The All Blacks' dominance over the Wallabies continued when they claimed a 37-20 win over their trans-Tasman rivals in Yokohama on Saturday.
Although Australia were aiming to repeat last year's Bledisloe Cup dead rubber win, New Zealand had other ideas and delivered a dominant display in which they outscored the Wallabies by five tries to two with Beauden Barrett leading the way with a 17-point haul courtesy of a try, three conversions and two penalties.
Australia made a bright start and took the ball through several phases from the kick off with only a desperate tackle from Scott Barrett on Dane Haylett-Petty — which took him into touch at the corner flag — preventing the Wallabies from opening the scoring in the second minute.
Despite that early attack from their opponents, the All Blacks were soon in control of proceedings and 10 minutes later Liam Squire crossed for the opening try after gathering a pass from Sonny Bill Williams inside the Wallabies' 22.
Beauden Barrett succeeded with the conversion before Kurtley Beale opened Australia's account in the 21st minute with a penalty from 46 metres out after Williams was blown up for offside play on defence.
Five minutes later, The All Blacks restored their seven-point lead when Barrett added a penalty after the Wallabies' front-row were penalised for illegal scrummaging.
New Zealand continued to dominate and in the 36th minute Kieran Read scored their second try after selling Will Genia a dummy off the back of a scrum on Australia's five-metre line.
Barrett's conversion meant the world champions held a 17-3 lead but on the stroke of half-time Sefa Naivalu collected a pass from Marika Koroibete before crashing over in the left-hand corner for a deserved try.
Foley added the extras and the Wallabies were back in the game with the All Blacks holding a seven-point lead at the interval.
Just like the first half, Australia were fastest out of the blocks after the break and, after taking the ball through 11 phases, Rob Simmons crossed the whitewash, although his effort was disallowed as television replays revealed he failed to ground the ball after Beauden Barrett did brilliantly on defence.
However, the All Blacks strayed offside in the build-up to that effort and Foley slotted the resulting penalty which meant New Zealand were now leading 17-13 after 48 minutes.
Five minutes later, Barrett restored his side's seven-point lead when he added another penalty after Scott Sio infringed at a ruck.
The All Blacks were slowly gaining the upper hand and extended that buffer on the hour-mark courtesy of a brilliant try from Beauden Barrett.
This, after the All Blacks launched an attack from a scrum close to their 10-metre line, with Read and TJ Perenara attacking on the openside before Barrett changed the direction of play towards the blindside when he passed to Rieko Ioane. The wing was soon inside the Wallabies' half and did well to draw in a couple of defenders before offloading to Barrett, who outpaced the cover defence to dot down.
That try was a major setback for Australia and their cause wasn't helped when Tolu Latu was yellow carded in the 67th minute for an open-handed shove in the face of Codie Taylor.
With a man in the sin bin, the Wallabies were always going to struggle against the world champions and things went from bad to worse for them when Ben Smith intercepted a wayward Israel Folau pass before racing away to score his side's fourth try.
To their credit, the Wallabies did not surrender and in the 76th minute, Samu Kerevi got a pass out to Folau inside the All Blacks' 22 and he did well to step past a couple of defenders before crossing the whitewash.
The All Blacks were not done, however, and two minutes later Richie Mo'unga started an attack which tore the Wallabies' defence apart. The world champions were soon inside Australia's 22 and a brilliant a through-the-legs pass from Barrett to Ioane was rounded off by the wing which sealed his side's win.
The scorers:
For New Zealand:
Tries: Squire, Read, B Barrett, B Smith, Ioane
Cons: B Barrett 3
Pens: B Barrett 2
For Australia:
Tries: Naivalu, Folau
Cons: Foley 2
Pens: Beale, Foley
Yellow Card: Latu
New Zealand: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Ben Smith, 13 Ryan Crotty, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Liam Squire, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody
Replacements: 16 Nathan Harris, 17 Karl Tu’inukuafe, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Brodie Retallick, 20 Matt Todd, 21 Aaron Smith, 22 Richie Mo’unga, 23 Anton Lienert-Brown
Australia: 15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Sefa Naivalu, 13 Israel Folau, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia, 8 David Pocock, 7 Michael Hooper (c), 6 Ned Hanigan, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Izack Rodda, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Folau Faingaa, 1 Scott Sio
Replacements: 16 Tolu Latu, 17 Sekope Kepu, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Rory Arnold, 20 Jack Dempsey, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Samu Kerevi, 23 Tom Banks
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa), Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
Television match official: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
The visitors, who scored through Michael Hooper, Izack Rodda, Israel Folau, Dane Haylett-Petty (2) and David Pocock, avoid the wooden spoon, thus handing bottom spot to the Pumas, who will rue how they let slip that buffer at the Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena.
In a tightly contested match, the home side made a bright start and dominated the early exchanges but two Handré Pollard penalties were all they had to show for their efforts before the All Blacks struck back with two penalties of their own from Beauden Barrett, which meant the sides were level at 6-6 at half-time.
Once again, Pollard was successful off the kicking tee but the All Blacks responded shortly afterwards courtesy of an Aaron Smith try after Codie Taylor tore the home side's defence to shreds with a superb run in the build-up.