All Blacks Retain the Bledisloe Cup as Two Streaks Break

New Zealand beat Australia 50-19 at Eden Park on 10 October and retained the Bledisloe Cup. The All Blacks scored five of their seven tries after half-time, turning a 17-14 contest into a rout that closed two very different runs.

Dave Rennie’s side had lost three Tests in a row to South Africa. Les Kiss had not lost since he took the Wallabies in July. Both records reached the same ground on the same night, and only one of them left Auckland intact.

Eight Minutes of Australian Lead

Australia had 90 per cent of the ball in the first 10 minutes and led through full-back Tom Wright in the eighth, after Max Jorgensen put him into space. For a short stretch the Perth form looked real: Kiss’s side carried the fight, and Eden Park was quiet.

New Zealand needed one clean aerial take to flip it. Jordie Barrett won a high ball, fly-half Damian McKenzie broke the line, and flanker Peter Lakai finished in the 12th minute to make it 7-7. Lock Tupou Vaa’i scored four minutes later off the same kicking game, and McKenzie added a penalty in the 33rd after Ryan Lonergan had missed a kickable shot in the 24th.

Centre Len Ikitau left for a head check, which pushed Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i infield, and still Australia found a reply. Fly-half Ben Donaldson broke and put captain Harry Wilson under the posts in the 37th. The half ended 17-14, close enough that a Springboks-beating side could still believe the next 40 minutes were live.

Six Minutes Put the Cup Away

Australia almost scored from the second-half kick-off, until Will Jordan gathered. They then spent six minutes camped on the All Blacks line and came away with nothing. When New Zealand finally got a five-metre maul, scrum-half Cam Roigard peeled off the base in the 49th minute, McKenzie converted, and the lead was 24-14.

Captain Codie Taylor crashed over six minutes later from pick-and-go range. That burst, 17-14 to 31-14, ended the argument about the cup. Leroy Carter’s try in the 66th put it in the cabinet. Replacement Josh Moorby added another from a maul in the 73rd, McKenzie missing the one conversion of his night, before hooker Josh Nasser’s late maul try at 76 minutes and Jordan’s sprint onto a loose Declan Meredith pass after the siren.

HOW THE POINTS CAME

The second half finished 33-5. New Zealand scored 26 points before Nasser’s reply, and McKenzie’s six conversions and one penalty made 15 points from the tee. Taylor lifted the cup after full-time.

Africa Showed Up in the Kicking Game

Rennie came home from Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry having lost the series 3-1, with the high ball listed among the wounds. Ardie Savea is out for the season, and Ruben Love and Richie Mo’unga missed this Test, which is why McKenzie started at 10 and Beauden Barrett at 15. The fix on 10 October was not a new playbook so much as a different 9.

Rennie said they kicked more off Roigard than they had been, and that the chasers either won the ball in the air or lived off the scraps. Jordie Barrett and Jordan did the catching that South Africa had punished. The same contestable game that had been a liability in Africa became the tool that turned Wright’s early try into a memory.

We were confident in our ability, we failed in Africa. There were a number of areas that needed to be better. We just lost key moments in Africa, and we won a lot of those tonight.

Dave Rennie, All Blacks head coach, post-match

He also said a quality performance had been coming, and that his side left chances out there in the first-half arm wrestle. Codie Taylor, speaking as captain, said the group had been hurting a little bit and that it was good to play in front of their own people again. The three-match losing streak ended on the one ground that still lets New Zealand write the last word.

What Kiss Takes From His First Loss

Les Kiss’s first defeat as Wallabies coach was a 50-19 loss at Eden Park on 10 October, after four wins and a draw since he replaced Joe Schmidt in late July, and it ended Australia’s six-Test unbeaten run. He told reporters the lessons sit in a simple swap: New Zealand got its strengths going, Australia did not, and once the hosts had momentum it was hard to wrestle back.

KISS BEFORE EDEN PARK

• Japan: Two Test wins in his first assignment after the July changeover.
• Argentina: One win and one draw as the Rugby Championship began.
• South Africa: A 42-38 win in Perth on 27 September, closed with 11 men after four yellow cards.

