Moore try helps Wallabies to victory

A 72nd minute try from replacement hooker Stephen Moore helped Australia to a 31-28 win over the Barbarians at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

With Taqele Naiyaravoro and Quade Cooper in the sin-bin, the Barbarians couldn't hold Australia out as they recovered to seal the victory.

There is concern for head coach Michael Cheika though as Lukhan Tui (hamstring) and Jack Dempsey (knee) both left the field and are now in doubt ahead of the Wallabies' tour to Japan and Europe.  Cheika will hope they can recover in time as both have been in impressive form.

The Barbarians led 21-12 at half-time thanks to tries from Andrew Ready, Naiyaravoro and Tom Banks, with Duncan Paia'aua and Henry Speight hitting back for the Wallabies, who knew they were in a contest against the invitational side that included several international players.

Australia moved 24-21 in front when tries from flank Dempsey and fly-half Paia'aua in the 53rd and 61st minute got them on the front foot.

But Naiyaravoro nudged the Barbarians back in front before those yellow cards led to Moore driving over from a maul to secure the victory.

The scorers:

For Australia:
Tries:  Paia'aua 2, Speight, Dempsey, Moore
Cons:  Paia'aua 3

For Barbarians:
Tries:  Ready, Naiyaravoro 2, Banks
Cons:  Cooper 4
Yellow Cards:  Naiyaravoro, Cooper

Australia:  15 Karmichael Hunt, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Samu Kerevi, 12 Billy Meakes, 11 Israel Folau, 10 Duncan Paia'aua, 9 Nick Phipps (c), 8 Lopeti Timani, 7 Jack Dempsey, 6 Ned Hanigan, 5 Lukhan Tui, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Jordan Uelese, 1 Tom Robertson
Replacements:  16 Stephen Moore, 17 Tetera Faulkner, 18 Jermaine Ainsley, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Ben McCalman, 21 Joe Powell, 22 Curtis Rona, 23 Izaia Perese

Barbarians:  15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Taqele Naiyaravoro, 13 Tom Banks, 12 George Moala, 11 Eto Nabuli, 10 Quade Cooper (c), 9 Augustine Pulu, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Matt Hodgson, 6 Isi Naisarani, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Andrew Ready, 1 Pekahou Cowan
Replacements:  16 Anaru Rangi, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Salesi Manu, 19 Matt Philip, 20 Kane Koteka, 21 Theo Strang, 22 Sam Greene, 23 Andrew Kellaway

Referee:  Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
Assistant referees:  Jamie Nutbrown (New Zealand), James Leckie (Australia)
TMO:  Aaron Paterson (New Zealand)

Wallabies stun All Blacks in Brisbane

The Wallabies claimed a 23-18 win in the third and final Bledisloe Cup Test of the year at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday.

Australia have ended a six-game winless drought against the All Blacks.  All the hard work by Michael Cheika and his coaching staff in holding an extended training camp prior to the Rugby Championship has paid off.

It gives Wallabies fans something to smile about after a torrid season for Australian rugby which saw their Super Rugby sides go winless against New Zealand opposition for the entire duration of the campaign and which saw the bad blood surrounding the Force’s axing.

Although the Bledisloe Cup had already been won the All Blacks, both sides were definitely not treating the match as a dead rubber, playing with the usual ferocity and passion accompanied with these clashes in the past.

The field was very slippery after inclement weather for 12 hours prior to the game.  This didn’t stop both sides from throwing the ball around but did result in a number of handling errors making it a rather stop-start first-half.

However, the game remained entertaining as referee Wayne Barnes allowed good advantage and both sides must be commended for persisting with their running games despite the poor conditions.

The Wallabies stunned the All Blacks against the run of play with the game’s opening try when Reece Hodge pounced to intercept after a set-piece move from the All Blacks went wrong from an attacking scrum in Wallabies territory.  Despite the scrum wheeling to the right, Aaron Smith persisted in going left putting his fly-half Lima Sopoaga under immense pressure whose errant pass was intercepted by Hodge who ran coast-to-coast to dot down between the sticks.  Bernard Foley converted for a six-minute 7-0 lead.

But the All Blacks responded eight minutes later.  From a 10-metre attacking lineout out on the left touchline, they took the ball through nine phases spanning the width of the field before Smith fired a skip pass wide for Waisake Naholo to run on to over the whitewash untouched just within the field of the play on the right touchline.  Sopoaga added the extras to level matters on the scoreboard.

And Sopoaga who was having a good game with his kicking in the tough conditions, gave the All Blacks the lead at 10-7 for the first time in the game when his 45-metre penalty sailed over after the All Blacks had done well to counter-ruck and win the penalty from the Wallabies.

