New Zealand held off a thrilling second-half fightback by Australia to retain the Bledisloe Cup in Sydney, but questions remain about the All Blacks ability to close out a game having blown an early 21-0 lead.
After Will Jordan, Rieko Ioane and Caleb Clarke all touched down first-half tries, New Zealand looked to be cruising to victory before the Wallabies bounced back after the break, scoring 14 unanswered points to come within a whisker of a first win over the All Blacks in four years.
Ill-discipline cost New Zealand, who were down to 13 men late in the second half with both Anton Lienert-Brown and Caleb Clarke in the sin bin. The All Blacks were dealt a blow before kick-off when Beauden Barrett was ruled out with illness so Will Jordan moved across from the flanks to full-back and Sevu Reece was promoted from the bench to play on the right wing.
Jordan had an immediate impact, hitting the gas after slicing through a hole in the defence following a deft no-look pop pass from lock Tupou Vaa’i to touch down between the posts for a try converted by Damian McKenzie. The men in black kept attacking.
Jordan survived being smashed by a ferocious Harry Wilson tackle under the high ball to get his pass away, which led to the All Blacks second try after just eight minutes. Clarke, then Wallace Sititi powered through the middle of the Wallabies defence before scrum-half Cortez Ratima grabbed the off load and hit the afterburners. He draw Wallabies full back Tom Wright to put Ioane over as McKenzie landed a tricky conversion from near the touchline.
Nothing was going right for the Wallabies. Wilson has his pass intercepted by Clarke, who started the move he finished off with the All Blacks third converted try with barely quarter of an hour played. New Zealand moved the ball from left to right and back again before Sititi put Clarke into space and the winger held off a double tackle from Wright and Australia prop Angus Bell to score on the line.
There was finally some relief from the relentless All Blacks attacks when Australia clawed back their first try. Flanker Rob Valetini took a long ball at the back of the lineout, popped his pass to Nic White, who drew McKenzie and put openside Fraser McReight away for a converted try midway through the first half.
It was against the run of play and only served to spur the All Blacks into another crack at the Australian line. A stray pass from Wallabies centre Hunter Paisami was snapped up by Reece who got in behind the defence before releasing Ardie Savea, who galloped over for the All Blacks fourth try. New Zealand were scoring at more than a
point a minute.
The Wallabies trimmed New Zealand’s lead to 28-14 late in the first half when hooker Matt Faessler delayed his run from the back of a maul to slip Sam Cane’s tackle and crash over for a converted try. New Zealand then suffered the double set back of having a try disallowed and losing Jordie Barrett with a knee injury just before the half-time whistle.
The centre crashed over out wide, but limped off after his try was ruled out when the TMO spotted Reece had knocked on the ball in the build up. McKenzie landed a penalty five minutes into the second half. It was the All Blacks last points of the game as the
momentum of the game swung away from them as chances started to go begging.
After James Slipper came off the bench in his 140th international as the prop became the most capped Australian player of all time, Savea was denied another try when he was held up after White managed to slip his hand under the ball just before it was grounded. The All Blacks had another try ruled out after going virtually the full length of the pitch when Ratima touched down to finish off a brilliant move, only for the TMO to spot that McKenzie’s pass to Jordan was forward in the build-up.
Paisami made up for his poor pass in the build up to the Savea’s first-half try when he powered over after a sustained period of Wallabies pressure with 25 minutes left. It was another double blow for the All Blacks, who had replacement centre Lienert-Brown set to the sin bin after he was caught offside, paying the price for poor team discipline off the back of three straight penalties against his side.
Noah Lolesio landed the conversion again and the Wallabies had their tales up at 31-21 down with nearly a quarter of an hour left on the clock. With the All Blacks still down to 14 men, Valetini and McReight were at the heart of a Wallabies attack deep into the New Zealand half which was only halted by a committed tackle from TJ Perenara, who was on for Ratima.
Clarke then joined Lienert-Brown in the sin bin when his snuffed out a Wallabies attack down the flanks with a deliberate knock-on. The Wallabies took full advantage, roared on by the home crowd, slicing through the stretched All Blacks defence with centre Len Ikitau evading Savea’s diving tackle to touch down, but the try was disallowed because of a knock on in the build-up when Wallabies wing Andrew Kellaway fumbled the ball.
With time ticking down, Australia kept battering the All Blacks line, which finally cracked when the ball was flung wide. Wright capped a superb display by reaching out to ground the ball after holding off McKenzie’s tackle to make it 31-28 with barely a minute left.
The All Blacks were back up to 14 men with Lienert-Brown out of the sin bin and nervous looks in the New Zealand ranks changed to relief when they won a turnover with the hooter gone. Savea picked up at the base of the resulting scrum and hoofed the ball into touch as New Zealand clung on to the Bledisloe Cup.
If it’s any consolation to the Wallabies, the teams meet again this Saturday in Wellington, where the All Blacks haven’t won since 2018.
Australia: 28
TRIES: 4 (McReight 18’, Faessler 36’, Paisami 66’, Wright 79’)
CONVERSIONS: 4 (Lolesio 19’, 37’, 67’, 80’)
PENALTIES: 0
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 0
RED CARDS: 0
15, Tom Wright, 14 Andrew Kellaway, 13 Len Ikitau, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Nic White, 8 Harry Wilson (capt), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini, 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Matt Faessler, 1 Angus Bell
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 James Slipper, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Tom Lynagh, 23 Dylan Pietsch
New Zealand: 31
TRIES: 4 (Jordan 2’, Ioane 9’, Clarke 15’, Savea 25’)
CONVERSIONS: 4 (McKenzie 3’, 10’, 16’, 26’)
PENALTIES: 1 (McKenzie 45’)
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 2 (Lienert-Brown 66’, Clarke 73’)
RED CARDS: 0
15. Will Jordan, 14. Sevu Reece, 13. Rieko Ioane, 12.Jordie Barrett, 11. Caleb Clarke, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 Cortez Ratima, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane, 6 Wallace Sititi, 5 Tupou Vaa’i, 4 Scott Barrett (capt), 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot
Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Tamaiti Williams, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Sam Darry, 20 Luke Jacobson, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23. Harry Plummer