The New Zealand coach John Hart echoed the thoughts of two nations when he said the All Blacks "had overcome the biggest challenge we have faced in many years" when they won the Bledisloe Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday night. In the space of just seven days, the All Blacks instigated a memorable come-back to beat South Africa in Johannesburg then flew halfway around the world to give Australia a rugby lesson.
It was hardly surprising that the All Blacks refused to leave the field until they were presented with the Cup, as they all knew that this 33-18 victory ranked among their most important triumphs and such a moment to celebrate should not be wasted.
More than 20 minutes after the final whistle, the Cup appeared, prompting jubilation among the players and the 40,000 New Zealand spectators who had attended the first rugby Test played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
In front of 90,119 fans, the biggest rugby crowd in Australia, New Zealand had this Test won in less than 20 minutes, when two Australian blunders led to tries by Frank Bunce, the All Black centre, and Jeff Wilson, on the right wing.
Michael Brial, the Wallaby number eight, was the culprit both times, first missing a tackle on the All Black blind-side flanker Taine Randell, enabling him to put Bunce away, and then from the resumption of play losing the ball in the tackle, which saw the scrum-half Justin Marshall kick ahead and Wilson win the race for the ball to score in the corner.
The next 60 minutes was padding.
For the Wallabies, it was their sixth loss to the All Blacks in a row, and the fog does not look like lifting despite George Gregan and Jason Little crossing late in the game to give a measure of compensation for Australia's efforts. Australia flunked in the basics, ridiculously trying to match New Zealand up front by playing a similar tight game to their opponents.
This only saw them wasting their three best attacking options, the wings Ben Tune and Joe Roff and full-back Matthew Burke, who hardly saw the ball. Part of the reason for Australia's scratchy back-line work was that their outhalf Tim Horan broke his thumb in the opening five minutes, thus hindering his delivery. He was replaced at half-time by Stephen Larkham. As well, the Wallabies were poor at the breakdown, repeatedly turning the ball over.
Yet again Australia discovered that against New Zealand if you make a mistake you will be punished heavily. Australia made at least six errors on Saturday night and were lucky to be beaten by only 15 points.
As Hart said: "Other than the penalty count against us, we won everything quite decisively. It was a clinical win. We looked like scoring more tries than the Australians ever looked like. This was a sensational performance considering what we have gone through."
The Australian coach Greg Smith now has the onerous task of finding someone to replace Horan for next Saturday's Tri-Nations match against South Africa in Brisbane. Burke is also out because of a recurrence of a groin injury.
As Smith does not want to call for David Knox to return from South Africa, where he is playing for Natal, the options at out-half are not overwhelming. He is likely to either go for the back-up fullback Larkham, Elton Flatley or Manuel Edmonds.
Scorers: Australia: Tries - Gregan, Little. Conversions - Burke. Penalties - Burke 2. New Zealand: Tries - Bunce, Wilson, Cullen. Conversions - Spencer 3. Penalties - Spencer 4.
