5.47pm - By DANIEL GILHOOLY
MELBOURNE - The World Cup rugby final will be a no-frills affair, predicts All Blacks coach John Mitchell.
Despite having spent two years as Clive Woodward's assistant at England, Mitchell was hoping Australia would win the final in Sydney on Saturday. Either way, it would be close,
he said.
"Both teams deserve to be there. England are very familiar with their programme, it's been going six years. They're a very mature group of men and they play with position and they've got an outstanding goalkicker (Jonny Wilkinson)," Mitchell said.
"Australia are very structured and very organised. Australia's defence is quite outstanding at the right time of the tournament. It will come down to who has more will on the day."
He predicted the tackle and breakdown area would dictate the result of the match and anticipated the Wallabies would have to contend with a lot more mauling from the English than the All Blacks attempted in last Saturday's semifinal.
"Australia are going to have to deal with ball up a lot more in this test match and I'm sure you'll probably see a lot more kicking."
Mitchell wanted the world champions tag to stay in the southern hemisphere but knew how hard England would be trying to take it north for the first time.
"It would be nice for Australia to fly the flag (but) having worked with the English guys before I know how much it means for them, too," he said.
- NZPA
