All Blacks 54 Wallabies 34 IMMEDIATE REACTION: The best 40 minutes ever?

The full time whistle has just blown here at Olympic Park in Sydney, on a very strange game of rugby in which no one wanted to tackle very much. Here’s some other points:

• Was that the best half of rugby a team has played in recent memory? I’d definitely say yes, rivaled only by the All Blacks‘ stomping of France in the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarter final. The All Blacks led 40-6 at halftime after a blistering opening spell, which was a record against the Wallabies. Apart from Rieko Ioane’s second try, all the All Blacks’ scoring was by their own doing — creating space all over the place for Liam Squire, Ioane, Ryan Crotty and Sonny Bill Williams to cross the tryline. They enjoyed a complete domination of possession and territory, but once they had to defend it was a different story.
• The Wallabies enjoyed having Kurtley Beale back. Well, in the second half anyway. The second five did some great things with ball in hand and scored a fine try.
• Liam Squire is very, very fast for a guy his size. He had a huge game after being called up to the starting XV, scoring the first try running like a winger.
• Imagine what Henry Speight could be capable of if he played on a dominant team. The big man has pretty courageous and was one of the only Wallabies to be able to hold his head high after the apocalyptic first half the All Blacks inflicted on his team.
• Watch out Sydney, Aaron Smith is back in form. The halfback will be swiping the hell out of Tinder tonight after a huge game, playing a big part in the All Blacks’ tries in the first half. His no-look pass to Ben Smith in the second half to score the All Blacks’ last was a thing of beauty.
• It doesn’t matter if you’re a Wallabies or All Blacks fan, you can walk away from this one saying that your team played well for one half. Bad news for the Wallabies is that the All Blacks went a point a minute in the one that really counted.