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Sat 18 Oct 2014 | 02:29
All Blacks snatch victory at the death in thrilling Brisbane Test

42
Comments

The All Blacks came from behind to break Wallaby hearts in Brisbane and claim a dramatic 29-28 victory at Suncorp Stadium. To add to the misery, it was revealed post match that Wallaby head coach Ewen McKenzie has resigned with immediate effect.

In what was another classic match between the two sides, the Wallabies came within minutes of a famous victory over the world champions, and what would have been back to back losses for Bledisloe Cup holders.

Their late comback, sealed with a Malakai Fekitoa try and Colin Slade conversion, put an end to what should have been a momentous occasion for 100th Test cap earner, Adam Ashley-Cooper.

The centurion crossed for one of the Wallabies three tries, while the All Blacks scored four of their own, and came back from being 25-15 down. Aaron Smith brought them closer and then with the clock ticking down, and the score 28-22 in favour of the home side, the match looked out of reach.

Eventually impressive centre Fekitoa crossed, giving Slade, who is now the fourth choice flyhalf in New Zealand, and opportunity to slot the conversion and win the match, with time up.

After the match it was announced that coach McKenzie, who has been under immense pressure of late with the Kurtley Beale issues and speculation about his relationship with the team's former business manager, has resigned.

"I did not ask Ewen to resign, but understand his decision. He informed me this morning of his intention to resign, regardless of tonight’s result," said Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver.

"We sincerely wish Ewen well for the future professionally and personally."

The Wallabies leave this coming Friday for a testing end of year tour that sees them face the Barbarians, then Wales, France, Ireland and England. So they have a busy week of planning ahead.

"We hope to have the new Head Coach in place before the team leaves for the Spring Tour on Friday," added Pulver, who hinted that media pressure is what caused McKenzie to resign.

"Criteria for the role includes identifying a coach who can lead us to victory in next year’s Rugby World Cup; represents Rugby’s core values; has the support of the playing group; and is available."

Availability might turn out to be the most important factor over the next few days.

Posted By: Grant Constable

42 Comments

  • matt
    5:08 PM 27/10/2014

    I don't think any of those are grounds to chase a head coach out of office.

    Link won 11 from 22, and drew at least one. So that isn't a losing record. And is better than most in the last decade, you know, kind of exactly like I said.

    He can criticise whoever he wants. He wasn't part of the national set up at the time.

    Who gives a shit where he sits during half time? You don't have to like it.

    He has to ignore some combos or the starting team would be made up of 60 odd players. Just because they aren't the ones you liked doesn't mean he should go.

    Beale has played plenty at 10, this isn't like he brought back Matt Dunning to do it.

    The Higginbottom and Cooper things are weird, granted.

    He probably knew a shitload of stuff that we were all missing. Things didn't get rough, they got untenable for a person to continue with.

  • danknapp
    8:49 PM 24/10/2014

    Thanks me, that made myself laugh.

  • drg
    10:19 AM 23/10/2014

    @ Dan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8WAoTm4jxc

    0:14 onwards...

  • danknapp
    9:21 AM 23/10/2014

    Thankfully RDs software hasn't detected that I am also in fact DrG, canadiancontent and Facepalm.

    Bwuahahahah- oh.

  • straightenup
    7:58 AM 23/10/2014

    It was Coles' run at the line and offload in the tackle that gave Crotty the final try against Ireland last year. He also scored late against the Boks to put NZ in front and almost snatch the game. I've seen some comment that he's barely up to scratch in the set pieces, but in the loose he's dynamite and I don't see any real problems in the NZ scrum right now that would make me think twice about starting him.

  • eddie-g
    4:01 PM 22/10/2014

    Coles is quick. Very exciting player, as if NZ need any more of those.

  • jeri
    1:15 PM 22/10/2014

    The thing is Wallabies was amazing only 4 years ago. Going into the RWC2011, Dean's pack was a solid no.2 behind the ABs, they have a winning record against the Springboks (under Peter de Villiers), and they easily have the best backline of the tri-nations.

    Will Genia was arguably the best no.9 in the world at the time (against Fourie du Preez), Quade Cooper was on form, Drew Mitchell, Digby Ioane, and JOC were all strong at wings, and ACC was just as awesome back then.

    If they didn't start off woefully by losing to Ireland, history may well have been quite different

  • jeri
    12:51 PM 22/10/2014

    HAHAHAHA busted! Poetic justice

  • jeri
    12:50 PM 22/10/2014

    I just re-checked, sure enough the final try was scored at 81:20. I stand corrected.

    "It takes 82 minutes to beat the All Blacks."

  • joeythelemur
    6:21 PM 21/10/2014

    How about Dane Cole's try? Really didn't expect that kind of step and pace from the big guy.

