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All Blacks retain Bledisloe Cup after holding off fast-finishing Wallabies

By AAP
Will Jordan of the New Zealand All Blacks embraces Harry Plummer after winning The Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup match between Australia Wallabies and New Zealand All Blacks at Accor Stadium on September 21, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

The All Blacks have secured the Bledisloe Cup for a 23rd straight year after denying the gallant Wallabies 31-28 in the opening trans-Tasman Test in Sydney.

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After racing out to a 21-0 lead inside 15 minutes on Saturday, New Zealand had to withstand a fierce fightback from the Wallabies to retain the prized piece of silverware.

The victory will also almost certainly consign Australia to the Rugby Championship wooden spoon following four defeats from five matches thus far.

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Coach Joe Schmidt will be pleased with the grit of his side but no doubt furious with the early non-existent defence at Accor Stadium.

The 21-point head start left the Wallabies playing catch up all afternoon and not even mighty performances from flanker Fraser McReight and No.8 Rob Valetini could save Australia from an eighth consecutive loss to their trans-Tasman rivals.

The All Blacks suffered a pre-match blow with star fullback Beauden Barrett ruled out with illness.

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But his scratching made little difference, with Will Jordan switching from the wing to fullback and storming through the middle after just 90 seconds to open the scoring.

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Their own worst enemies making mistake after mistake, the Wallabies couldn’t contain their rivals early with Rieko Ioane and Caleb Clarke also cashing on the flimsy Australian defence.

Down 21-0, the Wallabies had to score next and did when McReight collected an inside ball from Nic White from a set-piece lineout play to run away and score.

Alas, Sevu Reece – the late in on the wing for the All Blacks – swooped on a loose pass from Hunter Paisami to put Ardie Savea over for New Zealand’s fourth try to make it 24-7 after 25 minutes.

The Wallabies showed plenty of pluck to stay in the contest and limit the deficit to 14 points at the break after hooker Matt Faessler darted over from the back of a maul and Jordie Barrett had a try disallowed as the halftime siren sounded for an earlier knock-on.

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But the hosts continually shot themselves in the foot.

When McReight pulled off an unlikely 50-22, Australia lost the ensuing lineout.

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When Tom Wright made a brilliant 30-metre burst, he had no support.

The game seemed all over when Damien McKenzie slotted a penalty goal early in the second half to kick New Zealand out to a 17-point lead.

When Savea barged his way over, the Wallabies looked to have conceded exactly 101 points in 101 minutes following their 67-27 capitulation last start against Argentina in Santa Fe.

But the TMO ruled Savea was held up, then found a forward pass from McKenzie to deny the All Blacks a third try in 20 minutes.

The reprieve, a Paisami try with 15 minutes remaining and yellow cards for All Blacks backs Anton Lienert-Brown and Clarke gave the Wallabies hope of a famous comeback victory.

Alas, even with 15 on 13 for five minutes and a one-man advantage for 10, the Wallabies couldn’t find the tryline again until Wright went over too little too late.

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Comments

52 Comments
N
Nickers 19 days ago

What the ABs are lacking is standards - poor discipline, pushing low probability passes every time there is a line break, and obviously their fitness.

O
OJohn 20 days ago

Almost the same score when Eddie Jones was coach .......

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Bruiser 20 days ago

Scott Barrett would be lucky to get a 5 from me. Vaii is head and shoulders above him right now. Reiko was one of our best last night, Jordan and Jordie had very average games. Big DMac fan but he is playing with no confidence and seems afraid to express himself. Ratima and Hoatham next game pls. Wallace is find of the season. Put Ardie to 7 and retire Cane now

B
BM 19 days ago

RIEKO please! ...and to deny our former captain of a well deserved one hundred Tests would be spiteful of YOU!!!....no sense of occasion BRUISER!

C
ClintP 20 days ago

I was at the game, a win is a win, but the second half problems just linger. Overall the players on the field did well, I just never saw the skipper talk to the referee once, not once, we need a new captain who asks the questions and rallies the boys. Barrett’s game has diminished with the weight of captaincy, time for a new leader.

B
Bruiser 20 days ago

Agree Barrett wrong choice for captain. Should have been Ardie , who should be our 7

K
Kia koe 20 days ago

Win is a win.... They still building

B
BH 20 days ago

AB's should've won by 20-30 points except they had multiple inaccurate final plays after tearing apart the Aussies. They just lacked accuracy and composure. However the disallowed try to Jordie Barrett was the wrong call by the TMO - Sevu Reece never knocked on at the previous ruck, he maintained possession the whole time.

P
PR 20 days ago

Last test against SA TMO couldn't spot a clear dropped ball over the try line, yet in this test they can somehow pick-up an imaginary knock-on to deny a try. It's probably just the Rassie effect.

P
PR 20 days ago

Great to watch both sides play some attacking rugby at a high tempo where players will naturally make errors due to the intensity. A much better watch than the boring rolling mauls that Rassie keeps throwing up.

B
B 20 days ago

An ugly win is still a win...

TJ Perenara's tackle won the match...

Mission accomplished...

