Monday, Dec. 1, 2008

TWICKENHAM, England (AP) New Zealand beat England on Saturday to wrap up its most commanding grand slam of wins over the home unions while Wales denied Australia a sweep of its own with a shock victory over the tourists.

While the All Blacks withstood some early pressure before ultimately cruising to a 32-6 win at Twickenham that wrapped up a third ever slam — and first without conceding a try — Wales survived a late fightback to beat the Wallabies 21-18.

Although Wales' victory reclaimed some pride for northern hemisphere rugby, which has been otherwise soundly thrashed this month by the tourists of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, the All Blacks' latest win confirmed their status as the best in the world.

"If someone said we'd win 13 out of 15 test matches this year, I'd have grabbed it," New Zealand coach Graham Henry said. "You don't go into a season saying you want to win this, this and this. You want to build a rugby side."

The All Blacks patiently withstood early pressure from a side that initially appeared to have learned its lessons from last week's record 42-6 loss to South Africa, before taking advantage of needless penalties and scoring three tries in the last 22 minutes.

Mils Muliaina touched down twice in the same right-hand corner, the beneficiary of moments of individual skill by Jimmy Cowon and then Dan Carter, before Ma'a Nonu charged from inside his own half to wrap up the win.

Carter missed five of his 11 kicks at goal in an unusually inaccurate showing, but England, as it did in big losses to Australia and South Africa, contributed to its own downfall with four players sent to the sin bin.

England toiled and even threatened to score the first try of the match but was punished harshly by referee Alain Rolland for a string of offsides and handling of the ball on the ground.

England, which has now missed out on fourth place in the rankings and a top seeding at the 2011 World Cup, managed only to show enough of an improvement to suggest that — if it can remedy its disastrous discipline and produce more quick ball — it could again trouble the best sides.

"They had to stand up after the South Africa game and they did that," England manager Martin Johnson said. "We had chances again but we weren't good enough to take them. There's still some guys with a lot to learn and we've got a lot to learn as a team.

"It tells you that, at this level, you make mistakes and you get killed. It's getting tired for us to say, but the margins are small."

Wales showed just how to make chances count when it claimed just a third win over a Tri-Nations side since rugby union turned professional in 1995.

Although Australia enjoyed 63 percent of possession in the second half in Cardiff and was virtually encamped in the Welsh 22 for much of the final quarter, the Six Nations champions hung on at the Millennium Stadium.

It was Australia's first loss in Europe this month, having beaten Italy, England and France. Wales, which failed to cross the line despite challenging strongly against the Springboks and All Blacks, scored tries through winger Shane Williams and fullback Lee Byrne.

Wales center Jamie Roberts recovered from a collision with Stirling Mortlock that took the Australia captain out of the game to split the visiting defense through the middle before shuffling the ball out to Williams for the opening try.

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