League: Champs give chumps the Roo barb

SYDNEY - The legendary players who made Australia the best league team in the world have queued up to pan their successors who surrendered the title to New Zealand on Sunday.
The Kiwis' stunning 24-0 victory in the Tri-Nations final shared prominence on gloomy newspaper sports pages with the Wallabies' wretched end-of-season European tour.

The Australian league community would normally revel in the traumas enveloping "the other code" but instead found themselves with absolutely nothing to gloat about after the Kiwis inflicted the Kangaroos' first series loss since 1978, and their first series win over their transtasman rivals since 1953.

That the test represented the first time the Kangaroos had been held scoreless since New Zealand managed the feat in 1985 simply rubbed salt into raw wounds.

"Records tumble in Roos slaughter," the Daily Telegraph announced before describing the Kangaroos' Elland Rd capitulation "as unthinkable as it was gut-wrenching".

"Australia can no longer claim to be the No 1 rugby league team in the world.

"A day of history unfolded yesterday leaving the once mighty Kangaroos embarrassed after putting in a diabolical performance.

"The Kiwis can now call themselves the best rugby league team in the world ... "

This unexpected change in league's world order prompted an outpouring of criticism directed at the players from disbelieving former internationals.

Max Krilich, captain of the 1982 Invincibles - the first Kangaroos team to go through an England tour unbeaten - was one among many former stars stunned by Australia's easy capitulation.

"They [New Zealand] played the way Australia usually played. Some of our players were inept," he told the Daily Telegraph, adding he was amazed at the negativity displayed by the Australians.

"We were just very down on our game and the Kiwis were sky high."

Former test captain Johnny Raper said Australia's sluggish performance demeaned the heroics of the players who had established Australia's invincibility for three decades while Graeme Langlands could not bear to watch the Kiwis' wild celebrations after the final siren.

"I couldn't watch the last few minutes, I went and walked the dogs," he said.

Former test hooker Ben Elias admitted he was astonished by the complete dominance of the Kiwis.

"We were decimated. Somehow this Australian team was unable to even register one point. The loss is probably good for the game but it's a disaster for Australia."

He said the Australians appeared to be thinking about where they were going on holiday.

"And I couldn't believe what I was reading in the lead-up to the match about how the players were concerned about how cold it might be.

"We played over there on ice-bound fields where the ice was sharp enough to cut you in every tackle."

Former test back-rower Mark Geyer pointed the finger at the players - not coach Wayne Bennett - saying they had to take full responsibility for tarnishing the reputation of the green and gold jumper.

"I don't think the Kiwis played extraordinarily, we just played woefully," he said.

"That's probably one of the worst performances I've seen from an Australian side in a long, long time. It's totally the players' fault."

Geyer accused the players of complacency and said they would have to live with the ignominy of being the first Kangaroos team to lose a series in almost three decades.

"I think that's a big enough punishment for them in itself," he said.

"Fair enough, everyone is going to be saying 'sack him. Sack that bloke, sack him', but at the end of the day, being the first team to go over there and lose a series in how long? Twenty-seven years? Fair dinkum."

- NZPA