Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt was the first to admit his side were lucky not to have lost by a much heavier margins, but praised his side’s effort to fight back from a terrible opening 15 minutes.
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The hosts were their own worst enemy from the kick off in Sydney as unforced errors, woeful defending and poorly executed passes had the home side in all sorts of trouble as the All Blacks ran riot.
It looked like another hammering was on the cards after the Wallabies had thrown away a 20-3 lead to crash to a 67-27 drubbing against Argentina two weeks ago.
It was a different story after the break. Wallabies captain Harry Wilson led the charge as the home side matched the All Blacks four tries and out-scored the New Zealanders 14-3 in the second half.
“We really rolled our sleeves up in the second-half, but the reality is they could’ve had more of a margin on the scoreboard if they didn’t miss a couple of chances,” said Schmidt.
“We’ve got to be realistic about that. We lost the Test match. We can’t finish a close second.
“There’s some things to be proud about – the way we were building our way back into the game. But you give New Zealand a start like that and it’s too tough to overcome.”
Australia had to make twice as many tackles as New Zealand to stem the slow of All Blacks attacks and were out-muscled at the breakdown.
Schmidt saw progress in his team’s development, but rued the chances his side squandered when they had the All Blacks on the ropes.
“Once it became tight, we probably had a few chances that we didn’t put away,” he said.
“But pleased with the way we dug in, to build our way back.”
New Zealand coach Scott Robertson looked mighty relieved at the final whistle as his side struggled to stay in the lead. Just as they had done during both of their defeats in South Africa, the All Blacks wilted in the final quarter.
However retaining the Bledisloe Cup eases the pressure on Robertson after those back-to-back losses against the Springboks.
“We found a way to win, I’m really pleased,” he said. “We’re getting good experience to win these tight games.”
He was quick to praise the Australian fightback. “They showed a lot of grit, it just shows how much any Aussie team you play, they just won’t go away,” Robertson added.