The All Blacks rode a first-half try blitz to a 43-21 victory over the Wallabies at Stadium Australia on Saturday, extending their win streak over their trans-Tasman-Sea rivals to 13 matches. With the Bledisloe Cup already safely in the cupboard for a 24th year after last week's 50-19 win in Auckland, New Zealand exploded out of the blocks and crushed all thoughts of an upset with six tries before the break.
Despite losing Jordie Barrett to a calf injury before kickoff and another centre in Quinn Tupaea early on with a concussion, the All Blacks overwhelmed the Wallabies with power, pace and precision in the opening 40 minutes. "I'm really proud of the boys, the way we came out on that in that first half," said New Zealand captain Codie Taylor.
"It was a real challenge for us this week to make sure that we backed up a really good performance from last week, and I thought we were awesome in that first 40." Australia showed some flashes of backline brilliance, particularly in the second half, but struggled to get hold of the ball for prolonged periods and were unable to match the accuracy or clinical finishing of the All Blacks.
In a whirlwind of offloads, winger Josh Moorby, fullback Beauden Barrett, flanker Peter Lakai and replacement back Rieko Ioane all crossed in the first 26 minutes to give the visitors a quick-fire 22-0 lead. Wallabies flyhalf Declan Meredith did well to get a pass away in the tackle just before the half-hour mark to send Jeremy Williams over for a try but the lock was sin-binned at the other end of the field two minutes later.
All Blacks number eight Wallace Sititi immediately made the extra man count with his team's fifth try and Beauden Barrett added a sixth, his second, off an intercept to send New Zealand into the break with a 36-7 lead. Moorby faked out the defence for his second five-pointer within three minutes of the restart before the Wallabies finally finished off a backline move for fullback Tom Wright to go over.
Australia were looking stronger with their replacements on the pitch, and Meredith almost scored a try after a scything break up the middle, then saved a try at the other end. A clever line dropout from Wright did result in a third Australia try in the 66th minute for replacement back Filipo Daugunu that delighted the majority of the crowd of 73,399.
New Zealand were reduced to 14 men after Samisoni Taukei'aho went off injured, and went down to 13 when debutant Chay Fihaki was shown a yellow card but managed to hold out the Wallabies for the last few minutes. "I'm gutted," said Wallabies captain Harry Wilson. "When you give a team like the All Blacks a head start it's tough, and it's not good enough for this group.
"We've got to be a lot better. It's been a very disappointing series, and we're going to have to regroup."
Reuters