Final thoughts
As Ron Burgundy once said, “that escalated quickly”. After a stuttering first half riddled with frustrating errors, both sides stepped up after the break to deliver another Bledisloe cracker (depending on which side of the Tasman you’re on). Can the Wallabies do it again next week against a wounded All Blacks side on their own home turf? It’s a big, big ask but suddenly the idea doesn’t seem as improbable as it did a couple of hours ago. More importantly, they’ve proven that the All Blacks can be beaten. On the eve of a World Cup, they may have just done every other Test team a massive psychological favour. Anyway, that’s enough of my blathering. Thanks for joining me, I’ll catch you next time. Here’s Matt Cleary’s match report.
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Full-time: Australia 27-19 New Zealand
80 mins: That’s it! A superb win that seals the Rugby Championship for the Wallabies, their first since it was rebranded. Fully deserved too. The All Blacks are human after all.
79 mins: The Wallabies have it in the bag now. They’ve been superb the last half hour. White runs clear of the scrum and chews up more valuable seconds. Tick tock tick tock.
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77 mins: Time ticking and the All Blacks make a slip from a scrum. A huge cheer goes up from the less-than neutral crowd. Wallabies put-in.
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75 mins: This game has come to life in the last 20 minutes. The All Blacks aren’t giving up. Not that you’d expect them to. Their big enemy is time now. The Wallabies are defending well.
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TRY! Australia 27-19 New Zealand
73 mins: White gets over the line! Cracking finish, and that’s bought the Wallabies a bit of breathing space. They’ll need it. The conversion is good. The almighty All Blacks are on the ropes.
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71 mins: Hooper with a big hit on Milner-Skudder. That’ll take some of the shine out of his debut. The Wallabies with the momentum, pressing on the line. The crowd are roaring them on. Tension crackling in the air.
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Australia 20-19 New Zealand
68 mins: Giteau is off the field (cramping up badly) so Nic White gets a chance for long-range penalty attempt... and he absolutely nails it. The see-saw continues.
TRY! Australia 17-19 New Zealand
64 mins: Milner-Skudder again? Question marks because he may have been held up. The referee sends it upstairs... the replays aren’t exactly conclusive but it looks like he may have just sneaked it down on the line - and the TMO agrees! The All Blacks are back in front. Three men tried to take the debutant down before he reached the line but sheer momentum got him there. Carter with another wayward conversion. Two points in it.
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TRY! Australia 17-14 New Zealand
60 mins: Ashley-Cooper! A brilliant diving try in the corner. A great grubber kick from Toomua, a kind bounce and the Wallabies are back in front. Superb stuff. Giteau makes the conversion from a tight angle. Game on.
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59 mins: There’s still nothing in this game, although the Wallabies will be kicking themselves for allowing the All Blacks to get back on top just when it looked like they were cracking under pressure. They’re still attacking though, probing away about 30m out.
Try! Australia 10-14 New Zealand
56 mins: Milner-Skudder with his first Test try! Great break from the All Blacks, powering through tackles, and the debutant is on hand to finish it off. Great stuff. Carter’s conversion skews inches wide.
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54 mins: Phipps is having a shocker... and it’s just got worse. Sin bin for the outside-centre for not retreating 10m and making not one, but two attempted tackles. Just as the Wallabies were gaining momentum. Aaron Smith comes back on too.
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52 mins: Better from the Wallabies. They win their own line-out (which is more newsworthy than it should be), then make up big metres charging forward. The All Blacks are back-pedalling.
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Australia 10-9 New Zealand
50 mins: Carter takes his time to line up the conversion ... sneakily buying Aaron Smith some extra seconds. Over it goes and that’s 1500 points for the Kiwi legend. A tip of the hat to you sir.
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49 mins: The All Blacks are camped on the Wallabies line. Happy to gain inch by inch. Eventually the pressure tells and they win a penalty. Carter steps up.
47 mins: A shot of Aaron Smith with his head in his heads on the sideline tells the tale. He knows he’s cost his team. The All Blacks have responded well though, forcing the Wallabies back and winning a scrum 5m out almost straight away. That try could be the spark the game needed.
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TRY! Australia 10-6 New Zealand
44 mins: Kepu! It’s his first Test try and he’s earned it, barrelling through the All Blacks line after a great rolling maul. Replay shows a dainty sidestep in there, no wonder the ABs were surprised. Conversion is kicked and the Wallabies take the lead for the first time.
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43 mins: The Wallabies finally win a line-out and rumble forward. Pressure mounting on the AB line.
