Former All Blacks star Jeff Wilson has claimed that Dave Rennie’s men were better prepared than the Wallabies, who were lulled into a “false sense of security” by their Springboks triumph.
New Zealand had not played for almost a month following Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series but they were too strong for their trans-Tasman rivals on Saturday.
Australia’s previous Test came two weeks prior to the Eden Park encounter when they stunningly overcame the back-to-back world champions 42-38.
However, South Africa fielded a much-changed outfit for that clash with Rassie Erasmus opting to experiment following the victory over the All Blacks.
How Boks got the All Blacks better prepared
“I was hoping I would see that performance on the back of the challenges against South Africa and what we saw was a team that was too big and too strong over 80 minutes,” Wilson said on The Breakdown.
“It got to the second half and we continued that resilient play; the physicality, the brutality they were looking for, the Wallabies couldn’t handle it.
“I think they had a false sense of security coming into that game, they didn’t understand what playing against a top Springbok team meant and the All Blacks came in prepared.
“We introduced some players back into international rugby that hadn’t played for a while and they performed well.”
Fellow All Blacks great Justin Marshall was also delighted with how Rennie’s side performed after the head coach’s big selection decisions were justified on Saturday.
“The unknown was we were forced into some changes, including losing our All Blacks captain in Ardie Savea, and there was some selection melon scratchers where people were going, ‘hang on, there are some guys missing here who we thought would be selected’,” Marshall said.
“I don’t think there was this massive buoyancy given that the Aussies had performed against the Springboks, so to see a performance like that, that’s where that feeling of reward came from.”
The ‘bar’s moved’ for the All Blacks
New Zealand’s triumph in Auckland got them back on track after they suffered three defeats in a row to the Springboks.
That meant they succumbed 3-1 in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, leading to some criticism of Rennie and the players.
But Wilson believed that the challenge they faced against the world number one team ultimately paid dividends in Saturday’s Australia challenge.
“I think the bar’s moved, I think the standard’s moved for the All Blacks. They’ve played against it, they’ve played against the number one team in the world because that’s what the Springboks proved they were,” he added.
“Now they’re trying to hold that and improve. They haven’t taken two weeks off, come back and been a little bit rusty, they looked on top of their game and knew exactly what they wanted to do.”