All Blacks hold off late Wallabies scare to retain Bledisloe Cup with 31-28 win

The All Blacks survived a late scare from the Wallabies to secure a 31-28 win in the first round of the Bledisloe Cup last night in Sydney.

The All Blacks had taken an early 21-0 lead in the first 15 minutes after scoring three converted tries through Will Jordan, Rieko Ioane and Caleb Clarke.

The Wallabies then gave themselves a bit of relief as they scored a converted try through Fraser McReight before Ardie Savea extended the All Blacks’ lead to 28-7 with a converted try.

Matt Faessler scored a converted try for the Wallabies in the 36thminute to reduce the gap to 28-14 heading into halftime.

The All Blacks only managed to score 3 points in the second half to extend their lead to 31-14.

Discipline let the All Blacks down as they received two yellow cards in the last 16 minutes of the match where the Wallabies took advantage and scored 2 converted tries through Hunter Paisami and Liam Wright.

The Wallabies applied pressure in the dying stages of the game but it was unfortunate that they did not finish it off to steal a great win as the All Blacks held on to their defence till the final whistle.

The All Blacks will now host the Wallabies next Saturday at the Cake Tin.

Meanwhile, the Springboks will take on Argentina at 9am today in round 5 of the Rugby Championship.