Deans tips his cap to All Blacks
Australia coach Robbie Deans said New Zealand will take some stopping in next week’s World Cup Final against France after his battered Wallabies were well beaten by the tournament hosts on Sunday.
The All Blacks’ ferocious hunger and will to win proved insurmountable for the Australians, who battled to the end before going down 20-6 at an Eden Park ground where they have not won for 25 years.
Both Deans and Wallaby captain James Horwill freely conceded the All Blacks were too good and predicted they would repeat their inaugural 1987 World Cup Final triumph over France, already beaten 37-17 by New Zealand in the pool phase of this tournament.
“The All Blacks showed tonight they are more than capable of winning it,” Kiwi Deans said.
“The intent’s there, they are an experienced group, for the nucleus this is their third attempt so they are well versed, they’re hungry and they have a lot of support around them so they’ll take some stopping from here,” he added.
Right from the kick-off, which erratic Australia playmaker Quade Cooper booted into touch, the Wallabies were under pressure and it was to their credit they restricted the All Blacks to just one try in the match, scored by inside centre Ma’a Nonu in the sixth minute.
“They made it difficult all night for us to create any momentum,” Deans said.
“We felt that the game wasn’t out of reach at half-time, clearly we hadn’t had enough possession to be able to build pressure and play and in the second half we didn’t get much as well,” the former New Zealand fullback added.
“The aerial work of the All Blacks was very good, we changed our approach after half-time but we just weren’t able to generate enough momentum and they inhibited our attack.
“As they became more successful our blokes became more apprehensive so we lost some fluency as well,” Deans explained.
Deans added he had said “well done” to his All Black rival Graham Henry in a handshake moments after the full-time whistle.
Henry has told the New Zealand Rugby Union that he is not planning to re-apply for his job after the World Cup.
“It’s the Wallabies against the All Blacks, but Graham has given great service and he’s got an impeccable record,” said Deans, who lost out on the All Blacks’ job when Henry was retained in 2007 despite presiding over a quarterfinal defeat by France – New Zealand’s worst showing at a World Cup.
“I doubt it will be the last we see of him, it will be just a different guise, but good luck to New Zealand for the Final,” Deans said.
Horwill praised the ‘clinical’ All Blacks, who remain the benchmark team in world rugby.
“They were very good at the tackle area and they put a lot of pressure on us there and got some good turnovers and we needed to better there and they were very good in that part of the game,” the lock said.
“They were very clinical in what they did…we we were outplayed.”
Deans lamented the hamstring injury that forced Wallaby fullback Kurtley Beale out of Sunday’s match.
“We know how capable Kurtley is, he is our player of the year and among the top five IRB players of the year, so it would have been nice to have him, but we didn’t,” he said.
Deans said experienced inside back Matt Giteau, who missed out on the 30-man squad, would have made no difference against the All Blacks.
“We made those decisions at the time and there are not decisions we took lightly and we don’t believe it would have made any difference out there tonight and you’ve seen that previously,” he insisted.
Deans added he intended to take Friday’s Bronze final match with Wales seriously amid the bitter disappointment of missing out on the World Cup Final.
“It’s a Test match, you chase a win at every outing,” he said.
AFP
