New Zealand made a statement of intent in their opening Bledisloe Cup Test against Australia when they sealed a 33-25 victory at Eden Park on Saturday.
The All Blacks were full value for their win as they were the dominant side for most of this match, although they took their foot off the pedal during the game’s latter stages which allowed Australia to score three unanswered tries during that period.
Richie Mo’unga led the way with an 18-point haul for the All Blacks, courtesy of a try, three penalties and two conversions and their other points came via five-pointers from Sevu Reece, David Havili and Damian McKenzie.
For Australia, Tom Banks scored a brace of tries while Andrew Kellaway, Jordan Uelese also crossed the whitewash and Noah Lolesio added a penalty and a conversion.
The opening exchanges were scrappy with both teams making several unforced errors and we had to wait until the 18th minute before Mo’unga opened the scoring courtesy of a penalty.
Shortly afterwards, he added another three-pointer off the kicking tee, after the Wallabies were blown up for illegal scrummaging, which meant the home side were leading 6-0 midway through the half.
Another Mo’unga penalty followed on the half-hour mark but despite trailing on the scoreboard, the Wallabies did plenty of attacking. There was little reward though but they eventually opened their account in the 32nd minute when Lolesio slotted a penalty, after an illegal tackle from Brodie Retallick on Tate McDermott.
That lifted their confidence levels and in the 36th minute the game came alive when Hunter Paisami gathered a long throw-in at the back of a Wallabies lineout, just inside New Zealand’s half. He hit the line at pace and breached the home side’s defence before offloading to Kellaway, who crossed for the opening try.
Despite that score, the All Blacks did not panic and on the stroke of half-time, Reece crossed the whitewash from close quarters with Mo’unga adding the extras to give his side a 16-8 lead at half-time.
That second half was pure #BledisloeCup footy.#NZLvAUS pic.twitter.com/ltbYPO9ZYr
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) August 7, 2021
The hosts’ dominance continued in the second half and soon after the restart they launched an attack from deep inside their 22. The ball went through several pairs of hands before Reece rounded off behind Australia’s try-line but his effort was ruled out due to a forward pass from Aaron Smith to Retallick in the build-up.
That disallowed score gave the Wallabies a lifeline and they upped the ante on attack. However, a promising attacking move went awry in the 51st minute when Mo’unga intercepted a pass from Paisami close to the All Blacks’ 22-metre line and he raced away to score his side’s second five-pointer.
It was all New Zealand during the next 15 minutes and they were rewarded with two further tries during that period. First, Smith found Havili with a well-weighted long pass close to Australia’s try-line before the centre stepped past Lolesio on his way over.
The home side continued to dominate and in the 65th minute Smith turned provider again when he offloaded to McKenzie, who crossed for their fourth try.
Despite that score, the Wallabies finished stronger and in the 69th minute Banks rounded off out wide, after running onto a pass from Matt To’omua. Five minutes later, the full-back benefited again after gathering a grubber kick from Lolesio before Uelese added some respectability to the final score when he dotted down off the back of a lineout drive in this Test’s dying moments.
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