The Kiwis lived up to their reputation as the most hot and cold
Posted in General on 06. Sep, 2010
The Kiwis lived up to their reputation as the most hot and cold, or black and white, of sides as they roared into an 18-point lead. The world champions fought back to lead in the second half, but it was New Zealand, marshalled by veteran scrum-half Stacey Jones, who found the inspiration to see them home.
It was a great day for the new Kiwi coach, Brian McClennan (son of the former St Helens coach, Mike), as his badly depleted team shocked Australia in the opening minutes at the Telstra Stadium. Toopi, not even certain of his Test place, struck twice in the first 11 minutes, with Jones prominent in the build-up both times. The Kiwi fans in the crowd could scarcely believe it when their outstanding full-back, Brent Webb, went past Andrew Johns for their third try.They were denied a fourth when the English referee, Steve Ganson, failed to spot an offside tackle on Jake Webster and then neglected to go to the video referee to check whether he had got over the line anyway.It looked like being an expensive decision for the Kiwis when Australia scored four tries in nine minutes in the purplest of patches before half-time. Brent Tate started it with a wonderful 90-metre effort, Johns darted over for another and Mark Gasnier somehow squeezed in at the corner for the third.When Tate took Johns’ basketball dunk for his second, it looked inevitable that the Kangaroos would go on with the job in the second half. They looked like doing just that when they took the lead for the first time, the debutant winger, Matt King, capitalising when Manu Vatuvei spilled Johns’ kick.The Aussies converted just one of those five tries, leaving them vulnerable to a Kiwi resurgence, who, led from the front by the Warrington-bound Paul Rauhihi, regained their lead through tries from Nathan Cayless and Nigel Vagana.Three goals from Jones, a reluctant kicker, made it a 10-point lead for New Zealand, but they were under pressure again when the dangerous Gasnier swept through for his second with seven minutes to play.As Australia tried to build an attack to threaten the exhausted Kiwis’ slender four-point lead, Ben Kennedy suffered the worst moment of his long career, knocking on while under no pressure to concede precious possession.
New Zealand found the energy to move the ball wide, Roy Asotasi’s lofted pass finding Toopi, who managed to touch down just inside the corner flag, with Jones putting over his seventh goal in seven attempts via the upright.The Kiwis, victors in Australia for the first time since 1991, are now assured of a full house for the return match in Auckland next Friday. They will be without their hooker, Lance Hohaia, who was carried off with a suspected broken leg, but they had shown a spirit that transcended the potential problem of already having a dozen of their better players missing.The Kiwis will also have given the Great Britain coach, Brian Noble, much to think about between now and the meeting of the two sides at Loftus Road on 29 October that opens the British leg of the tournament.. Bradford won the Super League title the hard way at Old Trafford last night, making history by coming through the field to become the first to triumph from third place. This was the day when the Bulls were supposed to run out of steam, but they were the stronger side throughout a gruelling contest and had the players to come up with the crucial contributions.
Leon Pryce, one of the men playing his final match for the club, scored their first try and won the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man of the match for a performance that threatened Leeds from start to finish.”I love Bradford and I can’t put into words what it means to me to finish like this,” said Pryce, who will play his rugby with St Helens next season.Lesley Vainikolo did not get the clear running opportunities he so often thrives on, but he went looking for work and came up with the other Bradford try, while the leadership of Jamie Peacock, a Leeds player next year, helped Bradford hold their defence together.The stability that accompanied the Grand Final preparations of these two old rivals was reflected in both fielding unchanged sides, which meant that two stalwarts, Barrie McDermott and Robbie Paul, started their farewell appearances on the bench.Leeds put themselves under pressure from the start with Willie Poching knocking on from the kick-off.
Brad Meyers crossed the Leeds line without being able to ground the ball.Bradford lost Paul Johnson temporarily when a tackle on Richard Mathers left him feeling groggy, and showed their own nerves when Michael Withers fumbled Kevin Sinfield’s kick to give Leeds a first chance.McDermott was given a thunderous welcome from Leeds’ supporters when he came into the game. His first tackle was not as welcome, laying out his old mate Adrian Morley and allowing Paul Deacon to register the first two points.It was a shortlived lead, because Leeds went to the other end on the back of a Bradford mistake and, on the last tackle, Andrew Dunemann stabbed through a cunningly angled little kick which was seized by Danny McGuire for the night’s first try.Bradford equalised through Deacon when Dunemann knocked the ball out of Ian Henderson’s hands, and then took the lead by exploiting one of the half’s series of unforced errors.This time Ali Lauitiiti spilled the ball under no real pressure and, from that gifted possession, Deacon threw out a searching pass to Pryce, who juggled but recovered to beat the defence for the try.Morley was penalised for raising his forearm to McDermott as their reunion continued and Leeds, uncharacteristically, took the two points through Sinfield’s penalty. It was a fair reflection of a dour first half.Shontayne Hape was denied a try at the start of the second because Vainikolo had impeded Mark Calderwood going for Deacon’s high kick. Leeds were equally disappointed when Withers’ tackle prevented Chev Walker from grounding the ball.There was no denying Vainikolo in the 56th minute, however, Jamie Langley making inroads and the giant wing going over from dummy-half for his 34th try of the season.Two good positions for Leeds broke down through the poor handling that plagued them as the game grew ever more tense. Bradford should have edged further ahead with a penalty after Lauitiiti’s high tackle interrupted a storming run from Morley, but Deacon missed.He also put his side in trouble by kicking straight into touch, but they survived to go up to the Stretford End and see Iestyn Harris put over a drop goal for a precious extra point.Leeds battered away but the cutting edge was missing and their coach, Tony Smith, admitted: “They deserve their win tonight. They were hungrier than us and they took their opportunities.”Leeds: Mathers; Calderwood, Walker, McKenna, Bai; McGuire, Burrow; Bailey, Dunemann, Ward, Ellis, Poching, Sinfield (capt). Substitutes used: McDermott, Lauitiiti, Diskin, Jones-Buchanan.Bradford: Withers; L Pryce, B Harris, Hape, Vainikolo; I Harris, Deacon; Peacock, Henderson, Fielden, Meyers, Johnson, Radford.
Substitutes used: Paul, Vagana, Langley, Morley.Referee: A Klein (London).. If the Powergen Cup has done nothing else it has better prepared the English clubs and the Welsh regions for the rigours of the Heineken Cup. I have heard from teams either side of the border that the physicality and intensity of the Anglo-Welsh clashes so far this season have been, in most cases, greater than they have met in their domestic games.. A cramped room above the Wales team’s indoor training centre in the Vale of Glamorgan is not the best place to evade outsized egos. So it is a relief to slump on a sofa next to Ryan Jones and hear the Ospreys and Wales back- rower say in his good-humoured baritone: “I don’t have a celebrity girlfriend and I’ve always got time for people as long as they’re polite enough.”. Apart from Ulster’s triumph in 1999, when the English clubs boycotted the competition and those who soldiered on were subdued by the hostility of the reception in Belfast, the Heineken Cup has been an Anglo-French affair. Toulouse, who won the first in 1996, collected Europe’s blue riband for a third time last season, and in between it has been worn by Bath, Northampton, Leicester (twice) and Wasps.