Australia v New Zealand Final Thread

[Ruckedtobits]

Gutted for Cheiks. Despite the final score,his development of this team, alongside Eddie Jones' work with Japan, have been the coaching successes of the year.

Overall though, apart from those aspects, this was a disappointing RWC because of our performance against Argentina. The French performance was put into perspective by their subsequence (not consequent) display against NZ. Kept hoping that our game would blossom into something like a super-charged Leinster, c. 2011, but all that happened was injuries and more of the same.

Curliously, now can't wait for next episode this afternoon against Treviso, with the hope that our returnees have their appetite back and play with the effort that the kids have shown so far.

[Twist]

Really? I've come round to the idea that it was very much consequent. All the teams with a short turnaround from big games the previous week underperformed in the QF. I mean, France obviously folded but it looked like the well was dry to me

[Ruckedtobits]

Subsequent reviews of their performances against Canada, Italy and Romania, coupled with reading some of the post-exit analysis presents a pretty strong case that this was the worst French performance in any World Cup.

They appeared to be well physically prepared, were only missing possibly two players throough injury but still had very little shape or strategy in their play. Certainly, in France the team is being criticised from all corners

[StrangeButBlue]

Watched the game in New Jersey with a full pub of Oz / Nz / Eng / Irish / SA and a fair smattering of home grown (new?) USA locals (one of them won the guess-the-score pool exactly!)
Fair to say it was the bet final yet - not quite the drama of 95 / 03 but was a contest for 73 mins
Quality of NZ - especially getting out of their own 22 after each restart so easily - was great to watch.
Kane Douglas was a big loss, Mumm was out of breath and out of position for the first NZ try - which was class.
SBW wasn't announced as a halftime change in the US broadcast but he let everyone know he was on the field pretty quickly -
It must be demorilizing to see sbw and think - oh, I better watch out for the offload - and then conceed a try created by a sbw offload.
Nothing against those that have already commented on this game but.. Would be interested to hear the opinion of others on here on the game and overall tournament.

[Oldschoolsocks]

Watched the game in New Jersey with a full pub of Oz / Nz / Eng / Irish / SA and a fair smattering of home grown (new?) USA locals (one of them won the guess-the-score pool exactly!)
Fair to say it was the bet final yet - not quite the drama of 95 / 03 but was a contest for 73 mins
Quality of NZ - especially getting out of their own 22 after each restart so easily - was great to watch.
Kane Douglas was a big loss, Mumm was out of breath and out of position for the first NZ try - which was class.
SBW wasn't announced as a halftime change in the US broadcast but he let everyone know he was on the field pretty quickly -
It must be demorilizing to see sbw and think - oh, I better watch out for the offload - and then conceed a try created by a sbw offload.
Nothing against those that have already commented on this game but.. Would be interested to hear the opinion of others on here on the game and overall tournament.

Hear, hear

[Vamos los azules]

Watched the game in New Jersey with a full pub of Oz / Nz / Eng / Irish / SA and a fair smattering of home grown (new?) USA locals (one of them won the guess-the-score pool exactly!)
Fair to say it was the bet final yet - not quite the drama of 95 / 03 but was a contest for 73 mins
Quality of NZ - especially getting out of their own 22 after each restart so easily - was great to watch.
Kane Douglas was a big loss, Mumm was out of breath and out of position for the first NZ try - which was class.
SBW wasn't announced as a halftime change in the US broadcast but he let everyone know he was on the field pretty quickly -
It must be demorilizing to see sbw and think - oh, I better watch out for the offload - and then conceed a try created by a sbw offload.
Nothing against those that have already commented on this game but.. Would be interested to hear the opinion of others on here on the game and overall tournament.

I was at the final. Fantastic atmosphere and very enjoyable game for the neutral. When Australia closed the gap to 4 points I did wonder if NZ might wobble, but generally they looked in control and just a very good team. I fear the days of choking on the big occasion are behind them.

NZ also kick far more than some people would have you believe.

[StrangeButBlue]

..NZ also kick far more than some people would have you believe.

Noticed that especially in the Semifinal, even in the red zone.
But then in the final it was interesting the amount of times they ran (though never going wide) from inside their own 22.