So, New Zealand reinforce their world #1 status without being RWC winners again, keep the Beldisloe Cup and the Tri-Nations crown, and although I'm biased I think you'd have to say they deserved all three parts of that.
There are really two things to write about in this match. Sadly one of them is Jonathan Kaplan. With two of the best fetchers in the world on display, probably the two best in the world, he refereed the match in a way that basically prevented them both from doing their jobs. I'm sure there was a lot of lying on the ball and not rolling away - although some of the times he pinged people he quite clearly got it wrong, but there were a number of times where he just told the fetchers, both of them, to stop for no readily apparent reason: at least from the camera's eye. He also seemed to believe that any time a scrum wasn't going to be won by the attacking side it must be a penalisable event, at least for the first half. Having de-powered the scrum he seemed more content to let things go in the second half on that front.
The other thing that was noticeable here was the composure of the ABs. Australia played well at times, and at about 50 minutes were 17-7 up having scored a somewhat lucky try with the last touch of the first half and a well constructed try 6 minutes or so into the second half. Despite this, you would still have to say that the ABs were defending incredibly - stopping attacks running into 12, 15, 20 phases near the try line by being well disciplined and not making any mistakes before the Australians did. Then suddenly, with the advent of 3 substitutions the ABs went up two gears and the Australians slacked off on their 10 point lead. Suddenly the ABs scored 3 tries in about 15 minutes and the game looked pretty well wrapped up.
The Australians came back and scored an individual try and the last couple of minutes were interesting as Australia tried to attack and the ABs defended, but it was that old story of defending until a mistake came and they could clear the ball and move on.
There was another interesting thing. Maa Nonu went off injured at 50 minutes and Stephen Donald came in. It meant that the ABs were missing a mid-field banger, but they had three play-makers. This appeared to free Carter up more than a little, and if I were Henry I'd be wondering if I could use that as my 10, 12, 13 axis on a regular basis... I'm not sure, and I'm not an international coach, but they did look good for it. I know the traditional structure is a play-making centre and a banger (in Northern Hemisphere terms that is) but they looked really good with three playmakers out there.
On "The Rugby Club" someone identified Jimmy Cowan as the weak link in the ABs team because he's not a world class player. It's true he's not a world class player, but you would have to say that in his 50 minutes he only made one real mistake and a couple of sub-standard passes. All the rest of the time he looked happy and capable in his role. When he went off and Weepu came on Weepu looked great because the damage had been done by Cowan to the people trying to shut him down and Weepu, understandably, had more energy to exploit the gaps that were left because of that.
I'm sure Graham Henry would be happier with a RWC in the cabinet as well, but I'd have to say he will be fairly happy with where he is now. Robbie Deans won't be distraught - first season in charge and changing quite a lot of the systems and his side were in the hunt until the 60th minute of the last game. They've both got positives to take forward into next year. The other big positive for an international coach? You'd have to say it's another Kiwi, one working in Wales this time. There's a few in "wait and see" mode, and a few that are doing OK, but the top three coaches in the world at the moment all happen to be Kiwis IMO.
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