4 Nations Final New Zealand v Australia

[RoosTah]

When: Saturday November 15th, 8:30pm NZST
Where: Wellington Stadium
Referee: Who ****ing knows? Can't find the info anywhere.
​

TEAMS:

New Zealand

1 Peta Hiku
2 Jason Nightingale
3 Shaun Kenny-Dowall
4 Dean Whare
5 Manu Vatuvei
6 Kieran Foran
7 Shaun Johnson
8 Jesse Bromwich
9 Issac Luke
10 Adam Blair
11 Simon Mannering
12 Kevin Proctor
13 Jason Taumalolo

Interchange
14 Lewis Brown
15 Greg Eastwood
16 Martin Taupau
17 Tohu Harris
18 Gerard Beale
19 Bodene Thompson

Coach: Stephen Kearney

Australia
1 Greg Inglis
2 Josh Mansour
3 Michael Jennings
4 Dylan Walker
5 Sione Mata'utia
6 Daly Cherry-Evans
7 Cooper Cronk
8 Aaron Woods
9 Cameron Smith (c)
10 Josh Papalii
11 Sam Thaiday
12 Greg Bird
13 Corey Parker

Interchange
14 Boyd Cordner
15 Robbie Farah
16 Aidan Guerra
17 Ryan Hoffman
18 Ben Hunt
19 Josh Jackson
20 David Klemmer

Coach: Tim Sheens

 

[Saints1]

Kiwis by 10 on this occasion I think. I don't think the group game was a one off. I've set my digibox to record!

 

[NamWarrior]

what's happened to the kangaroos?

i remember for years they seemed unbeatable

 

[Saints1]

I think they had something like 20 withdrawals for this tournament.

Fantastic game of rugby league, a final deserving of a tournament which has been very tight all the way throughout. I don't think there's any doubt that the best team won.

 

[smartcooky]

I turned 59 this year.

This is the first time that the Kiwis have won back-to-back tests against the Kangaroos in my lifetime.

 

[Bean]

I've seen the Kiwis win about four times and I think I've seen them actually try to win about four times.

 

[RoosTah]

Great game to watch, but the Kangaroos still looked well below their best and I couldn't help but think they were still suffering from the effects of that virus that went through the squad during the week. The World Cup final was a much better representation of their actual ability (a game against a Kiwi team that was better on paper than this one), but well done to the Kiwis all the same - although we still almost stole it at the end there with that clearly flat ball (no massive media outcry though because we haven't seemed to care this year).

 

[Saints1]

It was a dodgy forward pass decision but I don't think he'd grounded it before going into touch anyway.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

I personally thought the grounding was ok, but that the flick pass was forward.

It was a fantastic try if you overlook that though!

 

[Darwin]

Perhaps the ref was just feeling guilty about awarding the previous Australian try that contained two blatant forward passes

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Is it just me or to teams seem to make a lot more ground when they actually pass the ball a bit during regular sets? It almost seems like players are afraid to pass the ball unless it's tackle 4 or 5, when it really seems to be quite effective.

The other thing I notice whenever I watch league is that players always tackle around the upper body, and it usually takes two or three men to bring down the ball carrier. I get that this is partially to prevent offloads but it seems to me that they do this a bit too often, especially given how fearful players seem to be when it comes to offloading the ball. For one of the tries it was a one on one and the defending player tackle the ball carrier around the lower shoulders - unless he completely knocked him off his feet there was no way he was going to stop a try being scored because it was only a couple of metres away from the try line - the defender needed to cut him down around his legs to stop his momentum.

I only watch league rarely, however, so feel free to enlighten me if I'm making erroneous claims

 

[William18]

It was a dodgy forward pass decision but I don't think he'd grounded it before going into touch anyway.

There is a photo floating around which shows he grounded it. Regardless, I was quite outraged at Shaun Johnson being tackled late on every set.

 

[smartcooky]

Great game to watch, but the Kangaroos still looked well below their best and I couldn't help but think they were still suffering from the effects of that virus that went through the squad during the week.

We have a name for that; we call it "The Suzie Factor"

 

[RoosTah]

We have a name for that; we call it "The Suzie Factor"

Haha yeah I remember that well. Was pretty bad though by the sounds - Klemmer apparently lost 5kgs during the week thanks to the virus. He's a big bloke, but that's one nasty bug/

 

[Larksea]

great game, I thought the Kiwis deserved it and to me the only think the Roo's were suffering from was having to tackle Simon Mannering, Jason Taumalolo, Greg Eastwood, Martin Taupau & Tohu Harris in center field on a regular basis.

Brid, Woods, Thaiday and Co. were no match.

And I'm sick of people saying Mannering is an average player. Man he had blinder.

 

[Amobokoboko]

Great game, watched in Vietnam. Really happy with the result.