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The margin of victory the Springboks need to win the Rugby Championship

By PA
Aaron Smith of the All Blacks reacts during The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australia Wallabies at Eden Park on September 24, 2022 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

New Zealand put one hand on the Rugby Championship trophy with a convincing 40-14 victory over Australia in Auckland.

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The result on Saturday morning meant South Africa must beat Argentina by 40 points or more later in the day to pip them.

The All Blacks now lead the table by five points with a points difference 39 better than that of the Springboks.

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Australia had started the day with a chance of taking the title themselves but they were unable to repeat the performance of their narrow – and controversial – loss to the All Blacks last week.

Ill-discipline repeatedly undermined the Wallabies’ cause at a venue, Eden Park, where they had not won since 1986.

Jed Holloway was sin-binned for a bad tackle on Dalton Papalii with just two minutes on the clock and, although they held out with 14 men initially, they trailed 17-0 by the break.

Richie Mo’unga opened the scoring with a 20th-minute penalty and converted after Will Jordan followed with a fine try.

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Australia then conceded a penalty try before half-time after an indiscretion during a rolling maul and Dave Porecki became their second player to be shown a yellow card.

New Zealand tightened their grip in the second half as Sam Whitelock went over from close range and Codie Taylor also crossed. Mo’unga converted one of them and added a penalty.

Australia finally got on the scoreboard through Folau Fainga’a but Samisoni Taukei’aho responded for the All Blacks and Mo’unga landed another penalty.

Jordan Petaia scored an Australia consolation in stoppage time.

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Tom 4 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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