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Kieran Read felt New Zealand only had themselves to blame after Australia spoiled his 100th start with a long-awaited win over the world champions at Suncorp Stadium.
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The All Blacks were denied a clean sweep on a damp surface in Brisbane, where they went down 23-18 after being outscored by three tries to two on Saturday.
Prolific wing Rieko Ioane’s eighth try in his ninth Test set up a tense finale after Waisake Naholo went over in a first half which Steve Hansen’s side had the better of, but the visitors were ultimately unable to complete a Bledisloe Cup clean sweep.
Reece Hodge scored a try and expertly slotted over two penalties after stepping up, with Bernard Foley having a night to forget from the tee, while Israel Folau and Marika Koroibete also touched down as Australia claimed their first win over New Zealand since August 2015.
A late try from Beauden Barrett, ruled out of the third and final Bledisloe Cup clash, had rescued the All Blacks in the previous match between the two sides in August and captain Read said the world champions can have no excuses after failing to snatch another win.
“That’s not going to happen every time, that’s the thing, you just don’t want to put yourself in that position,” the number eight said.
“But I think we just have to give that to the Wallabies, they played really well tonight. Fought really hard, a lot of teams wouldn’t potentially have finished the job so all credit to them.
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“I guess we’ll look back on that game, the Wallabies took a couple of chances more than us and we probably just didn’t quite take it.”
