Savea beating
Owen Franks accused of gouging
Steve Hansen showed side on Saturday night.
A less sentimental man than the All Blacks coach might’ve enjoyed rubbing some Australian noses in it, after New Zealand easily retained the Bledisloe Cup at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.
The team’s 29-9 win came a week after they’d walloped the Wallabies 42-8 in Sydney and signified a rather gaping gap between the two sides.
Hansen declined the to gloat, though.
‘‘On the scoreboard it looks like we’ve done it pretty easy, but I don’t think anyone would say it was easy out there tonight,’’ Hansen said after the match.
‘‘The skill level of our guys was really good tonight, under extreme pressure at times, and at the moment that’s probably where we’ve got a little bit of an edge. But I don’t want to sit here and bag Australia, they’re one of our best friends.’’
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika took a different approach afterwards, directing his fury at referee Romain Poite for ‘‘ignoring’’ his captain Stephen Moore during the game.
Then it emerged that the ARU was going to lodge a complaint with World Rugby over an alleged meeting between Hansen and Poite before the game.
The fallout from that accusation will dominate the next week, long after the game is forgotten. Clearly, relations between the two sides are less friendly than Hansen thought.
On the field, Australia’s main contribution was niggle, although it’s All Blacks prop Owen Franks who might walk away from this match in any strife after one of many flashpoints.
Footage from the seventh minute showed Franks rake the face of Australia lock Kane Douglas in a maul, and the tight-head prop will now face a nervous wait to see if he is cited.
Hansen and company weren’t aware of that when they came out to do post-match media.
‘‘You had to expect something was coming after last week [when] nothing came.
‘‘They’ve copped a fair bit of criticism back home and they’re proud people so they were going to come and bring whatever they had to bring and they did that and it was just a good old, hard game of footy,’’ said Hansen.
‘‘It was just a matter of us making sure that we kept our focus where we needed to be, which was playing our game. At times we drifted off and you’d expect that, this is a young side, we’ve lost 818 his softer opportunity It was just a good old, hard game of footy. caps [since last year] so it’s the type of game that’ll make this team grow even better.
‘‘They’ve been through it now and they know what it feels like and they know that if they concentrate on what we have to do, then we’ll come out the other side of it OK. So there’ll be a bit of trust and self-belief to come from it as well, so ideal game for us.’’
An Israel Dagg try, created by Aaron Smith, Franks and Anton Lienert-Brown got them under way and the All Blacks eventually went to halftime 15-6 up. Dagg had scored a second try by then, thanks to the sort of gliding run and vision that first five-eighth Beauden Barrett is becoming famous for.
Barrett was at it again, to help set up a 47th-minute try for wing Julian Savea. The big wing took it beautifully too, showing excellent gas, strength and awareness to score. The finishing touches were applied by flanker Sam Cane, who scored out near the right-hand B2 B3 corner after a period All Blacks pressure.
Australia offered precious little on attack, yet again, finishing with just a brace of Bernard Foley penalties, and another from replacement Reece Hodge to show for their evening.
Their play did lack ambition, but it should also be noted just how little quality ball the All Blacks allowed them. of sustained