By Richard Cowley, Date: 3/5/14
What can I say, every Aussie and his dog was out telling anyone who would listen that the Anzac test against New Zealand was going to be a one sided flogging. With the amount of negativity that came out of the Sydney media in the lead-up to the game I was surprised that anyone turned up to the game at all let alone 25,000.
Just imagine if for once the insular Sydney media actually got behind international rugby league. I know it’s hard to comprehend. Why would people who make their bread and butter out of commenting on rugby league in Sydney actually say something positive about it? Anyway that might be a question to answer another day.
Kearney’s Kiwis really gave it to the critics on Friday night. Someone forgot to tell New Zealand that they were supposed to lay down and let the Aussies sail through. The Kiwis with rookies and all really gave it to the Aussies. The Kiwis went into half time leading the Aussies 18 – 12. Yes that’s right the New Zealand team written off as one of the worse in years went into half time ahead of the other team classed as the best in the world. Only if rugby league was a game of one half.
As Australia always do they came back and evened it up mid-way through the 2nd half. Then the usual late flurry of tries from Australia took the game out of the Kiwis grasp. You could tell the New Zealand team were dirty that they let the game slip away. They really wanted to win this test.
So Australia made history with their 16th win in a row equalling a record set by the Kangaroos between 1979-83. Not to take anything away from the current Kangaroos but back then Australia didn’t play the likes of Fiji and Ireland in sanctioned international tests.
So now we will need to wait until the end of year Four Nations to see if the Kiwis can take it up one more level and if the Poms have benefited from having more and more players gain experience playing in the NRL. The Four Nations will also see a new Nation join the series with the winner of tonight’s game between Fiji and Samoa deciding the fourth nation in the Four Nations.
For more information on tonight’s game between Fiji and Samoa click here
AUSTRALIA 30 – Tries: B Morris 2, G Bird, C Cronk, G Inglis, Goals: J Thurston 5.
NEW ZEALAND 18 – Tries: J Bromwich, T Harris, S Moa, Goals: Johnson 3.
Allianz Stadium – Moore Park.
Crowd: 25,429.
