Ben Smith celebrates with Ardie Savea and Aaron Smith after scoring a try. Photo / Getty
Ben Smith celebrates with Ardie Savea and Aaron Smith after scoring a try. Photo / Getty
The first two Bledisloe victories were all about the spectacular, but the third, just about as convincing in the end, was built on a rigid stoicism.
Never mind how it came, though, it gave the All Blacks a clean sweep of the Wallabies and the momentum-generating start to their tour they were hoping for.
The All Blacks didn't erupt or find an overly convincing rhythm, but were instead methodical and clinical until the final 20 minutes when they started to open up and really inflict the damage.
As a performance to set the standard for the rest of the tour, the All Blacks will be reasonably content. They were good. More than good, perhaps and certainly never looked in any danger of doing anything other than winning with a fair bit to spare.
Patience and discipline were at the heart of their victory and it was a methodical disassembling of the Wallabies that we saw rather than the lightning destruction that they delivered in the first two Bledisloe tests.
It was as if they knew the Wallabies would be more structured, more dangerous, more confident and more dangerous and yet still not quite good enough to actually win.
It was a matter of slowly letting the air out of the Wallabies tyres; to ride out the inevitable periods of pressure but always keep themselves that one step ahead on the scoreboard.
That was the other key to it all – to not give the Wallabies too much. To keep them chasing the game, force them to keep taking risks to find a way in front and to keep the game open.
The more risks the Wallabies took, the more rugby they had to play, the more it became so that they would make critical errors and cough the ball up in a place the All Blacks wanted the ball back.
It was a case of letting the pressure build on the Wallabies and the best example of how that strategy paid off came when Israel Folau, looking to spark a bit of magic with 12 minutes left, threw an intercept pass that was never on.
Ben Smith snaffled it and scored and at 32-13 ahead, the All Blacks knew the game was theirs – especially as Tolu Latu was in the bin for a bit of needless push and shove with Codie Taylor.
Ben Smith celebrates with Ardie Savea and Aaron Smith after scoring a try. Photo / Getty
And it was just reward for the All Blacks to see the tries pile up in the final quarter as that had been their plan. To be controlled and accurate in the first 60 minutes rather than trying to generate an out and out frantic pace to the game from the start.
It looked like there was a determination to make sure that points were taken each time they played themselves deep into Wallabies territory and there were long deliberations about what to do with penalties awarded in the Wallabies half.
So far this season anything in the opposition half has been kicked for touch – no questions asked.
But, presumably with half a mind to not only the forthcoming tests against England and Ireland but also the World Cup, there was the unusual sight of Beauden Barrett being asked to go for goal when he was presumably close to the limit of his range.
That desire to keep the scoreboard moving at any rate, rather than risking everything to jump it in multiples of seven, was the most overt sign of the All Blacks' new found willingness to be patient.
There was another example of it when the All Blacks mid-way through the first half were warned to use the ball when a scrum was going nowhere, only to put on a second surge and then obviously try to win the penalty once they had the Wallabies heading backwards.
Again, kicking penalties and scrummaging for penalties had previously been anathema to the All Blacks and there was this sense of them building their repertoire of tricks as they move closer to the World Cup.
New Zealand 37 (L. Squire, K. Read, B. Barrett, B. Smith, R. Ioane tries; B. Barrett 3 cons, 2 pens) Australia 20 (S. Naivalu, I. Folau tries; K. Beale pen; B. Foley pen, 2 cons)
