Match Details

All Blacks

VS

Qantas Wallabies

	39	Eden Park, Auckland Kick off times: 7:35pm (Local) Sat 2 Aug 5:35pm (AEST) Sat 2 Aug	10
	Head to Head: Played 154 : New Zealand 104, Australia 45, Drawn 5 Last Time: 02/08/08 : New Zealand 39 - Australia 10 at Eden Park, Auckland

The All Blacks struck back in Auckland tonight to comprehensively defeat the Qantas  Wallabies 39 – 10 and leave the Bledisloe Cup evenly poised after two matches.

A hungry, desperate All Blacks outplayed the Wallabies all over the park as the Australians at times struggled to come to terms with the breakdown interpretations of South African referee Mark Lawrence which seemed to differ greatly from his countryman Craig Joubert’s decisions the week before.

It was the Wallabies Head Coach Robbie Deans first loss in six Tests in charge of the Men of Gold.

It seemed the only bright spot for the Wallabies was that they would prevent the All Blacks scoring the fourth try which would give New Zealand a precious bonus point but even that disappeared when All Blacks’ inside centre Ma’a Nonu scored a questionable five pointer after the siren.

The All Blacks four tries were scored two each by prop Tony Woodcock and Nonu, while the Wallabies sole tryscorer was fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper.

Earlier a wet and windy night at Eden Park in Auckland greeted the teams with the rain teeming down for over two hours before the kick off, whipped up by gusting wind.

This suggested the All Blacks would go to a more forward based, kicking game rather than the adventurous style they favoured in the loss in Sydney last Saturday.

Deans and his New Zealand counterpart, Graham Henry, both spoke before kick-off about “accuracy” being the deciding factor in what was set to be a ferocious battle in difficult conditions.

When All Blacks lock Ali Williams dropped the first kick off the signs weren’t good for New Zealand and the Wallabies dominated the early minutes before New Zealand No.8 Rodney So’oialo gave away a penalty at a breakdown on the All Blacks 22 for coming in at the side.

Wallabies flyhalf Matt Giteau stepped up to put Australia up 3-0 after 4 minutes.

But then it was the Wallabies turn to lapse with lock Nathan Sharpe dropping the All Blacks kick off over the sideline. From the line out New Zealand won a penalty at the breakdown, similarly for coming in at the side, and the All Blacks No.10 Dan Carter made it 3-all after six minutes from an identical point at the opposite end of the ground to where Giteau was successful minutes before.

It was clear from the early exchanges that the All Blacks would use the boot much more this week with Carter, fullback Mils Muliaina and scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan using a combination of grubbers, mid-field bombs (strongly contested) and chip kicks to pin Australia in their territory.

A well placed kick from Cowan set up a line out close to the Wallabies line and when they uncharacteristically lost the line out the All Blacks drove close to the line. Australian flanker George Smith then came in at the side of a ruck on the Wallabies line, giving Carter another chance.

Again the Canterbury flyhalf was on target from wide out making it 6-3 to New Zealand after thirteen minutes.

The collision areas were far more contested and an accidental elbow from All Blacks captain Richie McCaw on Wallabies flanker Phil Waugh, left the Waratahs captain groggy soon after but he soldiered on.

Moments later a well judged kick from Carter had the Wallabies throwing into their own line out from five metres out from their own line. A pedantic short arm free kick from Lawrence for the ball not being thrown in five metres, saw the All Blacks then take a scrum metres out from the Wallabies line.

From the scrum the All Black forwards drove close to the line and after several rucks New Zealand prop Tony Woodcock picked up the ball and drove over through several Wallabies defenders. Carter converted to make it 13 – 3 to New Zealand after a quarter of the game.

Two minutes later things got even blacker for the Wallabies with another excellent kick from Carter taken into touch by Wallabies fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper a metre from his own line.

From the resulting line out Williams jumped high for a clean catch and then threw the ball down to Woodcock in a well worked move. Woodcock went straight through a gap in the Wallabies line out to burrow over for his second try in two minutes.

Carter missed the conversion but the Wallabies were down 18-3 after just 23 minutes and the Men of Gold were rocked.Sharpe then went to the blood-bin with Dan Vickerman coming on.

