Roff makes All Blacks pay penalty
New Zealand 15 Australia 23
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Australia retained the Bledisloe Cup – they have now won it four times in a row – and had their first win in the Tri-Nations when they outplayed New Zealand here and in doing so finally exorcised the ghost of Carisbrook, the Dunedin ground where no team other than a British Isles side had won against the All Blacks.
The Wallabies sealed the game with a penalty try 14 minutes from time awarded by the English referee Steve Lander after the winger Joe Roff, odds-on to win the race to a Stephen Larkham grubber to the in-goal area, was bundled into touch without the ball by Ron Cribb.
The Wallaby coach, Eddie Jones, paid tribute to his side and said victory had answered the critics who believed Australia were a team in decline. "Besides my personal relief, I am very pleased for the team," Jones said. "After the way we played in South Africa [when they lost 20-15] to come back like we did today was great. We played intelligent football in tricky conditions and I pay special tribute to our tight five for that."
The All Blacks coach, Wayne Smith, admitted that his side's errors had cost them dearly. "They killed us," Smith said. "Every time we got a roll on we ended up losing possession. We spent a lot of time in our own half and trying to play catch-up football was very hard. They played very well and slowed the ball down enough to frustrate us."
The All Blacks made a great start with Jonah Lomu, who led the side out on his 50th Test appearance, scoring the first try after two minutes. But that was about as much change as Australia afforded the All Blacks. They hit back with a peach of a try from Matthew Burke, who chipped a kick over Doug Howlett. Burke converted and added a penalty to make it 10-5 at the interval.
Tony Brown was successful with his only kick from four attempts to make it 10-8, but Burke regained the five point margin with another penalty in the 56th minute.
Roff's penalty try put daylight between the sides and another Burke penalty extended the lead to 23-8. Jeff Wilson went over – set-up by Lomu – for the All Blacksnear the end but it was all much too little too late.
New Zealand: J Wilson; D Howlett (L MacDonald, 65), T Umaga, P Alatini, J Lomu; T Brown (A Mehrtens, 68), J Marshall (B Kelleher, 65); C Hoeft, A Oliver (capt), G Somerville (C Hayman, 57), N Maxwell (M Cooksley, 50), T Flavell, R Thorne, R Cribb, T Randell (M Holah, 71).
Australia: M Burke, A Walker, D Herbert, N Grey, J Roff; S Larkham, G Gregan; N Stiles, M Foley, R Moore (B Darwin, 51), J Harrison, J Eales (capt), O Finegan (M Cockbain, 60), T Kefu, G Smith (P Waugh, 66).
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments