We are the champions!!!!

World Champions!!!

In your face, Aussie! The New Zealand Kiwi’s are the Rugby League Champions of the world after beating Australia 34-20 in the World Cup 08 final in Brisbane.

Thats what happens when Aussie rigs the World Cup draw so they get the easy ride to the final. NZ had the only real challenge in their pool for the World Cup and they showed they wanted it far more than the Australians. All this crap about the Aussies having it in the bag and the cup should’ve been inscribed a month ago….

Aussie were no where near ready to fight for the cup tonight. They thought they could just go through the motions and come out the other side with the trophy given thats how they have always assumed they could play against New Zealand. It backfired on them 3 years ago in the tri-nations in the UK against New Zealand, and its backfired against them again tonight.

The game started hard with the Aussies standing staunch against the Haka. Thats probably the first time someone has done that to any NZ team and it was pretty good to see. Made for a nice change. Thinking about it, thats really the only response there is to the Haka. However, that was a lot of fun and it fired up the Kiwi’s even more. Heres hoping they do it more often. :-)

So much to say about that match. I think the ref was a little whistle happy, but it went in the Kiwi’s favour so I’m not going to say much about that. I think Australia were showing their frustration, and thats partly why there were so many penalties against them. But most of all, it was really obvious this was the first time in the entire tournament that the Australian team had been up against real competition. They’d walked through their pool matches with no effort at all. And they’d walked through the semi’s against Fiji with only marginal fight.

Its funny… I’m sitting here with a huge smile on my face watching the end of the delayed coverage, knowing the outcome and still enjoying the game. :-) Even knowing the result and the plays, I still found myself on the edge of my seat through the last 60 minutes of the delayed coverage.

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