Stuff Digital Edition

The All Blacks’ ‘perfect performance’

It’s been 10 years since the All Blacks ended a 24-year drought by winning the 2011 Rugby World Cup. In a three-part series, Stuff is looking back at each of their playoff triumphs from that momentous, nerve-racking tournament on home soil. Following the

Aaron Goile aaron.goile@stuff.co.nz

ithin all of three seconds of referee Craig Joubert blowing time on, all the momentum of the semifinals is handed to the All Blacks, and a packed-in 60,000-plus at Eden Park are laying it on thick to Public Enemy No 1.

Quade Cooper – the New Zealandborn Wallabies first five-eighth is the guilty party, having made the most incongruous of errors by sending the kickoff, to this most massive of matches out, on the full.

The 34-test playmaker is coming off a shocker in the contentious 11-9 quarterfinal win over the Springboks in Wellington, and his off-the-ball antics over the past two seasons against All Blacks captain Richie McCaw – including just seven weeks prior when kneeing him in the head in Brisbane – have Kiwis baying, and booing.

As for the 15 men in black in the middle, that one kick definitely spurs them into action for their 20-6 win, with flanker Jerome Kaino noting there was one man in particular who was pumping up the troops.

‘‘Playing alongside someone like Brad Thorn in a semifinal, man, he was the most vocal for us in that game, just encouraging the boys, chahooing every now and then,’’ Kaino tells Stuff.

‘‘When you get a legend like that driving you through a World Cup semifinal, that was incredible. So when Quade kicked that out on the full, he got really excited, he was barking at the boys like, ‘Come on, let’s go now’. It definitely got me going.’’

From the resulting scrum, Piri Weepu sends a brilliant kick to the corner which Cooper has to helplessly watch roll into touch, and the tone is well and truly set.

And less than five minutes later, the All Blacks have their reward, in what turns out to be the only try of the match.

Israel Dagg, back after missing the quarterfinal against Argentina with a thigh injury, has already made one great run, now this time produces a piece of magic in dummying past Anthony Fainga’a, fending off Rocky Elsom, then, in the tackle of Cooper, splendidly offloading from the ground for Ma’a Nonu to dive over.

‘‘Probably my favourite moment in my career, actually,’’ Dagg says to Stuff in reflecting on that pass, in a match which, from a team perspective, he rates as ‘‘the perfect performance’’.

‘‘We just nailed it, everything came off perfectly, and that was probably the most complete game that I’ve ever played in.’’

Ironically, it’s a test Dagg could have easily missed – on two counts.

Firstly, had Mils Muliaina not injured a shoulder in the quarterfinal, the veteran was likely to have got the nod. Secondly, Dagg’s off-field antics the week before, in conjunction with Cory Jane, when the pair went on a latenight booze session, which a few years later was revealed to have also involved sleeping pills, had him already walking on eggshells.

‘‘I had the whole weight of a nation on my shoulders,’’ Dagg remembers. ‘‘I nearly went out and ruined it for the whole country, made a stupid decision.

‘‘But that aside, I had an opportunity to go out there and prove to my family and my mates that were there for me, and guys that had been working towards this goal for a very long time, that I really cared about them.

‘‘I had pressure, but I knew I had the

game. And it probably gave me that added tool to actually go out there and go really hard. Nothing was going to stop me from playing well and just nailing my job. That was my moment.’’

And so with Dagg’s brilliant try assist, it’s just the start to calm the nerves of a nation.

So many times before had the All Blacks stumbled in these crunch World Cup games, and, with the massive added expectation of playing on home turf, and superstar first five-eighth Dan Carter already invalided out of the tournament, the players sure know the magnitude of this one, against their trans-Tasman foes.

‘‘I just remember it being really intense that week,’’ Kaino says.

‘‘I think we’d just built it up so much. ‘‘Before the game, waiting for the bus, usually we’d be able to hear guys talking, having a coffee, but waiting for the team meeting, I remember it being dead silent in the room and in the corridors of the Heritage Hotel.

