Rugby Round-Up

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Henry hails 'great' All Blacks

Henry hails 'great' All Blacks

The ruthless All Blacks recorded their 12th consecutive Test and their eighth in a row over the Wallabies to lead the southern hemisphere championship by 11 points over Australia, with South Africa yet to register a point.

Henry's side scored seven tries to three and were far too strong for the Wallabies, who played the last 37 minutes without wing Drew Mitchell, who was red carded by South African referee Craig Joubert after his second yellow card.

Only the All Blacks' 50-21 romp in Sydney in 2003 ranks above their highest score against the golds.

Next week the Wallabies will be battling in Christchurch to prevent the All Blacks from stretching their winning sequence over them to nine Tests, their worst losing run in the last 63 years of Bledisloe Cup trans-Tasman Tests.

"To score seven tries against Australia in Australia is a great performance," said Henry.

"I thought there was some scintillating rugby and the game has improved immensely this year as a spectacle and we're pleased to be part of that."

Full-back Mils Muliaina scored two tries in his 86th international and fly-half Dan Carter claimed 19 points from a try, four conversions and two penalties.

While the All Blacks were again dynamic following their two home Test wins over South Africa, they were helped along by the error-prone Wallabies and had the game shot to bits with a 32-14 half-time lead.

"We didn't have any consistent possession in the first half and that was a big contributing factor to our circumstance," Wallaby coach Robbie Deans said.

"Obviously, playing with less than 15 men for the greater part of the game compounded that."

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