My Forecast was:
Props: NZ lead
Hookers: Parity
Locks: Carter = Whitelock. Rettalick>Simmonds. NZ Lead
Back row: NZ lead. Hooper/Palu close to McCaw/Read. Kaino>>Fardy
Halfback: NZ lead. Aus bench better.
#10: both unpredictable - Parity?
Centres: Smith = huge loss. Nonu = penalties. Parity
Wings: NZ have wings. We have defenders. NZ Lead
#15: Worth the price of admission. Parity.
The Darkness have the lead in the game winning and game finishing departments.
It will be a huge uphill slog for the Men in Gold to stay close, but an upset could happen if all the planets align.
My summary:
Props: Aus Won
Hooker: Aus won
Locks: As predicted. NZ Won
Back Row: As predicted. Hooper > McCaw. Read > Palu. Kaino > Fardy. NZ Nose in front.
Halfback. NZ won.
#10. Parity. Both had games they'd want to forget.
Centres. To'omua > Nonu (just). Was AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) playing. Fekitoa ordinary. Parity.
Wingers. Were they playing?
#15. Tough night for the men at the back. Equal - both made mistakes.
We stepped up in the game winning department and were anonymous in the game finishing department.
While the planets seemed to be aligned, Mars was up Uranus on the wane so neither side triumphed.
Both teams will think that they should have won the match easily, and will rue the error rate, poor execution and bad decision making during the game.
The rugby hating Mungoball biased media will have a field day when they try to describe the game in simple terms to their readership, but it was a bloody good
test match given the conditions.