Wallabies suffer 40-14 Bledisloe Cup humiliation by All Blacks at Eden Park

The former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom wryly observed before a 2011 Test at Eden Park that he had “never met any ghosts out there”, but there has certainly been a graveyard these past 36 years and it now has a new headstone.

While a try in the final moment by Jordan Petaia spared the Wallabies the ignominy of a record defeat at the Auckland ground, it was scant consolation for another ill-disciplined performance that reflected a side sorely lacking in composure and leadership.

This latest chapter was Australia’s 22nd consecutive defeat at the venue since Alan Jones’s Bledisloe winners of 1986, with the 40-14 scoreline indicative of a gap that is getting no narrower, given the average margin of success for New Zealand prior to this game stood at 18 points. The dispiriting nature of the performance, and the scoreline, suggests Australia are drifting further away.

To add salt to the Wallabies’ wounds, the damning statistical evidence confirms that, with six losses in less than 12 months the current edition of the All Blacks are the worst of the professional era – exceeding even the class of 1998 who lost five in a row.

If New Zealand’s motivation in the first Bledisloe Test was to avoid becoming the side that lost the trophy after two decades of trans-Tasman supremacy, this mission was about ensuring they did not suffer a first defeat at Eden Park in 27 years, an unbeaten sequence made up of 45 wins and two draws.

A totally dominant first 30 minutes featuring Will Jordan’s fourth try in as many matches against Australia, along with a penalty try, two yellow cards and a host of other created but missed opportunities pretty much summed up the state of both teams. Still, the hosts raced to a 17-0 half-time advantage to virtually ensure the Eden Park record was not under threat.

Tries by skipper Sam Whitelock and hooker Codie Taylor after the break pushed it out to 32-0, with seemingly the only issue left being by how much they could win, and how hard could they make it for South Africa to catch them on points difference for the Rugby Championship title.

That proved to be beyond the Springboks, who needing to beat Argentina by at least 39 points, only managed a 38-21 victory in Durban. So New Zealand, for all their faltering form of late, claimed the trophy for the fifth time in six years.

That awareness meant they were happy while ahead 37-7 to take a penalty goal with three minutes remaining. Petaia’s late try, and that by Folau Fainga’a 20 minutes earlier, were arguably worth more to South Africa than the Wallabies.

Australia, meanwhile, are left contemplating a competition of chances missed, decisively beaten in each of the return games having edged their three rivals first time up. Already ninth on the World Rugby rankings, down from sixth when Dave Rennie inherited the team, his success rate has now plunged to an absurd 38%, due in large part to a lack of discipline that sometimes defies belief. The Wallabies have conceded 22 yellow and red cards in the 29 Tests on his watch. The three yellow cards against New Zealand in Melbourne contributed significantly to that loss.

Two again at Eden Park did not help although, such was the All Blacks’ superiority, it is doubtful the Wallabies could have stayed with them even if it had been 15 on 15 for the full 80 minutes.

For the All Blacks, while not removing the stains of the historic losses to Ireland and Argentina, the win at least allows Ian Foster’s side to level up their home record for the year to 50%. The final judgement on the season now rests on their November assignments, and most especially the trip to Twickenham, with a win over Eddie Jones’s England required to improve an unsatisfactory year.