42 mins: A noose-like tackle from Aaron Smith on Ashley-Cooper and it’s an immediate yellow. No hesitation from ref Wayne Barnes. Similar to the start of the first half, only now it’s the Wallabies who get an extra man. Ashley-Cooper needs some treatment. Up he gets to cheers from the crowd.
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Second half
41 mins: Carter gets it wrong from the restart, failing to kick the full 10m. An early opportunity for the Wallabies. They win a penalty from the resulting scrum and kick for touch... only to lose it at the line-out. Oh dear.
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Half-time: Australia 3-6 New Zealand
40 mins: Hooper makes a try-saving tackle on Savea and that’s all she wrote. Or rather it is after the referee has checked an arm was used in the challenge. It was. See you in a few minutes.
39 mins: Well it’s not been the prettiest half of Bledisloe rugby we’ve ever seen, but there’s a whiff of potential there... neither side seem able to make the most of their chances though. The All Blacks on the attack now. Looking for a try on the siren.
36 mins: Foley kicks for touch and it’s a Wallabies line-out 15m out. Another big chance... and it’s wasted again as the All Blacks win it in the air. Thirty seconds later, the exact same thing happens. Are Andie Macdowell and Bill Murray in the crowd?
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33 mins: Have a look at yourself Wallabies. Huge opportunity for Australia as Folau jigs his way through the AB line. He’s brought down a metre out but that’s as good as it gets. In their haste to reach the line, Mumm and Phipps make a handling/passing error and that’s that. In fairness to Mumm, it was Phipps’ poor pass from the base of the ruck that caused the problem.
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31 mins: Owen Franks penalised for not rolling away and the Wallabies get a chance to hit back. It’s like watching a tennis rally at the minute. Giteau lines it up and... shaves the wrong side of the post. The All Blacks keep their noses in front.
Australia 3-6 New Zealand
29 mins: The All Blacks respond immediately. Aaron Smith winning a penalty after pouncing on a bit of sluggish play from the Wallabies. Carter kicks it and.... it just sneaks over.
Australia 3-3 New Zealand
27 mins: Well it wasn’t exactly the cleanest kick but Giteau gets it between the posts. A masterful piece of scuffage. I’ve just invented a word.
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25 mins: Biff alert! Some pushy-shovesy as Read and Phipps square up after the scrum. Penalty for the Wallabies. A chance to go level.
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24 mins: Better from the Wallabies. Pocock provides the spark with a charging break. He’s brought down but the Aussies keep piling forward. The All Blacks slowly being forced back and it results in a scrum between the posts for the hosts. Big chance.
21 mins: Both sides have stuttered during the opening exchanges but it’s the All Blacks asking all the questions. New Zealand attack again, but another turnover to the Wallabies stops it in its tracks.
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18 mins: If the Wallabies can take heart, it’s from the fact that there’s still only three points in it. Remember when they beat the Springboks a few weeks ago? They were hardly in that game, but somehow managed to stay in touch and ended up sneaking a victory at the death. I doubt that’s what Cheika has planned, but I’m sure he’d take it.
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16 mins: Dear oh dear. A comedy of errors and the All Blacks almost come away with a try. A charge down causes all sorts of trouble, first Foley tries to gather - and fails. Carter boots it into the in-goal and Phipps tries to ground it - but doesn’t look convincing. It goes upstairs and the referee sides with the Wallabies. Nerves showing.
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15 mins: Hooper hops off for Holmes just before a scrum. He might want to splash some water on his face while he’s on the sidelines.
14 mins: Read with the first big crunching tackle of the game. Think Hooper was the unfortunate recipient. Fun to watch, not so fun to be on the end of. The All Blacks well on top at the minute... but still only three points in it.
12 mins: Oooo! This is worrying stuff for the Wallabies. The All Blacks have been a whisker away from breaking through the line twice now, they’ve just been let down by the final pass.
10 mins: Losing Kepu for 10 minutes is a blow for the Wallabies. They might not feel it straight away but it might tire a few legs later in the game. The All Blacks machine rumbles on regardless, trying to peg the Wallabies in their own half.
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Australia 0-3 New Zealand
9 mins: Carter doesn’t miss from there. Straight down the middle and it’s first blood to the All Blacks.
8 mins: Big charge forward from the ABs and the Wallabies are in full “desperate defence” mode. Kepu pays for it. Sin bin. This will be a big 10 minutes for both sides. Penalty kick to the visitors.
6 mins: Another scrum, another All Blacks attack... but it’s cut short by another turnover for the Wallabies, Pocock the man causing the ABs trouble. If only they could hold onto it.
