Kiwis take Bledisloe

THE good news is that if you’re a 16-year-old Australian you can drive a car on our roads. The bad news is you’ve never been alive to see Australia lift up the Bledisloe Cup.

The All Blacks winning streak that began in 2003 will continue for at least another year after the Kiwis blew Australia away 40-12 at Auckland’s Eden Park thanks to an extraordinary four-try performance from Beauden Barrett.

Pressure on Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is now searing, with the team suffering a bigger hammering than last week’s humiliation in Sydney. It just seems hopeless. Australia is showing no ability to contain the Kiwis, or even close the gap.

If anything, it is widening, and the same issues are at play.

Over and over, the Wallabies coughed up possession deep in attack, the All Blacks countered and scored sizzling long-range tries to the joy of 48,493 fans.

How does this keep happening? When will this end?

The answers to these questions are nowhere to be found in this group.

This time last year they bounced back from a first Test hammering to nearly clinch an epic second match, denied by a last-gasp New Zealand try.

Here, they were putting up umbrellas to the All Blacks’ tsunami attack.

A try two minutes before the break, and two inside the first eight minutes of the second half took the score from seven-all to 28-7.

The game was gone right there. As it was last week. As it has been countless times over the past 16 years.