Jonah Lomu scored a late match-winner to secure victory in the 'greatest test ever played'. Photosport
Jonah Lomu scored a late match-winner to secure victory in the 'greatest test ever played'. Photosport
On the eve of yet another Bledisloe Cup showdown in Sydney, Cameron McMillan looks back on the 2000 clash often regarded as the 'greatest test ever played'.
What was it? The opening test of the 2000 Bledisloe Cup series between the All Blacks and the Wallabies. Played at Sydney's Homebush Stadium just two months before the Olympics were staged at the same venue. The stadium was all set up to host the Games and was at a capacity of just under 110,000. The match was a sell-out.
The stakes? Two years earlier the Wallabies took the Bledisloe Cup off the All Blacks and retained the trophy the previous year following a split two-test series.
The All Blacks were coming off a Rugby World Cup semifinal exit to France at Twickenham a year earlier where the Wallabies were crowned world champions for a second time. The All Blacks were without any silverware and desperately wanted the Bledisloe Cup back. With a new coach in Wayne Smith and a new captain in Todd Blackadder, the All Blacks opened the 2000 season with thrashings over Tonga and Scotland (twice).
Who was involved? So many greats took the field: Lomu, Eales, Cullen, Gregan, Umaga, Little, Kronfeld, Mortlock, Mehrtens, Larkham, Marshall and Kefu; just to name a dozen.
What happened? The All Blacks held a staggering 21-0 lead after three tries in the opening five minutes. The first from an unconventional Tana Umaga intercept followed by a rampaging Lomu run that set up Pita Alatini for the second try at the 3m 14 sec mark. A few phases following a poor Wallabies kickoff, Alatini put Christian Cullen into space and under the posts. A Mehrtens' penalty made it 24-0 after eight minutes, in which the All Blacks had enjoyed 99 percent of possession. Game over, you would assume.
A Fox Sports graphic shows the All Blacks had 99 percent of possession in the early stages. Photo / YouTube - Fox Sports
Then the Aussies came back. Stephen Larkham set up Stirling Mortlock for the Wallabies first try in the 10th minute before the winger made it a double midway through the first half. Chris Latham and Joe Roff then both crossed over as the Wallabies somehow evened the scores before halftime before taking a 27-24 lead shortly into the second half. The All Blacks regained the lead following a great solo run by Justin Marshall but Australia looked to secure a stunning victory with Jeremy Paul barged over three minutes left, which made it 35-34. Then Lomu scored in the 83rd minute thanks to a perfect Taine Randell assist to close out a crazy encounter.
Is it the greatest test ever? At the time the late John Drake said "it was the best test I have seen, and undoubtedly one of the greatest matches of all time" in his Herald column.
"Rugby followers across the Tasman generally regard the All Blacks' match against the Barbarians in 1973 as the greatest game," Drake wrote.
"But those I talked to believe Saturday night's match deserves that accolade."
Herald rugby writer Wynne Gray wasn't so sure.
"The greatest game of all was thrown into the mix, but that seemed to overstate its standard. It was exhilarating, surreal and magnetic, right up there in the top group because of its speed and intensity, but with too many mistakes to qualify as the best in test rugby," Gray wrote after the test.
"Anyway, how do you define the greatest? It is easy to dwell on the present and forget superb matches from not too long ago. Remember these from just the last decade: all three Wallaby-All Black tests in Australia in 1992 were as good as it gets; the French win in the second test at Eden Park in 1994 with the try from the end of the Earth; the World Cup extra-time final in 1995; the 33-26 win against the Boks at Loftus in 1996 to take a series in South Africa for the first time," Gray continued.
"For drama and tension it is hard to go past the All Blacks' 16-20 loss to George Gregan's tackle at Sydney in 1994, or the 23-24 loss at Durban in 1998 when James Dalton scored his dubious late try. Perhaps it would be more useful to compare the sides, but even that was difficult in this madcap match."
The test has certainly aged well with possibly the 2013 Rugby Championship thriller between the All Blacks and Springboks at Ellis Park topping it as a spectacle of rugby.
What happened next? The All Blacks beat the Springboks in Christchurch the following week and looked set to lock down the Bledisloe and Tri Nations trophies a week later in the first test played at Westpac Stadium. However Wallabies skipper John Eales kicked a penalty on fulltime to give Australia a famous 24-23 win. Australia were crowned Tri-Nations champions following an All Blacks loss at Ellis Park and another last minute Wallabies win in the final game over the Springboks.
