And for much of Saturday night\u2019s Test, the Wallabies looked sure to end a 1,792-day drought since they last beat the All Blacks. They were strategically enterprising, accurate off the kicking tee and unleashed long phases of blistering attack. But ultimately, a heathen\u2019s brew of dud luck, ill-discipline and errors cruelled the quest as the Wallabies fell to a 28-14 defeat, extending their losing streak against New Zealand to 11 Tests since 2020.<\/p>\n
In all five Rugby Championship Tests, the Wallabies have started poorly and stormed home. On Saturday night they started superbly, fast hands and daring play rattling the All Blacks early and allowing Tane Edmed to kick them to a lead. But when Will Skelton won a turnover and celebrated with a shove, the English referee, Matthew Carley, quixotically reversed the penalty. It was to be that sort of night.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s lead lasted mere seconds as Nick Frost fumbled the kick-off and the black mass swarmed to put Leroy Carter over from the ensuing maul. An Edmed penalty made it 7-6 but the Wallabies weren\u2019t content to kick to victory. Instead their hands flashed and flicked and the gold rush put Allan Alaalatoa over. But again the referee found fault, yellow-carding Tom Hooper for a dangerous tackle and scrubbing the try.<\/p>\n
The news got worse when the talismanic Skelton was sidelined by a failed HIA. But the Wallabies kept coming, new starting wing Filipo Daugunu testing the black line in attack and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii monstering the All Black runners in defence. Despite trialling a seventh halves combination in Edmed and Jake Gordon, Australia\u2019s attack was cohesive and creative. Only simple errors in wet conditions stymied them.<\/p>\n
And bad luck reared its ugly head again when Jordie Barrett headbutted the ball forward for Quinn Tupaea to tow ahead and score. A minute later, a quick tap and big fend gave Tupaea a second, with only a third missed kick by Damian McKenzie saved a blown-out scoreline. It was classic cunning from New Zealand and the Wallabies, despite dominating the half, went to the sheds 17-9 down.<\/p>\n
![\"Cam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/UNQTX2YPY3WU3TXEIJRF5FQT6E.jpg\")
Cam Roigard of the All Blacks kicks the ball against Australia. Photograph: Janelle St Pierre\/Getty <\/p>\n
This was an important Test for the code, too. With two AFL teams firmly established in Western Australia and the Perth Bears coming into the NRL, rugby union needed to give the 60,000-strong crowd at Optus Stadium a show. The west had been a happy hunting ground for the Wallabies, having won seven of 10 Tests in Perth (including their biggest defeat of the old enemy, a 47-26 win in 2019). Could they find a fightback?<\/p>\n
As the rain intensified in the second half, the coach Joe Schmidt sent fresh troops in to ride the storm. Slipper staggered into retirement and Taniela Tupou arrived with the No 8 Rob Valetini on his hip. They sharpened the gold arrowhead and for 20 minutes Australia threw everything at New Zealand, shrugging off another yellow card to Len Ikitau to dominate possession. When sustained raids put Ikitau over the chalk for 20-14 with 14 minutes to go, their fans dared to dream. But McKenzie kicked their rivals out of striking range and a 80th-minute try from a low drive sealed a fifth straight winless series for the hosts.<\/p>\n
Max Jorgensen said his side needed to improve their discipline on Australia\u2019s five-Test overseas tour, starting on October 25th in Japan. \u201cA lot of silly errors that we need to get out of our game. That\u2019s what Test footy is, it\u2019s the best of the best, so you can\u2019t be making those mistakes. If you want to be the best team in the world you\u2019ve got to be at your best at every aspect of the game.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby Championship: Australia 14 New Zealand 28 The Bledisloe Cup was gone for a 23rd straight year, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[789,111,43,139,69,1465,34432],"class_list":{"0":"post-59956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-all-blacks","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-rugby-championship","14":"tag-wallabies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}