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Another second-half surge has seen the All Blacks secure the Bledisloe Cup for another year, with Steve Hansen’s men recording a 40-12 victory at Eden Park.
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Beauden Barrett crossed four times and had a fifth try rubbed out in what was a masterful display of attacking rugby.
The five-eighth opened the scoring when he went in untouched in the 12th minute. Halfback Aaron Smith put Barrett through a gaping hole in the Wallaby defence from 20 metres out as the All Blacks struck first.
The Wallabies kept things close in the first half after building pressure and establishing prime field position through an improved scrum. Michael Hooper’s men won three consecutive scrum penalties on the All Black five-metre line before halfback Will Genia touched down off the back to give the Australians their first points.
Outside of Barrett, Ben Smith was a standout for the All Blacks, putting in an impressive shift on the right wing. Smith’s work under the high ball and in counter-attack. A long and weaving carry played a significant role in Barrett’s second try. Smith finished with 121 run metres and picked up a try assist.
After a tightly contested first 40 minutes and the All Blacks holding a 14-7 lead, the game once again opened up after the break. The All Blacks crossed for four tries and outscored the Wallabies 26-5 in a second-half slaughter.
Joe Moody and Liam Squire scored the All Blacks’ third and fourth tries within five minutes of each other shortly after play resumed for the second half. Moody crashed over from close range after a build-up of phases while Squire was put into a hole after a perfectly timed Brodie Retallick short ball. Jordie Barrett came close to scoring the side’s fifth but Bernard Foley dragged the fullback into touch by the bootlaces.
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Beauden Barrett finished a pair of long-range tries towards the end of the match – including a dazzling 50-metre solo effort – to bring his total for the night to four. Barrett finished with 30 points after kicking five conversions.
The Wallabies scored their only points of the second half after Bernard Foley slipped through an Aaron Smith tackle following a midfield scrum. After the break Foley found Reece Hodge on his inside who finished over the line.
Star loose forward David Pocock once again impressed for the Wallabies, making good on all 13 of his tackle attempts and winning a pair of turnovers.
Despite the result, the visitors will be happy with the improvement shown at set piece. Michael Cheika’s side won 10 scrums without a loss and lost just two lineouts – a stark contrast to the eight they lost last weekend.
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Missed tackles once again were a black mark for the Wallabies, with 42 missed on the night.
The All Blacks will now travel south to host Argentina in Nelson next weekend, while the Wallabies will head home to host the Springboks in Brisbane.
The All Blacks and Wallabies will meet again in Japan for the third Bledisloe Cup Test in October.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments