LONDON: Australian captain Stephen Moore has paid tribute to world champions New Zealand, saying the Wallabies were beaten by "the better team" in a blockbuster World Cup final at Twickenham.
Moore's Wallabies were beaten 34-17 on Saturday despite mounting a thrilling two-try comeback in the second half.
The Australian hooker said the All Blacks deserved the victory after building a 21-3 lead and unleashing the class of goal-kicking No.10 Dan Carter to kill off Australian hopes in the final 10 minutes.
"They really deserved to win. They were the best team all tournament, so congratulations to them, they played really well," Moore said.
"At halftime we talked about getting ourselves back in the game, I thought we did that, we gave ourselves a chance, but they showed their class there at the end. We just weren't good enough."
Injuries to second-rower Kane Douglas and centre Matt Giteau were early blows to the Wallabies' chances but Moore rejected the search for mitigating factors.
"No excuses for us tonight. It's a World Cup final, so you deal with that stuff," he said. "What I am proud of is the effort we showed right through the 80 minutes. Sometimes you come up against a better team and that was us tonight, they thoroughly deserve everything they get."
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