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Mon 28 Aug 2017 | 01:41
New Zealand snatch victory in Bledisloe Cup thriller in Dunedin

9
Comments

The Wallabies turned things around from their loss last weekend to rush out to a 17-0 lead, starting with a try after just 25 seconds, but the All Blacks came back multiples times in a ding-dong battle that ended with the hosts snatching it 35-29 in Dunedin.

It was a heartbreaking loss for the Wallabies, as a last-gasp Beauden Barrett try sealed off a thrilling Test match, one of the best seen in recent years.

The visitors were dramatically improved, putting huge amounts of pressure on New Zealand, who made a number of uncharacteristic errors in the first half.

By the end, both teams had scored five tries, with the lead changing hands five times.

"It's gutting. Believe me, we came here full of confidence that we could win this game tonight and I thought we did well to put them under pressure," said Australian skipper Michael Hooper. 

"I’m proud of the turnaround (from last week) and we took many steps in the right direction but in the end it wasn’t good enough. (The last try) was a dagger in the heart."

Kurtley Beale dived over for what seemed like the winner on 76 minutes, before Barrett scored his second with a well worked bit of lovely hands, allowing him to streak away for the late win.

With 11 points and four places between the sides at kick-off, Bledisloe Cup holders New Zealand did not pick up any reward from a World Rugby rankings perspective, but they remain 5.07 points clear of second-placed England. Australia are in fifth.

Below are both short and extended highlights. Definitely take the time to watch the latter.

SHORT HIGHLIGHTS (4:21)

EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS (24:29)

Posted By: Grant Constable

9 Comments

  • breakaway
    2:56 AM 01/09/2017

    Law 13.3 says it's a scrum at halfway with the opponents having the put-in.
    Maybe it's hard to tell in many cases and refs don't want to be shown up by the replay. I think they should call any really obvious ones early in the game. I'm sure that would have the desired effect.

  • 3:55 PM 31/08/2017

    Fair call. I think the problem for World Rugby now is that they have let runners get ahead of the kicker at restarts for so long now that any serious attempt to penalise it gets tricky. Especially as a penalty on half way is pretty kickable for a lot of teams.

  • breakaway
    3:10 AM 31/08/2017

    Without doing a count-back of recent great matches, I generally agree with you, he's a terrific ref. Yet I didn't think he had a particularly good game this time. But when two sides are set on playing an open attacking game, Nigel's the man.

  • breakaway
    2:54 AM 31/08/2017

    Fair enough, flanker. It seems that on this point at least, we're pushing the same way.

  • flanker2712
    6:34 PM 30/08/2017

    @breakaway
    @Oui Jerome (great name, by the way!)

    I agree wholeheartedly and probably should have included something in my original post (a smiley face perhaps?) to indicate it was tongue in cheek. As a Lions fan, I was embarrassed by the all the complaining by my fellow Lions supporters after the third test about precisely this point.

  • ajv1beta
    10:23 AM 30/08/2017

    Is it any coincidence that most of the great test matches in the past few years have been refereed by Nigel Owens?

    I don't think so.

    What a contest!

  • 9:58 AM 29/08/2017

    @flanker2712 - The whole match is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBd6ObUbbEo

    If you look at the restart for the second half (at 59:56), there is a wallaby at the top of the screen well in front of Foley when he kicks it. It's right in front of Owens, and nothing gets called. I'm not saying it's right, but pretending that only the All Blacks do it is disingenuous drivel.

    As Owens himself would say, this sort of whining belongs on Football365, not here.

  • breakaway
    3:09 AM 29/08/2017

    You're guessing. And yet the Aussies appeared to be, to quote one commentator, "miles in front of the kick-off" at times. I'd be happy to have consistency from refs on this too, but you can't just complain about a single instance while also admitting you have no evidence.

  • flanker2712
    6:16 PM 28/08/2017

    Read offside at restart (21:50 of extended highlights) but no video evidence to prove it? I've seen this somewhere before...

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