And the All Blacks number 10 extended the lead to six points at 13-7 with another penalty after Wallabies flanker Jack Dempsey was penalised for offside.

However, it was the Wallabies who had the last laugh of the first-half when Israel Folau got on the inside of Naholo after Kurtley Beale’s pass had stretched the All Blacks defence after 12 phases between forwards and backs with Dempsey and Michael Hooper heavily involved.  Foley missed the conversion as the Wallabies trailed 13-12 at the break.  Folau became only the third Wallaby to score against the All Blacks in three consecutive Tests.

The stop-start nature of the game reared its head once again after the interval with plenty of knock-ons stifling the flow of the game with the only real chance of the opening ten minutes a penalty that was badly shanked by Foley whose record of one from three looked like it might come back to haunt the Wallabies.

Wallabies skipper Hooper’s decision to go for touch was vindicated when from the attacking lineout on the right touchline the ball was switched out on to the left touchline to Folau who did well to draw his defender before feeding Marika Koroibete who had too much power in his one on one with Damian McKenzie to stay within the field of play and crash over.

Hodge added a good penalty from out wide on the left touchline in the 63rd minute to extend the Wallabies’ lead to seven points at 20-13.

The All Blacks started to keep hold of the ball better and put together the phases working the ball out to the left wing.  Sonny Bill Williams produced the moment of individual brilliance to unlock the Wallabies defence in typical style with an offload to Kieran Read who showed good hands to release Rieko Ioane who had to much pace for the covering Sean McMahon.  With Sopoaga off the park, McKenzie missed the conversion meaning the All Blacks still trailed by two at 20-18.

Hodge then showed great composure to boot a monster 50 metre penalty and eat up some time in the process making it a five point lead as the Wallabies held on for an historic 23-18 win.

The scorers:

For Australia:
Tries:  Hodge, Folau, Koroibete
Con:  Foley
Pens:  Hodge 2

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Naholo, Ioane
Con:  Sopoaga
Pens:  Sopoaga 2

Australia:  15 Israel Folau, 14 Marika Koroibete, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Reece Hodge, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia, 8 Sean McMahon, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Jack Dempsey, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 2 Scott Sio.
Replacements:  16 Stephen Moore, 17 Tom Robertson, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Lukhan Tui, 20 Ned Hanigan, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Samu Kerevi, 23 Henry Speight

New Zealand:  15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Ryan Crotty, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Lima Sopoaga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Liam Squire, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 3 Nepo Laulala, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Kane Hames.
Replacements:  16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 19 Patrick Tuipulotu, 20 Matt Todd, 21 Thomas Perenara, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 David Havili

Date:  Saturday, October 21
Venue:  Suncorp Stadium, Australia
Kick-off:  19:05 local(09:05 GMT)
Referee:  Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees:  Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa), Egon Seconds (South Africa)
TMO:  Marius Jonker (South Africa

Wallabies get maximum, finish above Springboks

Australia secured second spot in the Rugby Championship as they beat Argentina 37-20 at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas on Saturday.

Tries from Marika Koroibete, Reece Hodge (2), Bernard Foley and Will Genia saw them to the five points as they finish one point ahead of the Springboks and 13 behind champions New Zealand, who ended with five wins from five.

The Pumas are bottom of the pile as despite a spirited performance that saw Matias Alemanno and Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias score, it was loss number five for them, ending another dismal campaign in the southern hemisphere.

In an entertaining opening 40 minutes there was nothing to separate the sides as they went into the break locked up at 13 points apiece.

Argentina were chasing their first win of the Rugby Championship campaign while Australia only had one themselves, plus two draws.

Foley put his side in front on 15 minutes after the home side infringed in front of their posts, but he was off-target soon after with a sitter.

Fortunately for the Wallabies they made amends in perfect style a minute later when Koroibete finished well down the left from 30 metres out.  Again though Foley couldn't add points to the tally although this was a much more difficult attempt from the touchline.  Australia were 8-0 up.

On 25 minutes the Pumas suddenly clicked and a series of strong carries led to Alemanno barging his way over near the uprights for seven.  Argentina looked confident at this point and edged in front with a Nicolas Sanchez penalty, after Michael Hooper went off his feet at a ruck.

However, the hosts switched off on 34 minutes to allow Hodge to have a simple run in from eight metres out that put Australia 13-10 up.

Sanchez would level matters off the tee four minutes later before team-mate Joaquin Tuculet rightly had his try chalked off for a knock-on.  That meant the teams went into their respective dressing room with honours even on the scoreboard which was a fair reflection of the half.

Foley's night didn't improve from the tee upon his return as he missed another attempt on 45 minutes, this time following a scrum offence.

The Wallabies were now desperately hunting a try as their next form of score, proved by their decision to snub three points from in front in favour of a scrum.  It paid off with Foley throwing a dummy and slicing through to make it 20-13 for a try he thoroughly enjoyed of course.

