New Zealand routed Ireland 42-10
in its first match since winning the Rugby World Cup, while
Australia rebounded from its loss to Scotland to defeat Wales
27-19.
Julian Savea scored a hat trick as the All Blacks outscored
Ireland five tries to one yesterday to give new head coach Steve
Hansen a winning start at Auckland’s Eden Park, where they
secured their second world title in October by beating France.
Conrad Smith and Adam Thomson also touched down and Dan Carter kicked 17 points as New Zealand extended its winning
streak at Eden Park to 28 matches, dating back to 1994.
Australia responded to a shock 9-6 loss to Scotland on June
5 by running in three tries at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. Will Genia, Rob Higginbotham and Pat McCabe touched down for the
Wallabies. Alex Cuthbert scored a try for Wales and Leigh
Halfpenny booted 14 points.
Australia hasn’t lost back-to-back matches against touring
northern hemisphere teams since losing both Tests against the
British Irish Lions in 1989. The Wallabies’ last back-to-back
home losses to an individual northern hemisphere team was in
1979 against Ireland.
Both series continue again in seven days and again on June
23. This year marks a return to best-of-three Test series as
rugby administrators seek to make matches more meaningful in the
June international period, during which touring northern
hemisphere teams have typically sent understrength squads to
the southern hemisphere.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Bob Bensch in London at
bbensch@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Elser at
celser@bloomberg.net
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
500 Word Extract from Original Article Only...
Article From Publicly Accessible RSS Newsfeed - Displayed for Rugby Rules Context : View Full Original Article Here
