[Locke]

I've got to agree with Slava.

The Aussies came out playing a very negative 'rope-a-dope' (thanks Slava) game trying to absorb Kiwi pressure and it worked for the most part, but come on, this is a final, you cant just sit back and try to bend and not break.

I'll say that Pocock was excellent, but it just goes back to what I said before, Pocock, Hooper and Fardy along with Foley getting his crap toghether just wasnt enough. They were isolated against New Zealand and relied too heavily upon. Basically if one of those guys didnt get it done no one else would.

And while the Wallabies kept it close at the beginning, the All Blacks generated a healthy lead and the 'comeback' was two tries scored while the All Blacks were down to 14. Take away that 10 minutes of superiority and the Wallabies generated basically nothing and were absolutely dominated.

And I hate to rag on him, but the commentators made some good points, that was in many ways not a very well officiated game. The NZ yellow was well deserved but the Aussies got away with at least 2 as well as various other little nickel and dime calls that were wrong.

In the wise words of the great Slava: "When the ref gives you penalty and you say 'Thank You' you know damned well you got away with one."

All that being said, that was an excellent game to watch, the Aussie fans in the pub were a lot of fun.

What a World Cup and the All Blacks were deserving winners.

And thanks for all of the participation in this thread, its been well mannered as well as informative and really enhanced the whole experience of the Rugby World Cup, its always great to get some views from our membership who are more in tune and experienced to really help the rest of us get more out of the whole thing.