LONDON // Richie McCaw paid tribute to New Zealand’s ability to withstand Australia’s second-half onslaught after they became the first squad to successfully defend the Webb Ellis Cup on Saturday night.
Tries from Nehe Milner-Skudder, Ma’a Nonu and Bauden Barrett laid the foundations, and 19 points from Dan Carter was enough to beat Australia 34-17 in the highest-scoring final ever.
McCaw, who refused to announce his retirement after his 148th Test match, underlined how his team remained cool under pressure having lost only three matches since they hosted the World Cup four years ago.
“I’m proud of the way the guys have done it,” he said. “We played damn good rugby, then we lost the momentum in the second half but we kept our composure and came home strong.
“We’ve done it a lot of times over the years but to do it when it really counts in a World Cup final, it shows the calibre of the men we’ve got.”
New Zealand dominated territory and possession to such an extent that by half time when they enjoyed a 16-3 lead Australia had been forced in to twice as many tackles as their rivals. Not all of them had been accurate, either, and Sekope Kepu was out to target Carter and was lucky to have not been sent to the sin bin for two late tackles before the break.
Milner-Skudder was involved with all that was good with New Zealand’s purring attacking machine on the right wing, and time and again he made deep inroads in to Australian territory.
With his side leading 9-3 New Zealand were once again camped in Australia’s 22 and, from a ruck, Aaron Smith slipped the ball behind decoy runner Dane Coles to Conrad Smith.
Smith flummoxed the Australian defence by passing back inside to Ben Smith, who found McCaw out wide. The New Zealand captain took the hit and his offload resulted in Milner-Skudder diving over in the corner for his sixth try of the tournament.
At the break, coach Steve Hansen brought on Sonny Bill Williams in place of Conrad Smith and he made an immediate impact by attracting three defenders. The master offloader found Nonu, and a deft sidestep from the giant centre opened up the Australian defence. He pinned back his ears and left five Australians trailing in his wake.
Australia were forced to throw caution to the wind and their approach paid off, with a little help from referee Nigel Owens. Milner-Skudder and Ben Smith upended Mitchell and the All Black fullback became the first player to be shown a yellow card in a final.
Australia hit back immediately through David Pocock anchoring himself to the back of the Wallaby maul to touch down, before Tevita Kuridrani latched on to Drew Mitchell’s pass following an exquisite chip from substitute Kurtley Beale to score in the 64th minute and make it 21-17.
Step forward Carter, who missed the final four years ago due to injury. With 15 minutes to go, he dropped back in to the pocket and pulled the trigger on a sweetly-struck drop goal to give his side a seven-point cushion.
And with the last play of the game Barrett latched on to Ben Smith’s grubber kick to propel his side to a record-breaking third tournament win.
Australia captain Stephen Moore was in awe of the class shown by the men in black.
“It is all about New Zealand, they thoroughly deserve the win they were best team all tournament,” said Moore. “Sometimes you come up against a better team and that was us tonight.”
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