Kiwis shock the world

New Zealand: World champions for the first time

Skysports.com star men
New Zealand - picking out one player would be impossible following a fabulous team effort by the men in black

Related links

Teams

• Australia
• New Zealand

Also see

• Live on Sky
• World Cup fixtures
• Group tables
• Experts and blogs
• Galleries

New Zealand lifted the World Cup for the first time after a stunning 34-20 win over reigning champions Australia in Brisbane.

The Kiwis battled back from an early 10-0 deficit to produce one of the biggest upsets in rugby league history in front of a 50,550 crowd at Suncorp Stadium.

The victory ends an eight-match losing run at the hands of their trans-Tasman rivals which stretched back to their famous 24-0 Tri-Nations Series triumph back in 2005.

While New Zealand celebrated at the final hooter, Australia were left to wonder just where things had gone wrong.

Overthrown

Red-hot favourites to retain the trophy, they were overthrown as world champions for the first time since 1972, falling at the last in their bid to be crowned winners for a magnificent seven times in a row.

Their cause was not helped by the controversial award of a penalty try by English referee Steve Ganson in the second half which put the Kiwis 28-22 up.

However, the decision mattered little in the final reckoning as Adam Blair's late score sealed a deserved result for the New Zealanders, their fourth try of a one-sided second half that ended up 22-4 in their favour.

Such an outcome seemed no more than pie in the sky before kick-off with Australia expected to continue their dominance of the rest that had begun with a 30-6 victory over their final opponents in the pool stages.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan for coach Ricky Stuart and his troops when the deadlock was broken by their skipper, Darren Lockyer.

The try was created by a Billy Slater break and the recently crowned international player of the year then set up David Williams for a second with a perfect pass that sent the winger scampering down the right wing untouched.

At that stage Australia were in command and the failure of Lockyer to ground the ball as he dived onto a grubber kick seemed to be of little consequence.

The tide began to turn, though, when on a third successive set of six Jeremy Smith burst through the defensive line to get New Zealand's opening try.

Jerome Ropati followed suit three minutes later following a fortunate bounce in the Kiwis' favour, although when Lockyer finished off a flowing move to score the try of the tournament, normal service seemed to have been resumed.

Dominated

New Zealand, though, refused to stick to the script. Down 16-12 at the interval, they dominated the opening minutes after the re-start and were rewarded when Lance Hohaia somehow burrowed his way over from close range.

Their next score came courtesy of a gift from Slater, who having been the hero in the first half suddenly turned into the pantomime villain.

Desperate to keep the ball alive before he went into touch, the full-back lobbed the ball backwards hoping a team-mate would be there. Instead it was Benji Marshall, who accepted the early Xmas present and trotted over.

Greg Inglis raised hopes of an Aussie comeback when he crossed in the left corner but once Ganson decided Joel Monaghan's clothesline that ended Hohaia's pursuit of a grubber kick should be punished with a four-pointer, the Kiwis' name seemed to be on the cup.

Blair put the icing on the cake when he pounced on a loose ball, sealing New Zealand's first success in Brisbane since 1987 and perhaps forcing the engraver to scratch off the name of 'Australia' off the trophy that so many believed had been on it from day one of the competition.