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The inaugural round of the Bledisloe Cup of the year ended with a dramatic draw.
Photo: PhotoSport
With the game entering wet and windy overtime, the All Blacks and Wallabies battled to a stalemate of 16 in Wellington on Sunday.
Both teams had the opportunity to win the match in the exciting stages of death.
Reece Hodge, a replacement for the Wallabies, hit the post with a long-range penalty that would have sealed an unexpected victory, while the All Blacks finished the game right on the Australia line, but couldn’t find the winning points.
The game finally ended after 89 minutes when the Wallabies secured a turnover and the first five James O’Connor opted to kick the ball into the stands, which surprisingly for the All Blacks for the first time at home for 400 days were not packed. .
New Zealand led 8-3 after a first half that featured two notable moments for All Blacks center Rieko Ioane.
Replays showed that the Blues midfielder appeared to step onto the sideline in preparation for wing Jordie Barrett’s first attempt.
Then Ioane appeared to have scored a try of his own on the last play before the break, but a careless attempt to ground the ball led the TMO to call an embarrassing knock-on.
The All Blacks’ lead widened shortly after the restart, when running back Aaron Smith finished off a defined play from a lineout.
But Australia refused to leave, trying to get wings Marika Koroibete and Filipo Dauganu to level the score at 13-13 with 15 minutes to go.
O’Connor’s 74th minute penalty gave the Wallabies the lead for the first time, only for Barrett to respond with his second penalty with just over two minutes of normal time left.
Nine hectic minutes of extra time followed, neither team was able to break the deadlock and take the lead in the second test next weekend in Auckland.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster declined to blame Rieko Ioane for missing an attempt in the first half.
“It would have been useful (to extend the lead at halftime),” Foster told reporters. “He (Ioane) is feeling quite frustrated with himself.
“He’s a confident young man. He’ll learn from that, but he can also focus on a lot of other good things that he did in that game.”
Foster added that the dropped ball was not the only mistake, as the team missed several scoring opportunities in the first 80 minutes of the game.
They also had opportunities to close out the game in injury time, including preparing for a drop goal attempt, or capitalizing on the space they had created wide open.
“If you don’t risk it, they will bite you again,” he said.
“We had a chance to win the game in the last 10 minutes and we weren’t good enough to execute.
“It’s a message to all of us that test rugby is back and if you’re not good enough, you won’t get what you want.”
