Wallabies Berrick Barnes (L) and Matt Giteau leave the field after Saturday night's thumping. Photo / Getty Images
The Wallabies were labelled a "flustered, disorganised mob" as Australia's rugby media waded into them yesterday.
The All Blacks' 33-6 Tri-Nations win in Wellington, their sixth in succession against the Wallabies, drew a predictably caustic reaction across the Tasman.
The Sun-Herald newspaper's lead headline was fittingly bleak.
"Back to black
days - Kiwis deal Australia big dose of reality."
The paper's rugby writer, Greg Growden, didn't hold back in his match report.
"For the umpteenth time this season, this was a hopeless, unforgivable Australian performance and everyone, including coach Robbie Deans, who strangely veered away from using attacking replacements when several players had clearly lost the plot, must take the blame for another disgraceful night.
"This inept mob were found once again to be well out of their depth; they were smashed at the scrum, made a hash of so many breakdowns by constantly losing the ball, and several players, including young fullback James O'Connor, had absolute shockers.
"Several others, including David Pocock and Lachie Turner, were brutally exposed, while countless senior players went missing."
Growden said the Wallabies too often hoisted the white flag in pressure encounters, after talking themselves up before a test.
"For the second time this year they could not take advantage of the All Blacks being in crisis, showing they are a flustered, disorganised mob."
Former Wallabies coach John Connolly gave O'Connor four out of 10 in his player ratings in the Sun-Herald while All Blacks Richie McCaw (9.5), Adam Thomson (9) and Andrew Hore (9) were his highest rated.
The league-dominated Sunday Telegraph buried its brief match report deep in its sports section and focused on former Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones demanding Deans get harder on his players.
"One of the great things Deans is doing behind the scenes is building a great team spirit. I think it is probably time he reads the riot act a little bit," Farr-Jones told Sky Sport.
"This might be the wake-up call and he says 'enough is enough. You have got to perform; you are professional players, we expect you to perform'."
- NZPA
