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Sat 18 Aug 2018 | 01:34
Clinical All Blacks make most of Wallaby errors for second half dominance

5
Comments

The All Blacks kicked off the 2018 Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup with a 38-13 bonus point win over the Wallabies in Sydney. The first half was a tight affair, as the Wallabies led for large parts before the visitors came back to score five tries to one in the second half. 

New Zealand winger Waisake Naholo scored twice late in the game as things opened up and the Wallabies tried to pull things back, after sniffing a chance with a debutant Jack Maddocks try.

Earlier, potential disaster struck as Israel Folau limped off after it looked like he twisted his ankle.

Both sides head to Auckland next week to do it all again, in the daunting arena of Eden Park, where the Wallabies will be hoping to limit the error count, particularly at lineout time. 

"We've got to look after our own ball. The Kiwis made us pay. Set piece was dissapointing," said skipper Michael Hooper. "We want to play a nice expansive game of rugby but to win these games you've got to keep the pressure on."

The All Blacks win was their seventh in a row away from home in the Rugby Championship, pleasing captain Kieran Read, who was all class as he praised the Wallabies for a tough match. 

"Both sides played some really good footy. Looked after the pill. Bloody tough Test match. Credit to the Wallabies the way they came out. We had to fight really hard," he said post match. 

"It came down to a few moments, and we got the ascendancy in that second half.

"We knew the Aussies had a pretty good series against Ireland up front, so we wanted to put a line in the sand there."

credit: sanzaarrugby

Posted By: Grant Constable

5 Comments

  • pickay
    10:48 AM 20/08/2018

    Fair enough, Franks loses his footing. But as was pointed out above, hinging causes the opposition to lose his footing. Which one's the cause and which one's the effect? Chicken-and-egg problem. And that's exactly why I would never want to be in the position of the ref, who has to make the call.

  • breakaway
    10:46 AM 20/08/2018

    Peyper was a half-back and is a hugely experienced international ref. He's probably got a pretty good idea of what's going on in the front row. I can only say that I saw nothing baffling in most of his scrum decisions, so unless I watch the game again and change my mind, I'll leave it there.

  • pickay
    10:16 AM 20/08/2018

    As a back myself, scrum penalties have always seemed like coffee cup reading to me, and they remain mysterious and beyond my grasp for the most part. But what even I know is that in rugby you need to learn to play the ref. Every ref focuses on different things, and you need to adjust. So if the ref calls you for hinging, you better adjust and fix that. The Aussies didn't seem to be able to fix it...

  • pete
    5:52 AM 20/08/2018

    AB's like a different team in the second half.

    Naholo lucky to stay on IMO.

  • breakaway
    2:42 AM 20/08/2018

    I can't go along with your scrum analysis, 45678. The ref called the Oz prop for hinging, which is designed to bring down the tighthead, which it did. From memory this was clear to see in at least one case, and on the others I'll take the word of the guy standing next to the scrum who's adjudicated on hundreds of them at this level.
    Agreed on the need for a competitive international scene, and I think things are evening up generally amongst the top ten. Like you, I didn't see much in the weekend to trouble them, but the ABs will lose again, and maybe soon.

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