‘‘I just remember guys getting into their own zones and I could just feel how important it was to everyone and how on edge everyone was. For me, it was just a relief to get out and start

warming up and getting closer to kickoff because sitting around wasn’t doing us any good.’’

After his forgettable opening, Cooper goes on to make some more big blunders. In the end, he actually produces some great stuff, too – finishing top of the game for defenders beaten (5) and offloads (4) – but midway through the first half, he’s a mistake magnet.

A dropped high ball sees Thorn then give him a smack to the face, before Richard Kahui produces a huge tackle on his fellow Tokoroa product. Soon after, Cooper produces an awful chip and chase effort and less than 30 seconds later he hoofs a ball out on the full. Late on, Sonny Bill Williams is shown a yellow card for a shoulder charge on the No 10, then Kahui repeats his dose by bundling him into touch to end the game.

For all of this physical and psychological torment, though, the 23-year-old is not a target as such for the men in black.

‘‘There wasn’t any sledging, and to be honest with you, I don’t think Quade Cooper came into discussions during

the week,’’ Kaino says. ‘‘We just wanted to make sure that we focused on our strengths and what would work for us, instead of getting sidetracked into that kind of stuff. Because we knew there was chat about it in the media and in the public that week, and even before that.’’

The All Blacks are dominant, but with cult hero Weepu (4/8) not able to replicate the sort of goalkicking form from the two games prior, they never stretch their lead as much as they could.

Aaron Cruden – having been a late injury call-up and coming off the bench against the Pumas – is pulling the strings superbly from No 10, kicking beautifully to space and not being afraid to take on the line, as even later call-up Stephen Donald watches from the bench, unused.

Cruden knocks over a drop goal, before Cooper replies with one of his own, and the home side go to halftime ahead 14-6.

In a match which the All Blacks uncharacteristically get outrun with the ball – 413 metres to 202 – the aerial battle is proving critical, and the All Blacks’ ‘bomb squad’ – as they were

nicknamed by assistant coach Wayne Smith – are coming up trumps in their diffusal, Jane particularly outstanding.

‘‘We kicked a lot, especially around halfway,’’ Dagg says. ‘‘We knew Quade and James O’Connor were at the back, and we knew we had a good chase line that were very good in the air. So every time we saw one of those players, we’d try and put a bomb up and test them out.

‘‘We knew they were coming to us, so we’d put one back to them. And lucky for us, we caught everything, and they didn’t, we put them under pressure.’’

In the end, two Weepu penalty goals – half an hour apart – are the only scoring of the second stanza, and it’s the All Blacks’ defence which comes up trumps, proving a suffocating force on the game-chasing Australians.

Among several eye-catching defensive plays is Kaino’s first-quarter effort on the dangerous Digby Ioane, where, near his own tryline, he manhandles the winger backwards.

‘‘I just remember seeing him, I was tracking backwards, I didn’t know what I was going to do and how I was going to do it, I just wrapped my arms around

him and planted my foot and dragged him back,’’ Kaino recalls. ‘‘To be honest with you, I’ve never practised a tackle like that, ever. It just happened so quickly. But I’m glad it did happen.’’

Kaino also recalls just how much focus the team had put into its breakdown play in preparation for that semifinal. Through the tournament and also the Tri-Nations beforehand, they had seen just how influential Wallabies No 7 David Pocock was able to be.

‘‘He was just incredible, and no breakdown was safe with him. And we saw in the quarterfinal against South Africa how he just controlled the game there.

‘‘We put a huge emphasis on our forward pack to make sure we got dominance and we helped Aaron Cruden through that period, that we didn’t put all the pressure on him to drive the team. We wanted to make sure that the forward pack allowed him to play his natural game.’’

All of this with McCaw – their leader of the pack, quite literally – sending a few jitters through team-mates by pulling back on some contact work that week due to that troublesome foot injury – which of course later turned

Sport

en-nz

2021-10-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-16T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282037625351790

Stuff Limited