It was a much improved performance from the All Blacks last night, in the first test of the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup. I must admit that I thought that there was a reasonable chance that Australia would win it - the All Blacks had not played too well against either Ireland or Argentina, and Australia looked in fine form against England and Ireland.

However, they definitely picked up their game last night, and have the top 15 players made a difference. The All Blacks looked very dangerous pretty much every time that they had the ball. Their forwards were in control during the scrums and general breakdowns, and their backs frequently managed to get the break throughs.

In contrast, Australia had the ball for long periods of time in the second half, yet generally did not look terribly threatening, even when within the All Blacks 22.

Maybe Gregan is just too old now to cause many problems...

Posted by Dave Bryant at 8:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)