Don't Count out the All Blacks

At the half time break of last night's Australia's Wallabies vs. New Zealand's All Blacks, I was hopeful that the Wallabies were going to break their 9 game losing streak as they were winning 14-6. But Peter Ryan wisely said "never count out the All Blacks" and wouldn't you know it - in the last 15 minutes the All Blacks got two trys and won 22-23!

The All Blacks were impressive as they showed their strength in pushing the ball inch by inch closer to the goal line in the ruck to the point where (as I was looking through binoculars) it didn't look like they were moving at all. After multiple attempts they finally managed to get the "try" (over the goal line). And the fact that they did it twice in the last 15 minutes of the game showed their "never back down" push to 'til the very end.

In the last 15 minutes I was also happy to see that Luke Burgess of the Wallabies was substituted onto the field (I met him in my first few months in Sydney at a seafood BBQ class) so I got to see him play.

I also learned a new Australian phrase - "Dead rubber". There's this "Bledisloe Cup" match that's contested between New Zealand and Australia and before last night's game New Zealand had already racked up enough matches to win the cup. So to use it in a sentence, last night's game was "dead rubber" but a good opportunity for the Wallabies to show a strong competitive spirit and that they weren't going to give the game away.

In this Flip you'll hear Peter Witts (with a call out to our colleague Gareth Pettigrew in Vancouver) predicting the All Blacks win while his father Phillip optimistically cheers for the Wallabies.