Sports After Dark

The Junior All Blacks were expected to beat Australia ‘A’ and claim the Pacific Nations Cup, but nobody expected the 50-0 score-line in Dunedin.

On a cold and wet night at Carisbrook the Junior All Blacks put on a display of dominating rugby, punishing any mistakes in a complete performance. By contrast Australia ‘A’ started well but wilted under the relentless pressure from the Juniors and found themselves down by 38 points at half time.

The all around brilliance from the Juniors meant virtually every player stood out, but despite this lock Tom Donnelly shone. New Zealand rugby currently has a number of locks out injured and Donnelly greatly improved his chances of an All Blacks call up. He dominated the line-out and also showed great mobility around the field, making a number of decisive runs with the ball in hand.

First five Stephen Donald also showed his class with a personal haul of 20 points and directed the back-line well.

Donald opened the scoring for the match with a penalty goal in the fourth minute, before Australia ‘A’ launched a prolonged raid into Juniors’ territory. Camped on the Juniors’ goal-line the Australians, unable to cross the line, turned the ball over when prop John Afoa ripped the ball away in a tackle, found Donald who beat two poor tackles while running 95 metres to score under the posts.

The flow of points continued just six minutes later as the Australian defence fell apart allowing Donnelly to score in the right-hand corner.  The pressure on the Australians began to show when Australia ‘A’ fullback Peter Hewat tried to run the ball out of his own in-goal area, as he was tackled near the goal line he threw a suicidal pass which was dived on by Sione Lauaki for the Juniors’ third try.

After a contentious yellow card to Australia ‘A’ prop Nic Henderson, Scott Hamilton scored the fourth try for the Juniors after a break down the blind-side by flanker Jerome Kaino.

Winger Anthony Tuitavake was denied a try just before half time when he was ruled to have knocked the ball on during an in-goal scramble. Tuitavake made up for this miss on the stroke of half time, storming down the left flank through two poor tackle attempts to score.

With the result all but confirmed at half time, the rain returned and the intensity went out of the game. As the game began to lose structure the mistakes became more common and a bit of niggle crept into the game. Australia ‘A’ continued to try hard, but found the black wall of defence impenetrable.

After 18 minutes of the second half the Juniors’ back-line moved up a gear with Sam Tuitupou taking the ball to the line and providing a magical inside ball to Ma’a Nonu who sprinted 30 metres to score. The flood gates threatened to open once again when replacement Daniel Braid scored just two minutes later with his first touch of the ball, but the Australians were able to keep their line intact for the rest of the game.

The only blemish on Donnelly’s performance came just a minute from full time when he was yellow carded for stamping on an opponents leg. While the initial decision by the referee seemed harsh, replayed did Donnelly no favours and he clearly stomped on an Australian leg multiple times.

Australia ‘A’ almost stole a consolation try on the stroke of full time with a pin point accurate cross field kick to flying winger Lachlan Turner, but were denied when supporting players were unable to control the ball.

The poor performance by Australia ‘A’ does not bode well for the depth of Australian rugby going into the Rugby World Cup. Without a deep pool of players, a single injury could derail their cup campaign.

Constrastly, the performance by the Junior All Blacks shows that New Zealand rugby has a great deal of depth. Even without their five top locks, the performance of Donnelly will encourage fans everywhere.

The Junior All Blacks now travel to Tokyo to play Japan in the final round of the Pacific Nations Cup, while Australia ‘A’ play Fiji in Suva.

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The Junior All Blacks claim Pacific Nations Cup by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.