Qantas Wallabies denied in Auckland
The Qantas Wallabies have been denied in Auckland after falling 37-10 to New Zealand in a match which featured a huge momentum swing in the early stages of the second half.
Trailing by five points shortly after the break, Australia was refused a match-levelling try by the TMO when Dane Haylett-Petty was ruled to have impeded a would-be defender behind the play. From there, the All Blacks scored 22 unanswered points to streak away the win – a world record 18th Test victory in a row.
The Wallabies had an early opportunity to draw first blood but Bernard Foley pushed his penalty goal attempt wide inside the opening four minutes.
The missed opportunity for the Wallabies only served to spark the New Zealanders into action as they turned on their attack, producing a string of offloads before breaking through for a try to Israel Dagg who finished off some clever work on the inside from fullback Ben Smith.
The All Blacks were on the scoreboard again minutes later when Henry Speight, playing his first Test of the year, miscued on an attempted intercept which presented Anton Lienert-Brown with a clear passage to the line.
The Wallabies regrouped and began to show good signs with the ball, halting the momentum of the home side and creating some opportunities of their own. Eventually they converted their ascendency into points, when giant lock Rory Arnold pushed through a hole created by Foley and reached out to score. Foley’s conversion closed the gap to 10-7 with ten minutes to play in the half.
Just a minute later the men in gold had a chance to draw level, although Reece Hodge’s attempt at penalty goal from beyond half way was off the mark. Soon Hodge was in the action again, this time when he had a clearing kick charged down by TJ Perenara who chased through and pounced on the loose ball in-goal to register the All Blacks’ third try of the night.
The wayward boot of Beauden Barrett, who missed all three of his conversion attempts, kept the Wallabies within eight points at the break despite the three-tries-to-one differential.
The margin was cut to five when Foley slotted a penalty goal in the 43rd minute, before suddenly, the game was flipped on its head. What seemed a certain try to Henry Speight was sensationally denied after Dane Haylett-Petty was ruled to have impeded All Blacks winger Julian Savea behind the play after Foley dummied and sliced through the defence to send Speight over in the corner.
When the Wallabies went on another raid minutes later on the same side of the field, Ben Smith swooped on a loose ball and kicked ahead for Julian Savea who did the rest on an eighty-metre runaway try. Soon enough, Savea would revisit the tryline when he bumped off Speight and Hodge on another tearing run down the right sideline, before Dane Coles added another try four minutes later to put it all beyond doubt.
Bernard Foley, in his return to flyhalf, was brilliant in attack but the Wallabies never regained their momentum after the key disallowed try.
How it happened:
6 mins: Israel Dagg try AUS 0-5 NZL
11 mins: Anton Lienert-Brown try AUS 0-10 NZL
29 mins: Rory Arnold try, Bernard Foley con AUS 7-10 NZL
34 mins: TJ Perenara try AUS 7-15 NZL
HALF TIME
43 mins: Bernard Foley pen AUS 10-15 NZL
54 mins: Julian Savea try, Aaron Cruden con AUS 10-22 NZL
65 mins: Aaron Cruden pen AUS 10-25 NZL
69 mins: Julian Savea try, Aaron Cruden con AUS 10-32 NZL
73 mins: Dane Coles try AUS 10-37 NZL
FULL TIME
New Zealand 37 (Julian Savea 2, Israel Dagg, Anton Lienert-Brown, TJ Perenara, Dane Coles tries; Aaron Cruden 2 cons; pen) defeated Australia 10 (Rory Arnold try; Bernard Foley con; pen)
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