The Bledisloe Cup will spend yet another year in New Zealand, but the All Blacks were left breathing a mighty sigh of relief after making things hard for themselves in their 31-28 win over the Wallabies in Sydney on Saturday.
What threatened to be a bloodbath on a sun-drenched afternoon at Accor Stadium ended up being four-ties-apiece heart-in-the-mouth stuff for coach Scott Robertson and the huge smattering of Kiwi fans among the 68,061 in the stands.
The All Blacks raced out to a 21-0 lead after 15 minutes in what were shades of that game in heaven at the same venue in 2000 where Jonah Lomu scored that memorable match-winner, and which had Joe Schmidt’s already wounded-Wallabies, on the back of their 67-27 shellacking by the Pumas, under all sorts of siege.
Cue a massive slow-down from the men in black, though, the visitors proving their own worst enemies as their execution errors from their back-to-back tests in South Africa again came to the fore, in yet another awful final-quarter.
Not only was this a fifth game in succession the All Blacks failed to post points in the final 20 minutes, but they didn’t score any after Damian McKenzie’s 45th minute penalty goal, or add a try after Ardie Savea’s in the 25th minute.
They crossed the line on multiple occasions, but TMO interventions for knock ons and forward passes snuffed them out, and the tension only grew as yellow cards to Anton Lienert-Brown (in the 65th minute for slowing the ball down) and Caleb Clarke (in the 72nd minute for a deliberate knock-down) meant they spend time with 13 men.
The Wallabies, who had been largely wasteful and woeful with their earlier opportunities, smelled their chance to post a stunning comeback win, and when Tom Wright went over in the 79th minute, no-one knew where to look as the impossible suddenly seemed on, in the game where James Slipper was being celebrated for breaking George Gregan’s all-time Wallabies caps record, in a 140th appearance.
The All Blacks had a few massive late plays to thank for their get-out-of-jail card, though, with TJ Perenara putting on a most-crucial tackle to force a maul turnover just before the siren, not long after the reserve halfback had put down opposite Tate McDermott, who had the crowd on their feet on the back of a Brandon Paenga-Amosa surge upfield.
Luke Jacobson and Wallace Sititi − in another powerful display in his second-straight start at No 6 − also came up with crucial turnover penalty wins near their own line.
But it never should have come to that.
The Australians looked well off the pace and should have been punished.
If Marika Koroibete’s dropped balls at the start of each half weren’t bad enough, Schmidt would have been tearing his hair out at his side’s lineout work, with one throw not going the five metres and another botched when Fraser McReight had just pulled off a remarkable 50-22.
Ridiculously, this was all after the Wallabies had opened their account through a beautiful lineout set-play.
McKenzie will rue a couple of costly inside balls that should have led to tries, in a game where he didn’t end up having the influence of Beauden Barrett at fullback, with the veteran ruled out of the game through illness.
It saw an ironic reshuffle, with Will Jordan getting a second-straight crack in the No 15 after all, with Sevu Reece promoted to start and Harry Plummer included on the bench for a debut, getting a few minutes in the nerve-racking final minutes.
Jordie Barrett and Ethan de Groot were also both replaced at halftime nursing injuries.
The All Blacks were then left to nurse plenty more blows afterwards.
The All Blacks will host the Wallabies next week at the Cake Tin.
Meanwhile, the Pumas play the Springboks at 9am tomorrow.
Source: Stuff.co
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