New Zealand’s All Blacks ground out a 34-24 win over an injury-ravaged Australian Wallabies at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday to win the Tri-Nations rugby series for the sixth time in the 10-year history of the championship.
However, it was not the convincing win they had hoped for, despite a commanding forward effort and a 20-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Just as they did against South Africa the previous week, the All Blacks struggled to maintain momentum in the second half. Ten minutes after the turn, the never-say-die Australians had narrowed the gap to 20-19.
But they were destined never to hit the front, and the All Blacks ended the series with three wins from four matches, the same record as South Africa, but they took the crown by virtue of more bonus points.
Before a capacity crowd of 45 000, the All Blacks’ forwards had too much power for the Wallabies and they dominated set pieces and second-phase play.
But much of the possession was kicked away, and there were four tries apiece in the game, three to All Blacks right wing Doug Howlett.
The win in the All Blacks 400th Test match added to a remarkable season that included a 3-0 whitewash in a home series against the British and Irish Lions and with a grand-slam away series against England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to come at the end of the year.
But coach Graham Henry was left with problems about the inability to maintain intensity for the full 80 minutes.
”I thought we played some superb rugby in the first half; we played well in the last 10 minutes again to win the game, and that’s probably a summary,” he said.
”We’ve come from behind a couple of times to win games, and tonight it was tight and the guys showed a lot of character and togetherness to pull the game off by 10 points in the finish.”
But for Australia it has been a dismal year as they succumbed to their fifth consecutive loss, their worst losing streak in 36 years, and their first-ever winless Tri-Nations series, and coach Eddie Jones said there was nothing to be proud of against the All Blacks.
”We got ourselves into a position to win the game and we let ourselves down again. It’s not good enough,” he said.
Halfback and captain George Gregan, who equalled England prop Jason Leonard’s record of 114 Tests, was subbed off with six minutes remaining, and the loss is likely to add further fuel to the growing army of Australian supporters baying for his head.
For the first 13 minutes, despite the All Blacks commanding 86% of territory, the Australian defence held, but then the flood gates opened.
Leon MacDonald, who had been under an injury cloud and was only cleared to play shortly before kick-off, kicked a simple penalty when the Wallabies were caught offside at a maul.
From the kick-off, Ali Williams stole a line-out to put the All Blacks back on attack, and then took another Australian throw that led to a try by Richie McCaw.
It was the 2,02m lock Williams who minutes later took a tap penalty under the posts and chipped to the right-hand corner for Doug Howlett to score the simplest of tries.
Howlett scored again from a simple back move when the All Blacks had an overlap out wide, and MacDonald converted from wide out, putting the All Blacks in the lead 20-0 after 28 minutes.
The Wallabies’ only first-half points came in the 33rd minute when Mark Gerard waltzed around Mils Muliaina to send Mark Chisholm over in the corner, and it was 20-5 at the turn.
It was Australia who started with more passion in the second half and two converted tries in the first 10 minutes after the restart narrowed the gap to 20-19.
First, Gerard came off the blindside wing at a line-out to take the inside pass from Mat Rogers and score unopposed, and then Lote Tuqiri charged down a MacDonald clearing kick to score with Rogers converting both.
The All Blacks replied with three penalties in quick succession by replacement flyhalf Luke McAlister, with prop Matt Dunning the culprit twice when he late-charged Aaron Mauger and was then penalised for a scrum indiscretion. The third penalty came from a line-out.
With 20 minutes remaining, the All Blacks led 29-19.
Australia scored next when Mat Rogers and George Smith combined to send right wing substitute Lloyd Johansson over only on his second touch of the ball in his first Test.
It was left to the All Blacks to add the final touches when Drew Mitchell spilled a Muliaina kick for territory, and Muliaina was on hand to recover the ball and feed James Ryan who sent Howlett over for his third try. — Sapa-AFP