Richie McCaw bounced back from being yellow carded early on to score twice as the All Blacks thumped the Wallabies 51-20 at fortress Eden Park on Saturday. A week after their 12-12 draw the home side went up a notch, or ten, to score six tries.
Australia were in the match for the first quarter, which included a McCaw yellow card, but as he came back on the Wallabies lost Rob Simmons to the bin, and it all went downhill from there.
A penalty-try followed, and then a breakout Julian Savea score after great work from Aaron Cruden, and the Aussies couldn't hault the tide of a ferociously intense All Blacks outing.
"It was a special performance," coach Steve Hansen said of the Bledisloe Cup victory, and result that saw them achieve their highest ever score against the cross-Tasman rivals.
"I sensed that we were going to play a lot better than the week before, because we played so poor the week before and because we trained so very well. We managed to bring our A game tonight."
Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie said that they were outplayed, while skipper Michael Hooper, who scored an excellent try as part of a fightback, said that losing Simmons really cost them.
"We were chasing a lot in that first period before the yellow card which took a toll on us. Then to try and catch up and get back in the game was difficult. They stuffed our offloads and made good metres off us. That took it out of us," he said.
"They got over the advantage line quite easily and then that just means we're chasing our tail. We're running back and they've got class backs to pounce on that."
Flyhalf Cruden, in for injured Dan Carter, converted all the tries and landed three penalties.
Credit: NZAUTV. Better quality highlights will replace these when possible