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Winger Caleb Clarke produced an impressive power performance on his first test outing to provide much-needed attacking thrust as New Zealand beat Australia 27-7 in their second test of the Bledisloe Cup at Eden Park in Auckland on Sunday.
The authoritative victory erased memories of a 16-16 draw in the first game last week and also gave the All Blacks the advantage of retaining the Bledisloe Cup, which they have held since 2003, as the series moves to Australia for the last two games.
The pressure on All Blacks coach Ian Foster was undoubtedly eased somewhat with the result, which was played in front of a crowd of 46,049 after Covid restrictions were lifted earlier this month.
“He’s a special player and a special boy,” said All Blacks captain Sam Cane, who scored his team’s last try, on Clarke, 21. “He didn’t disappoint anyone.” Clarke’s ability to break tackles was helped by a much better performance from the All Blacks forwards, who had been criticized for their lack of intensity last week.
Some long-standing offensive penetration problems against an aggressive defense were also exposed in Wellington, which only added to the pressure on Foster, whose promotion to coach has not received universal approval in New Zealand.
The All Blacks, however, rarely have successive bad performances and the Wallabies were well aware that after their 47-26 record last year in Perth, they were thrashed 36-0 in Auckland the following week.
“They were better this week,” Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said after Sunday’s result, where the All Blacks only conceded one first-half try to Marika Koroibete.
“They beat us … and they were very good in rotation and capitalized on our mistakes.” The Wallabies put the All Blacks under enormous early pressure before the home team began to win collisions and picked up the pace of the game and began breaking tackles, with fullback Beauden Barrett and Clarke making several strong runs.
Richie Mo’unga scored a penalty in the 19th minute when territorial pressure said so before scrum-half Aaron Smith scored a try four minutes after an attacking scrum.
Mo’unga converted to give the All Blacks a 10-0 lead before the Wallabies again proved just how dangerous ball-in-hand can be when Koroibete crossed after a loss and James O’Connor’s conversion. narrowed the gap to 10-7.
Clarke then was the catalyst for attempts in the space of three minutes of the second half for Barrett and Savea with two powerful runs, the second where he bounced off several tackles, to give the home team a 20-7 lead.
An excellent defense from Mo’unga prevented Koroibete from scoring his second try shortly after, before hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa had a try disallowed by referee Angus Gardner.
Cane finished off a sweeping motion less than 90 seconds later to give them a 27-7 lead that ended the Australian challenge.
“We put in a scoreboard and that has to be the base now, (because) this is (the best) Wallabies team that I’ve seen in a long time,” Foster said.
“They stay in the fight and we have to fight for 80 minutes.”
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