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Coach Les Kiss insists the Wallabies will not prevent their 50-19 defeat of All black people at Eden Park, where the Bledisloe Cup drought extended to 24 years. But the Australians will be looking to “fire back” when they face their rivals again next weekend, in front of a sea of gold.
The Wallabies lost their first Test under Kiss, who has overseen four wins and a draw since Joe Schmidt took over. They were coming off a four-point win over the Springboks, but long history favored the home side at the Garden.
France were the last side to defeat the All Blacks in a match Auckland year, and the New Zealanders played there 53 games without defeat before Saturday. That record has since gone up by one, with the All Blacks putting on an attacking clinic in the second half.
The All Blacks piled up 33 points in 32 minutes, with Cam Roigard, Codei Taylor, Leroy Carter, Josh Moorby and Will Jordan try scorers. Josh Nasser scored the Wallabies’ only score of the second term, crashing over the try line with five minutes remaining.
Taylor lifted the Bledisloe Cup in triumph after the game and the All Blacks locked up the prized silverware for another year. The Wallabies have not beaten their arch-rivals since November 2020 but will have another chance to end that run next weekend in Sydney.
“It’s like anything. You get hit, you learn more about yourself and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to work hard at what we have to do,” Kiss told reporters.
“Belief is created and maintained not only by wins and losses, but by other things as well. These guys have a strong culture, a strong belief in themselves and confidence in what they can do.
“But the lessons are there: if you can’t get your powers going, and their powers grow, it makes the game hard.
“We’ll come back and work on what we have to and try to turn the dial in the right areas that can go to Sydney and fire back.”
The Kiss’ Wallabies dominated the opening exchanges with 90 per cent possession in the first 10 minutes, only for Peter Lakai to hit back with a well-worked counter-attack. Tupou Vaa’i added five more to give New Zealand the lead four minutes later.
It was a three-point game at half-time in favor of the All Blacks, and it didn’t take long for the hosts to build on that advantage. Roigard and Taylor crossed on six minutes, before Carter and Moorby ran in another try.
“During the last five Tests, we haven’t lost on ourselves; the guys have always said we have work to do. That doesn’t change now,” Kiss said.
“We’re going to take a good look at that game, as we are, get into the nuts and bolts of what we need to fix. How do we bring our strengths into the game? How do we negate their strengths and that’s what we’re looking at.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re doing the work that does that … it’s making sure we get the things that we feel can make a difference.
“Once they got their momentum going, it was hard to come back.”
