All Blacks Give More Sporting Misery to Australia

It has to be said that Australian sporting fans have never had it this tough when it comes to following their national sides.

In the last 25 years, Australian sport has been able to cheer on the dominant success of at least either one of their cricket or rugby sides. However, it appears that the pride of Australia just cannot seem to deliver success at the moment.

Will this little girl ever see the day Australia win the Ashes or Bledisloe Cup?

With the Ashes gone for the third campaign in a row, it was up to new coach, Ewen McKenzie, to provide suddenly success starved Aussies with some rare success against the world champion All Blacks - no easy task given that the Wallabies' last game was a humiliating thrashing at the hands of the British and Irish Lions but at least the Reds coach was going to start his Wallaby coaching career at home in Sydney.

Indeed, if there was anywhere to play the All Blacks, it would be Sydney as their record there was probably the worst in Australia.

Alas, the All Blacks started fast for once against the Wallabies courtesy of a try after 2 minutes from Ben Smith. That pretty much set the tone for the game - and probably the Bledisloe Cup series for this year with the rest of the series to be played in New Zealand now.

Michael Hooper starred for the Wallabies 

Yes, the Wallabies bounced back and dominated proceedings for some time after that. Michael Hooper was all over the breakdowns - David who, Wallabies fans might eventually ask - and the All Blacks were giving away penalties as if there was no tomorrow. But the ABs always backed themselves with the ball, and when they had it, boy did they excel with it, whether they kicked it out or passed the ball through the hands.

It was typical of this era's All Blacks that they knew went to strike the knockout blows against their opponents, and with half-time looming, they scored two quick tries and negated a late Wallabies try with a penalty kick to send the Wallabies with their tails between their legs again.

Even though the ABs kept giving away penalties for free, they never looked like being caught and scored 3 more tries - only just falling 4 points shy of their record points haul against Australia at the same ground over 10 years ago.

This was definitely always going to be the hardest test out of the three in this year's Bledisloe Cup series and the ABs made such light work of it that you just wonder now if the Wallabies can ever get back the Bledisloe Cup.

Justin Bieber was away from first five but just didn't get enough purchase from a resolute ABs defence

Chances are they will but in regards to when, the chances of seeing it in the next couple of years are getting slimmer. While the Wallabies will definitely go from strength to strength with youth on their side, so will the All Blacks who continue to maintain their great tradition of being able to replace great players with future greats, even as other countries try and poach New Zealand's young rugby talent.

At least, they have found a new hero in the openside in Michael Hooper - could he and David Pocock form the new Waugh v Smith rivalry? Talent wise, they've got the goods but perhaps for the first time - just as with the cricketers - you can definitely say the psychological edge is with the opposition now.

And that itself, is a bit like a virus, very difficult to overcome.

Argentina found themselves on their backs in Joburg

On the flip side, at least the Wallabies weren't pummelled as badly as Argentina were at Soccer City in Johannesburg. 73-13 is a record score in SANZAR's annual rugby competition, however, it might be a bit too early to say if there should be any concerns for the competitiveness of Argentina in this year's competition - hopefully they'll be fired up to produce better when they play back in South America.

Man of the day - Ben Smith. A deserved hat-trick for the converted All Black winger who ran and defended well. He took his opportunities when they presented to him and finished off some superb All Black plays. Wales might have a team of Jones, and on evidence of this performance, the All Blacks might very well have a team of Smiths for a while yet.