  • 3:57 PM 21/10/2014

    Uhh, link had a losing record. If that's success than your standards are low.

    I didn't like when;

    He criticized deans while he was at the Reds

    His halftime chairs on the field

    His ignoring the successful super rugby combos

    His playing of Beale at 10

    His ignoring of higginbottom

    His appointment of cooper as a vice captain.

    These decisions made him appear arrogant to me. Like he knew something everyone else was missing. Then when things got rough, he packed up his toys and went home. But in the end, Oz,a team I have no great love for (outside the badger) is better off.

    I do hope this once great rugby nation gets its shit back together, I do think the return of pocock will help. He's a man of great character and they need that now.

  • flanker2712
    12:31 AM 21/10/2014

    Kudos to Issak.

    Unless he is in fact the same person.

  • eddie-g
    8:34 PM 20/10/2014

    This is true. And I'd expand it to say that pretty much regardless of the match-situation, they have a capacity for an outrageous score. Thinking of the SA-NZ match recently, Fekitoa again scored a try completely against the run of play.

    Anyway, the rule of thumb is that you have to be more than 7 points clear at 80 minutes to be sure of beating this lot. They are something else.

  • 10stonenumber10
    8:21 PM 20/10/2014

    That's the thing about New Zealand. No matter what you throw at them, they have the capacity for a stupendously heroic last minute score.

    "It ain't over til it's over." - Balboa, R.

  • reality
    6:02 PM 20/10/2014

    Isaak, I thought you were just being paranoid making that claim, but in the end it turns out that you're a genius. Fair play.

  • eddie-g
    4:46 PM 20/10/2014

    It sounds like the ARU knew MacKenzie had to go. Not sure exactly why, but clearly the latest Kurtley Beale business brought things to a head. I don't think there was an ideal time to leave, but at least by leaving before the NH tour, a new coach has a little time to begin rebuilding.

    To my eyes, there's good reason for belief. When David Pocock comes back as captain, and if Genia and/or Cooper find some form, suddenly there's a good deal of talent and experience competing for key positions.

    And looking even further ahead... if they win their tough WC group, they avoid NZ and SA until the final. They need a good coach, but I'd say it's a pretty plum job still. And sounds like it will be Cheika if the Tahs sign off.

    Still a little surprised MacKenzie came up short as head coach, he was excellent at the Reds while managing some difficult characters there, so can't imagine he'll have too much difficulty finding a new job. And perhaps one day he'll explain why it wrong this past year.

  • jimmy23
    3:16 PM 20/10/2014

    3 separate trolling accounts on one page? You really don't do much with your life do you?

  • straightenup
    1:13 PM 20/10/2014

    That'll be disappointing for the four people that Liked it. Although two of them were probably NZ_Dan and kiwi_for_life. Maybe the others were Haka_Harry and luv_U_richie.

  • straightenup
    12:45 PM 20/10/2014

    I hear what you're saying, but in the case of a quick tap it just opens a huge can of worms. How do you decide exactly where the spot was? If it's for going off your feet then the general area of the infringement could be over a metre wide, where do you make the mark? How close to this mark (once it's figured out) does the TMO need the kick to have been taken to be called legit? Exactly and precisely on or behind it, within a metre, more? What if the quick kick is taken 25 or 40 metres out and leads directly to a try, can you still challenge it? How many minutes should the game stop to sort it all out? No, best to leave the marking of the spot to the ref.

  • matt
    12:25 PM 20/10/2014

    I don't think Mackenzie or Deans had to go. They've been your two most successful coaches in almost 15 years. Why are you so keen to bin them?
    A little bit of patience, and a greater willingness to get rid of trouble makers should be enough to allow either of them to put together a winning squad.

  • 12:12 PM 20/10/2014

    Mackenzie had to go, but his timing to do so on his own terms I illustrates why. The week before the tour to play your rwc opponents? C'mon! This guy was all about himself, which seems to be a bit of an ozZie rugby culture problem. What happened to the amazing teams of the 90s and their focus on each other and winning? Sad really.

  • rugbydump
    12:08 PM 20/10/2014

    Isaak, you're correct. kiwi_for_life, Vancouver_Cannucks and NZ_Dan are all made by the same person.

    Just leaving this here for now so you can see it, but the comments will all be removed shortly.

  • 12:08 PM 20/10/2014

    That penalty was from about the same angle as the winning convert. Just goes to show the difference between NZ and Ireland, much is in the head. And I'm an Irish supporter!

  • 10:22 AM 20/10/2014

    you're right of course, but I think the point James is making is that sometimes the ref can get it wrong and a captains challenge might be useful to point it out.
    Of course like tennis there should be a strict limit on how many challenges per half each captain has.

  • 10:18 AM 20/10/2014

    I'm irish and was gutted with the loss but I don't think there was a forward pass to be fair, it was flat at best but came back out of the hands.

