The All Blacks have closed out the 2026 Bledisloe Cup series with a 43-21 win over the Wallabies at Accor Stadium in Sydney on Saturday evening, a week after the 50-19 result at Eden Park that kept the trophy in New Zealand for a 24th straight year. It was the All Blacks’ 13th consecutive test win over Australia, a run now stretching across six seasons, and it came from a side that lost one starting midfielder hours before kick-off, another inside two minutes, and finished the match with only 13 players on the field.
The damage was done in a first half the Wallabies will want to forget. According to the official match report on allblacks.com, Josh Moorby opened the scoring in the 11th minute, Beauden Barrett crossed in the 17th and Peter Lakai added a third try three minutes later. Rieko Ioane, on early as an injury replacement, scored in the 25th minute from a Will Jordan pass. Australia replied through Jeremy Williams at the end of an 11-phase drive, but Williams was then yellow-carded and Wallace Sititi scored from a scrum while the lock was in the bin. Barrett then intercepted a pass in the last minute of the half and ran 70 metres to make it 36-7 at the break.
Moorby grabbed his second try early in the second half after a dropped Australian ball, and that was the last time the All Blacks troubled the scorers. Tom Wright and Filipo Daugunu scored consolation tries for the home side as the visitors ran out of bodies. The final tally was seven tries to three, with Damian McKenzie kicking four conversions. NZ Herald’s Liam Napier reported a crowd of 73,399, 16 All Blacks line breaks and 19 Wallabies turnovers. Lakai was named man of the match after a try, 15 carries and 13 tackles, and he finished the game playing at centre.
The injury story began before the team bus left the hotel. Jordie Barrett was ruled out on Saturday morning with a tight calf, having felt tightness during the Eden Park test that did not settle during the week. Timoci Tavatavanawai moved into the starting midfield and Crusaders back Chay Fihaki came onto the bench for a test debut. Then Quinn Tupaea took a head knock in a tackle in the second minute and failed his head injury assessment, sending Ioane on at centre for almost the entire match. Replacement hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho was hurt after coming on, Shannon Frizell left with a leg problem, and by the closing stages the bench was empty. When Fihaki was sin-binned for a head-on-head tackle on Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, the All Blacks played the last few minutes with 13 men, as RNZ reported.
Captain Codie Taylor was frank about the two halves. “I thought we were awesome in that first 40 – just backing ourselves and playing what was in front of us,” he told RNZ’s Patrick McKendry, “but the second 40 was a bit different.”
Coach Dave Rennie made the same point. “I was really rapt with the first half, I thought we were brutal, carried well,” he told Sky Sport. “So, you know, we got a big lead, scored early second half and just not clinical enough, not accurate enough.” He said he was “proud of the courage and the ticker” shown by a team that had barely trained together in its final shape, with Ioane and Tavatavanawai paired in the midfield at short notice.
Rennie singled out Beauden Barrett’s intercept try as the moment that kept the Wallabies at arm’s length. “If they score there it’s 29-14,” he told reporters. With two first five-eighths injured, McKenzie is wearing the 10 jersey and Barrett is playing at fullback. “That just highlights how fortunate we are,” Rennie said. “His experience, his communication, quality of his decision-making is just excellent.”
For Australia, the result ended a honeymoon. Coach Les Kiss had won five and drawn one of his first six tests in charge before the Bledisloe series, and the Wallabies now go into their northern tour having conceded 93 points across the two matches. “Yeah, six versus two (in the world),” Kiss said when asked about the gap between the sides, in comments reported by AAP. “Like last week, we saw something similar this week, those moments just got away from us. If we can tidy those things up, we’re going to be better.” Captain Harry Wilson did not dress it up. “I’m gutted,” he said. “We’ve got to be a lot better. It’s been a very disappointing series, and we’re going to have to regroup.” Australia has not held the Bledisloe Cup since 2002.
The All Blacks now turn to the end-of-year tour, which opens against Scotland at Murrayfield on 8 November before tests against Wales in Cardiff and England at Twickenham on 22 November. Rennie said the squad would be named after the Sydney test once the medical staff had worked through the casualty list. “We’ll reassess. We’ve got a few bumps and bruises that may affect the group that we’re planning to take up north,” he said. Richie Mo’unga, Ruben Love, Ardie Savea, Luke Jacobson, Caleb Clarke, Ollie Norris and Billy Proctor were already facing extended spells out before Saturday’s additions.
Three members of the wider squad flew home from Sydney straight after the match to be available for Sunday’s NPC semi-final between Canterbury and Taranaki in Christchurch. The winner will meet Northland, who reached their first final in the competition’s 50-year history by beating Otago in WhangΔrei on Friday night.
Was the first half in Sydney the best 40 minutes the All Blacks have played this year, or does the second half worry you heading into the northern tour? Share your view in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
Leave a Reply