After a tight contest at Marvel Stadium, the Wallabies held hope that the All Blacks Eden Park fortress could fall – but instead the curse continued.
The result of the second Bledisloe Cup match couldn’t be further from last week’s tantalising scoreline.
In front of a packed Auckland stadium, the New Zealanders romped home to a 40-14 win over the Australians who were error-prone and succumbed to pressure.
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“Pretty disappointing given our performance last week,” Wallabies flanker Pete Samu said.
“We wanted to back that up. We knew it was going to be tough out here, and it definitely was.
“Our discipline really hurt us in the first half there. We got in their half a lot of times and we just needed to convert that into points. Our discipline hurt us there.”
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It was one-way traffic in the first half with the Wallabies remaining scoreless at the end of 40 minutes.
The All Blacks went into the break with a 17-0 lead after a try to Will Jordan in the 23rd minute and a penalty try for dragging down the maul in the 28th.
It took only two minutes for the Wallabies to cop a yellow card after Jed Holloway was sent off for a lifting tackle.
Whitelock awarded contentious try
Sam Whitelock blew the score out again with a contentious try just three minutes into the second half and then Codie Taylor scored in the 54th.
The Wallabies responded courtesy of Folau Fainga’a in the 59th.
However, the bid to draw the deficit back was quickly kiboshed when Samisoni Taukei’aho rolled the maul over the line.
A consolation try to Jordan Petaia was little comfort to Australia.
“The Eden Park hoodoo haunted us once again,” Tim Horan said on Stan Sport.
The All Blacks weren’t perfect, conceding 13 penalties.
The Wallabies, meanwhile, conceded 16 and ended the game with two yellow cards.
However, turnovers were high for the visitors at 15 and they also missed 29 tackles.
“Playing with 13 men, or two yellow cards, really put us on the back foot,” Wallabies captain James Slipper.
“That’s a very disappointing outcome for us tonight. We wanted to come here and perform.
“We were really gutted with the result last week and we had a lot of confidence coming into tonight. The ABs were too good tonight, clearly.
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”I can’t pinpoint it. It’s a bit dewy, but that’s no excuse, both teams have to play in it. Far too much drop ball and too many penalties put us under pressure.
”We had a bit of adversity throughout the championship. The boys stayed really tight and showed a lot of character at times.
”I’m proud of them, but just gutted the way we performed tonight. Just wasn’t good enough.”
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