But just when it seemed New Zealand were running away with the game the Wallabies hit back brilliantly.

From another line out, on the half way, this time the Wallabies won clean ball from Vickerman. The ball came quickly to Giteau who sent a perfectly judged spiraling pass to a charging Stirling Mortlock.

The returning Wallabies captain went straight through Conrad Smith and charged twenty metres down field before drawing the last All Blacks defender and sending Ashley-Cooper on an untouched run to the line.The conversion from Giteau brought the Wallabies back to 18-10 with 30 minutes gone.

But another Carter penalty just before half time extended the All Blacks lead to 21-10.

It could’ve got worse for the Wallabies moments later when Ashley-Cooper just managed to dive on a Carter kick through when the All Blacks flyhalf looked set to score. The All Blacks then won back possession in the next ruck but a knock on from Williams saw the attack break down and halftime blown.

It turned out to be Ashley-Cooper’s last action in the game with the Brumbies fullback replaced at half time due to a hand injury with the Western Force’s Drew Mitchell coming on in his place.

Australia  were further behind just five minutes into the second half after more troubles at the line out.

A well placed kick from All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu saw another Wallabies throw in to a line out ten metres out from their own line. Sharpe, who had returned from the blood bin, tapped down to scrumhalf Luke Burgess but a big hit from Nonu knocked the ball from the Waratahs No.9’s grasp.

The All Blacks quickly scrambled the ball wide with Sivivatu eventually getting the ball back inside to Nonu who barged his way over for New Zealand’s third try. Carter converted again from wide out to put New Zealand out to a commanding 28-10 lead after just five minutes in the second half.

Deans went to the bench on 50 minutes bringing Vickerman on for Sharpe and Tatafu-Polota-Nau coming on for Stephen Moore at hooker but the Wallabies lineout woes continued and if anything deteriorated further.

Another Carter penalty goal on 58 minutes put the All Blacks out to a 21 point lead at 31-10.

This brought another change from Deans with Reds flanker Hugh McMeniman coming on for Waugh but the Wallabies lineout continued to mal-function and the All Blacks were still winning the battle in the loose.

The Wallabies then had a chance on 60 minutes after a strong break down the right hand side from No.8 Wycliff Palu. The ball came to George Smith who chipped over the top and then seemed to be hit high by Muliaina.

No penalty came though to Smith and instead the All Blacks were given a penalty for Palu tackling the catcher in the air.

Smith was also being penalized heavily by Lawrence at the breakdown and the frustrated flanker was again the cause of another sanction on 63 minutes for a high tackle on his All Blacks namesake, Conrad.

Again Carter was accurate with his penalty attempt and it was 34-10 to New Zealand and looking like a rout.But the Wallabies held out the All Blacks and the Men of Gold were unlucky not to score a second try after Peter Hynes put his fellow wing Lote Tuqiri away on a run to the line. Then with five minutes to go inside centre Berrick Barnes was replaced by Ryan Cross.

Then, after the siren had sounded, the All Blacks were awarded the precious bonus-point try. The five-pointer was of such a debatable nature we can only hope it does not prove crucial in deciding what looks like an increasingly tight Tri-Nations.

It came after New Zealand had turned over some Wallabies ball on their own 22. The ball came quickly to Nonu but his long run seemed to have been fruitless after he appeared to have lost the ball when tackled in the corner by Tuqiri.

But TMO Shaun Veldsman awarded the try to give Nonu his second and the All Blacks their fourth. Carter missed the conversion to leave the final score All Blacks 39 – Australia 10.

The Wallabies next Test will be against the Springboks in Durban in three weeks time while the Tri-Nations continues when the All Blacks take on South Africa in Cape Town on August 16^th.

Bledisloe Cup

Fulltime Score

All Blacks 39(Tony Woodcock 2 , Ma'a Nonu 2 tries; Dan Carter 5 penalties, 2 conversion) defeated Wallabies 10 (Adam Ashley-Cooper try; Matt Giteau penalty, conversion) at Eden Park, Auckland. (Half-time: All Blacks 21-10) (Crowd: 46,000)