Will Jordan celebrates with Cortez Ratima after scoring in the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup test match in Sydney. Photo / Photosport
Will Jordan celebrates with Cortez Ratima after scoring in the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup test match in Sydney. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks 31 Wallabies 28
By Liam Napier in Sydney
On a sun-drenched Sydney afternoon, the All Blacks fired and almost fatally fizzed to deliver another erratic performance that anxiously locked away the Bledisloe Cup.
Securing the coveted Bledisloe for a 22nd straight year ensures the All Blacks trophy cabinet won’t be bare after losing the Freedom Cup and Rugby Championship following successive losses in South Africa.
After a stretch of three losses from their last four tests before facing Joe Schmidt’s struggling Wallabies, this was another Jekyll and Hyde effort from Scott Robertson’s All Blacks where they again squandered three tries through a lack of clinical finishing and, for the fifth test in a row, failed to score in the final quarter.
After dominating the first half, rampantly running in four tries to lead 28-7 after 26 minutes to silence the 68,061 crowd, Damian McKenzie’s 45th-minute penalty proved the All Blacks’ only points of the second half.
It seems no matter what they do the All Blacks can’t solve their final-quarter meltdowns.
This time they buckled to concede two yellow cards to Anton Lienert-Brown and Caleb Clarke to cast themselves under huge pressure to scramble two players short for the tense closing stages.
While there were standout individual performances from Wallace Sititi and Cortez Ratima amid the frustrations, Damian McKenzie was the chief culprit in squandering chances to blow two tries – the worst example through an unnecessary flick pass to an unmarked Tamaiti Williams on his inside.
Having created ample opportunities, the All Blacks should never had their backs to the wall.
The All Blacks led 28-14 at halftime, only to fall apart in the second half when they should have put the foot on the Wallabies’ throat.
Will Jordan of the All Blacks celebrates after scoring a try during The Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup match against Wallabies in Sydney. Photo / Getty Images
A one-sided blowout rapidly morphed into a gripping contest as the All Blacks continually welcomed the Wallabies back through lack of finishing and poor discipline to need every ounce of character to hold on.
Two breakdown penalties on their own line from Luke Jacobson and Sititi proved crucial in helping the All Blacks survive. TJ Perenara’s defensive efforts were also telling off the bench.
Tries from Hunter Paisami and Tom Wright – the latter in the 79th minute – propelled the Wallabies, ranked ninth in the world and emerging off their second-worst defeat in history in Argentina last week, to the brink of an unthinkable upset, but the All Blacks secured one final turnover to save the ultimate choke.
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson has more concerns, too, after Jordie Barrett did not return from the sheds in the second half. Barrett left the field grimacing with a knee injury, with Lienert-Brown replacing him for the second half, and by the end of the game, Barrett limped in a hefty brace.
The Wallabies vastly improved in the second half but they were bad to the point of embarrassing in the early exchanges. They scored one Schmidt special from a long-thrown lineout set move, with Nic White sending Fraser McReight over untouched.
Otherwise, though, the All Blacks broke open the Wallabies at will. The Wallabies were their own worst enemies by botching lineouts, restarts, throwing wayward passes and leaving holes the size of Bondi in their defensive line.
Enjoying acres of space the All Blacks launched frequent counter-attacking raids from the backfield where Will Jordan thrived in his natural home after Beauden Barrett pulled out pre-match with illness.
Sititi carried with intent to consistently punch the All Blacks forward and on the back of that platform, Ratima sparked the backline with his speed to the base and with several superb, sniping runs – one of which laid on Ioane’s first try in over a year. Defensively Ratima threw himself into contact. In a brilliant 57-minute shift Ratima was denied a spectacular second-half try, too, after a forward pass from McKenzie.
On the left edge, Clarke returned with vengeance. He led the All Blacks in carries to consistently go off his wing hunting work. Clarke snatched one ball out of the sky and finished his try breaking through two attempted tackles. His brain explosion second-half yellow card for an intentional knockdown was a black mark, though.
Robertson never won the Bledisloe during his 23-test All Blacks career from 1998-2002. As All Blacks head coach he has avoided the ignominy of losing the prized silverware but the headaches with his team remain all too familiar.
All Blacks: Will Jordan, Rieko Ioane, Caleb Clarke, Ardie Savea, Jordie Barrett tries, Damian McKenzie cons 4, pen
Wallabies: Fraser McReight, Matt Faessler, Hunter Paisami, Tom Wright tries, Noah Lolesio cons 3
