Australia put their World Cup hopes firmly back on track with an efficient 28-7 win over the dreaded New Zealand All Blacks in front of a world record crowd of 107,042 in the Stadium Australia.
The crowd eclipsed the 104,000 which saw Scotland play Wales at Murrayfield in 1975 and Australia's previous highest rugby crowd was 90,119 who saw the Bledisloe Test in 1997 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
A Wallaby pack revamped after their 10-9 defeat to South Africa, secured victory made possible by full-back Matthew Burke's seven penalties. Burke also converted lock Mark Connors' try right on half-time for a win which left the All Blacks asking themselves a lot of qestions.
However, New Zealand had already secured the Tri Nations tournament with two wins over South Africa and a 34-15 defeat of the Wallabies at Auckland earlier in the month. New Zealand fly-half Andrew Mehrtens scored a sensational try he converted for the All Blacks who failed to win back the Bledisloe Cup they lost to the Wallabies last year.
"It was a huge wake-up call," said New Zealand coach John Hart afterwards. "If it's going to happen it's better it happens now rather than at the World Cup. There were no positives. We were outpassioned by a very good team who dominated the advantage line and they got more players to the breakdown."
"The boys showed a lot of courage, a lot of determination," said Australia captain David Wilson who added he was particularly pleased with the pack.
Australia coach Rod Macqueen said New Zealand were still the team to beat at the World Cup: "It was important for us to perform well today. It wasn't a pretty exhibition but we showed passion and pride. But New Zealand will be very, very competitive and the team to beat in the World Cup."
Desperate defending by Australia stopped three almost certain All Black tries in the first-half but even the introduction of Jonah Lomu at half-time could not ignite a strangely error-prone New Zealand side as the rain crashed down after the interval.
Burke kicked two penalties before Mehrtens sold a dummy and accelerated between left wing Jason Little and scrum-half George Gregan in a 50-metre dash for the line. His route was finally cleared when Little ran into Burke as the full-back came over to cover.
Little, brought in for Joe Roff after the 10-9 defeat to South Africa, made amends when he intercepted a Jeff Wilson pass with two All Blacks on the overlap.
Then Tim Horan, back at inside centre after three matches at fly-half, got back across to cut out a high-speed passing move down the left between right wing Christian Cullen and left wing Tana Umaga.
Nathan Grey next stopped Umaga after six phases of All Black play had threatened to rip the heart out of the Wallaby defence.
Burke added three more penalties as Scottish referee Jim Fleming came down hard on All Black infringments in the loose before the revamped Wallaby scrum won an enormous push on the All Black line and Connors squirmed over for a deserved try.
New Zealand brought on Lomu for inside centre Daryl Gibson at half-time. Umaga went to the right and Cullen went to centre. And Andrew Blowers replaced Dylan Mika at blindside flanker.
But the Olympic stadium was hit by a heavy shower making attackig rugby all but impossible and a bedraggled All Black side saw Burke kick his seventh penalty on 80 minutes.
The teams:
Australia: 1 Andrew Blades, 2 Phil Kearns, 3 Richard Harry, 4 Mark Connors, 5 David Giffin, 6 Matt Cockbain, 7 David Wilson (c), 8 Toutai Kefu, 9 George Gregan, 10 Rod Kafer, 11 Jason Little, 12 Dan Herbert, 13 Tim Horan, 14 Ben Tune, 15 Matthew Burke
Reserves: Owen Finegan, Michael Foley, Nathan Grey, Patricio Noriega, Joe Roff, Tiaan Strauss, Chris Whitaker
New Zealand: 1 Carl Hoeft, 2 Anton Oliver, 3 Kees Meeuws, 4 Robin Brooke, 5 Norm Maxwell, 6 Josh Kronfeld, 7 Dylan Mika, 8 Taine Randell (c), 9 Justin Marshall, 10 Andrew Mehrtens, 11 Christian Cullen, 12 Daryl Gibson, 13 Alama Ieremia, 14 Tana Umaga, 15 Jeff Wilson
Reserves: Andrew Blowers, Tony Brown, Craig Dowd, Byron Kelleher, Jonah Lomu, Royce Willis
Unused: Mark Hammett
Attendance: 107042
Referee: Fleming
Points Scorers:
Australia
Tries: Connors M. 1
Conv: Burke M.C. 1
Pen K.: Burke M.C. 7
New Zealand
Tries: Mehrtens A.P. 1
Conv: Mehrtens A.P. 1
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