What a wonderful and clinical display by the All Blacks today, especially the forwards. One through 8 were outstanding. They kept Oz under constant pressure, forced a lot of turnover ball and held a rigid defense the few times Oz managed to keep possession. McCaw was in scintillating form at the breakdown and Kaino battered the Australian forwards for 80 minutes. Quade Cooper kicking the ball straight into touch at the beginning of the match was fantastic. He certainly failed to live up to the hype the Australian media have been plying upon him. Probably the only downside for NZ was Weepu's lack of consistency in his goal kicking, other than that they were magnificent.
If les Coqs continue to perform so poorly, the final at Eden Park next weekend won't be much of a final. You keep hearing about how France always has one big game at the World Cup. Many are not convinced that this outfit have the ability to step up to another level. There seem to be some significant problems between Lievermont and the bulk of his players. They don't seem to respect him and he has had personality clashes with some of his senior players, which has led to awfully strange starting XV omissions and submissions. If NZ perform to anything approaching their best, they really shouldn't have much difficulty with a French team that is woefully bereft of ideas in attack and whose dressing room seems to be fraught with all sorts of tensions.
Marc Lievremont's France are simply the worst team ever to 'grace' the World Cup final
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rug...Cup-final.html