A grateful Richie Mo’unga kicked the ball out and a furious Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones smacked the table with his walkie-talkie one last time as the All Blacks celebrated an unlikely 23-20 victory in Dunedin this afternoon.
There have been some classic Bledisloe Cup Tests over the years, but this apparent “dead rubber” delivered more than most, although the All Blacks may be counting the cost due to the departure with a knee injury of veteran lock Brodie Retallick after 25 minutes. Centre Braydon Ennor also left the field just before halftime.
It will take time to digest how the Wallabies lost this after leading 17-3 at halftime, the much-changed All Blacks missing the three Barretts, among others, and digging themselves into a huge hole with their inaccuracy.
It had hubris written all over it – head coach Ian Foster electing to make 13 changes to the side which thrashed the Wallabies 38-7 in Melbourne last weekend as the All Blacks retained the Bledisloe Cup, and some players didn’t do themselves many favours ahead of the World Cup squad naming in Napier on Monday night.
They were poor early and perhaps seduced by last weekend’s victory and the hard and fast surface in the deep south and in the end they needed a big rescue act by Mo’unga, on as a replacement and cold as ice as he kicked the winning penalty with 50 seconds remaining.
In front of a capacity crowd of 28,000, the Wallabies settled far quicker and looked far more organised; Tate McDermott and Carter Gordon organising things nicely as the All Blacks, eager to throw the ball around, made too many errors and paid for them dearly.
The visitors had clearly targeted the debutant Shaun Stevenson, the Wallabies getting big returns on his right wing as they went over twice in the first eight minutes through Marika Koroibete and Tom Hooper.
They had the better of the set piece too, and, in terms of attack, turned the tables on the home side by retaining possession and forcing mistakes, tackles and penalties.
They were in control at 14-0 up, Damian McKenzie, who struggled to impose himself on this game and kicked poorly out of hand overall, slotting a penalty to narrow the gap slightly.
The home side's scrum was being penalised, hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho was struggling with his lineout throwing, and, quite simply, they were being dominated physically by a Wallabies team who last won in New Zealand in this city exactly 22 years ago.
The All Blacks' last loss came against Argentina in Christchurch last year and they were heading for another because they were hanging on by their fingertips; Ardie Savea forced to make a try saving tackle on McDermott.
So they were looking for a little inspiration (and Savea's actions helped in that regard) and they found it from their pack, Mo’unga, Leicester Fainga’anuku and a far better and more ruthless attitude after the break.
It was night and day because they were far more direct and narrow, earned penalties from their scrum dominance, and finally began putting pressure on.
Fainga’anuku was over the line but lost the ball but, despite that, all the momentum was going the All Blacks way and they finally struck via Stevenson in the right corner for a try well converted by McKenzie.
But it was Mo’unga, on for McKenzie with 31 minutes remaining, who brought a level of control that the home side badly missed and Aaron Smith and Ofa Tuungafasi were other big impact players, the latter dominating his opposite in the set piece for three precious penalties.
A Mo’unga penalty cut the deficit to four points and Samipeni Finau, increasingly influential, scored the try which gave the All Blacks the lead after 64 minutes and while Quade Cooper’s penalty levelled the score at 20-all with seven minutes to go, it was the replacement first-five’s knock-on which gave the All Blacks the attacking scrum from which they earned the deciding penalty.
It’s likely to be Mo’unga’s final Test on home soil. There was little doubt that a man who has led the Crusaders to seven championships would get it.
Cue the fulltime chaos and Jones’ cursing. After losing their first three Tests of the year, this fourth one will be a tough one to accept for the Wallabies coach.
All Blacks 23 (Shaun Stevenson, Samipeni Finau tries; Damian McKenzie pen, con, Richie Mo’unga 2 pens, con)
Wallabies 20 (Marika Koroibete, Tom Hooper tries; Carter Gordon 2 cons, pen, Quade Cooper pen)
Halftime: Wallabies 17-3
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