The execution – as has so often been the case with this All Blacks team – was lacking. The Wallabies repelled the lineout maul and won a penalty, the same penalty that French referee Mathieu Raynal ruled out after Bernard Foley's dithering.
The Wallaby forwards were having a team meeting and a cup of tea; Foley kept waiting for them before he kicked for touch in spite of Monsieur Raynal telling him to get on with it and with teammate Lalakai Foketi screaming himself hoarse with the same message.
It was a terrible decision by the referee. Add time on; yellow card or even red card Foley; there were other remedies than becoming snotty Foley was wasting time. By calling a scrum, All Blacks ball, Raynal became the principal player in the theatrical rather than rugby sense) who decided the test – not a ref's job.
It negated what would have been a famous comeback and, while it's true the Wallabies forgot to manage the ref in their excitement, the other reason the All Blacks should have lost was that they were defensively frail during that comeback, with Will Jordan starting matters by missing a tackle on Pete Samu in Andrew Kellaway's first try.
If you believe in karma, however, I can ratchet things back to the abominable decision by another French ref, Romain Poite, not awarding the All Blacks the penalty that could have – and should have – won the series against the British and Irish Lions in 2017.
Other than those weird and wonderful elements, the main factor for me was how the lack of rotation has hurt those trying to force their way into the top team. There have been so many years of education about rotation that Foster's decision to stick mainly with his senior guys not only looks odd, it seems to have hampered the chances of those knocking on the door. One man's efforts to hold his position have made it harder for others to regain theirs.
Take No 8 Hoskins Sotutu, for example. When he first came on the scene, he was a barnstorming loosie, capable of running through contact and giving his side the sort of impetus that hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho is now.
Somewhere along the line, a coach or the player decided that his passing and kicking skills meant he should become more of a distributor. That had its zenith when, with All Blacks either side of him in a dramatic breakout against the Wallabies, with a long-range try in the offing, he chose to kick - a dreadful choice, squandering the chance.
Dalton Papali'i has had little game time recently and also looked rusty after coming on after Sam Cane's head knock; he was clearly outpointed by the Australian loose forwards. There were several other questions or findings after this test:
# Is Dane Coles really New Zealand's No 2 hooker? I wonder what Codie Taylor (admittedly off form) Asafo Aumua, Kurt Eklund and even Rhys Marshall (playing great for Waikato) think? For some reason, I was reminded of the interviewer with the Beatles many years ago who gushingly asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world. John Lennon: "He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles".
# Tyrel Lomax was lucky to escape a yellow card for a beyond-horizontal tackle, something he has been carded for before but clearly hasn't learned.
# Scott Barrett had a largely ineffectual test at blindside flanker. Will we see him there again with Shannon Frizell restored?
# Brother Beauden now seems confirmed as a bench player. He didn't do enough to unseat Richie Mo'unga when he came on. Brother Jordie, moved into the midfield, did well though the game had lost structure by then.
# Finally, Rieko Ioane is still a pilgrim's progress kind of centre. Dashing and irresistible against Argentina, he was flawed against the Wallabies – the worst of it an awful pass to Beauden Barrett, ruining a try, when all Ioane had to do was turn on his pace on an outside break.
Ioane is perhaps a symbol of this All Blacks team so far – pummelling the Pumas one week, wobbling against the Wallabies. What next? Consistency is still a shimmering mirage.
