The All Blacks, playing the last few minutes with only 14 men, held onto a six-point lead with the Wallabies attacking relentlessly to win this Tri-Nations/Bledisloe Cup clash by 12-6 at a cold and wet Jade Stadium in Christchurch.
It was the first tryless encounter between New Zealand and Australia since 1991, but what the game lacked in attack, the two teams more than made up for with superb defence.
The Wallabies, after being pinned back in their half for most of the game, changed that trend in the final 15 minutes and launched the one attack after the other.
And when outside centre Mark Robinson was sent to the sin-bin with less than 10 minutes left on the clock, the tide seemed to be turning for the visitors.
But the Australians miscalculated the All Blacks' resilience in defence, and every time they got a promising move going, the home team tackled them into the ground and won back the ball.
The miserable conditions turned the game into a kicking contest between All Black pivot Andrew Mehrtens and the Wallabies' Stephen Larkham and Chris Latham, a battle Mehrtens won in the end.
The outside backs saw very little ball as both sides elected to mince it up in the forwards, and it is here where the All Blacks laid the platform for their win.
The home team had the upper-hand up front, and with Richard McCaw and Scott Robertson leading the charge, they had the Wallabies under pressure at rucks at mauls.
McCaw, despite the few penalties he conceded, was brilliant, and the turn-ver count of 28-19 in New Zealand's favour shows that he had the acsendancy on the ground over Wallaby opensider George Smith.
Chris Jack and Greg Somerville also had good games for the home team, while Toutai Kefu and Nathan Sharpe were the Wallabies' best forwards on the night.
But the All Black General Andrew Mehrtens was the biggest thorn in the Wallabies' side.
His tactical kicking was superb and he constantly had the Australians turn around with probing kicks downfield. In total, the All Blacks kicked the ball almost 90 times, with Mehrtens doing the honours most of the time.
From there Larkham and Latham were forced to find touch, and although the All Blacks struggled at the line-outs (the Wallabies poached five of their throws), the enjoyed territorial advantage to such an extent that, before the last quarter, the Wallabies had less that 40 percent of the ball.
It was clear that New Zealand coach John Mitchell had told his team -- and Mehrtens in particular -- to keep Australia away from their 22, something the All Blacks did with clinical perfection.
And although the Wallabies had 60 percent of the ball, there was nothing they could do with it as the All Blacks drilled into them every time they tried to get an attack going.
The Wallabies also made life difficult for themselves with too many handling errors. And as Australian coach Eddie Jones rang the changes in the second half, Mitchell stuck with the team he had sent onto the field, not disrputing their rhythm, a tactical move that paid off towards the end as the All Blacks stuck to their game-plan that eventually won them the match.
Man of the match: Richard McCaw was good, as was Toutai Kefu. But Andrew Mehrtens, the man who did most of the pre-match talk in the media, played his part to perfection, keeping the Wallabies as far away from the All Black try-line as possible. He was also successful with all his kicks at goal under difficult circumstances, while Wallaby kicker Matt Burke missed two penalties.
Moment of the match: The last movement of the game was quite special. The Wallabies got a penalty, which Chris Latham stabbed into touch on the New Zealand 22, with 45 seconds left on the clock. They did get the ball back, but the All Blacks applied so much pressure that when the Wallabies finally lost possession, they were on their own 10-metre line. Justin Marshall kicked the ball into touch and the final whistle went.
Villain of the match: Seeing that the game was quite clean, Mark Robinson, who got yellow carded for an early tackle late in the game, wins this dubious award.
The teams:
Australia: 1 Patricio Noriega, 2 Jeremy Paul, 3 Bill Young, 4 Justin Harrison, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 6 Owen Finegan, 7 George Smith, 8 Toutai Kefu, 9 George Gregan (c), 10 Steve Larkham, 11 Stirling Mortlock, 12 Matthew Burke, 13 Dan Herbert, 14 Ben Tune, 15 Chris Latham
Reserves: Matt Cockbain, Elton Flatley, Mat Rogers, Ben Darwin, David Lyons
Unused: Brendan Cannon, Chris Whitaker
New Zealand: 1 David Hewett, 2 Mark Hammett, 3 Greg Somerville, 4 Chris Jack, 5 Simon Maling, 6 Richard McCaw, 7 Reuben Thorne (c), 8 Scott Robertson, 9 Justin Marshall, 10 Andrew Mehrtens, 11 Doug Howlett, 12 Aaron Mauger, 13 Mark Robinson, 14 Caleb Ralph, 15 Christian Cullen
Unused: Ben Blair, Sam Broomhall, Joe McDonnell, Tom Willis, Daryl Gibson, Byron Kelleher, Royce Willis
Referee: Kaplan j.
Points Scorers:
Australia
Pen K.: Burke M.C. 2
New Zealand
Pen K.: Mehrtens A.P. 4
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