But the lead was shortlived as a solid Pumas scrum set-piece led to Iglesias cutting back inside to go in near the posts to level matters.

Australia though just seemed the more likely to cut loose in the final quarter and so it proved with a slick move off the back of a lineout seeing Hodge bust through near halfway before finding Genia on his shoulder.  The Wallabies were looking strong with a bonus-point in sight.

However they couldn't shake off the Pumas, who were denied a try from Juan Martin Hernandez because of an earlier forward pass.  That was compounded soon after when Marcos Kremer was yellow carded for a tip tackle that meant they'd end the game down to 14 players.

Foley also added to Argentina's woes by extending the lead to 10 points following Kremer's indiscretion, leaving them with plenty to do.  And it proved far too much with the Wallabies in fact putting the seal on an impressive victory with a bonus-point try coming from Hodge on the left.

The scorers:

For Argentina:
Tries:  Alemanno, Iglesias
Cons:  Sanchez 2
Pens:  Sanchez 2
Yellow Card:  Kremer

For Australia:
Tries:  Koroibete, Hodge 2, Foley, Genia
Cons:  Foley 3
Pens:  Foley 2

Argentina:  15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Matias Moroni, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Tomas Lezana, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Marcos Kremer, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustin Creevy (c), 1 Lucas Noguera Paz
Replacements:  16 Julian Montoya, 17 Santiago Garcia Botta, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Banjamin Macome, 20 Leonardo Senatore, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Juan Martin Hernandez, 23 Santiago Cordero

Australia:  15 Israel Folau, 14 Marika Koroibete, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Reece Hodge, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia, 8 Sean McMahon, 7 Michael Hooper (c), 6 Jack Dempsey, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Izack Rodda, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Scott Sio
Replacements:  16 Stephen Moore, 17 Tetera Faulkner, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 Lukhan Tui, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Samu Kerevi, 23 Henry Speight

Referee:  Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant referees:  Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
TMO:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)

All Blacks squeeze past Springboks

The All Blacks finished with a perfect Rugby Championship record as they secured a 25-24 win over the Springboks at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.

The first half saw opportunities but good last-ditch defending from both sides was on show, especially the Boks who kept the All Blacks relatively quiet and just conceded the one try in the opening 40.

The Boks successfully managed to unsettle the All Blacks at the contact and breakdown area with Malcolm Marx and Pieter-Steph du Toit especially good on the ground.  This saw the All Blacks conceding a number of penalties.  In fact, hooker Marx made an incredible four turnovers.

The All Blacks were lucky to win in the end as the Boks actually had them under pressure for large periods of the second half but were unable to turn that dominance into enough points and in the end the All Blacks showed they are just more clinical and able to win games ugly when being second-best.

South Africa won a penalty in the ninth minute when All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock was penalised for having hands in the ruck.  Springbok fly-half Elton Jantjies slotted the penalty between the posts for a 3-0 lead.

All Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett responded with a penalty just two minutes later.  But this was the only action of the first quarter.

Jantjies missed an easy chance to put the Boks back into the lead after Sam Cane was guilty of going offside.

The game was brought sparkling to life on the half-hour mark as Barrett's kick-through was well chased down by All Blacks centre Ryan Crotty who dotted down to give the All Blacks an 8-3 lead with Barrett missing the resulting conversion.

The Boks applied persistent pressure after the interval and were rewarded with scrum-half Ross Cronje dotting down on the base of the post after 14 sweeping phases.  Jantjies put the home side 10-8 in the lead with the conversion.

The Springboks continued to dominate but were unlucky to trail when completely against the run of play, Rieko Ioane pounced on a loose Bok pass and had the pace to outsprint the opposition defence all the way from deep in his own 22.  Lima Sopoaga added the extras to give the All Blacks a five-point buffer at 15-10.

But the Boks weren't to be denied as finally they had tangible reward for their pressure when substitute Jean-Luc du Preez crossed the whitewash after fellow substitute Handre Pollard did well to get his hands free in the tackle, offloading to Marx who showed good handling skills before he played the final pass for Du Preez to have a clear run to the line.  Pollard's conversion put the Boks back in front at 17-15 with 12 minutes to play.

Soon after, All Blacks full-back Damian McKenzie scored a magnificent individual counter-attacking try capitalising on a disjointed, shifting Springbok defence with his scything run after David Havili did well in the build-up to set up the break.  Sopoaga converted to restore the All Blacks' five-point buffer at 22-17 with 10 minutes to go.

With five minutes to play, Damian de Allende was shown a red card for his follow-through in trying to charge down Sopoaga's drop-goal in which he connected with the All Blacks replacement fly-half.  Sopoaga kicked the resulting penalty to make it 25-18, meaning a converted try would not be enough for the Boks.

