The Wallabies have rebounded from a record loss to the All Blacks and salvaged some pride with a thrilling 24-22 win in the fourth Bledisloe Cup Test in Brisbane, with both sides finishing the match with 14 players.
Key points:
- It is the Wallabies’ first win of 2020 following two defeats and a draw to the All Blacks
- Lachie Swinton and All Blacks prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi were both sent from the field in the first half
- The All Blacks scored three tries to two but Reece Hodge goalkicking proved critical with four penalty goals
A week after the All Blacks secured the Bledisloe Cup with a 43-5 win over the Wallabies — the largest winning margin between the two sides — the home side produced a much more committed performance at Lang Park to post their first win of the Tri Nations tournament.
Both sides were handed red cards in a spiteful first half, with Wallabies debutant Lachie Swinton and All Blacks prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi both sent from the field for near-identical high tackles.
Makeshift five-eighth Reece Hodge’s boot and a late Taniela Tupou try put the Wallabies up by nine points, 24-15, inside the final five minutes.
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But it took a crushing Marika Koroibete tackle to snuff out the All Blacks’ hopes after New Zealand hit back with a 78th-minute converted try of their own through Tupou Vaa’i.
The victory was Dave Rennie’s first as Wallabies coach, following two losses and a draw to the All Blacks.
It was also the Wallabies’ seventh straight triumph at Lang Park. The result leaves them and the All Blacks with identical 1-1 win-loss records in the Tri Nations.
The All Blacks scored three tries to two but Hodge’s goalkicking proved the difference, with his 14-point haul including four penalty goals.
Winger Tom Wright landed the first blow of an action-packed match in just the third minute of play, scoring with his maiden touch in Test rugby to give the Wallabies the perfect start.
But the All Blacks replied six minutes later, when Rieko Ioane touched down to level the score at 5-5.
Wright found himself on the receiving end of a thumping Tu’ungafasi challenge that initially brought pats on the back for the New Zealand forward.
Replays showed Tu’ungafasi had hit Wright on the chin, with no mitigating factors leaving referee Nic Berry reaching for the red card in the 23rd minute.
It should have been the decisive advantage, but instead the Wallabies finished the half with one man fewer on the park than the All Blacks.
Swinton replicated Tu’ungafasi’s hit with a challenge on Sam Whitelock — except without any signs of his arms in the tackle — to recklessly earn a red card of his own in the 35th minute.
Then winger Koroibete was yellow-carded for a line-ball penalty that was deemed the final straw as the Wallabies desperately defended on half-time, with the score locked at 8-8.
The Wallabies defied their shortage to start the better in the second half, with a Hodge penalty converting some good early pressure for an 11-8 lead.
But All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor scored off the back of the scrum from the restart, with Nic White fumbling Wright’s inside pass as the immediate reply went begging.
Hodge then missed a penalty goal attempt from 50 metres but the Wallabies continued to press, before New Zealand’s Scott Barrett found himself sin-binned for a professional foul.
Hodge did not miss another attempt from in front of the goal posts though, with Tupou then burrowing over for a nine-point lead with five minutes to play.
The All Blacks replied through Vaa’i, leaving two minutes for the All Blacks to conjure a match-winning try.
But Koroibete twice crunched Jordie Barrett to force an error and seal the win.
The Wallabies now have a two-week break before they meet Argentina in Newcastle in the third match of their Tri Nations campaign.
The All Blacks face the Pumas at the Western Sydney Stadium next Saturday.
AAP/ABC
