New Zealand have gone back-to-back and won their third World Cup with a 34-17 win over the Wallabies at Twickenham.
New Zealand dominated the majority of the game before a late fightback from the Wallabies had fans on edge. But it was Dan Carter who stepped up late in the game to put the All Blacks out of reach for the Wallabies. A late try as the Wallabies chased the game to Beauden Barrett sealed the victory.
The Match
It was a nervous start for the Wallabies, with a Will Genia box kick charged down followed by a knock on putting them on the back foot early. If not for some excellent scrambling defence, the Wallabies could have been down an early try but New Zealand settled for a penalty goal from Dan Carter.
A rare mistake from Ben Smith gave the Wallabies excellent field position and from the resulting scrum the Wallabies were awarded a penalty and Bernard Foley stepped up and converted to level the scores on the 15 minute mark.
The Wallabies suffered a blow with lock Kane Douglas having to leave the field with a knee injury that looked pretty nasty on the replay after he fell awkwardly with Dean Mumm his replacement.
New Zealand had the majority of the ball and territory in the opening quarter and on the back of penalties found themselves deep in Wallabies territory but were thwarted by turnovers from the backrow trio of Michael Hooper, David Pocock and Scott Fardy in crucial parts of the field.
Sekope Kepu was keen to rattle the New Zealanders but his aggression was a bit too much after twice hitting Dan Carter with big tackles, with the second one leading to Carter’s second penalty of the half and could count himself lucky to still be on the field.
The injury problems for the Wallabies continued with Matt Giteau unable to pass a concussion test after his head collided with Brodie Retallick and he made way for Kurtley Beale.
Carter added a third penalty after what appeared to be a forward pass in the lead up, and then just before the break, New Zealand had the opening try of the game to Nehe Milner-Skudder in the right corner as the attacking play was too much for the Wallabies to defend with the score 16-3 at the break.
The All Blacks came out firing in the second half with the introduction of Sonny-Bill Williams and his offloading ability getting them on the front foot and Ma’a Nonu found space and set sail on a 40 metre run to extend the lead to 18 points.
Drew Mitchell and Kurtley Beale were able to find some space but were unable to find support but the Wallabies finally got on the front foot and had a rare trip into the All Blacks 22.
Ben Smith earned himself 10 minutes in the bin for a tip tackle on Drew Mitchell and from the lineout, David Pocock rolled it over from close range and Foley’s conversion reduced the gap to 11 at 21-10.
The Kiwi’s went close to scoring again but the Wallabies defence managed to hold up the maul and then just minutes later after working their way up field, Genia snuck in a kick in behind the defence that Adam Ashley-Cooper collected and found Tevita Kuridrani in support who managed to hold off the cover defence on his way to to line. Foley converted to reduce the gap to just four points with 15 minutes to go.
The experience of Dan Carter then showed as he restored the seven point lead with a drop goal from 40 metres that settled the New Zealand nerves to halt the Wallabies momentum. He then added his fourth penalty of the game for good measure to make the margin ten points.
The Wallabies launched one last raid but a dropped ball on the 22 was turned into a try for Beauden Barrett under the sticks to seal the game at 34-17.
The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]AUSTRALIA 17
Tries: Pocock, Kuridrani
Conversions: Foley
Penalties: Foley
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]NEW ZEALAND 34
Tries: Milner-Skudder, Nonu, Barrett
Conversions: Carter 2
Penalties: Carter 4
Drop goal: Carter
[/one_half]
Cards
52 min – Ben Smith (NZ) – Yellow
Crowd: 80,125
