Bledisloe Cup rugby: Gregor Paul - Frightening All Blacks left Wallabies watching in abject horror

OPINION

The Bledisloe Cup is safe and so too is the All Blacks' future as they may be developing into a more than handy attacking force under a coaching team who may have been wrongly underestimated.

Given that the series started with a draw, the All Blacks have clearly been the team to make the most significant gains in the series and suggest the gap between the two teams is greater than many suspected.

In Wellington, we saw the Wallabies of the future. In Sydney we saw the Wallabies of the past – shell-shocked, disorientated and all over the place.

They got a proper look at the big, black machine – saw right into the engine, all the cogs, pistons and working parts – and they recoiled in horror.

The Wallabies worked themselves up about Caleb Clarke, believing that if they stopped him, they would stop the All Blacks.

They maybe got too caught up in all that because while they did actually contain the All Blacks No 11 pretty well, they didn't do a particularly good job at dealing with the real threats that they faced.

Maybe the Wallabies just horribly misread what was coming at them. Or maybe, more likely, we witnessed a well-thought out strategic plan by the All Blacks which saw them use their set-piece to great effect and pretty much squash the Wallabies at source.

The All Blacks pack were the real problem for Australia. They beat them up. It was that simple. The All Blacks were just too efficient and accurate for too long at the business of winning the ball.

They were too muscular and dominant in the collisions and that meant they could play most of the game, certainly the first half, on the front foot with the Wallabies offering almost nothing.

The smooth functioning All Blacks lineout and subsequent driving maul didn't carve off huge metres, but it sapped the Wallabies and ground New Zealand forward.

The All Blacks defence was another problem for the Wallabies. It was aggressive and powerful – organised and urgent to the extent that the Wallabies couldn't find any give.

They charged through the middle and just got smashed – coughing up too much ball and while they came more into the game in the second half - as another lull hit as it did in Auckland - it was half-hearted and aimless.

Something that couldn't be said of the All Blacks in the first half and then in the final 10 when they played with the sort of impact that a sonic boom has.

That first half effectively saw the All Blacks win the game because it was in that period they crushed the Wallabies spirit as well as shot ahead on the scoreboard.

It's what often happens when the All Blacks start tests in that so hard to find balance of steely aggression, yet total control. When they hit that zone, though, they can be frightening, playing with the sort of pace and precision that leaves even the best organised defences gasping.

And what also happens when the All Blacks are controlled and dynamic is that individuals find the confidence to back themselves and trust their instincts and the pain is relentless.

As it was for the Wallabies when they saw Richie Mo'unga switch back from a scrum and then skip past two defenders to score in the corner early in the game.

That sort of individual brilliance is on another level and it's what everyone fears when they play the All Blacks – that the likes of Mo'unga, Beauden Barrett and Anton Lienert-Brown will all be in the mood to show what they have got.

It's an impossible business when that happens because the threats lie everywhere. There were the Wallabies agreeing they must do better after Mo'unga waltzed through them when it happened again.

This time his opportunity came when Barrett had the vision to see an acre of space behind the Wallabies frontline and he dinked a perfectly weighted kick that the No 10 hared after, gathered and skipped away again.

It was the story of the night - the All Blacks trying and succeeding to do what they wanted with the Wallabies watching on in abject horror.