All Blacks under familiar cloud at home

Reaction: Passing an expressionless John Mitchell moments after the first half had ended on Saturday, the thought occurred that of the 82,444 people in the ground, the last one you'd have swapped positions with would have been the New Zealand coach.

By the end of another torrid night for New Zealand rugby and, by extension, the psyche of the entire country, he looked like a dead man walking.

"We're not chokers, mate," he insisted when a reporter bravely asked him if this latest semi-final collapse under pressure was proof that they were. Yet, back in New Zealand, that's exactly how they are being presented.

They need a third-fourth place play-off on Thursday like a hole in their heads, but at least it will preserve them from the inevitable public hanging which awaits them on their return, if only for a few more days. Then again, it probably just feels like a suspended sentence. John Hart will know what inner turmoil Mitchell is going through better than anyone. When his face appeared on the giant screen at the Millennium Stadium at the third-place play-off four years ago, the New Zealanders in the ground roundly booed. So began his public execution.

Anton Oliver once told me that the opprobrium directed at Hart, especially through the means of talk radio, "showed up the worst aspects of our (New Zealand) society".

Hart would have left the job anyway, but as a coach - and he was a brilliant coach - he's something of a broken man. His personal life also became tinged with tragedy.

On Saturday night, surrounded by a small group of journalists in the media tribune after observing the post-match press conferences, Hart was asked if there was a sense of déjà vu about this latest All Blacks semi-final letdown. His voice and pained expression made it all too clear he was speaking from experience.

"Well, I'm not enjoying this moment at all. It brings me back to '99 when we were expected to win and we didn't. In that game I think we should have won, because we were 10-14 points up. In this game I don't think we ever looked like winning, but it is a major disappointment for home and I just hope back home that we respond with a little more maturity than we did back then in 1999."

Asked if he hoped the New Zealand public had learnt from four years ago and would show John Mitchell a little more understanding, Hart said: "Well, I don't know, but I hope so, because I think that was a period of our history that wasn't really very good for our game or our country. I just hope that common sense prevails.

"These young men have done their best, they've given it heaps, they've entertained, they've come out and been beaten by a better side, and we have to recognise that. And it happened to us in 1999. In the end we got beaten by a side that played 30 minutes of the most spectacular rugby that I've ever seen, but no one wanted to admit it."

Of Australia's unexpected win on Saturday, Hart said: "They'd clearly done a lot of work and players who looked to me like they were trudging absolutely started to run out for 80 minutes with intensity.

"I think you have to put a lot down to their fitness," he added, with an enigmatic smile, "and a lot down to their self-belief."

Hart also observed that Australia's big-match players "came out tonight. The Rogers and the Larkhams came out tonight. Phil Waugh and George Smith were terriers; Bill Young, who's had a very quiet time, really fronted (up) tonight. I think that was a big factor."

Hart had forecast a big Australian performance and a close contest, pointing out that Australia had beaten three of the top eight sides in the world en route to the semi-finals.

"They have an excellent defence, the best defensive record in the competition, and all they had to do was minimise the mistakes in the backs and they had the ability to take the game to the All Blacks. And that's exactly what happened."

Hart concurred with Mitchell's assessment that New Zealand's execution had failed them under concerted Wallaby pressure.

"Whatever they tried to do, the Australians shut down. It was more the Australian defence and ability at the breakdown than mistakes, necessarily, because the mistakes were mainly forced in the tackle."

They also conceded eight penalties to four in the second half, though Hart interpreted this as more a sign that the All Blacks lost their composure than their discipline.

"We just weren't quite as composed as we needed to be when the crunch came."

To the notion that the All Blacks had given too much away by showing their full hand in the Tri-Nations, a question prompted in part by Eddie Jones' admission that the Wallabies had learnt a lot from their defeats in the summer, Hart said: "In fairness to them (the All Blacks) they play a game that people find difficult to stay with and it's been a great game. Eddie Jones even admitted that the All Blacks have set the scene for world rugby this year.

"It's very difficult to hold a lot back. People are now saying that the Australians held a lot back. I don't think the Australians held anything back at all.

"They just played well. They got it right. They decided that instead of kicking the ball they would hold on to it and they would back themselves in that area.

"That was the only change in my view."