Almanac Rugby: Most Controversial Bledisloe Test I’ve Seen

 

All Blacks 39 Wallabies 37

Springboks 36 Los Pumas 20

 

I’ve been to quite a few Bledisloe Tests in my time. Kicking off with the legendary 1979 drought breaker at the SCG, through a farcical “full house” at Concord to several forgettable games at that soulless sarcophagus built on swampland by the Parramatta River. I was there at the last Docklands game in 2010. Nothing prepared me for what I saw on Thursday night.

The atmosphere at the ground was good for the start of the game. The haka got everyone fired up and we all settled in for the contest. The All Blacks were clearly determined to assert early dominance. They pounced on a drop ball from the kick-off, recycled the ball through a few phases and, Bob’s your uncle, over they went.

Their dominance lasted for about the first 10 or 15 minutes but the Wallabies got back in the game with some smart play – they focused on territory and didn’t worry too much about anything else. This approach paid off when a Valetini try in the 25th minute squared the ledger and the two teams went to the sheds at 10 apiece at halftime.

Clearly, the men in black copped a roasting from Ian Foster because they played as men possessed after the break. They put three unanswered tries on the board and looked like the ABs of old. But this team isn’t and that showed in the final quarter.

The Wallabies recovered in a way I didn’t believe possible from that barrage of AB tries. They kept their nerves and produced sparkling ball movement to get the new 15 Andrew Kellaway over the line twice within six minutes. The crowd buzz was starting to get more intense.

Pete Samu went over in the 72nd minute and Nic White slotted a long-range 3-pointer at the 77th. The Wallabies were in front and the roof was starting to come off.

In the last few minutes, our boys knew they just needed to keep their heads. The ABs pressed hard and had us pinned near our line. We were playing for a pressure-relieving penalty.

With less than a minute to go, it came. Mathieu Raynal blew his whistle for a ruck infringement. All we had to do was kick the ball out, win the lineout and run the clock down.

Alas, Bernard Foley started running down the clock before taking the kick. He was warned. A bit more time-wasting. And then the whistle blew!!!!

Time-wasting is an infringement in the rules of rugby. But rarely is it enforced and never, to my recollection, at such a critical stage of the game. A scrum was packed. The New Zealanders got the feed and worked the ball through a few hands and over the line for a game-winning try.

I was speechless. We all looked at each other. The common refrain of “I’ve never seen anything like that before” echoed around the ground as we, glumly, shuffled out of the ground.

It was heartbreaking. To lose the 20th Bledisloe on the trot in that manner, after a superb Wallabies fightback, is hard to cop. Even these many days later, I’m still struggling to come to terms with it.

As for the other game, the Argies put up a good fight to get within two points late in the game but the Boks were just too good.

It’s now NZ’s Championship to lose when they host the Wallabies at Eden Park on Saturday. I hope our boys put up a real fight, but that last minute at Docklands will probably overshadow that game and many more to come.

To those Collingwood supporters licking their wounds at the moment, I know how you feel. To be so close and yet so far is perhaps the deepest pain.

 

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