The Wallabies had no answer to the All Blacks' dominance on Sunday © Getty Images

So the Wallabies are out of the World Cup and the All Blacks go through to the final this weekend against France. But before talking about the Wallabies performance, full credit must go to the All Blacks. Even without Dan Carter, our friends from across the ditch came out ready to play and, in truth, had it over us in most departments.

But I am frustrated. Not by losing the game so much as the way we lost it.

Quade Cooper was again really disappointing. It’s pretty easy to sit back and bag they guy, and while I would normally be right up for that, he never looked comfortable. And how long you leave someone looking (and playing) like that in such a crucial position is the decision of the coach and coaching staff. It’s easy to say in hindsight, but alarm bells should have been ringing after last week against the Springboks, perhaps even earlier in the Irish game and certainly should have increased in volume when his kick off went out on the full to start this game.

Maybe all the pressure finally got to him, and though both he and coach Robbie Deans came out and denied it, such a sustained and complete campaign of hatred could very easily have taken a toll. Either way, Cooper was brought into the team for a skill set that that he showed next to nothing of during the Springboks and Ireland games in particular. And given we hide him in defence, could Deans have pulled the pin a bit earlier?

The reason Deans gave for going with Pat McCabe over Berrick Barnes at centre was one of defensive presence. Surely by this rationale, with Cooper showing nothing, Barnes surely could have been given a shot at fly-half for some period, as his defence is far more sound than that of Cooper and he is a proven big game performer.

But despite all that, as was evidenced last week, even without Cooper we can still win a game using solid defence and the right tactics.

Most of my frustration comes more from our inability to make a game of the semi final by shooting ourselves in the foot with poor decisions and execution. Frequency, choice and execution of kicking all seemed to be off for the Wallabies, creating the “perfect storm” for a rubbish kicking game.

Firstly, there was a lot of kicking. Now this by itself is not necessarily a bad thing as field position is always going to be crucial in a game like this.

This heavy reliance on kicking took away from the Australian running game that was so successful during the Tri-Nations. The style of game that had fans daring to dream about the threat we could be to this World Cup. Gone was the free-wheeling confidence that Quade Cooper and Will Genia used to such great effect during the Super Rugby season, and it had seemingly been replaced by box kicks. Lots and lots of box kicks.

Secondly, the kicking was poor. Right from the kick off - that lamentably went out on the full - to poor chip kicks to a return to the afore-mentioned chronic overuse of the box kick.

And thirdly, to compile all this poor kicking, was a distinct lack of effective and pressuring chases on most occasions. As a result, every time the ball went up from Will Genia, I found myself basically praying that one of the All Blacks’ back three would drop the ball to give the Wallabies some respite. But with the lack of Australians running through to contest the ball, it turned into a training drill and the balls were inevitably caught without any fuss. Not that this deterred the Wallabies from sticking to the ploy.

On the flip side, every high kick that came off an All Blacks boot had at least one if not more players hungrily chasing through to contest. And with the Wallabies’ struggle against the high ball continuing on from last week, this proved to be an extremely effective move.

This hunger was also evident on the other side of the ball in defence. Australia struggled to gain territory with pick and drives but were at least able (for the most part) to retain possession. Any further adventure than that was met with swamping and isolating defence causing turnovers or penalties against the Australians. Perhaps we kicked so much to avoid this continuing to happen? It pains me to see hard running backs like James O’Connor and Digby Ioane not utilised when they have provided attacking high points through this campaign.

So now we have a third and fourth place play-off against Wales on Friday night.

The Welsh were desperately unlucky to go down to the French by only a point after playing most of the game with 14 men after the captain was sent off. They will come out absolutely firing and desperate to claim a prized southern hemisphere scalp. It would be easy for Australia to switch off for this game, but they will do so at their own peril. Even though the tournament is not on the line, there is a chance to restore some lost pride. And while a win will not necessarily bring comfort to the playing squad, back to back losses will surely be far worse for morale moving forward, as we will inevitably have to do.

Simon Furey