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Bronze at World Cup
Monday, July 21st, 2008
New Zealand overcame a 16-nil deficit before beating a plucky Wales side 24-18 in the Universities Rugby League World Cup bronze medal playoff match at Langlands Park in Brisbane on Saturday.After missing out on a finals position by being beaten in a semi-final earlier in the week, New Zealand went into the game with a purpose of restoring its wounded pride and to show its true potential as a team.
Wales on the other hand had other thoughts and after keeping its opponents scoreless in the first 20 minutes with some fine compressed sliding defence, the red dragons put its first score on the board when its outstanding fullback Gareth David went through on the last tackle for an unconverted try.
Although New Zealand gained penalty supremacy in the first half, Wales continued to dictate most of the play for the remainder of the first spell and with ten minutes remaining before the break, the lead was extended further when the right centre Jason Mossop crossed over twice in the left corner.
Wales led 14-nil at halftime and probably should have led by more as its opponents had allowed the dummy half to have too many free runs with again making simple errors like it done in previous matches at this World Cup.
Despite a rare angry by the New Zealand coach Trevor McLeod to his troops at halftime to redeem themselves, the mistakes returned early in the second spell when Wales put a further two points up with a David penalty goal.
Wales however soon caught the penalty disease and it was not long before New Zealand finally got on the board when its hard running second-row Laupepa Pasene went over for a try after gaining a superb offload from his prop Troy McKenzie only a few metres from the line.
A second David penalty for a New Zealand player not playing the ball correctly put Wales ahead by a 14-point margin before the deficit closed again near the start of the final quarter when standoff Roy Leoni took advantage of an absent marker defence.
A second superb McKenzie (who was later named the best New Zealand player at the World Cup) offload in a tackle put his hooker Danny Maera for a converted try in the 64th minute to give his side within two points of equalling the score.
New Zealand went ahead for the first time in the game with just five minutes remaining when Leoni found his way over for his second try before appropriately helping in the final points of the game when his long pass out wide resulted in his left wing Emmanuel Toka going over only two minutes before fulltime was sounded.
A relived McLeod said his side finally showed they could play in the last 30 minutes of the game after telling them to redeem themselves at the break.
The gusty New Zealand performance was reflected in Pasene (who like Leoni was later named in a paper World XIII at the end of the World Cup) playing the majority of the second half with a suspected broken arm.
New Zealand second-row Kererua Savage was also inflicted many blows during the game due to some high Welsh tackling, but like Pasene refused to go off in case it would slow down his team’s regaining momentum.
McLenzie, Leoni, loose forward Daniel McGregor and fullback Paul Aitkens were also instrumental New Zealand players in the never-say-die win.
New Zealand 24 (Roy Leoni 2, Danny Maera, Emmanuel Toka, Laupepa Pasene tries; Scott Hurrell 2 goals), Wales 18 (Gareth David, Jason Mossop 2 tries; David 2 penalty goasls, goal). Halftime: Wales 14-nil.
The New Zealand-Wales match acted as the curtain-raiser to the World Cup final which resulted in Australia picking up its fourth title by beating England 26-16 after being 10-nil down at one stage.
The battle for the wooden spoon was a real cliff hanger until a last minute try saw Ireland beat Scotland 22-18 while in the plate final, newcomers Greece scored a try literally in the last five seconds to dramatically overcome France 14-12.
World Cup final: Australia 26 (Brad Horder, Sam Conlon, Gavin Duncan, Nufo Hifo, Nathan Mossman tries; Drew Dalton 3 goals), England 16 (Tom Lever, Kristan Hodson tries; Mark McKinley 2 goals, 2 penalty goals).
Plate final: Greece 14 (Craig Moustakas, Marcus Brandon, Jessy Argeros tries; York Antoniou goal), France 12 (Regis Chave 2, Mohamed Chabbi tries).
7 v 8 playoff: Ireland 22 (Tom Gaffney 3, Liam Duffy, Tyronne McCarthy tries; Danny Pike goal), Scotland 18 (Richard Knight, Stuart Dunbar, Martin Edwards tries; Sebastian Trotter 3 goals).
