MY ACCOUNT
New Zealand squandered an 18-point lead before recovering to snatch a dramatic 39-37 victory over Australia as they moved a step closer to winning the Rugby Championship.
The All Blacks led 31-13 in a Bledisloe Cup classic at a packed Marvel Stadium with an hour played, yet they trailed 37-34 with normal time up in Melbourne.
However, Jordie Barrett capped a truly remarkable contest by touching down in the corner with nearly 81 minutes on the clock to break Australian hearts.
It came after a controversial decision that saw the hosts’ recalled fly-half Bernard Foley penalised for time-wasting and the visitors handed a scrum in front of the posts.
New Zealand have now won 17 of their past 21 Tests against Australia, including four in a row, and are five points ahead of Argentina and South Africa, who meet on Saturday.
Samisoni Taukei’aho bundled over from the back of a rolling maul inside four minutes and the visitors extended their lead to 10 points thanks to the kicking of Richie Mo’unga.
Foley slotted over to get Australia off the mark and the Wallabies thought they had levelled soon after, only for the TMO to adjudge Andrew Kellaway failed to ground the ball.
Rob Valetini did level up the try count with 26 minutes played by bashing his way through, however, with Dalton Papalii being sin-binned for his role in folding the maul.
Australia could not make the most of the man advantage and themselves had Tom Wright and Darcy Swain yellow-carded before the break.
The All Blacks, who had a Taukei’aho try ruled out, appeared to put the game out of Australia’s reach when Taukei’aho and Mo’unga touched down in the space of 10 minutes.
Australia had Jake Gordon sin-binned between those tries and looked completely out of the match when Will Jordan charged through for another try, which Mo’unga converted.
Kellaway started a dramatic fightback with two tries in the space of five minutes, the first coming after some brilliant play from the returning Foley, back after three years out of the side.
Mo’unga’s penalty temporarily settled the All Blacks’ nerves, but Pete Samu exchanged passes with Marika Koroibete and reached the corner, allowing Foley to level the match at 34-34.
Australia were not done there as Nic White expertly took over from Foley by slotting over a long-range penalty to give the home side a barely believable three-point lead.
The Wallabies then won a penalty in their own half, seemingly spelling the end of the game, only for Foley to be sensationally penalised by referee Mathieu Raynal for wasting time, gifting New Zealand a scrum.
New Zealand were able to keep the clock ticking and stunned their opponents through a last-gasp try from Barrett, who found the chalk despite Koroibete’s desperate attempted tackle.
Australia fall short
Nine tries were scored, two chalked off and four yellow cards dished out, yet the major talking point from this epic boils down to French referee Raynal’s decision to punish Foley for delaying kicking, awarding New Zealand a five-metre attacking scrum.
Having done so well to not only make the scoreline respectable but to then take the lead, Australia will be kicking themselves for failing to see out the final seconds. The Wallabies have now lost four of their past five Tests on home soil, after losing just two of their previous 12.
Barrett bails out Foster
Had Barrett not saved New Zealand from the final play, yet more questions would have been asked of under-fire head coach Ian Foster. New Zealand had already lost four Tests this calendar year – only in 1998 (five) and 1949 (six) have they lost more.
As it is, the All Blacks have won back-to-back matches for the first time this year, having thrashed Argentina two weeks ago, and are celebrating yet another Bledisloe Cup triumph, ahead of a rematch against the Wallabies next week in Auckland.