That Perth night, against a Springboks side Rassie Erasmus had heavily rotated, is why Auckland was treated as a live hunt. It is also why the second half stings. Wilson called the display a step back. The Wallabies sat too deep after Ikitau went off, and a pack that had just survived a yellow-card storm leaked 50 once New Zealand found ruck speed. Kiss credited New Zealand’s quick ball and the aerial battle and said his team could not get the game where it wanted it.

We’ll go back and we’ll work on what we have to and try and turn the dial in the right areas that can go to Sydney and return fire.

Les Kiss, Wallabies head coach, Eden Park

He also said belief is not only wins and losses, and that a knockback is how you find out more about yourself. That is the right tone for a coach seven days from a home Test. It does not rewrite the 33-5 half.

The 54-Test Wall at Eden Park

Saturday was the 54th Test without an All Blacks loss at Eden Park, stretching an unbeaten streak at their Auckland ground that stood at 53 before kick-off. France were the last side to win there. Australia’s own wait is older still, and forty years without a win at the same ground has turned this fixture into a date the Wallabies keep and leave empty.

THE RUNS THAT MET IN AUCKLAND

• Eden Park: 54 Tests without an All Blacks loss since France won 23-20 on 3 July 1994, with draws of 18-18 against South Africa in 1994 and 15-15 against the British and Irish Lions in 2017.
• Bledisloe Cup: New Zealand have held the trophy since 3 August 2002, a 24-year run.
• Head to head: 12 straight New Zealand wins over Australia, last Wallabies success in November 2020.
• Australia at Eden Park: No win since 22-9 on 6 September 1986.

Rennie had told his squad to talk about the record rather than let it sit in their heads on game day, because nobody wants to be the first team in a long time to lose there. They were not. Andrew Brace of Ireland refereed, with Luke Pearce and Damian Schneider as assistants and Mike Adamson on TMO, and the home kick-off was 19:10 NZDT.

Rennie Holds the Trophy He Never Won in Gold

The other bill on the night was personal. Rennie coached the Wallabies for three seasons before his contract was cut in 2023, and 10 October was the first time he faced them as All Blacks head coach. He never lifted this cup in gold. He kept it in black, against the side he used to send out, and he did it after a failed trip to Africa that had put his new job under a harsher light.

New Zealand’s longest winning run over Australia is now 12 Tests. Rennie said the difference was mindset, work rate and brutality, and that it was nice to catch up with Kiss even if the end was tough for the visitors. Scott Barrett was back from injury in the second row. Taylor, who left the field before the end, handed the on-field lead to Jordan. The World Cup in Australia is a year away, which is why a 50-point night still has to travel.

Sydney Has Seven Days to Return Fire

The second Test is at Accor Stadium in Sydney on 17 October. The Bledisloe Cup is already staying in New Zealand, because they held the trophy since August 2002 and won the opener, but the series is not finished and Kiss has already named the job: return fire in front of a sea of gold.

Australia still have to prove the Perth win was more than a night against a rotated world champion. New Zealand still have to prove Africa was the lesson they say it was, not a one-off home burst with Roigard kicking and McKenzie running. Seven days is a short week for that argument. The cup is locked. The next 80 minutes in Sydney are not.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Did the Wallabies Last Beat the All Blacks at Eden Park?

Australia’s last win at the ground was 22-9 on 6 September 1986, with Andrew Slack as captain, Alan Jones as coach, and tries from David Campese and Andrew Leeds. The Wallabies’ other Eden Park wins over New Zealand came in 1949, 1955 and 1978.

When Did the All Blacks Last Lose a Test at Eden Park?

France won 23-20 on 3 July 1994, sealed by Jean-Luc Sadourny’s try from the end of the world, with Sir John Kirwan on the right wing in the beaten side. The only interruptions to the unbeaten run since then have been two draws, not a defeat.

How Do the All Blacks Keep the Bledisloe Cup After One Test?

In a two-Test Bledisloe series the holders keep the trophy if the series is drawn, so New Zealand’s win in Auckland means Australia cannot take the cup in Sydney even if they win on 17 October. A Wallabies win at Accor Stadium would square the series at 1-1 and still leave the cup in New Zealand.

Who Did Les Kiss Replace as Wallabies Coach?

Kiss took over from Joe Schmidt in late July 2026, after Schmidt’s last match, a 57-10 win over Italy in Perth. Schmidt left with 19 losses from 31 Tests, and Kiss’s first five matches in charge were four wins and a draw before Eden Park.