Australia vs New Zealand LIVE: Rugby Championship result and reaction as All Blacks retain title

Australia’s Bledisloe woe continues for another year, though they will get a chance at getting a measure of revenge in Dunedin next week. There were bits in today’s performance that Eddie Jones will have liked, Australia’s pack finding ways to disrupt New Zealand at the breakdown, but a lack of territorial control in the first half and the string of missed opportunities will bug the Australia head coach. I don’t think either Tate McDermott or Carter Gordon will have done enough to shift the half-back incumbents.

Jones has two games more to build a bit of momentum before the World Cup - the All Blacks in Dunedin and France in Paris. Gulp.

“First of all, I want to thank the Wallabies for tonight’s clash,” Savea says. “To Taniela and Allan, I hope you guys recover well. It’s never nice seeing usos go down. To my brothers, it’s been an awesome week - I’m really proud.”

Savea calls over Sam Cane for a bit of help with two trophies to be lifted. The absent All Blacks captain and his stand-in join the rest of the New Zealand squad with silverware in hand, debutant Cam Roigard given the honour of a first lift of a Bledisloe.

Three Rugby Championship crowns on the bounce for New Zealand, perhaps never quite at their fluent best in attack tonight but still with more than enough to put Australia away. Defensively, the All Blacks were outstanding, those three goalline stands in the 15 minutes after the interval ensuring Australia never narrowed a 12-point half-time lead, before the visitors took advantage of a fatiguing Wallabies side late on.

Injuries to both Allan Alaalatoa and Taniela Tupou are an obvious concern for Eddie Jones, too - initial reports from the MCG suggest that the former’s injury may be a torn Achilles, which would end his World Cup hopes.

“It’s hard, we’ve let down all the Melbourne people that came out to watch us,” says a beaten, bruised and blue Angus Bell. “We’ve let down Eddie, we’ve let down Australia - it’s hard because we work so hard. I guess we’ve got to come back next week with a few tweaks.

“There are a lot of things that we need to fix up. But we’ll train harder and get better.”

Will Jordan reacts to New Zealand’s win: “It’s a good feeling. We knew coming over here was going to be a huge challenge, and we got that. It was an up-tempo game, the Wallabies were hugely physical in the first half especially.

“They fronted up pretty well. It was just about being patient. When we were able to go six or seven phases or more, we were able to get success. In the second half, a few of our athletes got going and it was good fun out there.

“Defence has been a huge thing for us this year and it’s great to see our efforts during the week pay off on the field in those big moments.”

The hooter sounds with the home side in possession, but Wayne Barnes’s whistle a few seconds later puts an end to their hopes of a final consolation. Will Jordan sends us to a close, a tap and a thump for the stands - the Bledisloe Cup remains in the All Blacks’ hands.

A few of the Australia replacements have shown reasonably well since arriving, Izaia Perese solid in the centres and Rob Leota prominent in defence and attack, the flanker working his way back up to full intensity after injury. Leota wins a turnover on his own 22.

Plenty of weary forward bodies on the MCG outfield, most of them in Wallaby gold. Ardie Savea is still going, beating a couple with pumping piston thighs.

A couple of errant All Blacks kicks prevent them capitalising on space apparent out wide. Samu Kerevi gives his teammates a fright by fumbling Nic White’s pass, but the lack of a concerted effort to charge down the centre’s clearance leaves him enough time to collect at the second attempt and hook a kick away.

Richie Mo’unga thinks he has a try of his own to convert, leaping beneath the posts after a Koroibete spill in the backfield, but Wayne Barnes concludes that Mo’unga’s push of the Wallabies wing had come just before his hands were on the ball.