    We only have ourselves to blame, missed penalty and inability to cleanly hold possesion for another 20seconds cost us the game.

    Fair play to the all blacks, they made the most out of very little

  • 10:16 AM 20/10/2014

    actually after 80 mins we were still ahead! Oh the agony!

    Have to appreciate the All Blacks though, I don't think there's another team in any sport that shows the same consistancy

  • straightenup
    5:28 AM 20/10/2014

    The kick was taken maybe 4 or 5 metres to the right of the ruck, in fact about where Joubert was standing when he gave the advantage. Smith ran towards the mark waiting for Joubert to say OK and I'm sure you can hear the ref say "Yes" just before Smith kicks it. All the Wallabies in the area are offside because they haven't gone back to the line but Smith makes his way through them and scores. The ref decides where the mark is and after an advantage it is seldom exact. Australia were caught out. I don't think there's too much to complain about there.

  • straightenup
    5:06 AM 20/10/2014

    I think you're right Isaak. Cannucks likes the underscores, and kiwis don't say "beat so bad" they say "beaten", and the posts are 3 minutes apart and both have multiple dots linking phrases. Pathetic trolling V_C.

  • ando
    9:05 PM 19/10/2014

    Was never really a fan of McKenzie as coach, but nonetheless sad to see him quit in such circumstances. Wallabies are a mess! Still, with all that going on they took it to the best team in the world and almost snatched a deserved win, so there's still some hope...

  • larry
    7:32 PM 19/10/2014

    And they should have won. A penalty kick was missed that would have put the Irish up by enough points that the All Black would have lost, because there was only a few minutes left, but enough time for the All Blacks to work their way down the pitch (and it really helped that a forward pass wasn't called in one of the phases of play close to the Irish goal line).

  • larry
    7:29 PM 19/10/2014

    One of the tries really impressed me, where the player being tackled kept the ball alive and passed it off as he was hitting the ground. Lots of times the tackled player just goes to ground meaning another ruck, and the possibility of a static ruck being formed in which the defense reorganizes itself. There was plenty of quick ball in this game. The other try that was impressive was the Aussie number 7 taking on his tackler and keeping his feet until he was close to the goal line, and the number 10 was right there to snag the ball and dive over.
    The end was very similar to the Ireland match last year. In that one it looked like a forward pass was missed by the ref, and the All Blacks scored. Not this time, at least from the highlight vid. I'd like to see what happened in the minutes before that got the All Blacks deep in the Aussie's territory with time running out.

  • vladimir
    12:58 PM 19/10/2014

    and the number of Tahs players in the squad. But will he leave the succesful team he raised so well?

  • katman
    12:14 PM 19/10/2014

    This was a great game to watch. Test match rugby is alive and kicking.

  • jeri
    11:31 AM 19/10/2014

    So what do you guys reckon for Wallabies? Michael Cheika or Jake White? I'd prefer White for his experience coaching a test team, but ARU may pick Cheika as coach simply because he's Australian

  • drg
    10:22 AM 19/10/2014

    Irish were pretty close fairly recently no?

  • jimmy23
    10:17 AM 19/10/2014

    What a game. I would never normally say this but gutted for Aus, they deserved to win that one. That first ABs try just shows that if you switch off for a second the ABs will snap up the opportunity. The closing stages makes it clear that fitness plays a huge part in beating the ABs.
    On the plus side, England won't have to face the "lost two games in a row and will reign hellfire on the next team" ABs. See you at twickers.

  • desertcolt07
    9:49 AM 19/10/2014

    Lol auto correct.

  • desertcolt07
    9:45 AM 19/10/2014

    Aussie player at 110% mayb 120% of their best...in contrast the aLloyd blacks played around 75% of theirs.

  • jeri
    8:59 AM 19/10/2014

    It was a very intense game, and nail-biting to the finish. The Wallabies played well and even dominated the ABs in the scrums a couple of times.

    But as the Irish will tell you, it takes 80 minutes to beat the All Blacks

  • facepalm
    1:33 AM 19/10/2014

    I understand the media pressure but what is McKenzie thinking? Who on earth is going to become the Wallabies coach so close to the world cup, Cheika? A nation with an incredible set of players and an incredible team has done an incredible job of fucking up.

  • finedisregard
    8:02 PM 18/10/2014

    AB's squeak one against a disintegrating Australian side. Clearly NZ isn't unbeatable.

    So long McKenzie. One backline player with a bad attitude and a rabid press have ruined what should have been a great tenure. I'm not sure any other team (save the Boks) could get as close to NZ.

    Oh well, good luck to whomever takes over the Wallabies!

  • alasdairduncan3
    6:10 PM 18/10/2014

    Looked like a great match, and so close. NZ not looking quite as imperious at the moment!

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