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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darwin" data-source="post: 350804" data-attributes="member: 24910">My thoughts on the game (though possibly clouded by the 9 hours of drinking before the game started....)I thought Aussie deserved to win the game.  NZ have been winning all the close games between the two sides over the last few years, so I hope (from a NZ perspective) that Aussie haven't gotten over that mental hurdle they seemed to have had against the AB's!  Goal kicking almost cost Australia again, luckily (for them) they made the correct decision to change their goalkicker after Giteau and Beale had missed a few.  I think goalkicking is an area they really need to sort out.  Giteau can be very good on his day, but seems prone to having the odd match where he is terrible with the boot - I wonder whether now is the time to give O'Conner the goalkicking full time, as he seems to strike the ball well, and certainly handled the pressure well in this game.Scrums were a bit of a mess - I couldn't work out whether this was down to the poor condition of the turf, or the inadequate refereeing (the ridiculously long pause that Cymro alluded to), though I expect it may have been a combination of both.  The breakdown was interesting - Pocock was sublime, but it he didn't get that much support from his fellow loosies, whereas the AB's loose-trio worked better collectively.  If Australia can keep there trio together for another year they will possibly develop into a trio as effective as the NZ loosies, but at the moment they seemed to be playing more as three individuals.  McCaw, Kaino and Read were possibly the pick of the NZ players to me - I love the way McCaw has developed his running game in recent years, he seems almost impossible to bring down at times.I thought Cowan had one of his best games of the year, while Carter controlled the game well when he was on the field.  Nonu was probably the most threatening NZ back, but he did make a few errors.  NZ were let down by there back reserves (Donald & Toeava), though this has been well covered already.  Quade Cooper had an ok game for Australia - he looked like breaking the line on more than a few occasions, but he did kick the ball out on the full a couple of times, and did miss a few tackles.  AAC again scored a great try against NZ - he always seems to pull out strong games against the AB's.  I was really impressed James O'Conner - he had a couple of shockers against the AB's last year, but seems to have really grown as a player with the experience he has gained.  He still seems a bit wasted to me on the wing - I'd love to see what he could do at 12 for the Wallabies.</blockquote>

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