Go the All Blacks...Bledisloe Cup retained 21 years on...

O
OJohn 20 days ago

We've had kiwi coaches sabotaging us for half the time so it doesn't really count. It's irrelevant. Most of the rest of the time we've had Tah coaches selecting their useless Tah pets. It's not a real contest until we get a real fair dinkum Australian coach.

M
MattJH 20 days ago

Two awful teams both trying to gift the game to the other.

Embarrassing.

B
Bull Shark 20 days ago

To be honest, when the wallabies kept rolling forward - the ABs body language was very worrying. I actually joked that it looked like they were trying to lose the game.

M
Md1991 20 days ago

I wouldn’t be bold enough to say that Australia deserved to win, but New Zealand deserved to lose. Still unable to score after 60 minutes, still unable to keep 15 men on the pitch. They threw away a 21 point lead. They did enough to thoroughly deserve losing this game. Utterly unprofessional. Couldn’t finish half their scoring chances, infringement after infringement. No doubt all the kiwis will be morning about having to play with a man or two down… well, blame the players,

Blame the coach. Don’t blame the ref. In your hands. Up to you to control it. Don’t whinge about it

B
BH 20 days ago

No moaning here about the two yellow cards, so there goes your lame comment mate. It was poor discipline.

T
Terry24 20 days ago

The era of NZ turning up and figuring how to beat teams on the fly is over. They didn't take Argentina seriously and they lost. They didn't take Australia seriously and they nearly lost. In order to maximize MZs strengths they need to also exploit opponents weaknesses.

They are in an era where the requirement to dominate will be to win many tight matches. They must exploit weaknesses as well as play to their strengths.

T
Tim 20 days ago

The whinging is all in your imagination. When the Bokke missed their half chances it's down to the new Tony Brown attack or rotating players. But for the ABs it's unprofessional and embarrassing? It was a fast start and a scratchy finish, still a win though. Onto the Cake Tin.

M
Md1991 20 days ago

The all blacks were pretty pathetic if you ask me. After 20,mins I thought we were looking at 50 or 60 nil. Then they end up scraping the win by 3? Honestly, that’s pathetic. Embarrassing even

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BH 20 days ago

Who is pathetic now? Springboks were embarrassing leading 17-0 by the 13 minute mark. Womp womp.

F
Forward pass 20 days ago

Ill take the pathetic win and bank the pathetic 4 points for the RC championship. 50-60 nil eh. Never happened before but yeah of course you would believe 50-60 nil should happen.

Geez South Africa are pathetic tho eh! Choked. On the decline for sure. Rassie needs to rethink his selections. Too arrogant and its cost them.

B
BH 20 days ago

How many times can you say pathetic? You sound like a broken record. Change your tune.

D
DP 20 days ago

….and 2 yellows for cynical infringements… same old story.. good on the refs for putting up with it.

G
GRB13 20 days ago

Another final 20 minutes where the All Blacks didn't score any points. There are some serious issues here.

M
Md1991 20 days ago

21 nil up and you win by 3? Against Australia… This all black team is a poor shadow of what they were… in the past they’d have won this game by 60 points. Would not be surprised if they lost in Welington

T
Teddy 20 days ago

The ABs tend to lose in wellington these days.

K
Kia koe 20 days ago

last 20min horror again for the ABs. If the game was 5 min longer... i think they would have lost


also some execution would have gave the ABs 2 or 3 more tries if i remember correctly.

I
Icefarrow 20 days ago

Those two tries should've stood. Absolutely ridiculous interference by the TMO. An imaginary knock-on where the ball never left the player's hand, and an unconvincingly ruled forward pass based on dodgy camera angles... you can't make this up.

B
Bull Shark 20 days ago

No doubt there’ll be noises about the ABS being down to 14/13.


But there shouldn’t be. Because over and above not being able to score in the last 20 - NZ always find themselves down to 14 when under pressure.

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E
EV 5 hours ago
Is this why Ireland and England struggle to win World Cups?

Rassie is an extremely shrewd PR operator but the hype and melodrama is a sideshow to take the attention from the real reason for the Boks dominance.


Utimately the Boks dominate because Rassie and his team are so scientific and so driven. His attention to detail and obsessive analysis smacks of Tom Brady's approach.


He has engineered a system to find and nurture talent from the best schools to the most desolate backwaters. That system has a culture and doctrine very similar to elite military units, it does not tolerate individuals at the expense of the collective.


That machine also churns out three to five world class players in every position. They are encouraged to play in Ireland, England, France and Japan where their performance continues to be monitored according to metrics that is well guarded IP.


Older players are begged to play in the less physical Japanese league as it extends their careers. No Saffa really wants to see Etzebeth or Peter Steph or Pollard play in France or British Isles. And especially not in South Africa, where you just have these big, physical young guns coming out of hyper competitive schools looking for blood.


Last but but no means the least is the rugby public's alignment with the Springbok agenda. We love it when they win between World Cups but there is zero drama if they lose a game or a string of games for the sake of squad depth.


It's taken time to put it together but it has just matured into a relentless machine.

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