Eales praises his side but Australia can still be caught

Captain John Eales says his team are the best Australian rugby side of its time, but has stopped short of declaring it the best ever.

Eales' injury-time heroics against New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday retained the Bledisloe Cup in Australia for a record third-successive year, kept the Wallabies on track for their first Tri-Nations title and reaffirmed their status as world champions.

The manner of the win, however, when they fought back from 23-21 down and camped on their own line into injury-time to win 24-23, proved they were a team with as much character and composure as talent.

"It's the best (Wallaby team) of the time, obviously the rugby we're playing now is very different to what was played 10 years ago," Eales said yesterday.

"It's very difficult to compare teams. The Wallaby side of '91/'92 was the best of its time and we're the best of our time now, to say we're the best ever is a very difficult thing to say."

Coach Rod Macqueen wants to wait until the retirement years before rating the Wallabies he has shaped. "I don't like to compare that, the players judge themselves on their standards," Macqueen said yesterday.

Even when losing, these Wallabies marked themselves as something special. In the 10-try spectacular in Sydney three weeks ago, regarded by many as the greatest international of all, Australia fought back from 24-0 down after eight minutes to outplay the All Blacks for the rest of the match and lead 35-34 with two minutes to go, only to lose it 39-35 to a Jonah Lomu try.

That was their first loss in 11 Tests, to leave them stranded on the record 10-successive wins shared by the 1991-92 and 1998 teams and they now boast 12 wins from their last 13 Tests.

Most thought the Sydney Test would never be matched, but Saturday's contest came close as Australia withstood five minutes of pressure on their line before sending the ball deep into New Zealand territory well into injury-time.

With close to 84 minutes gone on the scoreboard clock and most of the 36,500 crowd screaming for the full-time whistle, South African referee Jonathan Kaplan told Eales a New Zealand lineout on their quarter-line was the last play of the match.

Mark Connors pinched the lineout for Australia and, two phases later, All Black prop Craig Dowd was penalised for coming into the side of a ruck.

With regular kicker Stirling Mortlock off the field with cramp, Eales was the appropriate man to kick the winning goal.

The jewel which could crown the Wallabies as the best awaits in Durban on August 26th when they play South Africa in the final game of the Tri-Nations series.

Australia and New Zealand are both on 10 points on top of the Tri-Nations table, with the Wallabies holding the barest advantage in for-and-against, with 85 points for and 68 against, compared with the All Blacks' 87 for and 71 against.

New Zealand play South Africa the week before at altitude in Johannesburg, giving Australia the advantage of knowing exactly what is needed in Durban to take the title. Whatever New Zealand do, Australia have to match.

If New Zealand beat South Africa and take a bonus point for a maximum five points, Australia must do likewise and topple the Springboks by at least the same margin.

English champions Leicester visited Omagh for a special charity match in aid of the Tyrone County Hospital, and their understrength side proved no match for Ulster losing 31-12. Tries from Niall Malone, James Topping, Sheldon Coulter, Tony McWhirter and Bryn Cunningham helped Harry Williams' side to a convincing win, with Pat Howard and Paul Reeves going over for Leicester tries.

Scorers Ulster: N Malone try, 2 conv, J Topping try, S Coulter try, T McWhirter try, B Cunningham try, D Humphreys conv. Leicester: P Howard try, P Reeves try, M Meehan conv.