The Wallabies’ hopes of wrestling back the Bledisloe Cup have fallen inches short.
After being blown off the pitch in the opening 15 minutes as the All Blacks raced out to a 21-0 lead, the Wallabies cut the deficit to three points with a minute to go when Tom Wright crossed out wide and Noah Lolesio banged over the conversion in the 79th minute.
But a controversial call from English referee Karl Dickson to award the All Blacks a scrum instead of a Wallabies penalty, as the home side attempted to go the length of the field to stage an astonishing comeback, left Joe Schmidt’s men seething as the visitors “hung on” 31-28.
After Hunter Paisami got over the gain line and kept the legs pumping, All Blacks veteran TJ Perenara managed to get his arms around the hard-running centre’s neck to hold the midfielder up.
Dickson awarded the All Blacks a scrum and the Wallabies, led by captain Harry Wilson, blew up.
Moments later the All Blacks got the ball out of the scrum and Ardie Savea sent it over the sideline to end the match.
Schmidt said Dickson was on the whole consistent, but added: “Other people will make those decisions and we’ll have a look at the footage, for sure.”
No one breathed a greater sigh of relief than Scott Robertson.
After dropping three of their opening four Rugby Championship fixtures, the former All Blacks back-rower and perennial Super Rugby-winning coach said securing the Bledisloe Cup first-up in Sydney was his most important Test.
In contrast, Schmidt had his hands in his pockets as he walked onto Stadium Australia and mulled what could have been.
All Blacks skipper Scott Barrett said he was “relieved” to leave Australian shores with the victory under their belt after yet another great escape.
“We found ourselves in a bit of a hole, but I thought we hung on their, a bit of scramble defence, and we hung on,” he said.
A beaming Robertson said he was pleased his side “found a way” to overcome a “gritty” Wallabies team.
Wilson lamented his side’s poor start, as they conceded four tries inside the opening 25 minutes to leave the 68,069 fans shellshocked.
“A few misreads in defence really cost us early but the way everyone responded, we didn’t want to give up and keep playing for each other and trying to win the moment in front,” he said.
“That’s the sort of footy we want to keep playing what we did in the second half.”
As Morgan Turinui said late in the clash, “It could have been anything at 28-7” after tries to Will Jordan, Rieko Ioane, Caleb Clarke and Savea.
Instead, it was only Damian McKenzie’s boot that separated the two sides after they each scored four tries, with the playmaker’s penalty in the 44th minute ultimately proving the difference.
In total, the All Blacks bombed seven tries – three disallowed and four blown – during the opening 60 minutes in what was a wild roller-coaster.
Had Jordie Barrett not been denied a try on the stroke of half-time after the TMO deemed Sevu Reece bobbled the ball, it could well have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Instead, the Wallabies somehow went into the sheds only trailing 28-14 despite only enjoying 19 per cent of territory after well-taken tries to Fraser McReight and Matt Faessler.
Robertson, whose blood pressure would have gone through the roof over the past three months, would have been filthy as his side continued to let chances slip through their fingers.
Mercurial fly-half McKenzie was at the centre of the blown chances.
The Chiefs playmaker’s flick pass hit the ground in the 49th minute when a simple draw-and-pass was on order. Less than ten minutes later his offload went forward in the lead-up to Cortez Ratima’s overturned try.
Meanwhile, with Anton Lienert-Brown and Caleb Clarke in the sin bin, the Wallabies fought their way back into the clash and finished with all the momentum as Paisami and Wright scored twice in ten minutes to set up a grandstand finish.
Ultimately, it wasn’t enough as the Wallabies fell tantalizingly close to staging one of the nation’s greatest comebacks.
But as Wilson later said, “Close enough isn’t good enough”.
