The Wallabies only started playing after 20 minutes. By then, All Blacks were 20 points ahead

A strange, if frustrating game. For the first 20 minutes, the men in black looked like the All Blacks usually do, particularly on New Zealand soil before their own crowd: imperial, unstoppable, invulnerable. In their traditional citadel of Eden Park, they were soon up 20-3 on the back of three tries, 80 per cent possession and an endless stream of penalties.

Up against any other team in world rugby, they might have expected to go on and rack up at least 50 points by full-time. After all, for that first half of the first half they were not only dominant on the ground, but also in the air. Time and again, they were able to retrieve their own box-kicks and swarm forward as an unstoppable black tide that at one point swept over our halfback, Tate McDermott, and spat him out, broken.

But were the Wallabies worried?

Yeah, nah, not particularly, you know?

This season, the men in green and gold don’t know the match has truly begun until they’ve given up 20 points in the first 20 minutes. For whatever reason, it is then and only then that they truly get to work.

And so it proved this time.

Before our very eyes, at this ground where they have not won in four decades, before a sold-out crowd roaring for blood, our blokes steadied, stopped the black tide, then turned it and struck back. Led by death-or-gory-glory charges by skipper Harry Wilson, and cricket-pitch slices carved out of the All Black territory by centres Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Len Ikitau, they ran in two great tries, from hooker Billy Pollard then winger Harry Potter.

Going to the break with the Wallabies down only 20-17, the momentum was with the goodies in gold!

Surely they could build on it? After all, against South Africa a fortnight ago, the All Blacks had given away a humiliating 36 points in the second half. And a couple of weeks before that, the Wallabies had scored 38 points against the Boks in the second half at Ellis Park.

Recent second-half history was with us.

But the history of this ground, where the last Wallaby victory was back in 1986 – and the All Blacks have been undefeated for the last FIFTY-ONE TESTS straight – remained firmly against us.

Lean forward. Tune in. It’s really worth watching.

The early signs were not good, as James O’Connor’s kicking game went to hell in a hand-cart – putting it out on the full from a kick-off and then failing to find touch from a crucial penalty which would have had the Wallabies pressing the All Blacks line, only to find themselves back-pedalling. Two All Black penalties took the hosts out to 26-17.

Worse still, twice when the Wallabies were surging, and threatening to score, they were penalised at the breakdown for not releasing the ball – I think. The Italian referee, Andrea Piardi, seemed so keen on penalising anything and everything bar the seagulls – and they must have been close – it was hard to tell.

Despite all that, the Australians still kept throwing everything they had at the Blacks with enterprising, daring play, and with ten minutes to go, wonderful lead-up work by Max Jorgensen earned a Wallaby lineout from five metres out. Won, as ever by, lock Nick Frost – who is surely as good in the air as any forward we’ve ever bred, including in retrieving kick-offs – Carlo Tizzano went over from a forward rush!

It meant the Wallabies trailed by just 26-24, with ten minutes still to go!

Could this Wallaby side be about to create their own slice of history?

Alas, shortly afterwards, Potter was given ten minutes in the bin, for reasons that were not altogether obvious to anyone bar the referee. It was something to do with a ruck, we think, but as the commentator said, “It’s hard to remember a game where so many 50/50 calls have gone against the Wallabies.”

Whatever it was, it did not seem like such a flagrant sin that Potter had to be banished from the field, I respectfully submit, Senor Il Referee-o.

Shortly afterwards, All Black halfback Cam Roigard scored under the posts from broken play, restoring the All Blacks’ nine-point lead, 33-24 – which is where it finished.

Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.

What might have been!

The All Blacks retain the Bledisloe Cup, but the thrust of the match will have escaped no-one. We not only have a team good enough to put 38 points on the Boks in South Africa, but also very nearly good enough to turn 40 years of history on its head and beat the All Blacks at Eden Park. The next encounter, at Perth next week – a match already sold out – will be keenly awaited.

For Australia, the skipper and the Slipper – James, playing his 150th Test – were both outstanding, as were the two centres Suaalii and Ikitau. Jorgensen was as impressive as ever. O’Connor had an unfortunate match, and while many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle for this side have fallen into place this season, the combination of who must play in the halves remains up in the air. Ideally, something will be sorted this week.

Onwards, to Perth! Can’t wait.

Watch all the action from the 2025 Rugby Championship on Stan Sport.