The All Blacks were dominant in a 49-28 victory over the Wallabies in Melbourne to put themselves 1-0 up in the 2010 Bledisloe Cup series.
After a frantic and thrilling opening quarter which featured two Kiwi tries and one for the Wallabies, the away side began to pull ahead and never looked back.
As has been the case throughout the Tri-Nations, sin-binnings were again a feature of this match. Owen Franks and Drew Mitchell both enjoyed a ten-minute rest in the first half before Mitchell committed another yellow card offence and was sent off shortly after half-time.
Whilst the Wallabies did themselves no favours by providing so many opportunities to the opposition through terrible discipline, the All Blacks were fairly ruthless in taking their chances, and had secured a four-try bonus point before the break.
The match was all but over as a contest at that stage, and when Mitchell was sent off, there was simply no way back for Australia. I had expected the game to be slightly closer, and it certainly started off that way, but it was still an entertaining match.
The All Blacks are indeed looking dangerous again, and they now have maximum points from their Tri-Nations outings so far, and it’s difficult to see how they will be beaten on this sort of form. Richie McCaw was outstanding, as were Jerome Kaino and Keven Mealamu in the pack, whilst Cory Jane and Joe Rokocoko impressed on the wings.
The question as always though is can they can keep this going until the Autumn of 2011?
I was under the impression that two yellows was not an automatic red card in rugby, unless it was two yellow cards for the same offence. Anyone shed any light on this?
I thought it was harsh for Mitchell to be sent off, he obviously deserved a yellow card as the ref had warned both skippers the next slowing down would be a yellow but i was under the impression he could have just sat in the sin bin for another ten as it was a different offence.