The Eden Park hoodoo continues for another year as the Wallabies have been defeated by the All Blacks 37-10.
Despite the final score, the Wallabies were in the game for around 60 minutes before the All Blacks ran riot in the final quarter of the game with a contentious no try ruling against Henry Speight likely be talked about for a few days.
The Match
The Wallabies had first chance at opening the scoring after just four minutes but Bernard Foley was unable to convert the shot at goal from in front about 40 metres out.
The All Blacks then punished the Wallabies on their first trip into the Wallabies territory with a fantastic try of their own down the right wing with Israel Dagg finishing off a move that involved Keiran Read throwing a no look pass and Ben Smith finding the gap in the defensive line to put Dagg away.
It didn’t take long for the hosts to extend their lead with their second try of the night. Following a scrum penalty, the All Blacks ran a backline move and Henry Speight went for the intercept but couldn’t get his hands on the ball that allowed Anton Lienert-Brown a simple run to the line for a 10-0 after ten minutes.
The Wallabies best chance in the opening 15 minutes came after they spurned a shot at a penalty goal from wide out but the resulting lineout saw disrupted ball at the back and the All Blacks got out of jail with another relieving penalty after a scrappy sequence of play.
The Wallabies ruck work was a few steps off the pace that saw Matt Todd getting heavily involved and winning a few crucial penalties for his side.
Their lineout work wasn’t helping their cause either with another attacking chance deep in the All Blacks 22 coming to nothing, as they were unable to secure the ball on their own throw.
Samu Kerevi did go close to scoring for the Wallabies after getting around Julian Savea with a nice step but the ball was lost forward and it got worse as he was unfortunately injured in that sequence of play and had to leave the field minutes later with what looked like an ankle injury and was replaced by Sefa Naivalu.
The Wallabies then enjoyed the next passages of play coming off the back of a big scrum battle with Foley finding space down the right wing and some nice interplay from Reece Hodge and Dane Haylett-Petty saw Rory Arnold get the ball about eight metres out and he reached out to score the Wallabies opening points.
There was a bit of push and shove after the try and referee Nigel Owens had had enough of it after previous incidents and warning earlier in the half and awarded the Wallabies a penalty on halfway from the restart after Foley’s conversion.
Reece Hodge stepped up with the shot at goal but was away to the left to leave the score at 10-7 after 30 minutes.
That good work was immediately nullified after TJ Perenara charged down a Reece Hodge clearing kick and he re-gathered to score the third try of the half for the All Blacks.
Beauden Barrett had obviously left his kicking boots elsewhere as he missed his third conversion at goal to make it 15-7.
The Wallabies had one last chance to hit back before the half time break but again poor handling let them down deep in the All Blacks 22 to leave it at 15-7 in favour of the home side despite only having 31% of the ball in the half.
It was a good start to the second half for the Wallabies with Foley reducing the margin to five points on the back of Sekope Kepu making good metres with a strong run well into the 22.
It looked like the Wallabies had leveled the scores with a Henry Speight try following some brilliant work from Bernard Foley but some crowd rumbling made Nigel Owens go to the TMO who somehow made the interesting call that Haylett-Petty had shouldered Julian Savea off the ball as he attempted to chase down Speight.
The momentum appeared to be shifting in favour of the Wallabies and Foley had a shot at penalty goal that he could have thrown over but it hit the upright.
Then just minutes later the All Blacks punished a Wallabies mistake with Julian Savea adding to his try scoring feats after a brilliant run from Ben Smith. There might be questions over how Scott Sio was felled in the chase but Nigel Owens was having nothing of it was Cruden knocked over the quick drop goal to make it 22-10.
As the bench started to be called upon as the game entered the final 20 minutes, David Pocock started to make up for lost time after a broken hand and got stuck in at the rucks.
Cruden added a penalty goal to make it a 15 point game and that was followed by Savea’s second as the score started to blow out at 32-10.
Savea continued to run riot down the left wing, terrorising Wallabies defenders as he went close for his hat trick but Dane Coles was on hand to score the sixth All Blacks try of the night in the left corner to make it 37-10.
The Wallabies tried to get something going in the final minutes but another turnover was almost punished with Dagg denied a second try due to a forward pass.
[one_half last=”no”]
The Game Changer
The Speight no try.[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
The G&GR MOTM
Matt Todd – Had a strong game for the All Blacks but was allowed far too much time and space to do his work at the ruck. Julian Savea a close second with a strong second half display.[/one_half]
The Details
Score & Scorers
[one_half last=”no”]WALLABIES 10
Tries: Arnold
Conversions: Foley
Penalties: Foley
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]NEW ZEALAND 42
Tries: J Savea 2, Dagg 2, Lienert-Brown, Perenara, Coles
Conversions: Cruden 2
Penalties: Cruden
[/one_half]
Cards
Nil
Crowd
47,744
