Invincible All Blacks edge out Wallabies 27-19

SYDNEY (AFP) –

New Zealand All Blacks player Dan Carter kicks a drop goal to win a game in June. An invincible New Zealand defeated Australia 27-19 to make a dominant start to the inaugural Rugby Championship in Sydney on Saturday.

New Zealand overpowered Australia 27-19 to make a dominant start to the inaugural Rugby Championship on Saturday with a string of handling errors gifting the game to the All Blacks.

New Zealand led 18-10 at half-time having applied huge pressure to the home side, with Australia now needing to win at Eden Park next week to keep alive any hope of lifting the Bledisloe Cup for the first time since 2002.

It was the first meeting between the trans-Tasman rivals since the All Blacks’ 20-6 victory in the semi-finals of the World Cup and the Wallabies were their own worst enemies with too much dropped ball.

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen claimed Australia would be psychologically scarred by the defeat with the All Blacks taking a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series for the Bledisloe Cup.

“We heard all week about how Australia was going to do this and do that,” Hansen said.

“They’ll be disappointed they didn’t do this and that.”

A try to Australia’s veteran lock Nathan Sharpe late in the first half and a penalty from fly-half Berrick Barnes soon after halftime pegged the deficit to 18-13 and sparked local hopes of an upset in front of 76,877 spectators.

But Australian coach Robbie Deans was left unimpressed, describing the string of handling errors as unforgivable.

“To their credit they put us under pressure, but it was really the unforced errors that put us in a difficult position,” he said.

“We have to be better. It would be impossible for us not to be. We’ll definitely be better next week.”

First blood went to Australia when Barnes landed a penalty in just the second minute but that was as good as it got.

All Blacks fullback Israel Dagg opened the try scoring in the 13th minute when he beat the cover defence of Wallaby fullback Kurtley Beale in an ominous beginning.

Beale made three costly handling errors but scrumhalf Will Genia said the fullback should be spared criticism because all the Wallabies were below par.

“They were uncharacteristic from Kurtley but all of us have improvements we need to make,” Genia said.

“We just didn’t trust how we wanted to play in the first half and they just put us under pressure and to our credit in the second half we trusted ourselves but just couldn’t get back.”

The All Blacks led 18-3 in the 34th minute when winger Cory Jane capitalised on an overlap but the Wallabies mounted a mini-revival and defended stoutly to spark hopes of an upset.

Carter landed five penalties and converted Dagg’s try to ensure the All Blacks maintained their lead in a match stopped by 28 stoppages from Irish referee Alain Rolland.

Sharpe is the only current Wallaby to have been involved in a successful Bledisloe Cup campaign and he remained the only try scorer.

Barnes succeeded with his fourth penalty of the night to bridge the All Blacks lead to 24-19 with four minutes remaining.

Australia held dominant field position but late attacking raids failed to break the defence of the All Blacks.

Carter kicked his fifth penalty in the last minute to deny the Wallabies a bonus point on the Rugby Championship ladder.

The All Blacks have an injury concern over prop Tony Woodcock who was forced from the field in the 64th minute with a rib complaint.

The Rugby Championship is being staged over the next six weekends. The leading side on the ladder after 12 home-and-away matches will claim the title.