Game & player stats - Bledisloe1

[tdevil]

Just have a look at theses stats.
Look at the workload of Palu

Full Time 34-19 - The Score - Rugby Union

[Jasper]

When you look at the stats - player by player v the AB's - sort of wonder how we won the game - great for Aust to finally be more effective with ball in hand than the AB's

[rick boyd]

There is a great truth of rugby that is not revealed by stats and that so often decides the winner and the loser -- and that's simply the attitude and team spirit that a team has during the game.

There will be all manner of people over-analysing the first Bledisloe Cup game about tactics and strategies and who out-thought whom but as in most game sbetween the SH super powers the winning and losing hinges on a slim margin of error.

Australia did play well and showed commendable composure and consistency to win with minority possession and to maintain their game plan when New Zealand hit the front in the seocnd half. But there is a tendency in the media to over-value the winning team's positives and under-value the losing team's negatives. Most reports have been full of glowing praise for Australia's effort, and rightly so, but little attention has been paid to the woeful performance of the All Blacks.

The number of unforced errors they committed and the lack of combination and suppoprt in their back line made this one of the worst All Black performances for several years, and that was a major factor in the outcome.

I would counsel enthusiastic Wallaby supporters not to count their emus before they're hatched. This All Black team is unlikely to play so badly again in this competition and with a little more consistency and attitude at Eden Park, a very different game may unfold.

[AndyS]

"There is a great truth of rugby that is not revealed by stats" - there is Eddie and John's coaching stints in a nutshell.