All Blacks v Wallabies: Five takeaways as disciplined New Zealand run riot at Eden Park and Les Kiss suffers first defeat

Following a 50-19 triumph for the All Blacks over the Wallabies at Eden Park in Auckland, here’s our five takeaways from Saturday’s first Bledisloe Cup encounter.

The top line

Ten minutes into this Bledisloe Cup opener, Planet Rugby was quietly cashing in its prediction chips. Australia had 90 per cent of the ball and a 7-0 lead through a lovely Tom Wright try off the lineout, whilst New Zealand had dropped a high ball, kicked a restart dead and lost a lineout to Jeremy Williams; the All Blacks were doing everything they could to lose it.

Seventy minutes later the chips had been handed back, and desks around the world were reaching for re-writes as New Zealand ran in seven tries to three in a 50-19 win that ended Les Kiss‘ unbeaten start as Wallabies head coach and kept an Eden Park record Australia haven’t dented since 1986 intact.

Our preview argued that New Zealand would arrive battered and bruised from four Tests against the Springboks and, rather embarrassingly, had it the wrong way round. It turns out that a month of being run over by the Bomb Squad is a fairly decent conditioning programme; those four weeks left the All Blacks hard and match-fit, the three-week break let them recharge without losing that edge, and the result was their most complete performance in a long while.

It was a game of two halves; the first finished 17-14 and could have gone either way, but the second deserves framing and hanging on the wall. The hosts won it 33-5, five tries to one, with 61 per cent of the territory, scoring 26 unanswered points before Josh Nasser’s maul try gave Australia something to take to Sydney, and Will Jordan brought up the half-century at the death with his ninth try of the year.

There was something fitting about the Eden Park PA reaching for Levels, by the late, great Tim Bergling, better known as Avicii, as Cam Roigard went over on 48 minutes, because plenty of players had found theirs. Roigard, Jordie Barrett, Peter Lakai and Damian McKenzie were outstanding for New Zealand, and Harry Wilson, Wright, Ben Donaldson, Rob Valetini and Williams all hit those heights in gold. Both sides wanted to run, and Andrew Brace let them get on with it, the TMO spending 70 minutes with little to do but admire the view.

It came at a cost, though, with Scott Barrett failing his HIA on his return, Leroy Carter hurting his ankle as he scored and Anton Segner leaving with a head wound after a collision with a team-mate, so Dave Rennie‘s injury list grows again before Sydney.

Discipline over tidiness

And, here’s the curious thing. Sure, Australia conceded six turnovers to New Zealand’s 13, lost only four rucks and won 92 per cent of their own lineout throws to New Zealand’s 80, but they still lost by 31 points. On the basic measures of control this was close to an even contest, and what separated the sides was how well New Zealand behaved without the ball and what they did whenever Australia made a mistake.

The All Blacks were penalised for collapsing an Australian maul inside the first ten minutes and given a team warning, and from that moment they never gave Brace a reason to reach for his top pocket. Australia’s only shot at goal all night came from a not-rolling-away penalty midway through the first half, and Ryan Lonergan missed it. Put bluntly, it was the tidier side in possession that cracked; an obstruction off a lineout drive in the New Zealand 22 early in the second half wiped out Australia’s best attacking spell and will have had the coaching box reaching for something stronger than a water bottle, and their discipline fell apart in the final quarter as the tackle count mounted.

New Zealand, meanwhile, fed off every Australian slip. Once Roigard found his range his box-kicking was exquisite, dropped on a sixpence so his chasers could arrive at pace and compete for the ball, and with that man Jordie Barrett and Lakai leaping into Wallaby receivers who were too often standing still, contested kicks became broken field. The first try showed exactly how; Barrett got above Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to win Roigard’s kick, the recycle was lightning quick, and McKenzie showed and went for Lakai to finish.

So, in essence, New Zealand coughed up the ball 13 times and still won by 31, because after that early warning they gave Australia almost nothing cheap from the referee and turned almost every Australian error into points.

Rennie’s ten question

McKenzie is only at ten because Rennie’s injury list currently reads like a hospital rota, but on this evidence the coach has a decision to make, both for Sydney and for next year. New Zealand repeatedly put a centre or a back-five forward at first receiver as a screen, with McKenzie hidden behind him; he arrived late and fast, and only then decided whether to take the ball to the line himself or play out the back. Australia’s defenders read the screen as the threat and set themselves for it, which meant adjusting at the last moment to a fly-half arriving at pace, and that half-second was all he needed. He beat four defenders and put Wallace Sititi and Will Jordan through, with only loose final passes stopping both breaks becoming tries.

The structure works because of the man inside him. Jordie Barrett swapped into the first-receiver role cleverly all night, giving the Wallaby defence another moving part to read, and with Barrett and Roigard minding the shop, McKenzie was free to play what was in front of him rather than conduct every phase. Barrett also answered the leadership question asked of this side with Ardie Savea absent, winning contests in the air, carrying 12 times and making 16 tackles, the third-highest tally on the pitch; he carried four times in the move for Codie Taylor’s try on 54 minutes, reloading each time to clear or support again.

When Richie Mo’unga and Ruben Love are fit again, Rennie will have three very different tens to choose between, and a 12 who makes the more adventurous option work.

The second-half squeeze

Our preview argued the last quarter would decide this Test, with Australia’s bench the weak point, but it was the third quarter that settled it; Roigard’s and Taylor’s tries took New Zealand from 17-14 to 31-14 inside 14 minutes of the restart, and the final quarter, won 19-5, decided only the margin. Australia made 200 tackles to New Zealand’s 144 and missed 30 of them, and by the second half the load was telling; they had only 39 per cent of the territory after the break, and losing Len Ikitau to an HIA early in it took the organisation out of their midfield.

New Zealand’s bench then turned the screw. Kyle Preston added tempo at nine after Roigard went off, putting Josh Moorby over on the left touchline with a lovely pass. Lonergan’s intercept to stop Sititi scoring was the last real moment of Australian defiance until Nasser’s try, and the night ended with a loose pass, trying to play out from deep, bobbling free for Jordan to score.

Nobody did more to hold it together than the captain. Wilson was magnificent in defeat, making 28 tackles, 11 more than anyone else on the pitch, which by the final whistle must have felt like tackling half of Auckland, and he created and finished his own try, holding Sititi at first receiver and popping to Donaldson, who went through the hole and gave it straight back to him. Wright beat five defenders and ran 76 metres, more than any other player, and between them they gave Kiss plenty to build on.

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A year out

Australia can take more from this than the scoreline suggests. Their set-piece is in rude health; Williams stole two New Zealand lineouts, the scrum won all of its own ball, and Nasser’s maul try finally rewarded a drive that had come away empty twice, once to a superb goal-line stand and once to that obstruction. Two weeks after beating the Springboks in Perth, this is a reset to make in Sydney rather than a crisis to manage.

Both of these sides owe a good deal of tonight to the team Australia beat in Perth. Rassie Erasmus’s Springboks, back-to-back world champions, have set a standard of physicality, set-piece precision and bench depth that everyone else in the south has had to chase, and the chasing is paying off. New Zealand have spent a month in the Springboks’ slipstream, and Australia took them on a fortnight ago and won. Erasmus has raised the bar, and his two great rivals are now playing up to it Test after Test.

The wider picture is the one northern hemisphere coaches should worry about. South Africa, New Zealand and Australia are all in serious form a year out from a World Cup in Australia, and on this evidence at least, New Zealand look as complete as any of them.