The Wallabies have gone down 41-33 in the third Bledisloe Cup Test in Dunedin to lose the series 3-0 after another merciless display by the All Blacks.
The match may have been a dead rubber, but both teams showed moments of brilliance in the free-flowing seven-try Test in front of a near-sellout crowd of 28,973 at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Unfortunately for the Wallabies costly handling errors and sloppy breakdown work meant those moments were just too few and far between.
The Australians failed to back up their pre-match talk of proving they’d closed the gap on the world champions after being trounced in both of the first two Bledisloe Cup Tests.
The game looked dead and buried as early as the 47th minute with the All Blacks up 33-19 and attacking a broken Wallabies line.
But an intercept to Tevita Kuridrani, who put over inside centre Matt Toomua, narrowed the gap to seven.
The fightback didn’t last long, All Blacks captain Kieran Read crossing in the 53rd minute after a superb team build up that epitomised their four tries.
The Wallabies weren’t without plenty of opportunities of their own.
Six times in the opening 30 minutes the visitors carelessly gave away possession whilst attacking near the 22 metre line.
It was a stark contrast to their hosts, with the All Blacks running in all three of their first half tries from outside the Wallabies’ 22 metre line through expansive, attacking rugby.
It took until the stroke of halftime for the Wallabies to follow suit – inside centre Matt Toomua making a clean break before Quade Cooper lobbed a cut-out ball to winger Adam Ashley-Cooper to narrow the score to 30-19.
Until then the Wallabies had relied on the boot of five-eighth Cooper to keep them in touch, the pivot kicking 12 points in the first half to finish the night with 18 points and a 100 per cent accuracy rate.
All Blacks fullback Israel Dagg looked dangerous every touch, while flyhalf Aaron Cruden (23 points) not only backed up to score the third try of the match, but delivered a pinpoint cross field kick to winger Julian Savea, who handed flanker Sam Cane his 30th minute try.
It was a superb inside ball from Savea, who also scored the opening try in the 10th minute when Dagg beat hooker Stephen Moore on the outside to put him unmarked over in the left corner.
A late consolation try to Wallabies’ outside centre Kuridrani gave the scoreline a more flattering look for the visitors.