Despite being a man down, the Boks fought back to within just one point when Marx crashed over at the back of a lineout driving maul to set up a tense finale.

But the All Blacks held on for victory and denied the Boks a rare victory.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Tries:  Cronje, Du Preez, Marx
Cons:  Jantjies 2, Pollard
Pen:  Jantjies
Red Card:  De Allende

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Crotty, Ioane, McKenzie
Cons:  Sopoaga 2
Pen:  Barrett, Sopoaga

South Africa:  15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Francois Louw, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth (c), 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements:  16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Jean-Luc du Preez, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Handré Pollard, 23 Damian de Allende

New Zealand:  15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Nehe Milner-Skudder, 13 Ryan Crotty, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Liam Squire, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Nepo Laulala, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Kane Hames
Replacements:  16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 19 Patrick Tuipulotu, 20 Matt Todd, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Lima Sopoaga, 23 David Havili

Referee:  Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant referees:  Romain Poite (France), Shuhei Kubo (Japan)
TMO:  Rowan Kitt (England)

Bonus-point win for New Zealand

New Zealand moved 11 points clear at the Rugby Championship summit after they beat Argentina 36-10 at Estadio Vélez Sarsfield on Saturday.

With the 2017 title already sewn up due to South Africa and Australia drawing 27-27 in Bloemfontein, the All Blacks had the pressure off.

And it was a simple victory in the end, thanks largely to their strong start, as crossings from number eight Kieran Read (2), full-back Damian McKenzie and wing Waisake Naholo saw them to the five points.  David Havili, on debut, also crossed the whitewash in the game's final play.

In reply Argentina's lone try scorer was Juan Manuel Leguizamón as their poor Rugby Championship campaign now reads five losses from five.

It was a quite sensational first half-hour from the All Blacks as they raced into a 29-3 lead to leave the Pumas struggling for answers.

Following an early penalty from each side, New Zealand clicked into gear in the seventh minute when Naholo's line break led to him finding Read on the right wing for a run in.  Beauden Barrett couldn't add the kick from wide out but it was a warning shot fired by the visitors.

The next score seemed inevitable when New Zealand applied big pressure on 15 minutes and they had their wish two minutes later as, from a scrum penalty, an alert McKenzie raced forward for a quick tap in front of referee Jaco Peyper before diving over to make it a 15-3 lead.

More was to come as fly-half Barrett's run down the right led to him offloading to Naholo, who showed power and pace to extend the buffer.

Things got worse for Argentina soon after as Tomas Lavanini received a yellow card for a no arm tackle on Sonny Bill Williams.  And the try followed five minutes later as Barrett's under-leg pass to McKenzie then saw him set off before finding Read on his shoulder for a brace.

It wasn't all doom and gloom for Argentina though as they pressed hard before half-time, but came up short despite Matt Todd being carded.

Argentina were clearly riled by their first-half showing and upped their performance in the early stages of the second period, setting up camp in the All Black 22 with more lineout mauls.  However.  Pablo Matera was unsuccessful in his quest for the line after good scrambling defence.

What gave the Pumas further hope of cutting the deficit was the sight of Read being sin-binned for a high tackle on 51 minutes.  Once again New Zealand fought tooth and nail in defence but eventually the pressure told as Leguizamón barged over from close range to make it 29-10.

The All Blacks thought they had responded in the ideal fashion when Naholo crossed, but replays showed his earlier pass drifted forward so it was chalked off.  Soon after, the Pumas were down to 14 men when Ramiro Herrera was yellow carded for repeated scrum infringements.

Still though New Zealand struggled to add a fifth try, that was until replacement Havili sliced through from close range to add the icing to the win as they now head to South Africa looking to make it a clean sweep in the Rugby Championship.

The scorers:

For Argentina:
Try:  Leguizamón
Con:  Sanchez
Pen:  Sanchez
Yellow Cards:  Lavanini, Herrera

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Read 2, McKenzie, Naholo, Havili
Cons:  Barrett 4
Pen:  Barrett
Yellow Card:  Todd

Argentina:  15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Matias Moroni, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 7 Tomas Lezana, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustin Creevy (c), 1 Lucas Noguera
Replacements:  16 Julian Montoya, 17 Santiago Garcia Botta, 18 Ramiro Herrera, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Juan Martin Hernandez, 23 Santiago Cordero

New Zealand:  15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Matt Todd, 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Nepo Laulala, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Kane Hames
Replacements:  16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 19 Patrick Tuipulotu, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Ngani Laumape, 23 David Havili

Referee:  Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant referees:  Mathieu Raynal (France), Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
TMO:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)