The All Blacks Run Over the Wallabies
The New Zealand All Blacks ran their way to another victory over the weekend against the Australia Wallabies. The 20-10 win sealed the Bledisloe Cup in favour of the All Blacks, and put them one point away from clinching yet another Tri-Nations tournament.
Recap
The All Blacks were able to burst out of the gate, taking a solid lead into the second half. When the two sides returned from the break there was little scoring, except for a late New Zealand tally that sealed the victory for the away team.
The two sides opened the scoring quickly, with New Zealand’s Mils Mulianina continuing his outstanding tournament by notching the first try of the game in the sixth minute. Dan Carter added the conversion to give the All Blacks a 7-0 lead.
The Wallabies did not wait around long as Kurtley Beale converted a try of his own just three minutes later. Fly-half Matt Giteau struck home the conversion to tie up the game in the 10th minute.
The early scoring continued with Conrad Smith notching a try in the 13th minute, which was capped off by a Carter conversion, to push the All Blacks lead to 14-7.
Giteau quickly countered with a penalty in the 18th minute, but Carter would not be outdone, matching the penalty in the 34th.
On the strength of Carter’s boot, the All Blacks went into half with a 17-10 lead.
After the break, the two sides settled into defensive rugby. The game remained in a stand-off until Carter put home his 10th point of the contest with a penalty in the 70th minute.
The Aussies worked tirelessly to get back on the board, but the New Zealand defence would not allow it, as the game ended with a 20-10 All Blacks victory.
The win over Australia gives the All Blacks the Bledisloe Cup, having taken two-of-two meeting between the squads. This gives New Zealand both trophies in this year’s tournament, having already won the Freedom Cup by defeating South Africa in their first two matches.
In addition, with the Milianina try, the full-back takes over as the tournaments top try scorer with four, while Carter maintains his lead as the tournaments top point getter with 49.
New Zealand’s fourth straight victory of the Tri-Nations tournament gives them 19 points, meaning the All Blacks are just one point away from clinching the tournament championship. Captain Richie McCaw has mentioned that his team would love to clinch the title in their next game against the South African Springboks in the sold-out Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.
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