All Blacks respond with emphatic victory

New Zealand 39 Australia 10

New Zealand stopped the rot and got their Tri-Nations campaign back on track with an emphatic victory against Australia today.

After back-to-back losses to South Africa and the Wallabies, Graham Henry’s side dug deep in the damp, windy conditions at Eden Park, and their four-tries-to-one victory went a long way to easing the disappointment of their 34-19 loss to the Australians in Sydney last weekend.

In that match they got their tactics badly wrong and came off second best at the breakdown but they made no such mistake today.

Captain Richie McCaw, back after missing the All Blacks’ previous three Tri-Nations Tests, was everywhere and even the dual attention of Wallabies loose forwards George Smith and Phil Waugh failed to halt him or the All Blacks in general, who were ferocious at the tackle area.

They also dominated the line-outs – traditionally a powerful weapon for the Wallabies – and scrums, with Al Baxter coughing up free-kicks then penalties when referee Mark Lawrence got sick of his incorrect binding.

Tactically, the All Blacks were smarter as well. Having tried to run themselves out of trouble constantly in Sydney, they made better use of one of the game’s finest kickers – Dan Carter – as well as full-back Mils Muliaina and scrum-half Jimmy Cowan to get themselves good field position from which to attack.

Astute kicking led to the first two All Blacks’ tries – both scored by prop Tony Woodcock – while Ma’a Nonu also chimed in with a brace.

A beautifully-weighted kick by Carter, who had traded penalties with opposite number Matt Giteau for a 6-3 lead to the All Blacks, resulted in a five-metre line-out to the Wallabies, who were then penalised for not throwing the ball five metres.

From the resulting scrum, the ball was spun wide to Nonu, who broke through the first line of defence and after a series of pick-and-goes that went close to the line, Rodney So’oialo popped the ball out to Woodcock, who drove over.

Three minutes later, the prop was across the whitewash again after a Cowan kick earned the All Blacks a five-metre line-out when Australian full-back Adam Ashley-Cooper put a foot in touch before picking up the ball.

Ali Williams, who had an impressive game, took the ball off the top and fired it down to Woodcock, who burst through a huge gap for his second of the night.

The Australians replied just after the half-hour mark with a try for Ashley-Cooper.

Good, clean line-out ball was whipped out wide to Stirling Mortlock, back in the Australian side after missing last weekend’s game with concussion, who burst past Conrad Smith before feeding the ball to his full-back, who had an easy run-in under the posts.

Giteau’s conversion reduced the deficit to 18-10 but that was short-lived as George Smith was penalised for playing the ball off his feet and Carter stepped up to slot his third penalty of the game to give the All Blacks a 21-10 lead.

The second half started with a roar for the home side with only 43 minutes on the clock when Nonu charged over for his first try.

The inside centre had a hand in the move three times after McCaw forced the turnover with a huge tackle on Australian scrum-half Luke Burgess.

The ball was scooped up by hooker Andrew Hore and made its way out to Nonu, who charged through the gap, fired the ball off to wing Sitiveni Sivivatu before collecting it again and charging for the line.

Carter’s conversion gave the All Blacks a healthy 18-point cushion with just over 20 minutes to go.

That lead was pushed out to 24 points with successive penalties for Carter before Nonu wrapped up a gripping encounter when he touched down in the corner right on full-time.