All Blacks crush Wallabies 38-7 to retain Rugby Championship title

MELBOURNE – The All Blacks smashed Australia 38-7 on Saturday to retain the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup, as Eddie Jones’ gamble on a new-look Wallabies side backfired spectacularly.

The visitors led 19-7 at the interval before 83,944 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and romped to a six-tries-to-one win.

It was another impressive performance from a team on a 10-game unbeaten streak, ominously ahead of the September-October World Cup in France.

Shannon Frizell, Codie Taylor and Will Jordan crossed in the first half, with Caleb Clarke, Mark Telea and Rieko Ioane adding more tries in a devastating eight-minute second-half blitz.

“I’m delighted with that. It was on an iconic ground and it’s pretty special for us,” said New Zealand coach Ian Foster.

“To come away with that sort of victory is something we can be proud of.

“The way we were able to come through was really pleasing.”

Australia’s lone try came from Rob Valetini and, with stand-in skipper Allan Alaalatoa stretchered off with a nasty leg injury, it was another miserable night.

Ill discipline again let them down, with two yellow cards making their job near impossible.

Victory secured New Zealand the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship for the ninth time in its 11 editions and the prized trans-Tasman trophy for a 21st year with a game to play against Australia in Dunedin in August.

It left the Wallabies in an ever-deepening hole as Jones struggled to find the right combinations.

They have now lost all three games since the former England boss took over, with time running out to turn it around.

While the All Blacks made just one injury-enforced change from their high-class defeat of world champions South Africa a fortnight ago, Jones gambled on seven new faces from the team that crashed to Argentina.

He described it as a “terrible result”, but insisted he saw enough in patches to feel the Wallabies could be competitive at the upcoming World Cup.

“I really like the way we came out in the first 20 (minutes) in the first half and the first 15-20 in the second half, but we couldn’t turn that into points,” he said.

“We definitely ran out of gas at the end of the game. We had a number of blokes struggling.”

The All Blacks made a blistering start with a try after only three minutes.

Australia executed a perfect line-out and fed the ball to Tate McDermott on his own try line, but a crunching tackle by Scott Barrett flattened the dazed scrum-half and the ball spilled to flanker Frizell.

Richie Mo’unga missed the conversion and the Wallabies immediately hit back when winger Mark Nawaqanitawase galloped into space and, after a series of drives, Valetini grounded the ball.

Carter Gordon added the extras to put the hosts 7-5 clear.

Unperturbed, New Zealand regrouped and began applying pressure which led to a penalty.

Telea took a quick tap and dived under the posts, but the try was overturned with the winger’s boot not making contact with the ball to constitute a resumption of play.

In the melee, Wallabies dangerman Marika Koroibete was yellow-carded for the deliberate offside that led to the drama.

With Australia a man down, the All Blacks raised a level and a driving maul saw hooker Taylor flop over before Jordan bagged his 23rd try in as many Tests in the corner.

Mo’unga made no mistake this time with the conversions for a 12-point half-time advantage.

Australia were livelier as the second half began after Jones made six substitutions.

But poor discipline again haunted them with prop Angus Bell sin-binned and New Zealand taking full advantage with three tries in quick succession as the Wallabies were forced into damage limitation. AFP, REUTERS