The Stats Don't Lie: 50 years since holding Wallabies scoreless

Sonny Bill Williams carried the ball twelve times and made a total of 65 metres, along with a linebreak and 6 offloads in the tackle. Photo / Getty Images

The All Blacks' victory was just the seventh time they have held Australia scoreless, the last time being on the 8th September, 1962 at Carisbrook. That day Don Clarke kicked the sole penalty of the match to see the All Blacks to a 3-0 victory.

Will Genia became just the second Wallaby to be yellow carded in a New Zealand-Australia Rugby Championship fixture, the first being Drew Mitchell back in 2010 in what was then the Tri-Nations.

There were 18 penalties awarded in this game, with 11 conceded by the Wallabies and 8 by the All Blacks. This week all but five of the total number of penalties conceded were at the breakdown.

Richie McCaw again led the way for arrivals in the first three at the breakdown with 33, and was top tackler for the All Blacks with 13 tackles and 2 assists. He also made 11 ball carries for a total of 48 metres gained.

Michael Hooper was the top tackler for the Wallabies making 19, followed by Sitaleki Timani and Nathan Sharpe both with 15.

Sonny Bill Williams carried the ball twelve times and made a total of 65 metres, along with a linebreak and 6 offloads in the tackle.

Overall the All Blacks made 26 offloads, with Aaron Smith and Dan Carter the next best after Sonny Bill Williams with 3 offloads each. The Wallabies only managed 5 offloads in this game.

The All Blacks made 18 handling errors leading to turnover in possession in this match, including 12 knock-ons and 2 forward passes. Luke Romano was the main offender with 2 knock-ons, a forward pass and a pass to the opposition, while Israel Dagg made 3 knock-ons.

The Wallabies made just 6 handling errors, but conceded 6 breakdown turnovers along with 2 penalties for the tackled player not releasing the ball. Kieran Read won two of those breakdown turnovers (ruck and maul).

Five tries were missed by the All Blacks either just before or over the try-line. The first was a knock-on by Israel Dagg, the second saw Liam Messam turned crossing the line and stripped of the ball by Sitaleki Timani, the third was a knock-on by Kieran Read in the act of reaching out to score, the fourth by Richie McCaw from a ruck over the line, and the fifth was a pass error by Dan Carter.

Defensively the Wallabies made 91 percent of their tackles, missing just 13 in total. They also kept the All Blacks scoreless for the opening 25 minutes and the last 31 minutes of the game.

The All Blacks' lineout got the wobbles at times, with both Luke Romano and Liam Messam losing throws in the first half. Overall the All Blacks won 12 of their 14 throws, with Sam Whitelock again the main jumper winning all 4 of his throws.

The Wallabies also had problems with their lineout, losing three throws to Nathan Sharpe - one was knocked-on while the other two were steals by Luke Romano and Brodie Retallick. Sharpe won 3 of his 6 jumps, with Radike Samo their best jumper winning all 3 of his throws.

Dan Carter's conversion of Israel Dagg's try saw him surpass 300 test points against Australia, and his 17 point tally in this match took him to 304 points. He is now just 5 points away from being the first player to achieve 500 points in Rugby Championship history.

This is the 10th consecutive season the All Blacks have retained the Bledisloe Cup.