Rugby World Cup 2015: All Blacks Show Brain Is Mightier Than Brawn

For all the brutality of many of the earlier games of this Rugby World Cup, and notwithstanding the two Wallabies lost to injuries before half-time yesterday, the All Blacks victory was a triumph for grey matter over grunt.

Yes, they stood strong in the scrum, hit rucks with ferocity and made their tackles, but it was the way New Zealand thought their way out of problems that was most impressive about their 34-17 win.

Take the first 20 minutes. They were sending runners into traffic to bludgeon their way toward Australia’s line, and it wasn’t working.

The quality combination of David Pocock and Michael Hooper was producing turnover ball that their team-mates could clear, and the All Blacks were reduced to kicking their goals when penalty chances arose—no bad thing when your kicker is Dan Carter, of course.

But it was the clever way New Zealand changed tack that marks this team as a cut above the rest. Acknowledging that they were coming off second best at the breakdown, they decided it would be more prescient to keep the ball off the floor, to pass out of the tackle rather than die with the ball.

It is no surprise that the player who took this philosophy to its most profitable conclusion was Conrad Smith, who took a pass from Aaron Smith, ran into his defenders, turned his back and popped the ball to the scrum-half, sucking in two Wallabies tacklers and giving Smith, Richie McCaw and Nehe-Milner Skudder a majority share of the right side of the field for the wing to exploit with a try.

The pre-game talk of the threat posed by Pocock and Hooper on the ground was also clearly not lost on Steve Hansen’s men. The best way to stop them slowing your ball down or nicking it at the ruck is to ensure they don’t get there.

As the Guardian’s Dean Ryan pointed out, New Zealand operated their lineout in such a way as to keep Pocock handcuffed to it as often as possible.

These are two examples of how New Zealand simply outthought Australia in ways to nullify them where they were strong and exploit them where they were weak.

This was all helped, of course, by having the coolest man on the field pulling their strings. Dan Carter was majestic in his work. After that turbo-charged fightback by Australia following Ma’a Nonu’s try, Carter most certainly kept his head in those moments when all around him could have started losing theirs.

His drop goal to widen the gap from four to seven points was straight out of the Jonny Wilkinson text on how to quell a rugby uprising.

Australia had the scent of blood in their nostrils, they had forged a way back into the fight. But Carter, from 40 metres out, simply shut the door on them with a shuffle to his left and a swing of the boot. It could not have been timed any better

It visibly sunk Australian shoulders, and his penalty from even further out a few minutes later knocked them off their feet.

As they'd done against South Africa a week earlier, New Zealand always looked like having too much for Australia, and could ladle on as much quality as they deemed necessary to keep them off their tails.

In a game that has been widely acclaimed the best World Cup final of the lot, New Zealand showed the world just how much work they have to do to catch them.