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Match Highlights - Ruthless All Blacks complete Bledisloe Cup whitewash

Beauden Barrett tormented wounded Australia yet again as ruthless New Zealand completed a Bledisloe Cup whitewash with a 37-20 victory in Yokohama on Saturday.

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Barrett scored four tries in the second Test at Eden Park, a week after crossing in the first back in August, and the reigning World Player of the Year added one of five tries for the clinical All Blacks at Nissan Stadium.

The world champions ran away with it after going in at the break with a 17-10 lead following tries from Liam Squire and Kieran Read, Sefa Naivalu scoring Australia’s opening try in his first Test since last June just before the interval.

New Zealand overpowered their trans-Tasman rivals in the second half, Barrett scoring an excellent try before Ben Smith and the prolific Rieko Ioane rubbed salt into the wounds by going over either side of an Israel Folau score.

Barrett also showed his class with the boot, finishing with a tally of 17 points as the Rugby Championship winners started their tour with an emphatic win to heap more misery on under-pressure Australia head coach Michael Cheika.

New Zealand finished strongly yet again after a dramatic late win over South Africa last time out, Smith and Ioane scoring with Tolu Latu in the sin bin for lashing out at Codie Taylor 13 minutes from time.

The Wallabies came out firing on all cylinders and almost had a try inside two minutes when Dane Haylett-Petty stretched out but was unable to touch down in the corner.

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New Zealand got a grip on the contest and hit the front in clinical fashion, Squire taking an inviting pass from Sonny Bill Williams – playing his 50th Test – to burst through and dot down, with Barrett adding the extras.

Kurtley Beale and Barrett traded penalties, then skipper Read threw a dummy and crashed over as New Zealand caught Australia out by going on the short side from a scrum.

Barrett converted expertly from wide on the left three minutes before the break, but he was unable to stop Cheika’s men from hitting back with their first try prior to the interval.

The powerful Naivalu ploughed through the All Blacks fly-half in the left corner to mark his recall with a score and Bernard Foley reduced the deficit to 17-10 with an excellent conversion.

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Foley was on target again with a more straightforward kick from the tee early in the second half after Rob Simmons proved unable to ground the ball over the line, but Barrett added another three points and opened up more breathing space with an outstanding try.

The alert number 10 fed the onrushing Ioane and showed a sharp turn of foot to race 50 metres for a superb score after taking a return pass from the flyer on the outside.

Barrett converted his own try and Smith was gifted a five-pointer when he caught a loose pass from Folau and raced away to apply the finish after replacement Latu was yellow-carded for retaliating.

Folau made amends to an extent with a classy finish, but Ioane had the final say, the lethal wing scoring his 11th try of the year after being set up by an audacious through-the-legs pass from Barrett.

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Tom 6 hours ago
Will Bristol's daredevil 'Bears-ball' deliver the trophy they crave?

Also a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.


I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.


I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.


Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.


“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”

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LONG READ Does the next Wallabies coach have to be an Australian? Does the next Wallabies coach have to be an Australian?
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