Lethal All Blacks outclass Aussies

WINGER Ben Smith scored a hat-trick as a ruthless New Zealand opened their Rugby Championship title defence with a six-try victory over Australia yesterday to ruin Ewen McKenzie’s first match as Wallabies coach.

The world champions scored three tries either side of halftime at the Olympic Stadium with flyhalf Aaron Cruden, captain Richie McCaw and centre Conrad Smith supplementing Smith’s treble.

Scrumhalf Will Genia and James O’Connor scored tries for the home side with Christian Leali’ifano remaining flawless in international rugby with seven kicks from seven attempts for 19 points.

Besides giving the All Blacks a bonus point in the Rugby Championship, the victory means Australia must win the return in Wellington next week and a third test in Dunedin in October to win back the Bledisloe Cup for the first time since 2003.

That looks highly unlikely given the gulf in class between the sides on this showing, with the All Blacks ruthlessly exploiting almost every opportunity they received.

McKenzie will be disappointed that his team failed to build momentum in attack and looked disjointed in defence as the excellent Cruden continually changed the point of attack.

There was plenty of optimism among the Wallabies fans in the 68 765 crowd at kick-off with a host of fresh faces in the squad.

But the hard reality of test rugby hit home after just three minutes when Smith crashed over in the corner.

Australia inched back into the match with three Leali’ifano penalties against one from Cruden and the Wallabies centre gave the home side a 12-10 lead with his fourth after 28 minutes.

The advantage lasted less than a minute, though, before Leali’ifano undid some of his good work by having his defensive kick charged down by Cruden, who recovered the ball to score and convert his own try.

The All Blacks hit the 40-point mark with Cruden’s third penalty and Smith’s third try was simplicity itself when replacement Wallabies centre Tevita Kuridrani released the ball in the tackle, leaving the winger to scoop it up and score.

O’Connor cut through on an overlap in the final seconds for the Wallabies but the New Zealanders in the crowd were already singing “All Blacks! All Blacks!” in celebration of the handsome victory. —