Preview: Australia v New Zealand: Yellow peril for Kiwis

The game’s too close to call but New Zealand could today have most to fear from their fellow countrymen, writes Iain Morrison

IT’S AS difficult working out which team will win as it is deciding which side to support when Australia take on New Zealand in the second semi-final of the Rugby World Cup. Do you don your yellow shirt or wave a black scarf at the action? But if you are scratching your head in confusion then spare a thought for Warren O’Connor.

Our man is a Kiwi, a dyed-in-the-wool All Black supporter, a mad keen fan from birth. He is the type you see sitting in a large group of black-clad folks complete with war paint and a one-eyed view on the referee’s parentage (especially if he happens to hail from England) who show up wherever and whenever the All Blacks take the field.

Like all New Zealand rugby supporters Warren has suffered the same 24 years of heartache and heartbreak since that solitary World Cup success back in 1987 as the All Blacks have stuffed up the one competition they want most while picking up Tri Nations titles like they were goldfish at a village fair. Just two matches separate his team from glory and now Warren O’Connor must choose whether to support the All Blacks or lend his voice to the Wallaby side his son James plays for.

O’Connor senior is referred to as a “passionate” All Black supporter so he simply can’t win ... or perhaps he can’t lose? Either way he can’t emerge from today’s match entirely serene. Either his son or his beloved All Blacks will be out of the World Cup by coffee time today.

“I feel Australian. I was born here, this is where I started playing rugby properly,” James O’Connor said to the press last week. “This is where my dream started to be a professional rugby player. My family’s slowly making that transition as well ... they’re getting there, but Dad’s finding it a bit hard.”

Should the Wallabies triumph today at least some of the credit must go to their arch rivals who either produced or schooled several of their key players. They love to hate each other but the two countries have more in common than most because several of this Wallaby XV owe something to New Zealand.

Admittedly O’Connor was born in Australia but to Kiwi parents (and to complicate matters further mum was born in New Zealand to South African parents) who took the toddler home to New Zealand where he spent five formative years growing up in West Auckland where Warren was a minister at the Te Atatu Baptist Church.

Only last week the second youngest Wallaby ever capped visited his old school in Auckland, his former rugby league club (the Te Atatu Roosters) and his 70-year-old gran who still lives in the area. Evidently his cousins have been tapping him for tickets in the run-up to today’s game, held in the same stadium where O’Connor used to support the Blues.

“The first games of rugby union I started watching were the All Blacks, Christian Cullen was my favourite player and I definitely supported the All Blacks,” says O’Connor as he recalls growing up just down the road. “Like every kid in New Zealand there were (dreams of being an All Black). Whenever I was in the backyard playing rugby I was always Christian Cullen.” Perhaps Cullen now dreams of turning back the clock and being James O’Connor because it’s not everyone that scores a hat-trick of tries on their run-on debut as the Aussie did against Italy.

Today’s winger was not the only Wallaby to enjoy a grounding in New Zealand rugby. The other flyer, Digby Ioane, was born there and spent his early years in New Zealand before emigrating to Australia. Sekope Kepu is another with a foot in both camps because although the giant prop of Tongan heritage was born in Australia he spent several years in New Zealand and turned out in that famous black strip when playing for the Kiwi U17’s, U19’s and U21 teams. Meanwhile Quade Cooper was born and brought up in New Zealand and remains a hate figure in his native country not least because he could win (or just as easily lose) this match single handed.

But none of these affinities to the host nation come close to the ties that bind Robbie Deans to New Zealand’s breast. The fact that Deans is a New Zealander, a former All Black and a one-time assistant New Zealand coach just adds an extra soupçon of Semtex to what is already a highly combustible fixture.

Should the Wallabies triumph today Warren and his buddies in the Eden Park stands won’t leave the ground until they have the head of Steve Tew on a platter. The chief executive of the NZRU was said to be the biggest stumbling block that stood between Deans and the All Black post four years ago. According to one report the two men fell out when Tew was boss of the Christchurch franchise and Deans was coaching the Crusaders to unparalleled success, although no one seems to know quite why.

Following their exit at the quarter-final stage of the RWC’07 the Australian Rugby Union boss John O’Neill delayed the announcement of the new Wallaby coach to enable Deans to apply for the All Blacks job first. When Graham Henry was reappointed – by an 8-1 margin according to one source – Deans took the only option left to him, jumped “the ditch” and offered himself to the ARU.

Most pundits in New Zealand were incredulous that Deans’ peerless record of five Super Rugby titles proved insufficient to get him the All Blacks role but that ignores the political sands which are just as treacherous in New Zealand rugby as they were in Renaissance Rome. Had the NZRU board appointed Deans in 2007 they would have been making a tacit admission that they’d backed the wrong horse four years earlier. They looked to Clive Woodward to cover their blushes. The Englishman had survived England’s quarter-final exit in 1999 before winning the big one four years later. Henry would do the same ... unless, of course, Deans has a say in the matter.

They may not have won at Eden Park since 1986 but the Wallabies have dumped their nearest and dearest out of the World Cup at the semi-final stage both times the two teams have met: who can forget George Gregan’s “four more years”. Deans would not be human if he wasn’t cooking up some Old Testament retribution for his country of birth; a plague of penalties would do nicely.

The Wallabies boast a history of valiant defence. Last weekend’s heroics against South Africa were more than matched in 1991 when, in the semi-final at Lansdowne Road, the Aussie defence restricted New Zealand to their lowest ever World Cup total of just six points.

It’s unlikely to be enough today, which is just one of the reasons Deans is backing his erratic playmaker Cooper to come good. It seems likely that this All Blacks side will score tries so the Wallabies must do likewise. They rode their luck against the Springboks but the Wallaby forwards will need to halt the Black tide in its tracks today if they are to have any hope of making an appearance in next Sunday’s final.

It’s too close to call. Deans has a point to prove and Henry a last shot at redemption, but whatever the outcome at least Warren O’Connor will have something to shout about.