

BRING ON 2011