ABs advance through Australia's mare

With 77 minutes on the clock of last night's Bledisloe Cup test match, Wallaby winger, Dane Haylett-Petty, tracked across field before selecting to slide an innocuous grubber behind the All Black defence. The kick was fielded by Man of the Match, Beudan Barrett, who found himself at Full Back as part of an injury enforced reshuffle. Barrett surveys the situation, makes a decision and executes it. Five  seconds later, and Australia are chucking a line out in their own 22.

The aforementioned passage of play had zero baring on the final result, but was indicative of why the game had long since ceased to be any form of contest. Put simply, another poorly thought out, poorly executed piece of Australian play had been pounced upon by the All Blacks who in instant flipped opposition error into opportunity.   With the All Blacks racking up a record winning margin on Australian soil, it would be easy to wax lyrical about their individual and collective dominance. However, the context of that dominance was a Wallaby performance that lacked most of, if not all of the components required to get close to a competing. 

Both teams went into this Rugby World Cup final rematch with certain question marks hanging over them. For the reigning Rugby Championship holders, that's Australia by the way, the three to zip series defeat handed down by England forced Michael Cheika to re evaluate the expansive style of running rugby that had yielded relative success the previous season. As for the World Cup holders, the intrigue focused on how they would respond, subsequent to the departure of a core of individuals, who had become pillars of both All Black success, and perhaps more importantly the values that were the heartbeat of that success.

By close of business, the current group in Black had done plenty to quash any concerns on how they would show up, post Richie, Dan et al. The transition seemed seamless on the night, and it is easy to just attribute the transition to the depth of quality that New Zealand rugby possesses. In reality, much has been invested in the likes of Crotty, Fekitoa, Barrett and Cane over the past few seasons, to ensure that they were equipped for the moment that they assumed primary responsibility on the front line.

As for the Wallabies, their was evidence of the variation, which had been spoken about as a work on, subsequent to the June series. However, I'm not sure that a kicking game that was both arbitrary and poorly implemented was quite the variety that Michael Cheika would have hoped for. Configuring and implementing a new game plan against the ferocity and ruthlessness of the All Blacks is challenge enough, but to do so whilst rudimentary rugby skills are failing you raises the difficulty level to impossible. 

If the past couple of months has been a period of head scratching, the next week will be one of soul searching, before the sides pair up again at the Cake Tin next Saturday.