Aussie performance better but still ‘enormously disappointing’

HONOUR restored for the Australians then, but defeat never sits well with our Antipodean cousins.

All week coach Gary Lyon has gritted his teeth at the torrent of criticism reining down on his and his players' heads and he showed the strain in a curt press conference after yesterday's game.

Lyon had already dealt with a number of questions with a disdain normally reserved for something you might find on the sole of your shoe when one brave hack inquired as to whether the pre-game fracas was a premeditated Aussie tactic.