MELBOURNE, Oct 19 : Hard lessons from a brutal tour of South Africa appear to have paid off for Dave Rennie's All Blacks, with the team able to shrug off a litany of injuries and crush Australia in the Bledisloe Cup series.
It will be a depleted New Zealand squad heading north for the final Nations Championship tests against England, Scotland and Wales, with outside back Leroy Carter added on Monday to the list of players staying home after having surgery on an ankle injury.
Shannon Frizell (knee) and Samisoni Taukei’aho (calf) may also be sidelined after suffering injuries in the win in Sydney on Saturday.
However, growing confidence in their squad depth a year out from the World Cup may outweigh the concerns.
Three successive defeats by world champions South Africa exposed shortcomings in Rennie's side but they now look stronger for the experience gained by fringe players and a return to form by veterans who had been written off.
The benefits were evident in their second successive demolition of the Wallabies, a 43-21 triumph following their 50-19 stroll at Eden Park.
The players unavailable for Sydney could have filled much of a starting 15, with Ardie Savea, Richie Mo'unga and Luke Jacobson among them.
They lost Jordie Barrett before kick-off and Quinn Tupaea early with concussion, but there was little sign of disruption as the All Blacks ran in six first-half tries at Stadium Australia to all but kill off the game by the interval.
“We’ve used 50-odd players this year, creating depth and competition for places. We’re missing a few influential players but other guys step up,” said Rennie.
With Savea and Jacobson missing, Peter Lakai and Wallace Sititi stood in at the back row with Tupou Vaa'i, the trio leaving the Wallabies' back three in the shade.
The injury count has been a blessing for veterans Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie, with the former underlining his enduring value at fullback and the latter steering the All Blacks flawlessly at flyhalf in the absence of Ruben Love and Mo'unga.
Les Kiss's Australia remain a work in progress a year out from hosting the World Cup but the core of the side that faced the All Blacks upset South Africa in Perth three weeks ago.
The Wallabies had few answers for the All Blacks' try-scoring blitzes in the second half at Eden Park and the first at Stadium Australia.
The Sydney win was another endorsement of Rennie's up-tempo attacking game, with New Zealand rediscovering the speed, ambition and clinical finishing that were hallmarks of their back-to-back World Cup wins in 2011 and 2015.
"The Greatest Rivalry" tour of South Africa failed to live up to its billing but All Blacks fans may be glad to look back on it as a great turning point if further World Cup glory awaits.
“We had an honest look at ourselves after the Greatest Rivalry,” stand-in All Blacks captain Codie Taylor said.
“We walked away from that pretty gutted, also knowing we’re playing a brand of rugby we can be proud of and grow on."