All Blacks into final; NZ breathes sigh of relief

There was no choking by the All Blacks this time. After losing both previous World Cup semifinal clashes against Australia, the All Blacks finally got one back on their archrivals with a 20-6 victory Sunday night to set up a final against France.

And so the perennial favorites are back in the championship match, and expected to reclaim the Webb Ellis Trophy for the first time since beating France in the final of the inaugural tournament in 1987.

Australia's bid to be the first team to win three World Cups will have to wait. The one statistic that most irks New Zealand rugby fans — having one fewer World Cup titles than Australia — could be rubbed out within a week.

From the moment the Wallabies' New Zealand-born flyhalf Quade Cooper put the opening kickoff out on the full, the All Blacks were on top.

New Zealand fullback Israel Dagg shredded the Australian backline defense twice early, his second break resulting in a try for Ma'a Nonu in the sixth minute. Piri Weepu missed the sideline conversion but added two penalties in each half to keep the All Blacks well out of Australia's reach.

Australia's only points came via a James O'Connor penalty goal and Quade Cooper's dropped goal before halftime — the highly rated Wallabies backline didn't cross for a try in its last two matches. The defense slipped off a dozen tackles in the first 20 minutes against the All Blacks.

"It's awesome, we realized that we were going to have to front up and we had do the job for 80 minutes," All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw said. "The intensity was there and every single man did their bit tonight. We've got next week to look forward to.

"We won't get too carried away, but I'm very proud."

After fending off one serial World Cup hindrance, the All Blacks face another against France. The French have scored some epic upsets over New Zealand — namely the 1999 semifinal and in the quarterfinals four years ago — but are seemingly in disarray after just edging a 14-man Wales team 9-8 in Saturday's semifinal.

That makes the French dangerous. After losing to New Zealand and Tonga in the pool stage, they just scraped through to the knockout round before overpowering England in the quarterfinals. After a close call against Wales, they'll be primed for the big occasion.

So will New Zealand. Since losing to Australia in the Tri-Nations decider at Brisbane in August, the All Blacks have been gathering momentum in a run of six wins that include a 37-17 pool stage victory against the French.

The second-ranked Wallabies didn't do themselves any favors by losing in the pool stage to Ireland — continuing a 25-year losing streak at Eden Park.

After a courageous 11-9 win over defending champion South Africa last week, the Wallabies were off the ball from the start.

"We didn't do well enough at certain times in the game to get the pressure off. It's really disappointing to finish like that," Wallabies captain James Horwill said. "But credit to the All Blacks, they outplayed us and they deserved to win.

"We hung in there pretty well but they ticked the scoreboard over in the second half and that made it more difficult for us."

The Australians will play for third place on Friday against Wales, which will be without skipper Sam Warburton.

Warburton was banned for three weeks after admitting making a dangerous tip tackle on French winger Vincent Clerc in Saturday night's loss.

The 23-year-old flanker was sent off in the 18th minute by Irish referee Alain Rolland, who drew criticism for not consulting with his touch judges before pulling out the red card and leaving the Welsh a man short for 62 minutes.

Many critics thought the tackle only warranted a yellow card — or 10 minutes in the sinbin — and that it unduly affected the outcome of the semifinal, but independent judicial officer Christopher Quinlan backed the IRB's zero tolerance on spear-type tackles.

The Welsh are also likely to be missing tighthead prop Adam Jones, who limped off ini the semifinal with a torn calf muscle.

Mike Phillips, the scrumhalf who scored the only try of Saturday's match, wished Rolland had thought more about the context of the match before sending Warburton off.

"France played up on it. It was showmanship (by Clerc) and they did their job," Phillips said. "We are a very good team and we deserve to be in the final, without a shadow of a doubt.

"All the French did was look for penalties. France were poor and they are going to get blown away in the final."

Marc Lievremont maintains that he'd rather have won ugly and be in the final than be playing for third place.

Yet he was livid with certain players for breaking a curfew and going out to celebrate the narrow win, describing them as "spoiled brats." He called a team meeting on Sunday morning and "told them what I thought of them."

"That they're a bunch of undisciplined, spoiled brats, disobedient, sometimes selfish, always complaining, always whining, and they've been (frustrating me) for four years," he said. "It seems to be our way of functioning.

"I also told them I have a lot of affection for them, but it's a shame they don't know how to look after themselves."

The French campaign has been plagued by reports of discontent in the ranks and a split between management and players, yet they've continued to scrape through. Losses to New Zealand and Tonga preceded a stunning quarterfinal win over England, and the tense semifinal win over the Welsh.

Lievremont is concerned about any premature celebrations, recalling how he was part of the French team which beat New Zealand in the 1999 semifinals before being thumped by Australia in the final.

"We're not world champions, we're in the final, that's all. I experienced this in 1999," he said. "Because in '99 we spent four days celebrating our semifinal win. We didn't prepare properly and I don't want us to relive the same thing."

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