Fun fact Tana Umaga, Tony Brown, Todd Blackadder, Mark Hammett, Scott Robertson, Michael Foley and Stephen Larkham have all coached or are currently coaching Super Rugby teams. Alama Ieremia, Leon MacDonald and Kees Meeuws as assistants.
When Jonah Lomu scored his late Bledisloe Cup match-winner, coach Wayne Smith finally let himself go.
In the coaches' box high in Stadium Australia, Smith grabbed assistant coach Tony Gilbert and selector Peter Thorburn in joyous embrace.
It had been a hell of a rollercoaster journey for the world-record 109,874 crowd, the players and the coaching staff as the All Blacks upset the World Cup champions 39-35 in perhaps the most extraordinary game in test rugby history.
Even when the All Blacks sprang to a 24-point lead in the opening seven minutes, Smith did not raise a smile.
He knew the Wallaby resilience, and that they had not touched the ball. He had also been through the tough times in the last two years, watching the All Blacks wilt under pressure. That nightmare pattern reappeared as the Wallabies cut into the lead, drew level at the break and went to an early second-half lead, before a superb solo try from Justin Marshall and the late clincher from Lomu claimed the epic win.
The spirit that he, his staff and captain Todd Blackadder had worked so hard to build had held and delivered.
It had taken some blunt reinforcement at halftime. Blackadder later paraphrased his instructions.
"We have to just keep attacking. Regardless of the result, we are not going to give in," he told his team. "Let's go out and face them, eh. Don't be intimidated."
This was not test rugby as we knew it. It was crazy, head-scratching stuff born out of both sides' desire to play with immense pace and intensity.
"We lost it in the last two minutes, not in the first seven," Wallaby skipper John Eales lamented as everyone tried to make sense of the madcap evening.
The first part showed what everyone knows. Give the All Blacks some ball and a little room and they can sting even the best defences. They had some luck, too.
A charge-down of an Andrew Mehrtens punt spun crazily behind the Wallaby line and as Chris Latham tried to scoop it away to Joe Roff, Tana Umaga pounced for an intercept try.
In their own 22, Mehrtens spread the ball wide to Lomu, who beat several then threw an overhead pass inside to Pita Alatini backing up for the try.
The kickoff did not go 10m - a Wallaby fault for much of the night - Norm Maxwell grabbed it, Alama Ieremia scissored with Mehrtens and found Alatini, who sent Christian Cullen racing to the line.
Three converted tries and a penalty from Mehrtens inside seven minutes, and the Wallabies had only touched the ball to restart. This was manic rugby against the world champions. This was not Tonga or Scotland.
Smith knew the dangers and then saw them realised.
"We had to be realistic. You get a 24-0 lead against a very poor team and you can give them a hiding, but not the Wallabies. We had to halt the momentum at halftime."
That second phase showed some All Black weaknesses. They were exposed at the lineout, and the Wallaby pack were all over them in the second quarter to produce two tries to Stirling Mortlock and another to Joe Roff.
The defensive pattern went awry, tackles were missed all round the park. The All Blacks had surrendered their huge lead and were struggling for possession in the wackiest half of rugby in Bledisloe Cup history.
Inspiration was demanded. It came from Marshall, in a surging, angled 35m run past several defenders to swerve past a flailing Latham on the line.
The Wallabies were struggling for goalkickers. Mortlock had the flu and waived a few shots. John Eales tried and missed two kicks and replacement Andrew Walker another, while Mehrtens goaled from the sideline but had trouble with several longer shots in front.
With seven minutes left, Kiwi-born Jeremy Paul smashed in at the corner for a one-point Wallaby lead and the All Black gallantry looked spent.
They got back to the Wallaby goal-line, but replacement Mark Hammett missed his skipper with two lineout throws.
It had to be Advance Australia Fair - until the miracle.
With one final flurry the ball went along the line, Taine Randell got it with two defenders all over him but handballed a magic pass to the charging Lomu. The big man surged away from Stephen Larkham's despairing tackle and tiptoed along the touchline for another 15m as the whole of New Zealand bellowed at him to put the ball down.
It was close, very close, just like the whole outrageous match. For the third time the All Blacks had stopped a record-equalling Wallaby 10-test winning streak.
"We'll take it," was Gilbert's laconic aside after this tumultuous start to the Tri-Nations.
