All Blacks hold on with 13 men to beat Wallabies 31-28 and retain Bledisloe Cup

SYDNEY (AP) - The All Blacks led 21-0 after 15 minutes but faltered badly in the second half, only just holding on with 13 men at one point to beat Australia 31-28 in the first Bledisloe Cup test on Saturday.

By halftime, the All Blacks were ahead 28-14 and early in the second half 31-14 as they ran in four tries in front of a crowd of 68,000. But the Wallabies rallied with tries to Hunter Paisami and Tom Wright to also score four tries and cut the lead to three points as the All Blacks failed again to build on a first-half lead.

The teams will meet again in Wellington next weekend but the All Blacks have retained the Bledisloe Cup for the 22nd season by taking the first match of the two-test series.

New Zealand hasn’t scored a point in the final quarter of all four of their matches in the Rugby Championship this season, of which the Bledisloe Cup is a part. They lost twice to the world champion Springboks after leading at the start of the fourth quarter.

With Anton Lienert-Brown and Caleb Clarke dispatched to the sin-bin in the 65th and 72nd minutes and their lead slashed to three points the All Blacks were only just able to deny the Wallabies a morale-building win.

Two breakdown turnovers near the goalline in the dying moments and a further turnover from the last kickoff were just enough to save the game.

Australia’s confidence would have been low when Will Jordan scored for the All Blacks after only two minutes, then Rieko Ioane and Clarke scored to make it 21-0. But they fought back with tries to Fraser McReight and Matt Faessler while the All Blacks scored through Ardie Savea to make the lead 28-14 at halftime.

The All Blacks had been dominant with Cortez Ratima providing speedy ball from scrumhalf and Damian McKenzie and Jordan running onto the ball from depth. Wallace Sititi and Tupou Vaa’i were outstanding among the New Zealand forwards.

The Wallabies were coming off a 67-27 loss to Argentina which was their heaviest-ever in terms of points conceded and the All Blacks’ lightning start might have been their worst nightmare.

But the game began to tighten in the second half as New Zealand’s discipline lapsed and they were unable to keep the ball from Australia as they had down in first spell. With faster breakdown possession, the Wallabies were a much different team.

"It’s probably a bit of a relief to be honest," All Blacks captain Scott Barrett said. “In the last 15 minutes we found ourself in a bit of a hole but with a bit of scrambled defense we managed to hold on.

"It’s the nature of the Aussies that they don’t line and they showed how desperate they were to get a hold on the Cup and I’m proud of the boys to hold on."

Jordan was named to start on the right wing but moved back to fullback when Beauden Barrett, named at fullback, withdrew with a late injury.

The All Blacks forced a lineout from the kickoff, held possession through several phases and Tupou Vaa’i flicked the ball up to Jordan who cut through the Australian defense to score under the posts.

Six minutes later Ratima broke from scrumhalf and linked with Ioane who scored. Then, after winning a turnover, Clarke finished after being given space by Sititi and Jordie Barrett. New Zealand led 21-0 after 15 minutes.

The Wallabies hit back in the 18th minute with McReight’s try. From an over-thrown lineout, Rob Valetini passed inside to Nick White who fed McReight with no defender ahead of him.

Sevu Reece picked up a wayward pass from Hunter Paisami in the 25th minute and passed to Savea, who scored.

Faessler scored his first test try for Australia in the 36th minute when the All Blacks conceded a penalty which the Wallabies kicked to touch. When the drive stalled, Faessler detached and slipped inside Sam Cane’s tackle.

The All Blacks had two more chances to score before halftime, when McKenzie broke the defense but couldn’t link with his support and when Jordie Barrett seemed to score in the right-hand corner but was called back for a knock-on.

The All Blacks lost Jordie Barrett at halftime to a knee injury but stayed in control. McKenzie increased their lead with a penalty and Savea was over the goal line but held up.

New Zealand seemed to have gone almost 90 meters to score through Ratima in the 57th but were again called back, this time for a forward pass.

Savea had a second try disallowed and Australia also had a late and critical try scrubbed for a knock-on. In the midst of the drama James Slipper took the field for his 140th test, to surpass George Gregan’s Australian record of 139 test appearances.