4mins: Big kick from a penalty puts the ball deep in Wallaby territory. Coles with the line-out... although he took his sweet time. Plenty of number shouting beforehand. The All Blacks secure it but the first turnover of the match goes to the Wallabies. That will please Cheika.
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2 mins: Well that was surprising. The Wallabies actually looked like they were on top during that scrum. It’ll be interesting to see if they can maintain that. It’s the All Blacks who come away with it though.
Kick-off
1 min: Peeeeeeep! And we’re off. Wallabies with the early possession but a knock-on and it’s scrum time. All Blacks put-in.
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Stop. Haka time. Never fails to impress. If the Wallabies are looking for an intimidating response to the Haka perhaps they should try wearing this...
It’s up there with the urban sombrero. The horror, the horror....
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Something for the benefit of our international readers while we wait for the anthems to finish. Here’s a taste of the cultural trans-Tasman divide that exists between these two nations.
From the Kiwi perspective...
And the Aussie perspective...
Also, the term “trans-Tasman” is a reference to the sea that separates both countries. It’s not a sexual identity for Australians who feel more comfortable wearing All Blacks gear.
Not long now. The All Blacks run onto the pitch, straight into a huddle. The Wallabies still geeing themselves up in the change rooms... here they come.
A hush descends for an Anzac tribute. Not a peep from the crowd of about 75,000... followed by a cheer as the ceremony comes to a close. I wasn’t sure if I should type during that. Best not.
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Soooo, what do we make of Michael Cheika’s decision to plump for both Pocock and Hooper? Smart? Risky? Both? The All Blacks’ woes at the breakdown against the Boks have been well-documented, but you don’t become the ranking kings of rugby by ignoring a potential Achilles heel. Still, it might not be the worst thing to try out with the World Cup looming.
Quick reminder of the line-ups....
Before I’m accused of bigging up the All Blacks too much, it should be noted that there wasn’t exactly much in it in the Bledisloe double on Australian soil last year. In fact there was just one-point difference over the two games – yet somehow the Wallabies didn’t win either. And as Rajiv Maharaj points out in his preview (see below), that was when rumours abound of disquiet behind the scenes as Ewen McKenzie’s rocky reign came to an end. With the Di Patston drama in the dim and distant past, this should be a Wallabies walkover, right?
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Preamble
Sorry for the slight delay there folks, I was just distracted by the breaking news about Michael Clarke. Can’t say it’s a huge surprise, but anyway, enough of that. To the matter at hand...
Has it seriously been 13 years since the Wallabies last lofted the Bledisloe Cup? Blimey. So much has happened to the world since then - Nelson Mandela walks free, Charlene marries Scott in Neighbours, the fall of the Berlin Wall… *whistles the start to Wind of Change by The Scorpions*
Well OK, maybe it wasn’t that long ago, but as Gwen Stefani told Gavin Rossdale this week, it feels a lot bloody longer than 13 years. And unfortunately for the Wallabies, it will take a lot more than David Hasselhoff prancing about in an LED-studded jacket to bring down the scrum-shaped wall looming in front of them over two legs.
But tonight, at least, the Wallabies have a chance of glory against the All Blacks. And for once that chance doesn’t come with the implied prefix “unrealistic”. At home, on the back of two good wins and with something meaningful at stake, if they were playing any other side the Wallabies would be big favourites. Against the All Blacks, however, those things simply help close an almost Tasman-sized gap in quality. It’s not that Australia are bad, just New Zealand are that good. Put simply, if the All Blacks play to their best, they’ll win – but at least the Wallabies have put themselves in a position where if Steve Hansen’s men have a slight off day, they’re likely to seize the opportunity. Whether that happens or not is another matter.
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Richard will be here before too long but in the interim check out our resident rugby rabble-rouser Rajiv Maharaj’s preview of tonight’s big game:
Clearly, picking Pocock at No8 and Hooper at openside holds latent promise as a ball-thieving Test rugby double act. But is playing the pair against the All Blacks this weekend the right call?
Granted, as is the case with all pre-World Cup matches, coaches are still operating within a narrow margin of trial and error in making selections. The Pocock/Hooper combination could be a worthwhile experiment, but the All Blacks are arguably the wrong opposition to conduct this kind of research. And especially when the Sydney match is a one-off Rugby Championship decider and the home leg of a two-Test Bledisloe Cup series.
It may well be a World Cup year, but these are not insignificant trophies. Would the Wallabies have been better off selecting Wycliff Palu at No8 and keeping Pocock in his preferred openside position?
Never one to be backwards in coming forwards, Rajiv has a few other handy insights; read the full article here.
